Starchie's Pawn Shoppe

Here is a location in the town of Toybox; your very own Starchie Spudnoggen's For Sale and Trade establishment. This was done for a story about a scarecrow named Fishbone who's found by Ernie and Suda in an irrigation ditch after his butter cracker eyes have been eaten by birds. Selflessly deciding to help him replace his lost eyes, they find their way here.

Acrylic and prismacolor 9X11

--Starchie

Hellboy Vent

It's a proven fact that everyone loves to draw Hellboy. This was done years ago, and I don't know if Mike Mignola ever actually drew Hellboy with such hugely broad shoulders or if that's just how I got it into my head when I painted this. I would paint it very differently now but there was still enough that I liked about it to post it. Here's a slightly recent-er Hellboy painting I did (still with the enormous shoulders, hmmm). Guess I should try him again sometime.

Acrylic 10 X 12

--Starchie

Dawn of Suda

Suda's design came from a doll I built in high school. I had a contest with one of my friends to each try and create the most horrible doll. Her hands and head are clay, the body cloth and the dress was found in a thrift store bin. Her eyelashes are made from an old paintbrush.

My friend's doll wore a pink dress and looked like a toddler who someone had deflated. He kept her in his closet so he wouldn't accidentally see her at night. He wins for horror but over time Suda has cute-ened up. She's extremely difficult to capture but I know it when I see it.

Suda doll: Red clay, acrylic, fabric 16" high. "Family Portrait" Acrylic 6"X9"

--Starchie

Joe Ranft

Last weekend Joe Ranft, the legendary Pixar story man would have turned 50. If you don't know about Joe, Google him and you will be enlightened. I did this painting of Joe after having worked with him for years on the Cars story crew. It was based on a photo that I had taken of him on a research trip on Route 66. I was fortunate to be able to give him the painting before he passed away in the Summer of 2005. He hired me at Pixar almost 9 years ago and I still think about him every day. Miss you Joe!

Acrylic 8 1/2X11

--Starchie

Critters

Yet another set of characters for an un-produced animated feature project. Enjoyed trying to angular-ize my default rats, the ones that wind up in any on my comic projects though I still opted for my standard droopy nose. Was fairly pleased with the Guinea pig as well.

Acrylic 8X10

--Starchie

Monkey Memory for Sale

The painting sold and very soon I will post what I am using the funds to buy.

I've posted an auction for one of the three comps I did for Monkey Island 2 LeChuck's Revenge. This painting was done to express one of the ideas I would take to final. It was meant to convey the idea and less meant as a finished illustration. I thought a keen Monkey Island fan might find it worth having as a piece of the company's history.

But for me, there's actually something I want to buy on ebay and I always prefer to sell something to help pay for whatever the next uselss item will be. If it all works out I'll share the result here.

7X10 Gouache

--Starchie

MAX IMP SAYS VOTE!

Telltale Games is currently fielding votes for which of their series of games should be the next to release for the Mac. Max Imp insists that you go to their site and cast your vote for Sam & Max.

Imagine Max Imp's disappointment if Sam & Max is NOT chosen or perhaps loses by the one vote YOU may have cast. He might be inclined to take up residence in your furnace, compelled to skitter around in your attic during the night or crawl up into your sinus cavity while you sleep to lay his terrible eggs. Do your part!
Go to TelltaleGames.com and cast your vote for SAM & MAX!
Thank you. That is all.

--Starchie

Naughty Tiger

Here's another Tiger, obviously more of a science-fictiony character. Had fun with the colors and the chunky strokes around the face, though his muzzle is a bit funky. All in all I was pretty happy with this guy.

8 1/2X 11 Acrylic

--Starchie

Year of the...

Here is another character from the unmade feature pitch I referenced earlier. My standard washey acrylics on top of a loose pencil sketch xeroxed on bristol board. I fixed his near leg in photoshop because it was a hair undersized and always bothered me. He doesn't quite sit on the ground right but it was a very quick painting so I forgive it somewhat. Tigers are fun to draw and paint and I have another one I want to do this year, which is part of the Toybox cast of characters.

8 1/2 X 11 Acrylic

--Starchie

The Fantastic Mr Some-Other-Guy

This is one of my favorite character pieces done for an un-produced feature project. It started with a very loose soft pencil sketch, xeroxed onto bristol board and painted in thin washes of acrylic. It was one of my first in this style which I became fond of for the stretch when I was doing a lot of these.

Acrylic 8 1/2X11

--Starchie

Trinkets

I normally post something for the holidays but was sick this year and my efforts to paint something new proved fruitless.

I'll be at it again soon but right now, here's something I had forgotten about - a quick sketch for a company who said they wanted to do promo Sam & Max PVC figures. It didn't happen and I forgot all about it but now that I see them I want to look into doing something in vinyl like the old Pogo characters that you would get on the soap package. If you waded through my office you'd see that I'm knee-deep in stuff like this. Would be fun to add my own guys to the din of visual noise.

8X10 Digital

--Starchie

Brush with Super Heroes

I've done very few "straight" comics projects and when I have the results have usually been unremarkable. This one I don't mind too much. I can't remember how I wound up doing a Superman pin-up but the first thing I asked myself is "how do I make it my own?" Well the answer can be seen here as Superman (this was during the short period when he sported a curly mullet) is hoisting a hideous monster baby just before lobbing him into a steaming lava pit. Enjoy!

10 X 15 Pen and ink

--Starchie

Dan's Dog Carol

Instead of a real post this week, I'll piggyback onto my friend Dan Scanlon's blog. Yesterday he posted a bunch of sketches of his dog that I had done a while back. You can see the progression of what happens when you keep exaggerating the same traits over and over. Take a look. And check out Dan's great series of dog toy paintings while you're there.

--Starchie

Monkey Behemoth

It's made from millions of monkeys and creates a deafening squeal as it lumbers through the jungle seeking vengeance. Also some other stuff...

Acryic 4X9 & 3 Pencil 4x9

--Starchie

The Mermaid

I used a 60's GI Joe for the diving suit reference and wound up painting this mermaid three times. In the first she was more feral which in retrospect was perfectly fine. The second had a new face and was topless but felt unfinished. The third take includes the pearls and not very original shell bikini which at least breaks up her coloring. I think she's creepily pretty so I'm ultimately satisfied with the piece but sometimes the first idea is worth sticking with. Stop me if I start repeating any of these. I'm sometimes forgetful with the lead poisoning and all.

Acrylic 9X12

--starchie

Pirate Infusion

It's been a month since I posted something about pirates. Here are a couple of character sketches from some random pirate-related effort, created and discarded at some point in time. The top one is derived from a concept by animation artist David Gosman.

Acrylic 8X10 & Pencil 8X10

--Starchie

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Vegetable orb and sharp implements 10X14

--Starchie

Devils

Here are a few super quick character sketches from a couple of years ago when Telltale Games was thinking about Satan designs for the Sam & Max series.

Each 8X10 Digital

--Starchie

Phantom o' the Opera

My nervous habit is drawing the Phantom of the Opera. I have hundreds of drawings of him from times when I'm in meetings or just sitting idle with a pad. Though I'm also fond of drawing Frankensteins, apes, devils and clowns the Phantoms currently dominate by far. I'm assembling a hundred of my favorites to put in a miniature book.

Prismacolor and Marker 5X7

--Starchie

Tales of Monkey Island Roughs

When doing an illustration I tend to do three concepts for the client. I usually have an idea right away, a sort of gut reaction to the assignment, and more often than not that is the one I want to do. When I create the subsequent two roughs I have to make sure they are ideas that I would be just as satisfied to take to finish since the client won't always pick the one you love the most.

In this case Telltale was interested in which one I wanted to do the most. Based on the pitch of the story and some early looks at the artwork they were creating for the game I was leaning toward a kind of eerie feel in the first sketch. Since I had already painted LeChuck for the Monkey Island 2 cover I was more interested in featuring Guybrush for this one. And since I was never quite happy with my Elaine in the first Monkey Island cover I was happy to include her in each of the concepts.

These were done quickly on a Cintiq tablet to get an impression of the composition and potential color palette. My final painting had less of a green cast to it. As I work on a painting sometimes I go off on a different path than I had planned. I still like the green of the sketch but I also like the variety of background colors that grew out of the process of making the painting.

Digital 8X10

--Starchie