On the Twelff Shopping Day of Christmas . . .

Nobody say blackface!

. . . . alright. Moving on.

Coming late (8 days before Christmas as per the blackboard counter) is the super vomit of non-denominational Holiday Characters. I wasn't paid anything by Crazy-Sale-Sal's people, despite the glowing advertisement. And Osamu Tezuka offered a nice take on Santa. And this is what Osamu would look like if he was a mountain. The New Year's Babby is just babby.

Have nice holidays. More Chalk!

And this has nothing to do with chalk, but can someone explain this to me? I found it in my travels.

Tonight I Dine On Good Prices!

So after the horror that was the July drawings, I succumbed to a brief mental lapse and was committed to a mental institution where I ate play-doh most of the day and otherwise slept (eg. my parent's house). It took me this long to repost because I'd lost all the will to draw anything that wouldn't be as good as the last stuff, and I couldn't bring myself to commit to a work that wasn't progressing.

So going back to form—black and white, drawing from an image, bad puns—I came up with this. And I'm damn happy with it, not because it was necessarily taxing, but because the Shredder is awesome, ESPECIALLY the original Shredder, none of this purple-cape-technodrome-whiny garbage.

(If you haven't already seen it, TMNT Forever is an animated movie that recently came out where the turtles from this generation of shows crosses dimensions with the 80's cartoon turtles. Hilarity ensues. Download it now.)

Here's to another year of taking a day off school to spend 5 hours on a chalk drawing for a blog nobody reads!

I turn the corner and what do I see?

Before I could finish his face, this happened. Thanks Joey.

Summer Blehhhhhhh . . . .

So after the epic Monster Days chalkery, I eventually forced myself to come up with . . . these, going with Bad Juju after the miserable failure that was the Beat the Heat campaign (and I don't think we even sold that many drums anyway). I mean, Juju's not bad, per se, but I was never really happy with it. Focus is weird, colours are weird, the green fog and red cloud overhead didn't really relate what I was hoping they would. And what is the tiki guy doing in the background?! Just filling space? (YES).

My favourite part—and this is very macabre of me—is the kid skeleton with the balloon. I liked how it came out. And ALL of this is better than the one I had been trying before.

I should note that the Walken mask wasn't my doing, but of course, a little Walken is always welcome in my work.

Monstrously Low Prices.

With this one it's been year! (Technically longer because I didn't get the earlier versions, but still, a year in photos).

Busy as hell and based on classic movie posters, Monster Days is the month-long sale throughout June whose mascot is plagiaristically similar to Reptar ala Rugrats, but Reptar is similar to Godzilla, so really the only ones losing here are the Japanese. And they win enough as it is.

The main idea came from the title of the in-store joke band's name, SABRETOOTH BLACK WIDOW, and after finding that movie poster I pretty much had the layout and the full idea. Never got the background to really work, but I have the Mars Invader top-right to make up for some of that. At least because Matt in guitars told me to.

Is it just me, or does yellow-tie guy look a lot like Commissioner Gordon?

KIDS, DON'T READ THIS:

While I was looking for Commissioner Gordon pictures I also found this and found it a-humorous.

Boom-tsh Boom-tsh Boom-tsh Boom-tsh

So I erased the old one and thought Transformers . . . no, not that one . . . He-Man . . . started drawing it, too hard, didn't like it . . . went back to the Transformers idea, Soundwave was the most obvious choice but he didn't have enough sections to really do much of anything with . . . and then Gundam came to mind and I looked up Heavy Arms.

If there's someone out there in the arts community that knows how to draw strobes, please comment.

The rave-guns he's holding are actually two models of lights Long and McQuade carries, the Vertigo and the Galaxian laser, and the laser is the most lazor I've ever seen.

The caption will likely be taken down and replaced with something like "For Supah-Good Pahty Fun Time Rent Long and McQuade," but the pun was just too good to pass up.

DJ LIVE YALL

What do DJ's think about? How many colours do they see in? Is there a trade off between shaving AND applying deodorant?

No but seriously some of my good friends are DJ's (Secret Squares, check 'em out, they're from Edmonton and throw down).

The shirt is by far, by FAR, my favourite part of this whole thing. Another experiment in original drawings, and considering how they're half the work, I might stick with them and maybe occasionally sometimes do celebrities. I've been coasting for far too long.

Giving You The Real Deal And Not the Deal-Doe

If you don't know Bootsy Collins, get out there and find the G. Slapping bass like a mother-shut-yo-mouth.

But in this picture he's playing a keyboard because I don't know, we were advertising this particular model of keyboard. I personally like the stage lights in the background. This is another original drawing, based off nothin, which is probably obvious due to the lack of proper body scaling.

NEVER TAKEN A DRAWING CLASS IN MY LIFE!

what's even worse is that's a lie.

Luke, je suis ton pere. NOOOOOOOOON

I know it looks like Justin Bieber. I'm aware. It was hardly intentional, and reports back from the store was that I'd confused the customers all month long.

IT'S LUKE SKYWALKER! IT'S AN EXPLODING DEATH STAR IN THE CORNER! C'MON! "THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" What's so hard about this?

Justin Bieber and his stupid haircut 'reckin all my good ideas.

All hate aside, I got the fever.

Beets, Bears, Battlestar Galactica

I always panic for a good twenty minutes before I draw anyone with a plainer face, but Dwight came out alright. But it's hard to mistake the tie, glasses, and hair combo anyway. The quote beside him ended up being erased as it was too offensive: relating the customer to an idiot. Big Brother ruining all the fun again.

I think it's worth mentioning I originally posted this picture on facebook, but titled it "BEATS, bears, battlestar galactica." One of my friends posted that I'd spelled Beets wrong. Another posted that I spelled Beers and Star Trek wrong as well. I still laugh at it.

Bruce on Spruce (with Chalk on Top)

More celebrities with pictures I take from, this was a hell of an undertaking. I think it totalled between four to five hours, which was mostly the dragon. Given Bruce was just lines, I think he didn't take to much effort. The purple outline really got the dragon to pop, but of course a cell phone camera doesn't really capture all the majesty that is this picture. I'm sure a Chuck Norris one is coming here sometime soon.

The Captain

"Out of Dilithium Crystal, Come to Long and McQuade to Stock Up on the Rock!"

This was going to be the tag for this particular drawing, but it seemed a little "inside." Also I didn't come up with it and I have trouble admitting other people are cleverer than I am. But not being a Trekker, I was at a severe disadvantage. Victory (and its spoils) go to Joey Woods. Original picture here.

I'm Walken on Sunshine

I don't even know how this got suggested. I'll generally walk around the store and ask for opinions and the most ridiculous but plausible one goes. I think I thought up Christopher and someone else demanded the bag of skittles. I worked from this picture found on le google.

Stay Cool, Drummer Boy

I usually work from pictures, but I decided I'd had enough of that and wanted to try drawring something from scratch, and this is what ended up happening. Apparently it looks a lot like me.

Monster Days: A Fearsome Battle

So this is the earliest drawing I have a picture of; the drawring's actually started several months before. And I must say you're missing out on some goodies.

This was inspired by the store's Monster Days sale, and the two monsters are coworkers, Alex (Turbog) Thurgood and Kevin (Zentnor) Zentner. Kevin was so mortified by the gut I drew on him that he lost 50 lbs. So I guess these drawrings are doing some good in the world.