Rough Draft Homage

I'm a huge fan of popeye, but obviously. I am also a huge fan of the thing from the Fantastic Four. Wimpy is one of my favorite Popeye characters, so I thought I would do a little homage to one of the classic Fantastic Four covers by Jack Kirby, but splice it with E.C. Segar's Popeye characters from Thimble Theater (which became Popeye).

This is a sloppy rendition of my idea. I'm hoping to make a bigger and better version of it soon
 

NOW IN COLOR! From the Panels of THIMBLE THEATRE...

 I used ink and alcohol-based markers to add color. This might not be the final, or only, version of this concept.

"From the Panels of"THIMBLE THEATRE..."

 

I felt some inspiration the other day (which doesn't happen as often as I'd like), and drew this homage to the Late Dave Cockrum's iconic cover of the legendary Giant-Size X-Men that introduced the world to Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Thunderbird, and brought Wolverine into the fold.

If you know me, I'm obSESSED with Popeye and comic books. Popeye was introduced to the world in January 1929 in a 10 year old comic strip called "Thimble Theatre" by E.C. Segar. This strip began in 1919 with Olive Oyl, her boyfriend Ham Gravy, and her family: Castor, Cole and Nana Oyl. When Popeye appeared, readers loved him and asked for more. He took over the strip, and Ham Gravy disappeared! 

In this drawing, the original Thimble Theatre crew take place of the original X-Men, and the "Deadly Genesis" era consists of the 1st looks of the "Popeye" generation. 

The drawing isn't done, and I might make a better one. 

....maybe make a variant of it....🤔

Sweet Sweet-Haven

 I just finished this picture. It's 23x18 watercolor and ink on paper. I just realized I forgot to add Popeye's granny, but other than that I have the majority of the repeat characters from the Popeye comic strips and books. I didn't include Ham Gravy because he disappeared shortly after Popeye took over the "Thimble Theatre" comic strip. 

Drawing Popeye

In honor of Popeye creator's birthday December 8th, I did a little video of me drawing one of my all-time characters. Sorry, I can't figure out how to speed the video up, so any videos I post are going to be long. THIS one isn't too bad.

Bittersweet: So hard to say goodbye

With every piece of artwork I create, I get a little attached to it. Especially when it's artwork not made specifically for somebody else. It's rare I create work for myself, but when I do and they come out as I want, I get very emotionally charged and connected to the work. And when I sell that artwork, it's very bittersweet. I am making money to support my family, but I'm handing off work that was close to my heart. Case in point: I just set up to sell two of my Popeye series, one of which is one of my favorites. However, the buyer is from the hometown of EC Segar, Popeye's creator, in Chester, Illinois, AND is owner of Segar's childhood home!! the works, shown below, are going to THE PERFECT home! MY Popeye artwork in the town where Popeye was created, and MAYBE even in the house his creator lived in!
If I can mail the painting in time, it might be displayed during next weekend's Popeye Picnic! If you're attending the picnic (this Friday, Saturday and Sunday), ask at Spinach Can Collectibles about the Popeye movie painting!

Blow Me Down!

This is the first piece of my Popeye series. This is a photo of the unfinished oil painting. I love Popeye. It was the first thing I remember drawing as a kid, and this movie is one of the first things I remember seeing. As I grew older, I began studying Popeye's history, and found that the 1980 movie, with the exception of the musical numbers, was pretty accurate to the EC Segar comic strip of the 20s and 30s. Hell, the musical numbers actually pay homage to the Fleischer Studios Popeye cartoons too.
I've been doodling Popeye my entire life, but I wanted to do Popeye as I can. I've done my comic book style of Popeye, but my artistic focus is in portraiture. So, I decided to do a series of Popeye artrwork based on the live action movie. I'm also working on a graphite drawing of Popeye and Bluto simultaneously.
Feels good. Feels right.