Larry West Sketch Book

Cartoon Bunny Phone

2011-03-31T19:02:00.000-07:00

Working on a new site design, and this is part of it!

I was on the train coming home, and I already knew that this was going to be part of a larger site design I was working on, so I started doing a little sketch of a bunny holding a phone. I like the idea of a phone that reminded me a lot of the old Mickey Mouse phone. I had one for a while that I got on eBay and wound up selling it because it didn't work that well.

I wound up doing a full-scale drawing, and I like the idea of making him into an actual character.

Work In Progress: Belial's Servant

2010-11-19T09:46:00.000-08:00

This is what happens when I just sit down and draw.

Inks are done and the colors are now being worked on.

One Year Later....

2010-09-29T18:21:00.000-07:00

So, you may be wondering why there's a massive gap in posting on the blog. Well, it isn't because I haven't been busy, and it hasn't been because I stopped drawing, let alone sketching.

No, the reason for the lull was because I decided more than a year ago to not post any sketches unless the piece based on it was done. That was done for a number of reasons, most of which I want to go into, but I did want to show what went behind a piece once it was done and fully develop my concept before unleashing it on the world.

Or some other artistic tripe.

That being said, check on the blog more often, I plan on having a few sketches of finished projects up soon.

Also, I spent the night checking out all my old sketch books for ideas for new pieces. About 99% of all the sketches I do never get developed, and about 10% of that are actually worth it. In the last 4 years, I've filled up 9 books and number 10 is in the works.

Sketch: OBITUARY (Xecutioner) Poster

2009-09-23T15:29:00.000-07:00

So I got the pencils done for this piece yesterday in about an hour, and I just finished inking it, which took about 2 hours.

The flyer itself will be in full black-and-white, but I'm working on a color version that I would make available for a limited time and post on my site. Until then, enjoy this sketch!

DON'T! (Tread on Me) - New Piece!

2009-09-23T15:27:00.000-07:00

Don't! (Tread on Me) by LuvataciousSkull

I did this piece back in July and finally got a chance to post it today. The piece is called "Don't! (Tread On Me)" and is based on the Gadsden Flag that was flown at the birth of America. In my version, it's a recoiled snake skeleton ready to pounce on any and all who dare to cross it!

This piece was a lot of fun, and work, to get done. The research drove me up a wall and the inking took hours. I really dig this one!

Two New Pieces!

2009-07-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

More soon!

Hot Sexy Military Pin-Up Chick In a Nazi-esq Uniform

2009-06-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

Satanic Warmerchant Pin-Up Woman by LuvataciousSkull

DESTROY WHAT DESTROYS YOU!

2009-04-12T12:02:00.001-07:00

In the past, I've had a problem with having awesome sketches in my sketch book and only OK finishes. I've tried just blowing up sketches with little success, and this time I decided to try something else: Just draw a finish in my sketch book and ink it at home. It worked perfectly! I had a great sketch that was done to size, I scanned it into my computer and blew it up a little bit, and basically inked it on a lightbox.

Also, the reason I haven't posted a lot of sketches as of late is because I noticed a lot of keyword activity on a piece that, sadly, I haven't finished in nearly a year. I decided to stop posting until it was done... it isn't, but I decided instead to not post sketches unless a piece is done or almost done.

Whoo-Hoo! ART!

2009-03-15T20:13:00.000-07:00

I... I have no idea what this is called. This is an early version of it... I plan on scanning a larger piece tomorrow.

Thanks to Someone New...

2009-03-02T18:42:00.001-08:00

New Sketch Book

2009-03-01T08:33:00.000-08:00

I got and started a new sketch book recently. Last weekend I went to New York City. In fact, it was last Sunday. I had work the next day and left for NYC at around 4:30PM. I had to get back soon, so I was only there for about 2 hours and it's a 4-hour round-trip. It was 100% worth it to just get out of Philly.

I can't say I've gone through much, but really I have. Some good, some bad, and some... well, REALLY good. These sketches don't say much, but they're pretty good.

Not Quite a Sketch...

2009-02-14T16:35:00.000-08:00

I fucking hate Valentines Day. Well, you tend to when you don't have a girlfriend and your stuck home alone and pissed and sad that you don't have anyone...

So I took some time to draw the Bride of Frankenstein. Full inks and everything. It isn't done yet, but hey, ENJOY!

FUCK! Or Me On a Bad Day...

2009-02-07T05:56:00.000-08:00

So I now have a bet (in a way) going with half my friends that I may suffer from Bi-Polar Disorder. Whenever my friends talked about it, I always said their diagnosis by whatever quack they saw was bunk. In essence, Bi-Polar Disorder basically says that people go through lows and his at a big speed. Like I said, life. I think they call it "bi-polar" if you get really bad about it, and really, that's what it seems like. Because I tend to have severe mood swings, dissociative episodes (basically these can be anything from doing something and forgetting it to almost sleepwalking), and did I mention extreme mood swings? That's the important part for me because it's a problem.

So Thursday things got beyond a part where I could just take it anymore. Having a girl I really liked, and who felt the same, having to give me the "lets be friends" talk.. fun, fun stuff (If you read this, don't worry, I actually handled that insanely well! I was bummed, but hey, we're still friends! :) ). And maybe losing my house? Cherry on top!

My response?

Also, looking for a model right now that I can get to pose naked except for being wrapped in Caution Tape. My, ahem, "previous model" said she may not be able to do it anytime soon. Here's what I have so far:

If you click on the sort of "nicer sketch" of this (that isn't even close to a finish! I did it on the train basically to see if I had an idea I liked), you'll see a bunch of notes about what I think works and what doesn't. A pretty interesting peak into the twisted mind of Larry.

My Favorite Punk Chick and My Inner Demons...

2009-02-03T17:57:00.000-08:00

One thing I've been working on since the summer of 2007 was an idea for a book. That's all I'll say because, really, I don't want to jinx myself or shoot myself in the foot down the road, so I'll leave it at that. But this is the idea of the main character that I've been developing. I've had the look down since Day 1, but drawing her over and over again and looking the same... well, I've never been good at that.

Also, stress. I have a ton of it. If it isn't one thing, it's another. Not really fun to deal with, either. If you ever saw some of my "ink-paintings", you'll recognize the style quickly. If not, well, this is another style of art I do that's 90% expression, 10% technique, ability, and form. The main idea is to just not be angry or stressed anymore.

A Nun and a Facist

2009-01-31T12:53:00.001-08:00

After looking over the blog world and, well, life in general, it seems everyone is in a bit of a malaise. Makes sense, really; Last week was a big with celebrations and "hope", and this week has been.. blah. The fact that temperatures have been at or below freezing for most of the country didn't help, nor the cold economic reality that life fucking sucks.

Oh, and Valentines Day is in 2 weeks. Am I getting someone something? I wish I knew...

Eh, that's neither here nor there, is it? This is about sketching!

Ideas For Something Coming Up...

2009-01-26T19:49:00.000-08:00

Tattooed Woman and Military Might

2009-01-24T09:34:00.000-08:00

Just some more sketches from the last two days. I had an idea of drawing some tattooed girl sitting on a tattoo needle and another of a series of military women I've been doing. That's about it.

From Sketch to Finish: A Quick Overview

2009-01-23T05:20:00.000-08:00

I don't want to give too much away about my process and how I get to an end... at least not yet. I like having people dissect it to get their own meaning out of it. But here's the sketch:

Now, I started to mention this yesterday, but here some more detail on the subject:

When I was in art school from 2002 -2006 (worth mentioning because I think I may be among the last to learn old-fashioned principals of design... or sound like an ass for saying that), there were teachers who had been in the industry for nearly 30 - 50 years. Hearing them talk was boring at times, but hell, I learned a lot! One teacher in particular was Mr. Crawford, and he taught some really basic, really smart things. For example, when your doing a sketch of a design layout with type, make little boxes for each letter. I was, ironically enough, doing that when I was a kid so it was a pleasant surprise.

You can see little notes about the font choice. That was a big thing to me because, as much as I'm a fan of artists like Brute and Shepard Farely, I never want to just copy them. I hate copying my hero's, it feels like I'm ripping them off. I'd rather just learn from them and make it my own. So in this case, I was looking at the work of Brute and realized that using Impact for everything would be ripping him off. For that "RULES" series I did, and all my propaganda pieces, all the fonts are Arial Black (oops, gave away a secret!) that I've modified. In the case, I didn't think it would work so I wound up using some new font I got. I can't recall the name... it started with an "F" but it wasn't Franklin Gothic... eh, anyway, that's besides the point.

I've been getting some really rude comments about images in some of my pieces, and I try to only use photos I took myself or in the public domain. For this idea, I needed public domain pics. Interesting fact: Any image created and distribuited by the US Government is 100% free. Enjoy!

I messed around with a few ideas and for the one I plan on executing in public, like printing and such since black and white is cheap, I did this:

I actually have another one in some color. Not much, just a little to go with what I normally do. I'll post that later.

Some New Sketches from January 21 - 22

2009-01-22T17:06:00.001-08:00

I'm going to have a post about artists I'm checking out, but once again I'm going to make a renewed effort to post more here.

That said, here's some pieces I did over the last few days in my sketch book. Some of them lead to other finishes, as you'll see. It's always interesting to me to see the thought process.

The first one here is a Vulture. I took a photo, printed it out, and drew from it. Yeah, there are plenty of vultures in Philly, but none of them look like the one I wanted; the ones around here look like human beings.

So next up are some sketches of various projects I have in mind that involve, you guessed it, the vulture. I did these yesterday after the inauguration and was inspired but a lot of the imagery. I wanted to do a faux-presidential seal for a few months now (wow, that's a long time!) and finally decided to give it a shot. The entire "He's Watching" thing is based on how Obama voted in favor of keeping wiretaps... and the fact that his face seems to be everywhere. Am I the only one who thinks that's like "1984"? Eh...

I'm posting the sketch now, but I'll do the reveal tomorrow. How do I like to develop an idea?
Well, for anything that's purely design, 99% of the time I just wing it on a computer. It tends to be better than me over-thinking it and, in my daily job, I kinda have to. So it's rare that I do a full semi-detailed sketch of what I plan on doing. You can see in the sketch above that I laid out my type in boxes. I had an old design teacher teach me that... but that's another day. The entire idea was to create something that I could make into about 9ft by 3ft, maybe even larger. I'm going to ask around about doing "Street art"... anyway, here's the thing:

SKETCHES! AWESOME!

2008-08-02T08:15:00.000-07:00

So I haven't posted new sketches in about 2 - 3 weeks... that's not good. Especially since I spent about 20 minutes scanning in around 15 or so of my favorite ones to post over the weekend, and the fact I had to edit them and everything before posting them.

Today I'm going to post a few of my favorites over the time frame. Tomorrow look for more.

CRITIC here was done in response to a few things; a bunch of people online who just got under my skin a little bit, and my own personal view on... well, myself. As much as I consider this how I view and look at other people, it's also how I look at myself. In essence... I am my own worst critic.

This piece is called "Heaven & Hell (Spirituality 2)" and I plan on taking this one to a few new levels. I originally did this as a proposal to get work for Heaven & Hell (long story short, I was going to basically give them this sketch and beg to do work for them). Because something came up, I'm not going to get the chance. It works out because now I can do more with it. It may have had a commercial purpose, but it actually took on a life of it's own and has a really cool deep personal meaning for me.
Finally, we have a zombie. That's it. A Zombie. It was partially done out of boredom on the train and wanting to draw something, as well as me kinda conjuring up Merciless Death's album cover by Ed Repka. I may develop this into a shirt or something, I'm not sure yet.

KICK-ASS! New Larry West Shoe Avaible, MORE ON THE WAY!!!!

2008-07-31T18:57:00.000-07:00

OK, new sketches are coming soon! I haven't stopped or anything, I've just been way too busy to scan and post them.

That aside, I can now sell SNEAKERS!

Expect a LOT more tomorrow and over the weekend!

Right now, you can only get the "Punk Skull" shoe, but hell, it's perfect for back to school! Buy it so I don't need to start stalking you!!!!

AND COMING SOON:

Military-Style Pin-Up: Nearly Final Pencils?

2008-07-16T16:37:00.000-07:00

It has been a very, very, very long week. Normally, an illustration like this is done within a day or two, but this time it's been 4 days, going on 6. The pencils have taken 3 days longer than I thought because not only do I want this to be good, I want to get better at it! Instead of simply taking suggestions and doing them verbatim, I've instead actually sat down and studied just how and why their ideas work and why I was have a problem with them.

There isn't much left to improve; I might change the eyes a bit, refine the hands, and double-check the feet, but I'm pretty sure this is it. I think pushing for more and more changes is just going to hold this one back.

Also, I'm working on another in what may become a series. We'll see.

Military-Style Pin-Up: Sketches and Work-In-Progress

2008-07-15T17:49:00.001-07:00

So I decided to pick-up doing my military-style sketches again, this time a pin-up. Those of you familiar with my work may recall my RULES pieces. I have a lot more photos from this shoot, but I decided to just go on the idea for now. As you can see, the sketch was fairly detailed for once and I really liked the idea and flow. I rarely post sketches at all until I do a finish, but I'm close to done. Next are a series of pics, from the initial pencils, possible problems, and the now final pencils. There should be another revision round tomorrow, and then, hopefully, a finish by Friday. I've been doing this since Sunday, so sorry for the lack of updates.

If your interested, it is for sale:

Satanic Warmerchant Pin-Up Woman by LuvataciousSkull

Lots of Fun Today!

2008-07-11T18:03:00.000-07:00

Really productive day today! Really psyched and happy about that! I had a good lunch break and went a block from work and went to sketch Independence Hall. Also on the ride home I came up with an idea for a b-movie poster that I plan on developing soon.

Hail and kill!

Head Studies While Trying to Get Better

2008-07-11T17:47:00.000-07:00

Still trying to get to the point where I can say I'm good again, and... well, this is a damn good step! Here's a few head studies I did after getting my heart broken by someone I really was interested in... then again, that's why I start drawing in the first place! HA!

AH! It's a Skeleton of some Kind!

2008-07-10T16:57:00.000-07:00

New sketch up!Meant to post it about a day or two ago, never got the chance.

I did this yesterday on the 9th and was thrilled with the results of a few minutes of work. I'm not sure what it is, exactly, but I liked the way it looked and it'll be interesting to see where it goes.

Larry's Field Survival Guide: The Way To Succeed and The Way to Suck Eggs

2008-07-07T18:59:00.000-07:00

Kinda psyched about this:

I started looking at old sketchbooks I had in 2004, back when my my was first hospitalized and up to and around the time she died in 2005, and I was still in art school. It was nothing short of amazing to look back at this stuff and marvel at it! It was incredibly creative, a ton of fun, and it showed me coming into my own at 19 and 20 years of age. It irritating that I took a good year or two away from my art desk and only in the last 6 months really tried to get back at it.

Well, I decided to just start doing some older stuff I used to do and start doing it again. I'm doing more and more basic studies to get my older skills back into shape and I'm going to start doing more finishes in my sketch book. I plan on drawing something daily, but I'm not going to go nuts about it. If it looks like crap, so be it, but hey, I drew something and am getting better.

So here's my sketch from today. I laid it out last night, but wrapped it up today in about 2 hours today. Did some quickie colors for fun, too. I'm trying to start telling stories with my pieces instead of just doing straight pin-ups. This is the first page in my sketch book.

I can already see some 20-odd things wrong with this piece, but I plan on re-doing it by the end of the book to see how far I've come. It should be interesting!

From Yesterday...

2007-12-17T06:59:00.000-08:00

I've been pretty depressed lately, so I started doing some rather odd doodles. The pig-guy makes sense since I tend to draw those the most, but the rhino in a suit... something tells me there is a underlying concept there...

New Old Sketches

2007-12-10T08:53:00.000-08:00

Some pieces I did back on November 27th...

Notes from a Comic Book Nerd...

2007-11-12T19:11:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a rough, bust month! I started a new job a week ago that is 99% graphic design, 1% retail and everything else. I have to say, this is the type of job I was looking for! There's plenty of downtime in the morning, and sadly, I haven't been able to sketch much. Part of it is I just feel drained from it. I've never had to be so creative so often!

I've got some cavities I need to fill and fast, but I don't have any decent dental coverage. Isn't America great? Donations accepted through PayPal.

I STILL haven't begun even the final sketches fro the Nuns Behaving Badly poster, haven't touched a commission or two due (Sorry about that!). Insult to injury? I still have some massive comic book that needs to even get started! I've had a vision in my head since June and haven't finished yet, and am running out of time! I've got to get this series done, AND SOON, so I can start this massive one I want!

Yes, yes, that was insanely bare! The reason is because I have an idea for a book but I don't want to say detail one until even one issue is done. Considering the fiasco that the Morise Comics label became... it's safe to say that I want to make sure it doesn't happen again!

I've been reading Cerebus and Bone, and I plan on reading the newest Batman: Confidential series and finally look into that World War Hulk series! I picked-up the What-If? of the series and... WOW! Two pages, I know how the damn thing ends, but damn if it doesn't look good!

Also, I lost the election here in Philly for Mayor and I'm addicted to Guitar Hero III and Caffinee. Now that's what good comic books are made of!

Welcome! And now.... NUNS, NUNS, NUNS!

2007-10-20T11:25:00.000-07:00

This is a very simple blog: I'm going to post sketches I do so your in the know of what I'm up to. I plan on doing my best to upload a new sketch a day.

Thanks to my cousin Swinton Scott III for the idea!

This first entry are sketches of Nuns I'm working on for a new calendar. I have more on the way, and this will become a calendar when all is said is done.