Daily Sketch

I'm not sure what this is or when it is from. Obviously graphite, done sometime between the late 1990s and the mid-2000s. This is one of a few so I think I had a book of poses and just decided to sit down one day and see how I could do at copying them.

Daily Sketch -- Batman Comes Clean

I think I have drawn this scene a couple of times. I don't know why but it always sits there in my head, wanting to come out. I am guessing this is from the early 1990s. "The tide is high but I'm holding on..."

Daily Sketch -- Vows Redux

These are from last year. Another shot at the "Vows" screenplay, this one as a daily comic strip as opposed to a comic book. A little more finished than a sketch actually. This was done on my Surface tablet using Manga Studio.

Daily Sketch -- Vows

This is maybe 10 years old. A layout for a comic version of the screenplay "Vows" I wrote with Tom Fudge, this is the opening scene, someone waking up after having a vision.

Daily Sketch -- More Madness

This is another from 1978, for my "Madness" story for Mayhem #3. I'm just working out a few panels here. This is a continuation of the strip idea involving American Indian spirits that I had while sitting in the Kelva Communications booth at the San Diego Comic Con that year. For you youngsters out there, the thing in her hand is called a phone.

Lovely Lynda May

The gorgeous Lynda May, done August 10, 2014. A 25-minute pose done in black and white charcoal pencil on gray Strathmore paper.

The Case of Carla, the Undateable, From A to Z.

Almost everyone thought Carla was a lost cause; the most undateable girl on campus. Between her lack of social skills and her poor hygiene, she surely seemed hopeless. Carla never had a date and the way things were going, she never would have one, which was now Donna’s problem.

Donna had been given the task, as a pledge to the hottest sorority on campus, of getting Carla a date. Every guy she talked about to about taking Carla out, gave pretty much the same answer.

“Forget it.”

Given the universally negative responses, Donna even tried to bribe guys into taking Carla out. Holy cow, when guys in college don’t respond to money, you know the cause is pretty much lost. It got so bad that Donna even stooped to offering certain, shall we say, favors, to a guy willing to take Carla out. Just as with offers of monetary gain, her offer of pleasant favors fell on deaf ears.

Kindness didn’t work, nor did bribery. Left with little else to work with, Donna contemplated blackmail.

Mark was a guy she had dated in high school and she knew he had paid someone to take his SATs for him. Never did she think she would go so low as to blackmail an old boyfriend, but her time was running out.

Of course, it didn’t work. Perhaps it would have worked if Mark did not have the, ehem, video of the two of them in a rather compromising position.  Questions she did not want to have to answer would be asked it that video ever saw the light of day.

Reluctantly, Donna began to look at the possibility of not making it into a sorority. She would feel like a failure and she just didn’t want to face that possibility. The stink of desperation was upon her.

Using all her feminine wiles, she made one last attempt to get Carla a date. Very sexily she asked a number of boys to do her “the biggest of favors” and take poor little Carla out for a good time.

What she got in return was a series of one “no” after another, accompanied by some of the strangest facial contortions and ticks she had ever witnessed.  Xenophobic is what the boys became.

Yes, they really didn’t think she was an alien, but Donna knew that her chances of her getting any of them to go out with Carla were slim and none and that some thinking “outside the box” would be required if she hoped to become a sorority sister.

Zen teachings say that “what you resist, persists,” so Donna stopped resisting, changed her life and asked Carla out.

Copyright 2014 Barry Keller. All rights reserved.

Daily Sketch -- Corrigan?

This was found on notebook paper, folded up inside one of my sketchbooks. No idea when this was drawn or exactly what it is. However, if I had to guess it would say it must have something to do with Secret Agent Corrigan and Al Williamson. Al's work on Corrigan always brought out the desire in me to do a spy strip and I always wished I had a clean style like Al's. This might be from photos or it might be swipes from Corrigan.

Daily Sketch -- Pelican

Drew this from a photo taken in Cabo San Lucas. Just another attempt at an ink-only drawing.

Vanilla Fudge "You Keep Me Hanging On" Live on Jimmy Fallon

I saw these guys last night and was just in awe. One of my favorite bands for 47 years. A real thrill. Nobody, I mean nobody, sounds like the Vanilla Fudge. This was their closing song last night. Just awesome.

Daily Sketch -- Captain Nazi

Captain Marvel Jr's arch enemy Captain Nazi, drawn around 1979 or so.

Daily Sketch -- Marooned

Another piece from 1979. Working on ideas for a story for our Mayhem comic that never went anywhere. Once again, I seemed to be working of back shots a lot at this time.

Daily Sketch -- Aquaman

Sing along with me! "Aquaman, the bold and daring, King of the Seven Seas!" I've tried to draw Aquaman a lot over the years, never too successfully. No idea what year this was, though something in the legs makes me think I was studying a Bridgeman book at the time.

Vanilla Fudge - Shotgun

Anticipating Hot Fudge Friday!

Daily Sketch -- Eh, Not Sure

Hmmm, Not sure what to say about this one. It looks like some sort of worm wearing a bowtie. Can't think of what this would have been for, so I would say I was just messing around.

Dirtbags

The party of the corporations, by the corporations and only for the corporations. Absolutely sickening.

Daily Sketch -- Orchids

This was done about 2007 when I went through a short period of ink sketches.

Birdman

Damn, this looks so good. Hope it doesn't disappoint.

Daily Sketch -- Sweet Hitchhiker

Guessing I drew this around 1979, though it could have been much later. I don't remember anything about this one. All I know is she is hitchhiking and it appears to be cold outside.

Vanilla Fudge - Vanilla Fudge [Full Album]

Six days till we see the Fudge live. The anticipation is building.

Daily Sketch -- Batman Again

It looks like this may have been done in 1990, but I can't be sure. Just another doodling sketch of the Caped Crusader.

Daily Sketch -- Madness

It was the 1978 San Diego Comic Convention (as it was called in those days) and Baron Mrkva, Burt Griswold and I were sitting in our booth for our comic book, Mayhem, selling copies and original artwork and just getting our name out there...when the germ of an idea came to me. I think I might have wanted to do a Psycho-like shower scene but as I started to draw, this idea of American Indian spirits came into my head. As I kept laying out this page, the idea grew into a story I would do for Mayhem #3. Of course, there was no Mayhem #3 and the story was never finished, but a few penciled pages and layouts for the whole story were eventually done. But that entire story came out of my desire to draw a woman taking a shower.

Roger Comes to Dinner

Just a scene that may or may not make it into my novel

Roger reached the front door, but didn’t bother to knock; Kat’s favorite, power ballads, were booming out of the living room speakers and she would never have heard his knock over the music. Besides, there just seemed something wrong with having to knock to enter Kat’s house.

He didn’t walk in quietly, but Kat seemed to not have heard him. He found her in the kitchen, her head over a pot of something that smelled delicious and as he moved quietly up behind her, she bent over the pot and started to wiggle her butt suggestively.

“See anything you like?”

“I see everything I like. I didn’t think you knew I was here.”

Kat turned towards him, a big wooden spoon in her hand, “When Kat’s nether regions begin to tingle, she knows who has entered the room.” As she leaned forward and kissed him, a big splotch of red sauce dropped from the spoon, splattering Roger’s shirt.

“Kat! Watch what you’re doing!”

Kat smiled and raised her eyebrows, giving Roger a smoldering look. “Why don’t you take that shirt off and I’ll wash it for you.”

“Is your sloppiness at cooking all a ploy to get me undressed?”

Kat laughed. “I don’t know if I would call it a ploy…” She reached up and pulled Roger’s shirt over his head, her hand running between his pecs, “…but I do like the results.” Kat tossed the shirt onto the floor.

“Hey, that’s a new shirt. Why I ought to…”

“Ought to what? Punish me?” Kat’s smile grew even larger. “I think I need to be punished.” There was a fire in her eyes. “Don’t you?”

She spun around and turned off the stove. Without looking back she started walking towards the bedroom, removing clothes as she went. “I have been such a bad, bad girl.”

Copyright 2014 Barry Keller. All rights reserved.

Daily Sketch - Girl on a DC-10

Over the years I have found that one of the easiest things to draw is people on planes. They can't go anywhere and they have a very limited range of movement making them perfect subjects for quick sketches.

Daily Sketch -- Hold That Pose!

This was done sometime in the late 70s I would guess, but I don't remember the source. I have a feeling she was nude and I just added the clothes on her.

Bloodbath Rising Redux

I've now more or less completed this acrylic painting of Bloodbath, reimagining a scene from Mayhem #1. I've added a sword, scabbard and belt to the figure and tweaked it here and there.  Bloodbath was Lester Connors, the "payload" for the first human teleportation experiment. During the experiment an earthquake sends Lester not only through space but through dimensions to the planet Marba, where magic still exists and people still settle their arguments with the sharp end of a sword.

Daily Sketch -- Something is in the Woods

Another from 1979. A rough sketch that kept getting darker and darker as I worked on it.

Daily Sketch -- And Yet Another Batman

A big-foot Batman from 1979. I think I was enamored with the inking of Terry Austin at the time and was trying to duplicate that, with little success. I did a lot of sketches with big feet around this time.

Arthur Lee & Love - Seven & Seven Is

The late, great Arthur Lee live doing Seven and Seven Is. Just magic.

When I was a boy I thought about the times I'd be a man
I'd sit inside a bottle and pretend that I was in a can
In my lonely room I'd sit my mind in an ice cream cone
You can throw me if you wanna 'cause I'm a bone and I go
Oop-ip-ip oop-ip-ip, yeah!

If I don't start cryin' it's because that I have got no eyes
My father's in the fireplace and my dog lies hypnotized
Through a crack of light I was unable to find my way
Trapped inside a night but I'm a day and I go
Oop-ip-ip oop-ip-ip, yeah!

1-2-3-4!

Daily Sketch -- The Uptake

So I am guessing this was done in the 90s, but I really don't know. I always liked the camera angle on this one. Of course, being just an ink sketch, what you see is what I drew, no going back and changing anything.

Rescue Me! C'mon! C'mon!

I just read an article on 9 TV Intros that were too good to skip. I thought the article was shit because it didn't include this one, which I watched every single time it came on and never tired of. Maximize the screen and crank it up for the full Impact!

Daily Sketch -- The Atom

 

Continuing with doing back shots, this is my take on DC's The Atom. This was done in that same 1979 timeframe.

Shark!

This is some pretty impressive stuff, watching how a shark hunts its prey. Bump it up full screen to get the full effect.

Daily Sketch -- Capturing a Flying Thingamajig.

I was working on back shots for a long time, trying to develop a style that worked for me. No idea what this is supposed to be, but it is another from the 1979 time frame.

Daily Sketch -- Tracking

A Native American tracking someone I would say. Probably from 1979.

David Bowie: Five Years Trailer

I am a huge David Bowie fan and saw this on Showtime last week and loved it. The interviews with Carlos Alomar, Earl Slick and Carmine Rojas bring a lot of insight into some of Bowie's iconic songs. Damn, this was great.

Daily Sketch -- Another Batman

Another Batman from 1979. I was in a Batman rut for a while there.

Daily Sketch -- Waiting at Jury Duty

 

I remember I was sitting in the waiting room at the court to be called to a jury when I sketched this out of a National Geographic. 

Republican House panel: No administration wrongdoing in Benghazi attack

This should be a lesson to every conspiracy-theory-screaming republican out there that you cannot believe the unadulterated bullshit you are being fed daily by fox news. In the end you just look like the fools you apparently really are. Here are the highlights you should know:

• The House Intelligence Committee, led by Republicans, has concluded that there was no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration in the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
• Intelligence agencies were "warned about an increased threat environment, but did not have specific tactical warning of an attack before it happened."
• "A mixed group of individuals, including those associated with al Qaeda, (Moammar) Khadafy loyalists and other Libyan militias, participated in the attack."
• "There was no 'stand-down order' given to American personnel attempting to offer assistance that evening, no illegal activity or illegal arms transfers occurring by U.S. personnel in Benghazi, and no American was left behind."
• The administration's process for developing "talking points" was "flawed, but the talking points reflected the conflicting intelligence assessments in the days immediately following the crisis."

So what will be the next insane bullshit lie the republicans will scream at us for months on end only to have it quietly disappear over time without so much as a whimper? The gullibility of republicans seemingly knows no bounds.

Daily Sketch -- Run! Run! Run!

This looks like another piece from the late 70s to me. I think after I screwed up his neck I lost interest in finishing it.

Daily Sketch -- A Woman

Not sure what the source of this one is. I think I might have drawn it from a magazine picture while sitting in my doctor's waiting room. I'm just not sure anymore.

Kaluta Knows!

In all the years I attended ComicCon, this is the only picture I ever had drawn for me. This the of course The Shadow drawn by the great Michael William Kaluta and a piece I shall cherish for the rest of my life.

Daily Sketch -- Wildblood?

I'm not really sure who this is, though it might be Wildblood. He was a political prisoner who was cryogenically suspended for a hundred years or so and woke up in a world where humanity was on the wane, due to a genetic virus that has sterilized like 99.999% of humanity. Done sometime in the late 1970s for a strip I was going to do called The Queen Bee Syndrome.