This is all from some title sequence animation for my character 'Archibald The Neurotically Insane'.  I'll do better next time, and have outgrown these images.
     The thing with animation with the high number of pictures used is that it takes up a lot of memory room on the computer, especially with the new cameras that have a lot of megapixels on them.
     So, I use the photos, put them on a blog, and then delete them.
     I have an external hard drive to save them on, but then they will just sit there for years, so I might as well put the photos up on a blog so people can see them if they want.

      These drawings were done on regular computer paper with acrylic paint for the black.  It works as good, if not better than ink.

      The pencil work doesn't really show up well enough, as these photos prove, but the black shows up well.  Oh yeah, the black part was done with Sharpie markers I now remember.

      These were definitely done with acrylic paint.

     This last one was done in ball point pen, probably my favorite medium because it is so easy to use, and the pens take a long time to dry out.  Every other pen dries up too fast for me.  Ball point pens can survive being carried in my pockets.

The Dungeoners

     I've had this idea of doing a basic cartoon for a long time of a group of dungeon adventurers who meet in a tavern, and see a notice on the bulletin board that appeals to them...

     A level 1 Thief walks into a small town, and goes to the local tavern to get a beer, and to see what happens.
     He orders a beer and sits down.
     He sees a bulletin board, and looks at the notices, but nothing looks good to him, so he continues drinking his beer, and thinks nothing of it.

     Then a Level 2 Warrior comes in, looking bashed and beat up, but he says, 'Ha, that kobold dungeon was a piece of cake.  I soloed the whole thing!"

     No one in the tavern seemed to care about anything the Warrior was saying.  After all, he was only level 2.

     Someone whispers to his friend, "He's only a Level 2, what a cocky sonofabitch."
     "Yeah, what a noob," his friend replies.

     Getting bored, the Level 1 Thief named Padamast stands up and looks at the bulletin board again.  He sees a notice he didn't see before...
     "Level 3 Dungeon.  Good xp.  Adequate Rewards.  Recommended Group of Four needed, Levels 1-3.  It is the beginning of an epic quest, so commitment required.  Talk to Rudmar The Bold at 734 Wyvern Way between the hours of 2-6 p.m."

     "Hmmm...that sounds pretty good," the thief thought to himself.  "If only I could get three others...."

     So he yelled out, "Hey...anybody want to do this quest with me?  I need a Cleric, a Magician, and a Warrior, all levels 1-3."

     Somebody yelled out, "Which quest is it?"

     "Uh...It says....'The Quest of The Forgotten Urn', the Thief replied.

     With that, everybody kind of just had a stone look on their face, and turned around.

     "I'll do it!" the Level 2 Warrior yelled out.
     "As will I," a young Magician stated.
     "I will join you, too," a middle-aged balding Level 3 cleric said.  "I could use some work."

     So, after some talk and finishing up their beers, they walked over to the quest-giver's house, which wasn't far, and knocked on the door.

     "Are you here for the quest?" a voice could be heard.

     "Yes", the thief answered, as he seemed to be a natural leader, even though he was Level One.

     "Okay, come on in....You guys look like a good squad.  I've been waiting for some time for a good group to complete this quest for me."
     Quick thinking the thief was, and said, "Well, why has it been so hard to get anybody to do this quest?"
     Rudmar The Quest-Giver said, "Oh, everybody is too high of a level to do it...there haven't been too many noobs...uh...young adventurers around lately.  Anyway, the pay is good."
     "What's the catch?"
     "Uh, there is no catch...you just need to bring me back a feather that is at the end of the dungeon."
     "Okay, we'll do it."
     "Okay."
     "We'll leave the first thing in the morning," the group said.
     "Why don't you leave at midnight?  You might catch the monsters by surprise.  Everybody goes first thing in the morning."
     "Well, okay...why the hell not?"

     So, with that...the group gathered together outside of the tavern around midnight, and set off for the dungeon, hoping to get some good xp and rewards.
     None of them understood the laughter that was going on in the tavern when the customers saw them, but the cleric said, "Don't concern yourself with those lazy fools.  Let's move on."

     So, they followed the map to the dungeon, which was a two hour walk.  None of them had horses, since they were all very low levels.

     So, they finally got to the dungeon entrance, which was just a simple cave opening in the side of a hill.

     "Yup, this is the place," the magician said, as he was the map reader.

     So, the four of them entered the dungeon with the Warrior in the lead, followed by the cleric who was ready with his mace, the Thief, and the Magician in the back.

     About ten feet in, there was a pit that looked like a man could jump across.

     "That looks easy!" the Cleric said.  "I can jump that.  I used to do long jumping all the time at my relgious college."
     With that, the cleric backed up, started to run at a tremendous pace, and looked like he was going to clear the pit, until it looked like he hit a glass or invisible wall on the other side, and then fell into the pit, and the rest of the group could hear the cleric's body being pierced by spikes, which were probably poisoned.

     "Oops", the group said.

     "Dang...now what?" the thief said.

     End of Part 1

Images in Progress for Power Point Presentation

     I knew I had to get to work on these right away, so here's what I came up with so far...

     I like to paint on other people's drawings, just as a rule of thumb.

     That helped me to do this.

     Here is the painting of a brain in progress.  It is up to about eight layers of paint so far...

     Here is our machine.  I will start a new version of it tonight...

Here is the spring that I beefed up by putting a layer of paint on each time...

     Here is our good friend Mother Nature...

     I modeled this after a beautiful girl I know who actually came into the bar wearing a wreath of leaves...


     Here's what my table looks like when I am in full production with paints....I'm lucky the cafe lets me do this work there, haha.....but they are cool with it.

     Here are new storyboards painted on napkins which I do to help keep things organized in my head, and perhaps I can sell them later.  I plan on doing the whole video in this manner as work-ups for what is to come...

     And just for fun, here some H.P. Lovecraft images...

          This book helped to engage my imagination for this project.

          And more to come....

          Feel free to comment as soon as you can so I can produce the images you need in time.  I get overwhelmed and confused with the sheer number of images for this project, and I can use all the guidance I can get.



* * * *

Here is more that I did on Monday Night...

      It was suggested by another Dr. John that the brain feeds itself, so I tried this image for the purposes of experimentation.  It is interesting to me to try everything I can.

     This is the second brain I painted, which I think of more as a 'sad brain'.  Someone actually offered me money to buy the first one, so I painted a second one just in case.

     I hope these additional images are helpful in some way.