A Few More Drawings From My "Sketchbook"

Pencil sketch -
Copyright - 2016 - Jephyr

Hi!

I promised recently to get some more sketches from my sketchbook posted here—and have a moment to finally get to that.

We'll get to a better look at the one to the left—and a little description about it below.

But first I'll start with two older ones that I rediscovered recently.

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Sometime in 2015, my friend Valen had given me some loose sheets of paper that he uses to create comic book pages.

I don't know if they were made grayish or if they have simply darkened over time—but the scans of these drawings might look a little darker than other sketches I've posted here—and that's why.

Pencil sketch: Haruldius - Copyright - 2015 - Jephyr

^ ^ ^  I don't remember anything about creating the sketch above in 2015—but like the character's "look" and "ancient Egyptian" looking beard.

I also thought he looked a little like a sad version of a very cool Uncle of mine, Harold (a very upbeat guy), who passed away a number of years ago—so I called this character Haruldius in honor of him.

: )

Pencil sketch - Copyright - 2015 - Jephyr

^ ^ ^   Another "rediscovered" quick pencil sketch from 2015 done on the paper I described above.

Although, when I was scanning it, I named this sketch "Hubert"—it brings to my mind an mean old codger from my hometown named Charlie, who owned a record store there when I was a kid.

Ironically—He HATED all young "long-hairs" and hippies—who were becoming his primary customers at the time

I've been wanting to tell a true and funny story about old Charlie for some time a posting this sketch is reminding me to get to it.

So stay tuned to this Bat-channel for that some day soon.

: ?

Pencil sketch - Copyright - 2016 - Jephyr

^ ^ ^  I just finished the sketch above last night when I was hanging out with Valen.

He and I had gone to an art store recently and I picked up some Mono graphite pencils and really like how black they are.

I'll still keep using my trusty Faber-Castell drawing pencils—but they tend to be more on the grey side.

This character and background were laid out using a Faber-Castell 2B and then finished off with a Tombow Mono 2B—pushing some of the darker values into the image with it.

The background "volcano and cave" was just a bit of whimsy that sprung outa my head—and I decided to give the rock a bit of a fleshy, organic feel for some reason.

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Anywho—that'll do it for now.

Looking forward to seeing you again soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

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jephyr.com

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Two And A Half Political Cartoons

Hi again,

I've been sketching a lot recently and having a good time doing it.

Also—this election season is causing my mind to turn on all things political.

So I thought I'd take a stab at some cartooning that pokes fun at all the corruption and scandals that are plaguing Hillary Clinton's White House bid.

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Between the Veritas Project tapes which revealed Hillary's campaign is behind the bullying and violence against Trump supporters—to the landslide of WikiLeak's email showing the depths of the Democrat National Commitee's efforts to subvert the presidential election—and Hillary's corruption with the Clinton Foundation—all while making insane illegal and unethical profits while the United States Secretary of State—there's plenty to take aim at.

"Meanwhile At The DNC" - Pencil - Copyright 2016 - Jephyr!

Exposed by email and audio and video tape—Hillary and the people surrounding her are mostly coming across like a bunch of ignoramus and incompetent traitors to the American people.

This is fortunate for the American people—because they've left such an obvious trail of deceit and destruction—that only the very ill-informed or desperately partisan would vote for this vile woman.

Yet the media keeps broadcasting their fraudulent polls showing Hillary with a decided advantage over Trump—aided by their daily lie filled news reports.

No wonder people are beginning to believe that the elections in this country are rigged.

sigh.................

"Bubba's Confession" - Pencil - Copyright 2016 - Jephyr!

It's quite shameless to now hear Hillary and her campaign accusing Trump of negative treatment of women—and then remember her attacks against Bill's many victims—that she called them Bimbos and set out to destroy their reputations.

So much for her claims of being for women.  : P

Not to even mention her legal defense of a pedophile who raped a 12 year old girl—and a subsequent audio tape of Hillary laughing about it.

Unfortunately there are still too many people duped by her and the complicitous media.

"The only reason they'd bring Sanders back in — is if Hillary can't hack it. " — Chad
"Hillary Can't Hack It" - pencil - Copyright 2016 - Jephyr!

This last cartoon is the "half" mentioned in this blog post's title.

Only the caption is politically related—and the drawing is just one of the super exaggerated figures I like to draw.

So—what about the caption?:

While my artist friend Chad and I were hanging out one day sketching and talking life—our conversation drifted to politics and the election as it often does.

At that time it had just come out that the Hillary's DNC had subverted their primary with Bernie Sanders.

Hillary had also been having ongoing health crises—one after the other.

Coughing fits, balance problems, and finally her near collapse on 9-11—Benghazi anniversary karma some say.

After discussing her most recent choking / coughing spell that left her unable to speak—I wondered aloud about whether or not the DNC would bring back Bernie to run in her place if it became more obvious her health was making her unable to hold office.

That's when Chad innocently offered the line above.

I laughed my head off—and in spite of him protesting that he hadn't intended to make a pun—I told him it was going to be documented in my sketchbook.

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Anywho—that'll do it for today.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day—and may God help us—this election is critical to the future of this country!

New Sketch / Portrait Of A Friend

Hi,

I've been sketching a lot more recently and have felt some creative energies brewing that definitely makes it all a lot more enjoyable.

I'll do another sketchbook dump or two again soon—but wanted to share a pencil sketch / portrait of a friend that I just finished (and you'll find below).

My friend, fellow artist Chad Swanson (aka Valen), had shown me a photo of himself—and I loved the stern look he'd given in the pic—which is generally out of character for him—but he was playing the part of a "protective uncle" in it.  

: )

You can see additional photos of him smiling (and as a very sick man) in a blog post I wrote about him nearly dying in 2015:

July 29, 2016 Blog Post

Anywho—I axed Chad if I could take a stab at a creating a portrait of him using the photo—and he agreed and sent me a copy.

I had a lot of fun doing this sketch—working on it over several days —and just put the finishing touches on it.
  
Oh—and the banner across the top is Hebrew for Proverbs.

Hope you enjoy taking a look.  : )

And as always—thanks for stopping by!

Pencil Sketch:  "Uncle Chad" - Copyright 2016 - Jephyr!

"Uncle Chad"

Drawings Galore! Jephyr's August 2016 Sektchbook Dump! : )

Hello!

I've been going though my sketchbook and picking out a few of my drawings to add here.

I'll start with some "lighter" fare and then get on to some "darker" schtuffz below.

^ ^ ^  I'm still drawing a lot of wacky faces—and am still on the "hulking doods" kick too.

As I've mentioned before, I start a lot of drawings by scribbling on the page.

Then I usually erase a bit and then scribble some more.

As I repeat that process, I'm looking for shapes that jump out at me that "lead" me to interesting subjects and drawings that I might not come up with otherwise.

The guy above came about after I did a quick scribble.

After a bit I started to see this guys eyes and nose and then—when I saw the big ole mustachio—I KNEW I was on the way.


: P

^ ^ ^  One night I was sketching with a friend and this rapper, mallard-dood came flying out of a "scribble."

Get it?  Flying!

I'll be here all week.........

hahaha

I'll admit there's more than a little "Daffy Duck" influence on this one—but it was done without any references—so I'll just hafta blame all those years of watching TV when I was a kid!

^ ^ ^  Before anyone accuses me of sexism with the caption for the drawing above—I'll let you know what the inspiration was for it.

One night I was talking to a young woman and she asked me what I liked to do.

I told her I was all about art and photography—and then asked her what she liked to do.

She thought for a moment and said, "I like to shop and hang out with my friends."

The next day I drew "Karen" and added the caption thinking about the young woman from the night before.

^ ^ ^  I decided to call the little guy in the drawing above: Opie P.I.—figuring he'd be the most unlikely tough-guy, private detective you'd ever meet.

(Clearly, I entertain very easily!)

: D

^ ^ ^  I don't have a clue what part of my brain this guy came from—but I did have fun naming him.

" /

A friend gave me a book called "Art and the Bible" by Francis Schaeffer, and he writes about art having both "major and minor keys"—and that the Christian artist should be able to use both in their creations—and that ultimately an artist cannot be judged by a single work, but by the sum of all the work they create in their lifetime.

That spoke to my spirit and has freed me to create all kinds of light and dark subjects.

Since I plan to create a graphic novel about the "end of days"—and will need to populate it with all kinds of characters and creatures—for now I'm allowing my subconscious freedom to bring out a lot of different images.

In this post—I will admit my drawings lean towards darker themes however.

^ ^ ^  I'll let the captions above speak for this one—I call him "Spurtz!"

: )

^ ^ ^  Dunno why—but I've done several bird type creatures with a massive bill like the one on this guy.

It started as a scribble and I got the head done fairly quickly.

Then I struggle to get a body I liked.

I began with kind of a stocky, stubby, bulky body and kept trying and trying to re-work it to get something that "felt" right.

Finally I decided to give up on that direction and took an eraser to what I had on the body at that point—and once I did that, in fairly short order I came up with the elongated version you see above.

Since there is no "undo" in a sketchbook—I call that kind of eraser use a "bravery test"—after the late, and much loved painter Bob Ross who coined that expression.

^ ^ ^  Since it's a skull creature—I'll admit this one is similar to the one above.—but even when I go "dark" my work still (more often than not) winds up kinda "cartoony."

This "evil wild boar" look has also made appearances in other characters I've done as well.

This one also began life as a scribble sketch.

^ ^ ^  I'll end with this drawing.

Again—it began as another scribble—and I eventually ended up with this squat looking fellow.

Recently I saw a photo of a Hillary Clinton's minion—Webster Hubbell—and thought my character looked a lot like him—So I'm calling this one "Webster."

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Thanks as always for stopping by!

Please feel free to leave a comment and join my blog before you head out—and please close the door—I have the AC on.

: D

God Bless!

Jephyr Posts Even "Mo" Sketchbook Drawings

Hello,

As I wrote in my last post, recently I got around to scanning sketches from last year's sketchbook

I'll post a some of them today (along with a couple from this year) and add a few comments:


I call this handsome fellow "Zeb".  :)

This guy captures "something" I wish I could put in everyone of my drawings.  There's just something I like about his expression, his eyes, his face, and the shape of his head.

If only I could make this happen every time! 

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Ok...so I hear you saying (or is that the voices in my head), "Wait a minute friendo...this ain't no gosh derned sketchbook drawing!!"

And you'd be right of course.  It's included here because it began its life as a pencil sketch in my 2013 sketchbook.

I was very happy with the way the drawing looked...but when I scanned it in to the computer it didn't look as good.

So I took that scan into Photoshop and scattered some "pixel dust" on it...and done made me this digital version of it.

Anywho...this image is kinda "dark" thematically...so it fits in with some of the ideas I have for a graphic novel.  (read more in my December 29, 2012 blog entry)

I've also been having a GREAT time digitally "painting" this drawing in Photoshop.  Hopefully I can share the finished version of that with you soon too!

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Otherwise, I continue my love affair with "wacky" cartoony faces. 

They are so much fun to draw!

Here are three from last fall and one from earlier this month.

^^^   A quick story about this last image.   ^^^^

I was on the West side of Phoenix and was looking for a place to stop and have a bite and draw for a bit.

I passed a Chinese Cafe that looked promising...and saw a guy just leaving it.

So I rolled down my window to ask him if he'd recommend it.

Normally I wouldn't add details about his race because usually this is not important.  But in this case I hope you don't mind me sharing:  He was a black man.

But when he aswered my question...it was immediately evident that he had a VERY strong Chinese accent. 

Perhaps I might not be faulted to have been surprised because, other than American tourists and athletes etc, I've never seen a black person in all the photos and videos I've ever seen of China.

Statistically I've since discovered that there are only around 0.7% blacks living in China...a hair more than 1 in 143 people.

Later, it became apparent he'd made an impression on my subconscious too...because when I sat down to draw I began to realize this drawing looked like a very cartoony, caricature of him.

Drawing a likeness of someone without intending to do so happens to me on occasion....and I always enjoy when it does.

UPDATE:  Recently I was eating in a Chinese restaurant and started sketching after I was done.

One of the servers and I started talking and she said her family had immigtrated from China (unfortunately...I can't recall the city now).

Anyway...I related the story about the the guy with the chinese accent above...and she confirmed that blacks in China are very rare.

She said that other than in American films she'd never seen a black person until she came to America. 

  She said that you'd probably only find black living in major cities in China...or Hong Kong.

We talked for a while and I found our conversation very interesting.

I often find that drawing in public opens doors to getting to know people.

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Well...that's all for now.  As always I thank you for stopping by my little corner of the web.

Jephyr Posts Recent Sketchbook Drawings

Hello!

I've finally found some time...just before school starts again...to go through my sketchbook from last year and scan some sketches.

I'll post a few today...and say a word or two about them as well.

Let's get started with this guy:

Sadly, during the first half of 2012...I'd let some loser "critic" get in my head and hadn't been drawing as much as I usually do.

I know I shouldn't let that happen...but have been reminding myself we all do this from time to time.

From reading many biographies of well regarded and famous artists...I know they also allowed these pathetic "chiggers" of humanity get under their skin on occasion too.

So...I figured I had a lot of good company...finally brushed it off...and got back to drawing.

I sketched this guy sometime early last fall.

I felt very stiff and rusty...but it was good to start drawing on a regular basis again!!

 

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As you can see ^^^^ I still haven't gotten these hulking brutes outa my system.  I hope to put them to good use in a graphic novel that's germinatin' in my mind.  (see my December 29,2012 post about it)

 

This time our brute, "Grak", has discovered a life-form...but was a bit too rough with the poor little guy. 

Reminds me of my childhood days as an amateur entomologist...and the carnage of insect carcases left in the wake behind me.

 

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Around Halloween of 2012...this guy just mysteriously appeared in my sketchbook!  :) 

 

But seriously...I'd just bought a book on caricature by Mad Magazine's Tom Richmond...and was inspired by the way he draws wacky teeth on some of his characters.

(Amazon:  The Mad Art Of Caricature - Tom Richmond)

So...with that...and Halloween in the air...I done draw'ed me this guy!  :)

 

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I'm working on my stretching my "imagination"...something I feel I always need to think about when it comes to my artwork. 

This horse came outa my pencil one day last fall as I just let the drawing "happen".

 

The thumbnail sketches of the warrior were some ideas for poses I had in mind for illustrating the Bible reference to "put on the whole armor of God". (Ephesians 6:10-17)

 

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Speaking of trying to stretch my imagination...I'll share this final sketch.

Last summer I was sitting in a restaurant and noticing how many of us Americans have gotten fat. 

I was also thinking about how many chemicals are added to our foods and all the genetic manipulation of our food crops, chicken and cattle etc.

This sketch of a fat astronaut with three legs was the result.

I call it:   "NASA / McDonald's / Monsanto 2018 Mission To Mars"  :)

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Well...that'll do it for today...hopefully I can post more of my sketchbook scans soon.

Thanks as always for stopping by!

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