Travel Postcards

Last month I helped out a Chicago based artist by the name of Sue Hawks finish up a commission that she was hired to do. The client wanted a series of sketches done with him and his girlfriend in snapshot travel type postcards with weird things going on in the background. He had some twisted ideas and I definitely had fun doing them, as one doesn't get the opportunity to draw the burning Tibet monk all that often. I think I did half of the postcards and these are all of the ones that I did. Sue actually finished them up rather nicely by doing the faces herself as she knows them and did a much better job than I could. So, many thanks to Sue Hawks. It was a fun job.

The Oceanic Six ...soon to be nine

These are the 6 cards that I will have returned (hopefully) to me as part of my payment for doing the Sketch cards for Topps. There will be 3 more, but I have to wait for approval to show them. As far as the returned cards go,I can do as I wish with them, put them up on ebay, fling them into a hat, etc. The first six were for the first 650 cards that I did and the last three were for doing an extra 50 cards at the end there. I have the last three in my possession as they arrived blank and I did them at my leisure, but I'm still waiting for the original six to come home and my worries, as with some of the other artists, is that they may have been accidently put into cases and shipped out with the rest of the lot. That's why I say hopefully.

Hogsnot Logo Sketches

Below are the prelim sketches that I did for the Hogsnot logo from my last post. I think that I pretty much nailed it with the very first sketch that I did and so did the client happily. Of course, there were some changes, but the hog remained as I first saw him. That's a good piggie.

Back in February, the Lord Of The Rings sketch cards that I did hit the shelves and soon after the buyers began putting them up on ebay. So, I've been enjoying tracking my cards and seeing just how many bids and how much they are going for, but what I have really been getting a kick out of is reading what the sellers have to say about my artwork. This was my favorite from a seller in Australia:

"You are bidding on a one of a kind [1/1] original Lord of the Rings: Masterpieces II sketch card created by famous artist Bruce Gerlach. This card features an amazing image of Gandalf, one of the main characters from the movies. Card is in MINT condition and has been stored in a protective soft card sleeve, inside a rigid hard plastic toploader."

I love Australia.

My wife's personal favorite is of one seller describing one of my cards as a "super sweet sketch." She now calls me Super Sweet. So, thanks to that guy. 

Hogsnot

Here is the logo that I have been working on for a new local company called Hogsnot and they will be selling motor oil for the motorcycle market, particularly Harleys. The client (who was great to work with btw) wanted an ugly hog with snot and drool, ear rings, skull cap, the whole nine yards. Heck, I'm friends with this type of......... "people." So, it was very easy for me to conceptualize this one. I thought what would make this guy have that little extra added touch of ugly, so the uni-brow was a must, thick ear hair and stubble, which I'm kind of happy with. 

I'm hoping soon that this ugly hog will be seen in and about the Detroit area. I believe that a website is being built for the product, so I will post a link when I hear more. And soon I will post the sketches and the steps that lead to this sweetheart.

Lord Of The Rings Sketchcards, Part Seven

The first wave of the Lord Of The Rings Sketch cards have hit the market, cases are being cracked open and collectors are fast and furiously putting their finds up on ebay. So, in honor of this momentous occasion, I will put some more of my cards up. It's kind of a thrill (being the newb that I am) to see my cards up and being bid upon. Some of the sellers have yet to know who I am, so my name isn't on some of them, but a few have recognized which cards are mine. I'm just glad that there is some appreciation of my work and hopefully some collectors will be happy with them. So, go shop.

Blindness

The reasons that inspired this drawing are somewhat personal and doesn't need to be aired out here, but I felt that it had to be done and thought it to be an interesting (if I may say so myself) image. There will be three in this series, so stay tuned.

The Allegory Of Figurative Blindness Before Literal Blindness

12x18

colored pencil on tinted paper

Hopefully soon, I will have some goodies to post. The logo that I've been working on is just about finished, so if I get approval I will show that and some other things that I've been working on. I've been hired to help out a Chicago artist with some of her workload and I just agreed to do 50 more of the Lord Of The Rings sketch cards for Topps. Throw in some homework for the class that I'm taking, and I should have plenty to show soon.

Figure Illustration 2

As mentioned before, I have this figure drawing class and for the last three classes we have not had the pleasure of having a model present to draw. So, for the first two classes we did caricatures of each other which was fun and a good way to get to know some of my classmates. But today, our teacher Matt Busch  sat in as our model. So, for a couple of hours he sat in a chair and played the acoustic guitar for our entertainment and we got to render him in whatever way we saw fit. I bypassed the charcoal route for today and did this in olive green and raw umber colored pencils. I was pretty happy with this one as it's a good likeness of Professor Matt.