I Heart Robots

Inspired by a scene that I recently saw in the movie Real Steel, I made this new piece in Procreate on the iPad. I loved seeing the connection between a boy and his robot. Not wanting to copy the scene directly, I tried to capture the moment in my own style, with my own characters. Clearly, I need to work on my lighting technique to help lock in the emotion, but I still had fun making this.

I often find myself writing or saying, "I've been drawing too many robots." or "I'm taking a break from robots." because, frankly, I draw too many robots. The fact is, I love drawing robots. The biggest reason is that I'm horrible at rendering reality, but I love trying to create a narrative with expression and emotion. Robots can be posed or given subtle expressions to imply these things, without having to really struggle with nailing a realistic capture.

Fortunately, for me, other folks feel the same way about drawing robots. I'm about to 'dip my ink' into another challenge that really speaks to me: March of Robots. This is a new art challenge from DaCosta Bayley a.k.a. @chocolatesoop  - which is certainly up my alley. I need to draw 31 robots in the 31 days of March. I'm certainly up to the challenge, but I've set my goals low. I probably won't stick to the prompt list, this time, and I may not get to all 31. I'm just happy to have an excuse to draw more robots.

Bernie Prints Raise Over $1,000 in Donations

Taking a little break from #robots, I thought I would try and make a quick rendering of the—Photoshopped, meme-famous—shot of Bernie Sanders @berniesanders taken by Brendan Smialowski @bsmialowski - photojournalist for Agence France-Press (AFP).

A few folks had expressed an interest in buying a copy of my Bernie sketch, but I didn't feel right profiting from a sketch that references somebody else's IP, So, I did the next best thing. In the spirit of what Bernie is doing, using that image for charity, I did the same.

I offered a FREE printout to anyone who made a NEW donation to their favorite charity/cause of, at least, $10 which must have been posted after January 31, 2021. They would then, reach out to me, via email with their proof of donation and shipping address, and I would ship them a copy.

I was overwhelmed by the response, when several folks made generous donations to their preferred charity. All together, over $1,000 was donated to many worthy causes, which include: Friends of Shiloh Garden, BikeDFW, Moms Demand Action, Saving Hope Animal Rescue, Girl Scouts of America, Chicago’s Brave Space Alliance, Canadian Red Cross, Genesis Woman’s Shelter, GiGi's Playhouse, Down Syndrome Achievement Centers, Bike Friendly South Dallas and KXT radio.

Printouts were sent to: 

• Dallas, Texas
• Fort Worth, Texas
• Denton, Texas
• Austin, Texas
• Chattanooga, Tennessee
• Cincinnati, Ohio
• Chicago, Illinois
• Vancouver, BC Canada