Chades Challenge: Claustrophobic Kelpies

These are a couple of "claustrophobic kelpie" drawings for Austin Madison's Chades Challenge. Kelpies are man-eating water horses from Celtic mythology. They are said to mainly lure children into riding on their backs, and often stalk their prey from underwater, with only their one eye exposed (like a crocodile). A kelpie's skin is adhesive, and once a person is fixed to the horse's skin, it will gallop into the river, taking its victim to his watery doom. Here are 3 claustrophobic kelpies I drew...they all ended up being in 3 different styles for some reason, probably because of the different mediums used:

A kelpie regretting his decision to hunt in a ball crawl (brush pen/digital):



This kelpie accidentally ran through a little league game (col-erase/digital):


And a kelpie in a bottle (digital):


Hope you all have a happy new year!!

Rainbow's Double

I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday weekend (and that not too many of you ended up getting stuck at the airports).

Last week, Southern California experienced some uncharacteristically heavy rainfall. Just before the weekend, a break from the nonstop precipitation resulted in a brilliant double rainbow (all the way!). Like everyone else, I was reminded of a certain youtube phenomenon from earlier this year, but the double rainbow also stirred a childhood memory that I decided to doodle.

So here is the absolutely true story of "Rainbow's Double" (you may have to click these to read the text):











It was a successful dead-pet-swap. I didn't find out that I had owned 2 different betta fish until I was something like a senior in high school.

I actually found a photo of me and my fishy friend:


I have no idea if this is a picture of Rainbow or "Rainbow." In any case, I was really fond of my pet(s) and spent a lot of time pretending I could talk to him(them).

Rainy

We've been getting a ton of rain in Southern California.

Sledding

Another quick holiday-type doodle. This poor girl is probably going to crash-land her snow saucer in a few seconds.

'Tis the Season...(to rob pets of their dignity)

This year's holiday card, featuring some traumatized animals. Click it to make it bigger. I can't believe it's almost Christmas!

Parking Lots and Crimes Against Humanity

I thought I'd share the tale of a truly disturbing encounter I had a couple of evenings ago. I had headed down to a FedEx Kinko's to take care of some errands. The particular FedEx I'd gone to is located inside a busy shopping center, nestled against a popular family restaurant. I knew parking was going to be hard to find, and I was fine with circling the lot for a little while.

At some point, I rounded a corner and noticed what appeared to be an empty space...

Once I got there, I discovered that the space wasn't quite as empty as I'd hoped. No, there was no car there, but instead, a very hostile looking clump of pedestrians. They were obviously a family waiting for another member of their party to arrive so they could go eat at the nearby restaurant. For the record, people saving parking spots by standing in them is one of my biggest driving/parking pet peeves, so I was pretty irritated by this situation.

As annoyed as I was, I wasn't going to make a scene. Especially since this particular group appeared to be members of a pretty ordinary, but angry-looking family. And there, standing at the front of them was a young mom with a baby. I wasn't going to honk at a baby. Right as I shifted into reverse, the situation took an unexpected turn...


The rest of the family stepped back behind the curb while the lady lumbered forward...

And then she...

And then she was all and they were all...

I backed the hell away. Found parking elsewhere, went to mail my things and drove home. In my years of witnessing all kinds of road rage and general bad driving behavior, I have never, ever seen a lady put her baby on the ground to reserve a parking spot. Maybe I should have called child services. What's the most shocking behavior you've ever seen?

Snowman Stalker

I think I'm being followed around by a snowman child. I'm only half kidding. Last week I went drawing with friends at a cafe when I noticed this creepy, decorative snowman child standing behind me.


A few days later I was walking past a store window when I spied the snowman inside.

And this Saturday I went to class at LAAFA and who should I run into in the lobby??

I'm kind of afraid. If I disappear one of these days, you know what happened..

I managed to hastily snap a crappy picture of the snowman at LAAFA for proof:

Ms. Sassy Lady Viking Shark

Happy Friday everyone!! Titblog's challenge was to draw your inner warrior. I realized it's been a long while since I've drawn a shark :( Check out those crazy titbirds' drawings here and have a great weekend!!

Better Than Redbull

Vietnamese coffee. I love it; it's delicious but it completely kicks my ass.

Beard Goggles

A few days ago I saw some guy with an insanely long, silken beard walking down some street in LA. It was a lovely beard. For some reason it made me think of something weird like this:









Trying to practice more...

The Glow...

It's come up in a few conversations with different people recently, so I decided to draw it.

This is what happens after I have any alcoholic beverage:

I think of it as a sort of mutant power.

Happy Birthday!!

For Chris' birthday. He gets his own schooner and blue-ringed octopus and everything.

Turkey with a side of Brains

This year my parents hosted an awesome Thanksgiving dinner. We gorged on turkey, mashed potatoes, prime rib, and an extra helping of zombies. While my parents, aunts and uncles hung out and sang karaoke, the "kids' table" caught up on the last couple episodes of The Walking Dead. It was delightful.


On Friday I stayed away from all shopping centers. Having worked in the retail industry during my college years, I know that Black Friday crowds are not worth messing with. I've just seen too many things. I worked at a department store for a while and found that people would go crazy over any and all kinds of electronics. For some reason, it always seemed that the more absurdly-specific the electronic device was, the more aggressively it was sought out. Portable DVD players. Solar-powered BBQ thermometers (now with built in laser pointers!). Ipod docks that are also kitchenware...People go crazy for these things.


Anyway, I hope you all had a fun holiday weekend and that you all have delicious leftovers for the rest of the week.

Wheee!

I know some people who keep dozens of decorative pillows on their beds and it always seemed impractical to me. I imagine that the only upside to having so many pillows is being able to do this:

P.S. I hope you all have a happy turkey day!!

Magna Doodle

In the days before the Cintiq and tablet PC, there was the Magna Doodle. This was probably my favorite toy when I was a child. Even though I'd eventually have to erase my drawings, there was something really cool about creating images with a stylus and magnetic particles.
One of my earliest memories about drawing involves trying to draw the Little Mermaid on model with my Magna Doodle (I believed I used the VHS box for reference). I was around 5 years old and I obviously lacked the drawing ability and probably the overall motor skills to sketch a proper Ariel, but I was really determined. After something like 3 hours of drawing and redrawing terrible attempts at Ariel, I went kind of bonkers...



It's been years since that day, but it is STILL pretty damn hard to draw Ariel on model.

Edit: Hahaha...Thanks for this link Mr. Woodside:

Don't photograph Laser Nessie

Laser Nessie is a random character that I started doodling one late night a couple of years ago. I don't quite remember why I decided to draw him, but I can tell you that Laser Nessie has the ability to fly, usually vertically, because he wears a propeller beanie. He also has bionic eyes that allow him to shoot lasers and he hates cryptozoologists (especially those who wake him up early).

For some reason I felt like drawing some Laser Nessies.

Some random Nessies:


And Laser Nessie chasing those pesky cryptozoologists: