What (Taco-induced) Dreams May Come

Let's kick this post off with another student-inspired drawing. No, I've never taught a student who looked like this (though I bet nobody would mess with that kid), but as I occasionally do, I asked for student input for my next project. In an unprecedented turn of events, I got only two suggestions: a robot and a monster.  Since both ideas clicked when I heard them, I drew both. In retrospect, I think the metal jaw was probably at least partially inspired by the character Trap Jaw from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, one of my favorite childhood (and adulthood) cartoons.

I went with a almost completely black eye and exaggerated musculature and brow to play up his monster portion, and of course the metal lower jaw and cybernetic eye to give him his robotic aspect. The jaw was a little plain, so I added weld lines to give it a more gritty, metallic look.

 As I've expressed in earlier posts, my mind can be a strange place.  My dreams are often even more strange. This thing is directly from a dream I had, which may or may not have been influenced by eating fast food tacos too close to bedtime. As is apparent it is come sort of water-dwelling creature. To give you an idea of the scale of it, in the dream I was roughly as tall as this things nostril.  I'm more than six feet tall, so this thing was monstrously huge. It's face was flat when viewed at profile, and it's skin was translucent grey-green. Other than that, I recall that in spite of it's gargantuan proportions and grim visage, I didn't feel threatened by it at all.
The translucency of the body and fins (or flippers or whatever you'd call them) was an interesting challenge. I'm not sure I'd do it the same way a second time, but I suppose I'm satisfied enough with the results. I really like the way the tail turned out, as well.

This last one, for my younger readers, is a television.  This is what they looked like before they evolved into the flat panel, high-definition, admittedly much better incarnations that are the norm today.  This was another exercise in stepping outside of my comfort zone and drawing something that has a defined shape and very defined proportions. It was drawn at the suggestion of another of the youth group kids from church and, along with my Japanese spider crab, bulldog, and a dirt-bike (to be posted at a later date) became a compilation drawing that I gave copies of to the kids who inspired it.  I'll probably post that compilation sometime as well. 

Even though I wasn't crazy about the subject matter, I did get to draw a little of my relaxation-inducing meticulous details in the wood grain of the cabinet housing. I also drew a "Hamptronic" brand plate to the middle of the speakers to add a little visual interest.

That's it for today's post.  Wired Wednesday continues this week so check back then. Also, I'm still waiting to see who is willing to step outside of their comfort bubble and take the challenge I threw out there a while back.  Remember, even if you absolutely can't bring yourself to share your art with the world, I guarantee you know someone who is willing.  I encourage you to point them in this direction. Hope to hear from you all and receive those drawings soon!

Stay creative,

AH!