Burning Itch: Merlin

Despite the week being full of absurdity ready to be made fun of, the news that Nicol Williamson had passed away knocked the wind out of me.

His turns as Sherlock Holmes, Little John, and, most importantly to me, Merlin in John Boorman's EXCALIBUR, have stayed with me as the most definitive and enjoyable versions of those characters.

I'll return to ridiculing something or someone next week, but, right now, I think I'll finish watching EXCALIBUR in my studio.

Jill the Giant-Killer - Old Design

Been working on this project for more than a few years, slowly building it  -- probably too slowly.  Anyway, when I was flattened by a cold recently I took a look through the development folder for this and decided I really didn't like the most current character design, so this stuff is getting binned.

Thought I'd share these early Jill designs with you guys.

 Some of the sketches I did as the age/costume came together -- there were hundreds of sketches before getting here:

Character rotation:

Decided to take one of the sketches to a more finished stage -- pencils:

 Inks:

And colours:

I'll share more about this when it's closer to being completed.

Burning Itch: Marky Marksman

After being sick for more than a week I'm trying to get everything back on track, so here's a celebrity also trying to get back on track. . . .

Sick Day

No new strip this week;  I've been ill since Saturday and it's put me way behind the eight ball.

Sorry to disappoint, but it'll  be back next week!

~R

*hack*  ~wheeeze~

Burning Itch: Santorum

I had something else started for today's Burning Itch, but then this intolerant troglodyte nearly won the Iowa GOP primary. . . .

~R

New Year's Zombie 2012

Since I started the blog, I've tried to make it a tradition to start the year off with a quick zombie sketch.  Here's 2012!  Unlike previous years I did this one digitally.

You can see the previous year's  zombies here:
The first ever blog entry in 2007:
http://burningmonster.blogspot.com/2007/01/starting-with-new-year.html

2008 I was hit by by some stupidity and poor communication by a former employer and ended up only drawing a zombie near the end of the month :
http://burningmonster.blogspot.com/2008/01/em-gists-dead-of-day.html

2009 started off on time with a January 1st posting:
http://burningmonster.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-zombie.html

2010's zombie landed three weeks late, but he brought friends:
http://burningmonster.blogspot.com/2010/01/2010-zombie.html

And last year was on time and better dressed:
http://burningmonster.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-year-zombie-2011.html

In hindsight, I think I prefer the textures from  the pencil drawings.  I have a year to think about it.

Hope everyone has a great year ahead of them!

~R