Crocodile Tears

This is they way I felt when I learned of Steve Irwin's death. We loved that guy. We're going to miss him so much.

Mad Jason Magazine

Outsider art project "I love the 80's". I loved reading the issues that Justin (older bro) would buy. The various artistic styles mixed with the humor made it SUCH a fun mag to read. In fact, I would look them over and over again. Good times!!!

Walt Diz Kid

Outsider art project "Famous people before they were famous." I admire Walt for all he was and is. We're frequenters of Disneyland. This was a poke at him getting his ideas from an odd place. It worked out a bit better in my head, but translated decently. Dave pointed out that he has no actual reflection in the window. Disney-dracula!

Ablutophobia

The Fear of Washing or Bathing

A co-worker of mine told me that her kid wouldn't wash his hair last night. He was freaking out about having shampoo on his head. I quote Adam Sandler in Big Daddy, "My kid's the stinky kid!?". Hope my 'lil gal never goes through that. Pee-yew!

Jambo

Post for "Outsider Art Club" (http://outsiderartclub.blogspot.com/)

"So I was torn as a child. Between being a break dancer and Rambo. Both would gain me fame and notoriety, and both could get me killed. So it was a toss up and now I'm an artist. My mother once said, "I'm so glad you never went into the military". Tell that to our troops when the war could have been over years ago with 2nd Battalion "Pop and Lock Killers". We'd have our own patches. (I'll repost a color version soon)"

The Smokehouse

Here's a sketch reproduction of "The Cat House" formerly known as "The Smokehouse". I got the image from the Farmgirl blog (http://foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com/). Check it out. There are some pretty cool images. I love old wood structures like this. Drawing old wood planks was my first love in drawing. Weird, but true.

Surf's Up and So Is My Hair

A doodle goes color. Or shall I say, "A Doodle: In Technoramafied Colorization Mode III!". That's more like it. Getting geared up for a Hawaii trip in early December. Gonna catch a surf competition on the north shore. Should be cool.

Phone Doodles

My mother always, ALWAYS, doodles when she's on the phone. The apple never falls that far from the tree. In this case the Swann didn't land too far from the pond. Here's some doodles while on a conference call. Random, sketchy, meaningless.

Ready,...Aim....

Don'tcha feel like this sometimes? Whether while driving, at work or whatever, it sometimes feels this way. It certaily gives the kids in my Sunday School class somethin' to aim for! (hee, hee...)

...Old Watercolors Continued

...and the rest of 'em.

Old Watercolors

Stumbled across these and thought I'd put 'em out there. They date mostly at '03. I wish I did more landscapes. They seem to help me with all aspects of detail and such. The last one is of my honey sleeping. Ahhhh, so peaceful when they sleep, eh?

Wacom Fun

Fun with Wacom. It's taken some time for me to get used to the tablet. But I'm getting there. As I get better with it, it really is a much better way to work. It's a much more natural way of drawing and such. So I got a doodle going and tried coloring him a bit. I see what others can do with their tablets and try to get in as much practice as I can. Good stuff!

Dragon Shrink

Just another doodle gone color. I messed with the scales a bit. Simple but effective. The rest was more of the same. Some doodles seem so flat and lifeless. Some almost look like they'll start talking. I picture this guy having a lower but soothing voice. He'd ask how your day was and then actually be interested in your ansewer. That's it, he's my dragon shrink.

Bellagio II

It's always nice to put icing on a cake. This was fun to play with lighting and some Illustrator tools. Night time at the 'Laggio (as me and my honey call it), watching the fountain show to some Sinatra or Bocelli. That's nice....

Little House on the Hill

Just a doodle of our place. We're at the bottom of a little hill. It's finally a place we can call home. We moved four (that's 4, IV, quatro) times during 2004. Utah to Cali, Cali to Matt's place in Vegas, his place to a condo, and the condo to our current home. Phew! I'm done for awhile. I think this 'lil diddy does it justice as a comfy place to kick back and throw on Peter Pan, Iron Giant, Icredibles, The Secret of Nimh and the like.

I See Myself

It's always a wonder how people see themselves. I don't really wear my red hat all that much, but this is mostly how I see me. Red cap pulled down, bearded wonder with my arms folded and my pants a little too baggy. Will that be how my daughter sees me? Will she grow up and tell me that I got no style? Will she mock me for liking Green Day or Mudvayne? Hmmm......

Belly Wars!

This is my nephew on our way to go snow skiing. Cool dude. He had a HUGE belly as a kid and after dinner we'd pull our shirts up over our bellies and shout, "BELLY WARS!!!" Then we'd run at each other full speed and try to knock the other down ( I was on my knees to play fair). He's a cuddle bug and has the frame to make a great football player one day. Rock on my good man,....and "Belly Wars!!!"

Bellagio

I dig the Bellagio. Yeh can't beat that fountain show. I did a little doodle of the hotel and would love to get it finished into some sort of pretty little scene. I thought an artist was just someone who drew cool things for the longest time. Then I heard some of my favorites say a good artist is a good draftsman, architect, characaturist, biologist, etc. Kind of like the inventors of old. You know, the guys who invented, drew, gardened, were involved in politics and so on. I seem so one dimensional these days. Time to get moving, eh?

People

People. People are cool. People are even more cool at a distance where you can appreciate the mystery. Who is that? What are they like? That guy looks interesting. It's amazing that humans can have the same features but look so different. So many noses, so many eyebrows. It's a wonder.

1000 Yard Stare

Fun with prismacolor greys and highlighters. I was looking past a shelf of shoes and saw this guy looking back. Yeah, it was me. Is that really what I look like? That seems to be the questions every once in awhile when I'm doing a self portrait and stare long enough.
Second, there's something about a still life that grabs you. I'm not huge on still lifes but they certainly keep the tools sharp! (grind, grind...)

Baby Steps

My last post was before our first baby came. So I'm back to it. Baby lips are so cute. I'm not well versed in baby anotomy. Is there some secret to a decent child characature? I'll be giving it the old college try. We'll see what happens. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season!

A man's best friend.

That dog 'o mine is quite the character. As with most people's pets, she's one of the family and has made it to more than one of my sketchbooks. This one's a start at her as a toon and I'm not sure where I'll go with it. I tried to fucus on the caricature, then clean lines. We'll see what happens.

Look at them snappers!

Here's a shark I took a try at. It was a first attempt in a couple of areas. The sketch turned out decent, so I took a try at coloring it. I was pretty pleased with the end result, though it was just another step towards improving myself in one area.

So serious...

It's from standing for the portrait so long. Otherwise my face is quite animated. I swear!

Counting Sheep

I figured there's no better time than the present to start posting some art stuff. I was peeking around websites about Scotland. You know castles, moats and stuff. I spotted a pic of a sheep and saw a cute pose. It ended up like this. I'll eventually have it doing some stuff in Flash. I'm just trying to get better at character development and the like.

The First Entry

Greetings and Salutations!
This is the first entry of Jason Swann. I'm a graphic artist in Las Vegas, Nevada. I stumbled onto Blogger one day and have been impressed with the caliber of artists and people that reside here. There are so many styles and so many approaches. Not to mention the people who comment on others' posts. Everyone is so helpful. From shooting the breeze to constructive criticism, this has certainly been a place of interest for the past several weeks. I decided to give it a shot and start a blog. Heaven knows I may just be writing bits of dribble that only I, myself, will be reading in the times to come. But we'll see. I want to throw out a general "thanks" to all those who chose to belong to Blogger, since you all have been a huge influence on me. In terms of style and motivation, the group of artists I've had the honor of checking out have really kept that "coffee house drawing club" feeling going. Here's to many posts to come!

J.S.