No obscene nudity here, just a little “side boob” in the one, which shouldn’t be offensive. If it is, just close your browser and shut off the computer, everything will be okay… it’ll be okay.

Focusing mainly on the back here – one of my biggest problem areas (I feel).

And some quick color studies.

Not sure why I felt the need to preface this post with all of that, but I’m sure you’ll come up with a reason why.

Anyway… My 5 year old son draws all the time, just like a lot of other young kids, and his stuff is usually pretty good for his age. He generally spends most of his drawing time on images of Star Wars characters, Batman and that Blade guy from The Puppet Master (no, he hasn’t actually seen that movie). He’s also pretty anal about accuracy and details on these established characters, making sure everything is just right.

There are countless drawings he’s done that I think are fairly amazing for a 5 year old to be able to produce, but I’ve never posted a single one. He’s done everything from elaborate battle scenes, with full color, between Obi Wan and Anakin on Mustafar and X-wing and TIE Fighter dog fights above Tatooine, to simple head sketches of Batman and Captain Rex. Most of these always amaze me on some level, but looking at them, you could probably figure it was drawn by a kid between the ages of 4 and 10.

Then there was this sketch I found laying on my desk the other day. After completing it, he didn’t even bring it over to me to show off for approval, like he usually does. He just left it sitting there, thinking nothing of it, I’m sure. It’s a simple little line drawing, but when I saw it I was blown away. It’s not full of scratchy lines and careless, “5-year-old kid attention span” proportions and generic facial features. The lines are fluid and rhythmic, the proportions show character and it looks like there was real thought put into it. It was the first drawing of his that didn’t immediately look like it was drawn by a little kid – I thought that was something special. I was genuinely impressed and made sure to tell him as much. So to show him how much I liked it, instead of putting it up on the fridge with a magnet, I told him I’d put it on my website for the world to see… A world populated by about 3 people.

Click for a larger image.

I added a bunch of Chaotic TCG and Dinosaur King card illustrations to the color gallery. Both of those properties are handled by 4Kids Entertainment. I think the majority of these were done in the latter part of 2009, but recently got word that it’d be okay to put these up publicly. I have more Chaotic and DK cards on the hdd, but doubt they’re worth showing — They were either rushed or done when I really just didn’t feel like working, which always makes for a garbage end product.

That’s the problem with doing illustrations for a living. That creative process is fun and rewarding, but can also be exhausting and that creative mojo isn’t always there. Of course, you can’t expect clients to only offer you work when you’re in the mood, just doesn’t happen that way.

More color-oriented work going on at the moment, but that stuff probably won’t make its way here for another couple of months, at the earliest.

Until the next update… And happy V-day (wife made me cookies).

-Bob

Edit: OR NOT!

Anyway, I did mention the graphics in the game being pretty nice to look at, just like my wife, but the character modeling on Batman has him looking like a roid freak, a real hulk of a Batman, also like my wife. Really, he’s built like a tank. I know Batman is a muscular chap, but I think he could’ve looked a little better if he was slimmed down just a bit.

So yeah, here’s a quick sketch I just did, along with a shot of Batman from the game.

(Update: Brendan has a much more in-depth and entertaining review of the game on his blog here.)