Man In Black

No, not Johnny Cash. It's the other type of Man In Black. The one with the aliens and the spying and the black helicopters and the flyable (say it like Jerry Lewis).

Not sure if he's using his ray gun to wipe someone's memory, or eliminate some witnesses, if you know what I mean.

I deliberately made all the colors here very pale and washed out, and then made the ray gun very bright and vibrant so it would pop. Why? Um... because stop asking questions, that's why.

Here's the original pen and ink sketchbook doodle.

And here's the tighter digital sketch. It's pretty close to the final drawing, with the two exceptions. In the final drawing I changed the angle of the ray gun so it's more level, and I enlarged his head quite a bit because the proportions were bugging me. That's one of the advantages of working digitally!

The Man in Black was drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.

Joe Jetpack

Like most of my illustrations, Joe started out as a sketchbook doodle. I did a quick little sketch of an alien with holes in his head and light shining from the holes. Originally he was just standing there, but I thought that was too boring so I gave him a jetpack and put him in a flying pose.

Usually when I draw an alien I give them detached pointed ears. I thought I'd try something new this time and draw ears that are built into his head.

I had a lot of trouble coming up with a suitable color for the sky. No matter what color I tried, some part of Joe's body would blend in with it. I finally quit worrying about it and made it green already. Now that I step back and look at it, I think the clouds are too much, or maybe there are too many of them. I might go back and fiddle with it later (I always say that, but I never do it).

Update! I revised Joe and fixed a couple of things that were bugging me.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.

Here's the sketch I did of Joe. Don't worry, I remembered to call the dentist. No emergency, just time for a checkup.