Tag: Sketch Dump

1st Sketch Dump of 2013!!!

derrickutz

Ahoy Shipmates, Crew and Visitors!!!

Welcome to the first sketch dump of this awesome year! Thank you SO much for stopping by! I just have a few doodles to throw down and then will update you all on a few of the upcoming events in my creative endeavors. But first, onward to the art!!!!

Ok Crew, now on to some of the new tasks at hand. As you all know, I have been off line for a few months to take care of home, work and extra duties. I have been working on little things here and there but I have been continuing to keep my main goal of only having very few personal projects going on at once. I do not want to risk the quality of my work to overtaxing myself.

Well, in light of realigning my schedule, I have been looking back at my personal all-ages project, Kodi the Starfish, and trying to plan out my next steps. I was working with a small group of other artist to put together a new Space Anthology, but many of us became very busy with our own tasks and I still need to see where we all stand on that. I was lucky enough to get started with a few team members so I will try to catch you all up on that project as I learn more too.

I am very glad that my anthology entry is a second short story for Kodi because the work I have been doing can still be applied directly to the bigger story and project. As I have been getting back into the short story and considering the content of the larger, complete story, I realized that I have some preparation to do! As an illustrator, I never really learned to organize and craft ideas together as an astute writer would.

As I looked across the vast distance ahead of me, I came to the conclusion that I would need some tools. Following that realization, I thought this would be great to engage the communities of experienced artists that I have connected with to learn from their successes and failures and cut my learning curve down dramatically. I have now started to build my new “Toolkit” and will begin a closed discussion groups with my contacts to better adjust the tools. My goal is to create a product that can aid the “writer challenged” to capture, organize and then harness our ideas properly to create great stories. Then, we can do what we do best, take the written work and create awesome art from it to make our own comics and books!!

This is still in its infant stage but I will let you all in on some of the tools as they develop!!! Alright me Hearty’s, I will be developing new material and content soon to share with you all and I will update you here and on Kodi’s Blog as I progress!

Thank you all so very much for checking and for following along with the many crazed creative adventures on The Captain’s Blog!

Best be to yee’ me mateys!
May the winds be at your backs and friends be at your sides. Blessed be your journeys.
Captain Dutz

Captain's Blog #9 – April Sketch Dump!

derrickutz

Avast me Matey’s!

Here is a quick dive into the Captain’s current world with a new sketch dump and a listing of current project progress!

Sketches!

Here are some regular sketches compiled from either my little travel pad all the way to my legal pad for notes! I don’t care what i draw on some times, as long as I get it out of my system! Ha ha!

Dr. Stahr, an upcoming character for the Kodi the Starfish.

Now this is new. I have been considering for a long time about going mostly digital in my illustration process. It is a huge time saver and it is easier to to fix mistakes and transition into the coloring stage directly afterward. My awesome wife also thinks that I will be successful at this style of illustrating and she knows my weaknesses so that is encouraging. This is also the same process that one of my favorite web comic artists, Lora Innes, uses and her work speaks for itself. So, to test out the process, I made the following two drawings in a two day period. Both were drawn straight into photoshop without starting on paper first. After working these digital sketches, I too feel that this would work for a great direction to take Kodi that still expresses my style but does so in a more modern and faster way.

My little buddy, a dragon.
 I think this is what I think Iron Man’s butler would look like if he built one, Ha Ha!

Project stuff!

1. ) Kodi the Starfish contribution to Illopond.com’s Spaaace book #2

     This is the second showing of Kodi following his debut in the first “8 in Spaaace” book from Illopond. I have now worked up the first layouts for the 8 page contribution to the anthology and those have been posted to Kodi’s new art and story blog at kodithestarfish.blogspot.com so visit and take a look! They will undergo a bunch of changes in process from those layouts to the final production but I really enjoy showing people to process. Here is the thread to the whole project and here is Kodi’s thread there too.

2. ) Secret Comic Submission

     My writer and I are very close to sending off the top secret, awesomeness submission of comic-dom!! Only time and timing will tell if it gets to go through a publisher and on to the comic book stands for you excellent visitors to seek and buy…but I will let you know if/when that happens! Exciting stuff!

Alright my friends and visitors, stay safe and keep being amazing! Till the next visit of the Captain’s Blog,

May the winds be at your backs and friends be at your sides. Blessed be your journeys.
Captain Dutz

Captain's Blog #6 – March Sketch Dump!

derrickutz

Well, Thar yee bee!

Me long lost sketches I tell ya!!!! (Waving fists like a crazy pirate…well, wow..fairly accurate, Ha!)

Ahoy me crew and visitors! This is my first sketch dump to The Captain’s Blog and I wanted to come in with a  Boom (better than a BANG) shot from the bow of me sketchbooks n’ loose parchments.

Below are some recent doodles and finished drawings that are not really current project related but still part of my creative exercises. Each list the content, credits and context so enjoy and please let me know if you have any questions or drop a comment if you’d like!

Pencil Sketches

Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon, Property of DreamWorks Animation LLC.

As a character, I love the details and ideas built into the way they shaped him. Everything from his expressionful “ears” to his deep color and the fact that his fire is practically lightning. His many pieces build a big story behind him. The pencil art was made as a gift for my brother-in-law’s family and their 2 year old son. He is obsessed with the movie and simply dragons in general. It is a blast to see how he lights up when seeing this kind of art.

Ghost Rider from Marvel Comics

Ghost Rider is probably the first anti-hero I faced when I was younger. I did not understand why he was the way he was but I knew he fought evil and that, to a degree, made him good. Visually, he has a stunning presence that is a perfect representation of the “show of character.” At the very least, when you see him you are stricken with fear. That is one of his character’s basic purposes; to his targets, he is to be feared. Great design executed well.

Birthday Drawing for Chris Oatley!

This is the man running from a T-Rex! Silly man, I guess he doesn’t realize that the Rex is pre-occupied with the Triceratops. Well, eventually hell get it, he’s bright!

This is a sketch I did for Chris’ birthday in december of this last year. He is one of the two talented hosts ( Lora Innes is the other ) of my favorite comics and storytelling podcast, Paper Wings Podcast and a great character designer for Disney!! Check his site here if you want to be in awe of his art and teachings, yeah…I guess you could say I’m a fanboy! 
Pen Sketch
SteamPunkD Guard

This is just a quick doodle I did in my sketch book recently while waiting on a photoshop file to save ( yeah, it was a big one). I love to draw with a loose ballpoint pen when I can because I can let go of the perfectionism of erasing and just concentrate on the shape and overall look and feel. I worked up the logo for fun before I posted this. He would have been a fun character for the new Steampunk anthology #2 out of the Illopond if I would have had time but for now, he will wait in my “lightning box” until his next attack on my mind.

Alrighty me Maties!

I think that will do if for now! I will try to keep my doodle rants collected through the month and post one of these once a month just so you can see what goes on outside of the big projects on my desks.

Thank you all for visiting and check back soon! I will be posting the finished last page for the first short story of Kodi the Starfish!

Until then, May the winds be at your backs and friends be at your sides. Blessed be your journeys.

Captain Dutz