End of Month Doodles

Here's another bunch of various doodles & sketches over the past two months I carefully chosen as worthy to post. Because of the big move in May, I didn't get to post any drawings from that month. However, here they are today for your viewing pleasure:

The most notable items on this page below are the various caricatures of my friends from SVA near the top of the image. On the top left is yours truly, then Chris Zito in the middle, then Chris Niosi & a failed Mike Luckas above the Bloo doodle on the right. I also drew a "chibi" Kat Shin between myself & Zito.

God I love drawin' this next guy!

This is a caricature of my old man "Chim". He's a lot of fun to draw 'cause he has plenty of facial features that are easy to translate into a cartoon. The eyebrows, the mustache, the Bozo hair & the disgruntled expression describe Chim to a 'T'.

Here's a bunch of humanoid characters. While Chaplin & the sailors were a blast to draw, I'm still havin' problems with girls. I've looked at Katie Rice's blog for some inspiration, & it's helpin' a little bit. Hopefully I'll have a knack for it by the time fall comes around.

Alright, this'll be fun...

Can you guess what bands/singers Steve-O & Randy are dressed up as in the image below? Go on, guess! I'll put the answers at the end of this post.

I've said it before, & I'll say it again.... I love Dr. Seuss. I especially like Steve-O playin' Cat in the Hat.

This one has a few crazy-looking ducks, almost like the ones in my Surreal duck post a few days ago.

These are my favorites when I look through my sketchbooks at the end of each month: just pages full on various doodles piled together in a big mash-up.

Here's Steve-O in a bunch of various poses. I've lately liked to draw him like in the sitting pose near the middle, almost like he's in contemplation like Wile E. Coyote. For action poses like when he throws punches, I've been studying E.C. Segar's Popeye strips. I haven't quite got it down yet, but I'm learning a little more each day.

Here's more of Steve-O. I've also tried to neaten-up my lettering over the past few weeks for when I've decided to start doing comics again. I'm also tryin' to pinpoint Steve-O's written mannerisms & dialogue. While Randy will probably speak using fluent & complete words, Steve-O's will probably be like what you see below: abbreviated, shortened & sloshed together (have to=hafta, your=yer, -ing= -in', etc.)

Besides the duck degeneration set on the top, this particular page has another interesting bit to it. I drew the three birds in their "Then & Now" designs. Over the past 7 years or so, my characters have gone through a real drastic change in design. As my drawing ability "improved", so did their designs (at least to me). As you can see, Cannibal Chicken's change has made the most drastic, from September '01 to the present day (June '08).

Here's a page fulla animals! It's like a freakin' zoo! My personal favorites (if you can find 'em) are the crocodile, the whale, the rat, the cat, the beaver, the vulture, the bulldog, the boar & the peacock.

& finally, here's a guy you probably haven't seen in a long while..... it's CONRAD the FOX! For those that remember me postin' this guy back a LONG time ago, you probably noticed that his design has changed a bit since then, hopefully for the better. & to those who are wondering what's going on with him?..... don't worry you'll find out soon enough (I hope). I quickly colored him up sloppily in Photoshop.

Here are the answers to the "Band Birds" picture from before:

Top left is Daft Punk, Top right is KISS, bottom right is Devo & bottom left is Ringo Starr & George Harrison during their shaggy days.

& the Winner is...

Yep, that's right. From now on, this fox will further be known as "Conrad"!

Thanks to all of those who voted in the poll these past few weeks! You'll be seeing this guy in "For the Birds" real soon!

*FOX UPDATE*

After much deliberation, determination & confrontation, I've narrowed the list of names down to three: Conrad, Simon, & Vincent. I am no longer asking for new names, so the "Other" selection is outta there, too.

Also, the deadline for the poll has been moved up 'til Nov. 20th, so you've only got 10 days to choose your favorite. Happy voting!

Everybody Listen! I've Been Out-Foxed! I Need Your Help!

Alright, if this didn't sound urgent enough, let me explain:

I know some of you are probably asking "Hey, where's that damn comic you promised us DAYS ago!?" First off, I want to apologize for the lateness. I'll make sure to get the next installment(s) up here by either next Tuesday or Wednesday).

Here's my excuse, since the hardest part of doing this comic is actually finding the time & staging & actually drawing it out. So I thought "Hey... before I dive into the hard stuff, why don't I plan out the next few installments first?" As of this post, I've already planned & laid out the next 3 parts of the College Soup arc. 3!

& not only am I planning out the future installments of this story, I'm starting to flesh out the plots of my next few stories. Some of them will introduce new characters to the For the Birds universe. One of them will eventually be this character below: a fox!

My idea for this fox will be that he's going to be Steve-O's main adversary. They've known each other since childhood & have never gotten along (you'll find out why in the near future). These two are heated rivals, trying to take down or "out-fox" each other in any way, shape or form, whether in sport, survival or supper.

Now the hardest part when thinking up a new character (at least for me) is picking a name that suits the character. I spent a day or two figuring out Steve-O's name & weeks on Randy's. This fox has been one of my hardest puzzlers to date. I've spent nearly an hour last night scrolling through baby name sites, just trying to see which one sounds the best. I've narrowed it down to around seven names, but I can't decide which to choose. That's where you come in:

On the sidebar, there will be a poll, asking which name you prefer. If none of the names sound good, select "Other" & post a new name in the comment section of THIS post. But there are a few ground rules for these fox names:

1) The name(s) cannot start with "F". I don't want to have a "Mickey Mouse/Donald Duck/Woody Woodpecker" sounding name. That means no "Fred Fox", "Frank Fox", "Felix Fox" or "Ferdinand Fox"es in there.

2) They have to be real person names. No pet names (Rex, Spike, Tex, etc.)

3) The names cannot have been used for foxes in film/book/TV/comic/cartoon etc. (Foxy, Tod, Miles, Tails, Reynard, Fauntleroy, Sly, etc.)

The poll will be up 'til the end of November. Thanks for helping out. See you soon!