4/30/12

Today's J. Post cartoon

If I were a drinking sort of person, this would be precisely the kind of thing that would drive me to drink. Copiously.
UPDATE: Now chronologically the eighth cartoon reposted by La Boucle d'Occam, a mere eight days after the last one.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen
Serif PhotoPlus Starter Edition

4/25/12

Today's jpost.com cartoon

clock on wall one minute to midnight 1159 2359 sitting in chair face in hand mourning one minute past midnight 1201 0001 jumping around celebrating happy waving israeli flag falling confetti streamers
To quote the late, great Sam Orbaum, Israel is "where just one minutes separates the saddest day from the happiest". The saddest day is today, Yom HaZikaron; but at the stroke of midnight, we'll be segueing right into Yom HaAtzama'ut. Jewish dichotomy at its finest.
(Spot the hidden Pac-Man!)
UPDATE: Now the latest repost on La Boucle d'Occam.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen
Serif PhotoPlus Starter Edition

4/23/12

Today's J. Post cartoon

united nations un inspector peacekeeper i dont get it thought you agreed to a ceasefire bashar assad wearing army helmet firing shooting submachine tommy gun indeed i have when i sees em i fires at em syria houses ruins smoke bullet holes
A ceasefire agreement and the arrival of UN inspectors in Syria have done pretty much diddlysquat to staunch the bloodshed there. Surprised? Not I.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen
Serif PhotoPlus Starter Edition

4/20/12

My cousin's bar mitzvah table-cards

So, for my cousin Reuven's bar mitzvah, my aunt decided that she would like to have drawings of Reuven at the tables instead of numbers, and tapped me for the job (having seen my previous such efforts on behalf of my brother). Naturally I obliged, and a collection of the results can be seen above, covering everything about him from hobbies and pastimes to character aspects to personal milestones. And a pastiche of Earthworm Jim on the bottom right (with Planet Me hovering in background), because one of his nicknames--and my favorite--is "Groovy Reuvie". (A different one referencing Evil Dead II was sadly nixed.)

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen
Black 0.7 mm pilot pen
Black marker

4/17/12

Today's J. Post cartoon

man gardener in cap and gloves holding shears rule of law cutting flower stem beit hamachpela forest trees east jerusalem
Interesting thing about Israeli leftists--they squawk about the sanctity of the "rule of law" in dealing with supposedly illegal Jewish outposts such as the recently-evicted Beit Hamachpela in Chevron, but when it comes to dizzyingly rampant illegal construction by Arabs in East Jerusalem and elsewhere, you won't hear a peep out of them. Fancy that.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen
Black marker
Serif PhotoPlus Starter Edition

4/14/12

Teen Titans Unlimited - bonus post

In what is swiftly turning into a cycle of recursive appreciation, the Titans Confessions tumblr has linked right back to The Eighth Day to showcase the original, unadorned "Teen Titans Unlimited" image and note my link back to their original post, thereby sending even more hits my way and obliging me to make a thank-you post in return. Said relinking was requested by poisonousstrawberries, who also gets major thanks. (She has a very funny gif as her profile picture right above a quote from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, so you know she was already awesome regardless...)
So, let's get this thing going and give y'all behind the scenes facts and bonus material from this modern-day masterpiece!

1. Notice anything unusual about the background? Look harder.
It's a hidden image of the Titans' iconic T symbol.

2. My original idea was to have the Titans appear at the largest resolutions I could find. When noticeable disparities in sizes cropped up, my initial solution was to create a distortion of perspective, with the figures appearing larger the closer they were to the center. (When I decided to more closely mimic the JLU shot for the final picture, I still retained this effect to a much lesser degree, even though I probably shouldn't have.)
The final version of this half-finished WIP would have been x4 larger.
Notice also the different background--part of the show's opening title screens, which would have been obscured in the same manner as the T--as well as an alternate Wonder Girl pose on the far left.

3. Some Titans were harder to find than others. Herald, Timmy Tantrum and Teether were all in fact taken from screenshots from the show itself (Teether being a composite of two different shots).

4. For two other Titans, Melvin and Kole, I discovered uncolored character line art, which I colored cursorily from screenshots before shading them like the others.

5. Gnarrk, meanwhile, is taken from a promotional drawing by Glen Murakami.

6. One Titan I could find absolutely no good full-body shots of was Killowat. This can be excused by saying that in the continuity established by the comic book spinoff he was returned to his native alternate reality (Teen Titans Go! #48).

7. Speaking of the comics, three of the Titans pictured made their debuts there: Geo-Force, Ravager, and Cassie Sandsmark (a.k.a. Wonder Girl II), all of whom are taken from Todd Nauck's DeviantArt.

8. And speaking of Wonder Girl, the original--Donna Troy--made a couple of cameos on the actual show but no more than that due to legal issues. She made her "proper" TT debut in Teen Titans Go! #36, and her (flipped) figure here is taken from a special limited run team shot by Nauck.

9. Personal kvetch: there is absolutely no official imagery of Cyborg drawn standing from the front.
Every single which way but face-to-face.

10. Character Key!


Drawn using:
Adobe Photoshop CS3

4/5/12

Today's jpost.com cartoon

pesach pessah passover jewish israeli idf soldiers walking patrol near gaza border security fence eating matazah okay now thats just cruel loaf of bread dangling on line from pole over fence scent wafting giggling hee hee hee
Here's a bit of lighthearted fare for a change. Pesach is upon us, meaning no bread products for a week--and believe me, after eating matzah for a week, you wouldn't believe how obsessed with bread products you become.
UPDATE: Second cartoon pinned by Pinterest's Sion Soeters.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen
Black 0.7 mm pilot pen
Serif PhotoPlus Starter Edition

4/3/12

Today's J. Post cartoon

mahmoud abbas abu mazen palestinian journalists enjoy full freedom of the press to say what they want and suffer the consequences reporter being dragged away by pa plo police
Naturally, being the flourishing liberal democracy that it is (fnarr fnarr), the Palestinian Authority has always had a little "trouble" with journalists being arrested and prosecuted for daring to speak out against the politicos, but with several such cases occurring in recent days I figured the time was ripe for a cartoon on this theme.
Update: Reposted by Tex Norman on his flaming liberal pin... board... thing? Man, I have no idea how that site works.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen
Serif PhotoPlus Starter Edition