Thanks for checking out the very first episode of my new web show-
The CDowd Art-A-Palooza!

I’ll be drawing live on my new Ustream channel a couple of times a week (as time allows), and posting the occassional video highlights right here on the ol’ blog. Follow me on Twitter and Facebook for immediate updates on when I’ll be broadcasting.

In this episode, I introduce myself, go over how I draw lines, and do a little sketching in Illustrator. Notice how the words don’t match my mouth like in old kung fu movies. I’ll figure this all out soon, but for now please enjoy the low rent nonsense!

You’ve gotta be pretty brave to face this fella everyday! This is a self portrait I did in 2009, and have gone on to use in promotional material since. Lots of staring into the mirror and sketching went into this one. Drawn and painted free hand in Adobe Illustrator via Wacom tablet. Click the thumbnail to enlarge.

From this little guy’s perspective, he’s just having a light snack.

This piece was done in regular graphite pencil on watercolor paper. I also used mechanical pencils for some of the finer details. Click the image to enlarge.

One of my favorite books ever has to be Lord of the Flies. A story of the animalistic nature of Man, and how little it would take for us as a species to devolve into tribalism in the face of societal tragedy. After being snowed in here in the mid-Atlantic region for about a week, I can relate! While a severe case of cabin fever may not equate to complete and total isolation ala LotF, it is about as close as I’m likely to come, and that’s fine with me.

This piece was inspired by the Lord of the Flies, and the now iconic pig head. I did this one in Illustrator CS4 via the blob brush for the ink outlines, and the pencil tool for the finer cross hatching. I’ve only recently really sunk my teeth into the blob brush, but I am definitely liking the results thus far. Of course, practice makes perfect, so let me go and draw something else now.

As always, click the image to enlarge.

This is Chaudry. He hates zombies. Funny because I love them, in a platonic kind of go out and have a beer once a week kind of way. Anyway, this was done in Illustrator. Click the image to enlarge.

This mummy is wrapped up in RAWK! Done entirely in Illustrator. Click the image to enlarge.

The Typographer is a 6 page one shot I made for all of you comic geeks, and type nerds. The Typographer is free for any and all non-commercial use, so go ahead and splash it up all over the place. All I ask is a link back to this page. I hope you all like it. Thanks!

Click the cover below to check out the comic. Leave a comment if you like it! Or hell, leave one even if you hate it.

All fonts used courtesy of Blambot. Show them some love.

Happy Easter everyone.

Originally posted on 4/08/07

UPDATE: 3/22/08-
Well, I guess this post is ranking pretty well in Google since it’s really the only post of mine that has garnered any real response from the blogoshpere. Thank all of you for commenting below. As an artist, it is highly gratifying to know that I’ve made people think, or feel emotion, or be moved one way or another. Some of you like this piece, some of you hate it, but everyone who’s commented has been moved somehow. That is what every artist strives to do with their work.

Thank you, and again, Happy Easter.

UPDATE 3: 4/9/09-
Well, this pic is still very popular, and generates tons of traffic. So, in the spirit of the season, I have decided to bump this post to the top. Why? Because it’s my website and I can do whatever I want! Also, because I like to hear what people think about not only my art, but also religion vs. marketing in America today. I think that it’s a worthy topic of discussion. Thanks and again Happy Easter.

Hey, what’s that smell? Oh, it’s just teen spirit. Here’s a portrait I did of iconic rocker Kurt Cobain a few years back. Done in Illustrator, and re-posted for Illustration Friday’s topic, “Legendary”. Enjoy, please comment if you’d like. Thanks.

Something about this story gets me. I think it may be the most well known fairy tale of all, and it’s certainly firmly ingrained into American pop-culture. For these, I started with a ton of photographic reference for the trees and the wolf coloring. I took those references, and some original photography of my daughter, and my dog Manson, who is a chow-chow and very wolf like in her appearance, and “collaged” it all in photoshop, printed the collage and did a quick series of sketches. Then I scanned the sketches in and placed them in Illustrator. I didn’t bother with a live trace because in my experience, live trace never ever does what I want it to. Instead, I used the Brian Denham method with the pencil tool, and knocked out what I think are some nice finished pieces. These were drawn to be printed in a large format, so there is a little bit of detail/quality loss on the web versions, but all in all I think that they’re good enough to post. Click the image to enlarge.

UPDATE: I want to extend my warmest regards to the CCBC MD faculty, who awarded me with the honor of “Best in Show”, in the Digital Illustration category at the annual end of semester digital arts awards ceremony. Specifically, the winning piece was “Wolf Attacks” (the color one). Thank you all for the honor. Moving forward, I would like to be addressed as the “Award Winning” CDowd. Thank you. ;-)