It is said that, essentially, we're all made of stardust.
Thank you, Christopher, for always making my life that much brighter.

I probably have lots and lots to say about Astro Boy and his creator, Osamu Tezuka, but many others have written about them in a much more scholarly fashion than I could hope to. The most important thing right now is that it's hard for me to believe that I've never drawn him before.

And so, here he is. I feel better now.

I usually fall in love with the initial lines that emerge in the first few minutes when diving into a new sketch. Beyond just providing a skeleton on which to build, keeping that pure kineticism of those sketchy lines is often important in the process of keeping a drawing alive. Sometimes (okay, many times) I'll simply trash a drawing that has gotten too muddled and lost it's sense of purpose as I cover up those beautiful strokes.

When you practice quick drawings of the human figure it's called gesture drawing. You usually limit yourself to a few minutes or even seconds, in order to capture the dynamics of the figure with only hints of details. So, I thought give it a little twist and instead do a gesture drawing of a thoughts or idea. I got 5 random words from friends with which to turn into 3 minute drawings. What I ended up with are "ghosts" of a sort for these phrases:
Fire Extinguisher, Sand, Purple, Door, Octopus.

This was lots of fun and a great way to get the hand moving before diving into something more complex or just getting past a brain blockage. I'll definitely be doing more of these.

Another lively semester of School has begun for the monkeys and for myself. It's all about those Light Bulbs, folks.

Today's sketch was inspired by fellow Leo and Tumblrer Garrett, who's birthday is today. He helped spark my interest in rugby and is a big fan of the Washington Capitals hockey team. Happy birthday, sir!

I know some of you are patiently waiting the start of Signal's story. The plan is to give you a nice five pages or so to begin and then update twice a week with further installments. On the in between days and until the story begins, I'll post nifty conceptual sketches, glimpses of upcoming characters and thoughts on the overall creative process about getting from here to there. Be sure to regularly check out the Signal page for those.

I have learned many times that the first page of any story seems to be the hardest to write.

Today's sketch is courtesy of the new iPad I received for my birthday. (Thank you, X24!)

I spent some time today looking for good sketching apps. I'd heard about Procreate so I gave that one a shot. I didn't think I would enjoy drawing just with my fingers, since my stylus is just about wired into my hand, but once I got in the groove it was almost hypnotic. Although it's not a one-stop shop, the experience fit perfectly with how I usually create digital art. I can totally see me toting it with me to do quick sketches and fine tuning them later in Photoshop, like I did with this one.

Now if I can just get the monkey boys off of Fruit Ninja...

Welcome to all of you that were kind enough to follow your curiosity and end up here. There's probably no surprise now that today is, in fact, my 35th birthday. I thank you for indulging me and hope you enjoyed the countdown as much as I enjoyed doing it. In an odd world sometimes a brightly colored robot now and then can't hurt to help show us the way.

The best thing to do on one's birthday is of course to initiate elaborate schemes for world domination. Although that doesn't usually pan out too well, so eating a cheesecake is the next logical best thing.

However, the countdown has a dual purpose. Once in a bright blue moon, if forces align themselves in a particular fashion and seeing as it is a good day to celebrate beginnings, it's time to start a new project to sharpen my creative spark.

Once upon a time, I used to draw every day. And then it hit me, rather like a thunderbolt, that is precisely the course of action I should take again. As I piece together the fragments, images and stories that have emerged over the many years of doodling, I am glad to introduce you to Signal.

So that's the plan. Welcome to my electric daydreams. A new quick sketch everyday and a new story to commence shortly. I do hope you follow along!