Quoth The Plasma Rifle: Nevermore!

This week toy company Project TriForce released this new prop: the Anniversary Edition Plasma Rifle Full Scale Replica from the Halo 2 video game.

The Plasma Rifle replica is 24.5" inches in length, weighs 15 pounds and features working LED lighting effects.

Well, maybe it's a plasma rifle and maybe it isn't. When I look at it, all I can see is a robotic raven staring at its own reflection in the water.

And now that you've seen it too, you won't be able to unsee it!

Real Life Oily Boids

 Saw this at the corner of my garage when I was mowing the lawn yesterday.

A robin decided to take up residence in the worst place possible, perched precariously atop the gutter drain. Or maybe it's actually the best place possible. She's shielded from the rain by the garage roof.

By the way, I'm not actually nine feet tall. I was standing on a ladder when I took this shot.

As you move in closer, you can see she's got a nest full of hungry kids there.

I can clearly see at least three little beaks. It's possible there may be a fourth baby crammed in there somewhere. I didn't want to get any closer because I didn't want to stress them out and inadvertently kill them, plus the nearby mama bird was livid by this point and I didn't want my eyes scratched out. And no, I didn't chase her away so I could take photos. She flies off every time I go out the back door of my house.

Probably another week, maybe two and they'll be ready to leave the nest so I can tear the ugly-ass thing down.

UPDATE: I seriously misjudged the age of these baby birds-- the very next day after I took these photos they all clumsily flew out of their nest after I apparently spooked them by walking past the garage.

Just one thing left to do before I go-- Instagram the photo! Nailed it!

Professor Birdbrain

New character based on a sketchbook doodle.

Try as I might, I just couldn't quit fiddling with this illustration. I kept adding details and making little adjustments, picking at it like a scab. I finally had to force myself to leave it alone and post it already. Hopefully I stopped at the right place.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet. The text was hand lettered and not a font.

Here's the original doodle of the Professor.

Moving Day

I was looking through a folder of old sketches and unfinished drawings and found this, so I dusted it off and finished it up.

I tend to draw a lot of birds. I guess because they're often weird looking and fun to draw.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.

Here's the original quick pen & ink sketch (why do we still say "pen & ink? Is it because of fountain pens? We're a hundred years past the days when people used those, shouldn't the "ink" part of that saying be implied now?).

 

Here's the tighter digital sketch I did.

Oily Boid

Hey, it's another vector drawing. It took me a while to warm up to vector, but I'm kind of starting to like it. I doubt I'll ever abandon bitmap drawing for vector, but it's fun to dabble in it now and then.

The bird, worm and shadow were drawn in InDesign. The green background was drawn in Photoshop, because InDesign doesn't do painterly effects that well.

Stanley Crane

Saw this sign at the local zoo. It's the only bird in the entire zoo with a first and last name. Doesn't Stanley Crane sound like a politician? "On November 7th, vote for Stanley Crane for State Senator."

If you learn nothing else today, remember that the Stanley Crane is a beauty at risk.

Big Budgie

Looks like we're gonna need a bigger cage...

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.



Here's the original sketch of the budgie. The shattered cage was an afterthought that I came up with as I was drawing him.

Boid In A Cage

So I drew this bird, and then decided to draw a cage for him. The cage gave me a lot of trouble; I kept trying to draw the bars that should be IN FRONT of the bird and it just wasn't working. The bars kept covering up important parts of the bird's face. Finally I realized that it's just a cartoon-- you don't really NEED to see the front bars to buy the idea that he's in a cage-- so I took 'em off. Problem solved.

I also added an image of a piece of old cloth to the top layer to dirty up the image a bit.

Drawn in Photoshop with the graphic tablet.
Here's the original bird sketch.

Did You Ever Have The Feeling You Were Being Watched?

Once again, I was experimenting here with a more painterly method than my usual hard-edge cartoony style.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.

Here's the original sketch. Sometimes my drawings differ a lot from sketch to finished piece, but this one didn't change much. The yellow bird-thing grew some wings, but that was about it.