Late 2022 and Early 2023 Work

I've been pretty busy with things, so there isn't much to share. Let's start with a post-Inktober 2022 piece.

I was approached by a friend who asked if I could donate one of my #inktober2022 drawings for their charity event’s silent auction. It’s for a group called Best Buddies (Texas chapter) 

I asked what the theme of the event was and they said ‘James Bond 007’. So, instead of giving one that I’ve already made, I decided that it would be more fun to make a new piece.   

Here is a ‘bot in that classic Sean Connery pose. Instead of a hand gun, I thought that it would be more playful to give it a lime green squirt gun. 

It ended up being sold for $125.

I decided to take a small break from robots and sketch out this guy that I saw on the train a few months ago. Seemed kinda fitting, not only as we depart this year, but also as the last page of this sketchbook. Time to start a new one. 

I did a commission for a coworker who was looking for a gift for his girlfriend. He asked for a robot version of their dog, Tanner, who is old but still has some pep. One of his eyes is hazy but still works. Tanner is also gassy.

This is my submission to @drawmearobot December DTIYS challenge, which is a “chess” themed robot. I love to participate, not to win or get any prizes, but rather to enjoy the interesting prompts that I wouldn’t normally draw.   

This Two-headed Chess bot is constantly challenging itself to a game, on its portable, rotating chessboard. Unfortunately, it always ends in a draw. 

My wife read to me a wonderful story about a dad telling his child the truth about Santa Clause. He said that although the person wasn’t real, the idea of Santa was. It was the idea of giving for the sake of giving. To give without needing recognition or thanks.   

This Santa Bot’s primary function is to do the same. Perhaps we should all be Santa bots every now and then. 

I just wanted to send one last sketch out before the end of the year. Here's a Happy New Year Bot.

I’ve been lucky enough to be invited to participate in the @drawmearobot 2023 Tournament of Champions. I’m not a very competitive person but I love to play with their challenging prompts. Win or lose, I find the accomplishment of completing the challenge is rewarding enough.   

This challenge, participants were asked to recreate an amazing piece by @benson.ink (see pic) in our own style.   

Since part of my style is creating a narrative behind the art, I decided to recreate one for this. Looking at Brandon’s piece, I see the defeated robot looks like the red Rock Em Sock Em Robot. Inspired by Frank Kelly Freas. I wondered if this battle bot might feel some empathy towards the casualty of the battle. Playing around with scale and some creative liberties, I came up with this tribute to Freas. 

Playing Around With Color

To finish out the year, I thought I would try working with color—watercolor to be more specific. I figured that it was pretty close in to the ink wash that I've been doing for a while, so the comfort level would be high and the learning curve low. I was wrong. There needs to be much more practice in the near future to get these to a good level. 

I still had fun playing around with it. 

The piece, above was one that I worked on for the November, Draw Me A Robot challenge. It did pretty well in the competition, but didn't make it to the final 3.

This next bot was something I wanted to do, after being inspired while hanging up holiday lights.

This final piece is a quick drawing that I did as part of a co-worker's birthday card. Since it was so close to Thanksgiving, all of my other co-workers and I did 'hand-turkey' drawings for their birthday greeting. I ended up doing the color in Photoshop.