Mo' Manga

Here are a few Manga studies that I worked on last night. These exercises are from a book entitled "Erotic Manga." It's a great reference book for understanding the process behind building a stylized figure in the Manga genre. I think I've followed just about every chapter project by now, but I'm still intrigued. If you look closely you can see that I sketched the wire frame structure of the figures first in a blue lead pencil, then I built up the contour with a red lead, and finally finished off the details with a standard HB graphite. We've got "life" drawing class on Sunday, so look for the results of that next week. Also, as a reminder, I've got a life drawing up for auction on Ebay until Sunday. Click here to see that.

Happy Weekend!

-Ed

New drawing up for auction on Ebay!

Here's another chance to own an Ed Hall original. The drawing to the left is now up for auction on Ebay. You'll get free shipping if you're the winning bidder, so go check it out here, and thanks once again for your continued support!

Happy weekend!

-Ed

Last cartoon of the week - a local

I don't ordinarily post much local stuff, but my editor just gave me an "atta boy," so I figured, what the hell? There is a controversy brewing here over an annual lighted boat parade. Seems one group wants to rename the event to reflect the name of a prominent organizer who died recently. It's caused a big dust-up because some residents want the name to stay the same - reflecting the name of the community vs. any one person's name being attached to it. It's getting pretty ugly on our newspaper's message board. This cartoon probably ain't gonna help matters.

Tuesday night figure sketch

We had our mid-week figure drawing class last night, and thank goodness it was Gia, because I was a little rusty. This cold I've had for the last week has really thrown me off my game, so it was nice to see that we'd be drawing from one of my favorite models. I'm a little pressed for time today, so I'm just going to post one gesture and the three 20 minute poses.

Also, Jacksonville has a case of the drizzles today, so I wasn't able to step outside for good lighting. Sorry. I punched them up in Photoshop as much as I could.

My wife says I should put these up on Ebay for the weekend. After 20+ years I've learned to listen to her, so look for at least one of these in an Ebay auction opening tomorrow and closing on Sunday.

Let me hear from you!

Cheers,

Ed

I'll just leave the candy bucket on the porch

I'm just now getting out from under a nasty little cold. This was bad enough, so I KNOW I don't want any part of "swiney." A couple of my friends have had the H1N1, and it's pretty serious business. They're all on the mend now, so that's good. Do us all a favor though, if you've got the swine flu, quarantine yourself. Don't go trick or treating, don't go to school, and don't go to work, especially if you're in the food industry.

We've got drawing class tonight, so look for some sketches tomorrow. I've also got a major deadline this week, so the pickins' might be slim. Stay tooned, and let me hear from you!

Cheers,

Ed

Plug Alert!

Occasionally I come across a book on figure drawing that I think is worth owning. Michael Hampton's wonderful Figure Drawing: Design and Inspiration is one such book. It's a little pricey at 35 bucks, but if you are serious about furthering your development as a fine artist, and you are interested in different ways of looking at figure drawing, then this book is a must-have.

First syndicate cartoon of the week

Here's one that grew out of watching my usual weekend news shows (esp. the McLaughlin Group).

Weekend Manga

I skipped out on drawing class today. Still feeling a bit under the weather. So I decided to work up another Manga sketch in Photoshop.

Hamid the Court Jester

A quick caricature for the syndicate - all drawn on the wacom tablet. I loves me some Sketchbook Pro!

I'm really glad that the weekend's almost here. Been feeling a little under the weather. I just hope I don't start oinking.

Sniffle, sniffle.

-Ed

Pencils for my next manga gal

Next step: inking, then color. Stay tooned. Ice Creamy good!

For the show

Full of hot air? Check.

Misleading? Check.

Not followed up on? Check.

Local cartoon in color!

I have one newspaper that requests my cartoons in color (and I usually don't post them here). But I liked the way this one came out, so I decided to share. At first, I didn't like this idea at all, but the more I worked on it, the more I thought it was an interesting commentary on the phenomenon.

-Ed

Monday morning Manga

I haven't done one of my Manga gals in quite some time, so I decided to work on a couple of sketches over the weekend. I did the coloring this morning in Photoshop. I wanted to push the big manga eyes more than I normally do in this one. I'm also trying to do more with less in terms of sexuality - leaving more up to the viewer's imagination. So I'll probably be using more clothing and props in many of my future illustrations.

Enjoy.

-Ed

PS - we didn't have figure drawing class over the weekend. Hopefully I'll get a couple of hours in Tuesday night. Stay tooned.

Two new drawings up for bid on Ebay!

My weekly auction is now up on Ebay - color this week! If you'd like to own one of my original figure drawings, the starting prices are very reasonable. Check them out here and here.

Bidding ends Sunday afternoon.
Happy weekend!
-Ed

PS - thanks again to the new followers of the blog, and thanks to those who have already bid and won drawings. I hope you enjoy them for many moons!

Last cartoon of the week

Syndicate toon

I've been kicking this idea around ever since Obama was awarded the Nobel. Can't help but think that there were many others more deserving - at least at this time anyway.

Local toon, and "hello" to new blog followers!

Here's a local cartoon that my syndicate also decided to run (love it when that happens). Anyway, Baker County had it's first confirmed death form H1N1 this past week. Also reported was an arrest in a local doctor shopping scheme. If you don't know what that is, go here. I decided to combine the two stories into a cartoon, which is a little risky, because it doesn't always work.

Also wanted to take this opportunity to welcome the new followers of the blog, and invite any new visitors to go to the bottom of this page and sign up for updates.

Cheers,

-Ed

Sunday sketch results

We had a new model for this session. I've drawn her before, but this is the first time she's modeled for us on a Sunday. I'll post a few quick gestures, and then the longer poses. I did an "auto-adjust" on the one with the green background, and I liked the mistake so much I decided to post that as well. The one on the left is the actual image, the one on the right was colored by Photoshop. Sometimes these cool little mishaps can be very interesting.

For this last one, I wasn't too happy with the way the color came out, so I did a bit of dodging and burning in Photoshop.

I may put one or two of these up for bid on Ebay later in the week. For now, it's time to do some cartooning!

Woo hoo! I sold another drawing!

I sold the figure drawing below at Ebay/auction over the weekend! Look for two more in the coming days (full color this time, with ink wash).

Going to dentist this morning (ouch), will post new stuff when I get back.

-Ed

Last cartoon of the week

This one kinda snuck up on me this morning. I knew I wanted to do something with the nasal flu mist dispenser, but wasn't sure of an angle. As usual, a shower dislodged an idea.

Happy weekend!

-Ed

New drawings up for bid on Ebay!

These (2) drawings:

Click here or here. Or, go to the widget in the right hand column of this blog. Happy bidding!

Cheers,

Ed

Syndicate toon - a rouge is a rogue is a ruse

Here's my syndicate cartoon for today. I was going to play up the makeup color word "rouge" instead of "rogue," when the word "ruse" hit me like a ton of bricks.

That's how these things work sometimes.

-Ed

Dear "Anonymous"

I try to run this blog as much like a newspaper as possible. When you send a letter to an editor, they almost always require your signature before publishing. So if you'd like for me to respond to your opinions about one of my cartoons, you're gonna have to say who you are. Anonymous won't cut it. Try resubmitting with a name, and I'll be glad to post your comments and respond.

Thanks & Cheers,

Ed

Tuesday night sketch results & ArtWalk tonight

We had another sketch class last night. We started a little late, but all-in-all still a very enjoyable session. I'll post everything for your perusal, and would love to hear from everyone.

BTW, if you happen to be strolling around downtown Jacksonville tonight for ArtWalk, I will be sketching in the old Haden Burns library from about 7:00 to 9:00pm. Stop by and say hello, get your portrait sketched, or buy one of my original drawings. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Cheers,

Ed

Karma

I can't believe no one else has picked up on this. He hammered Bill Clinton for 16 long years. Seems turn-about is fair play.

A couple of locals I missed posting

Here are a couple of cartoons I failed to post last week. Doh! Sorry. The first one deals with a situation we had here last week, where a 17 year old girl was thought to have been lured into a liaison with an older guy over the internet. Strange thing is, turns out the girl was also sending him photos of herself and now she may be arrested and charged as an adult. What is this world coming to? AND who's raising these kids? Here's the story. The cartoon still worked as a general warning about online predators, so we ran with it.

This second one is for this week's paper, and references an editorial my publisher wrote last week about ego-maniacal County and Circuit Court judges here in Florida. They think that they can run roughshod over County facilities and that they can dictate how the space in the courthouses can and should be used. Read that editorial here.

Sunday Sketch Results

I attended the Sunday figure drawing session yesterday. One of my favorite models (Savannah) posed for us. Here's what I came up with. These first four drawings are 3 minute gestures. I apologize in advance for the darkness of the photos. We've got overcast skys here today, but I still wanted to get these shot and posted. After the gesture drawings we moved to (3) 20 minute poses, and finished the day with a long one hour pose (the blue one - I liked the look of the blue mechanical pencil so much, I decided to put a blue layer behind the sketch in Photoshop). All of these drawings were done with .09 mechanical pencils - quite the opposite of the huge chunks of graphite and charcoal I'm used to working with. It's good to mix it up every once in a while. Let me hear from you!

Cheers,

Ed