MikeLaughead.com

Barca Blaugranes Logo

2012-01-30T16:14:00.000-05:00

This was an attempted logo for Barca Blaugranes. I am a big fan of FC Barcelona (because Messi plays for them) and I often read the Barca Blaugranes blog. They were looking for a new logo and I made this one, but then they went under new management and things got lost in the shuffle.

Speaking of soccer/fútbol, why is Barca playing so badly? I just don't get it. Are they just focused on the Champion's League?

Unused Robot

2012-01-25T14:30:00.000-05:00

This is an unused character from an illustration job. It is always fun for me to work in limited colors like this job. Also, I really like drawing robots.

My Final Theory Paper

2012-01-12T15:20:00.000-05:00

Scott C's East Dragon

2012-01-11T12:14:00.000-05:00

I just saw some artwork for Scott C's new children's picture book "East Dragon, West Dragon". The book looks awesome, so I drew the East Dragon for a warmup today. This also reminds me, inking is fun. Don't ever forget that!

Book of Style

2012-01-10T15:26:00.002-05:00

Illustrations for a humorous book that was given out at a business gathering. I loved having to work in only black and pink. I really like the results.

Guide Twilight

2012-01-10T15:22:00.002-05:00

For Guide Magazine. The story was about a girl that got too caught up in reading Twilight late into the night. I jumped at the chance to draw Edward and Jacob. (Secret confession, I've listened to all the books on audiobook. In my opinion, the last one was better than the rest because it leaned more to the side of fantasy and less to the romantic. Secret confession done!)

Lost Coin

2012-01-10T15:18:00.002-05:00

An assignment from early last year. The whole thing was a spread so it was hard to break it into pieces. I really liked how the colors and texture turned out on this one.

Fredward Elf

2012-01-10T15:14:00.002-05:00

I was hired to do a Christmas elf for a family I know from church. The story of Fredward the elf orange picker is well known in their family. This one was really fun to do!

Sample Sketch Pages

2011-11-08T12:24:00.002-05:00

Still plugging away at each page. I have almost finished drawing sketchy pages from the thumbnails. (I blow up the thumbnails and print them out lightly on regular paper. That is what I'm sketching on.) These are 3 of my favorite pages.

Once I am done with these, I am going to print them on 11x17 paper and do the final pencil drawing on them. After that, I'm on to inking experiments!

Working Out Style and Pencils

2011-10-25T16:35:00.002-04:00

The thumbnails are all done on the first issue. The story ended up being 30 pages long. This is the first pencilled page. I am enjoying the drawing, but I still need to be aware of so many things while I'm drawing. Not only the layout of each panel, but the silhouette or each character and their line of action. It can be frustrating.

While drawing the pencils, I am also working on the inking and gray tone style of the final artwork. These were done with a brush pen. I have been told that "C" is the best version, but then I was advised by Andy Friz, my mentor, that all of the styles have appealing things about them and I can use all of them depending on the mood, emotion or layout of each panel. I'm pretty excited about finishing this!

Lionel Messi Prints for Sale! Again!

2011-10-19T11:18:00.001-04:00

Society 6 just put my Lionel Messi Argentina Jersey print up on their regular store. Buy one if you are a real fan! ;)

Character Designs for Acornhead

2011-10-17T12:11:00.002-04:00

I'm still plugging away at my MFA project. Here are some sketches.

These are 3 of the main characters in my graphic novel. I am happy with the character on the right, but not the other 2.

With the character on the left, I increased his hand and feet size to make him feel like an adolescent who was still growing into his limbs.

I have continued to work on the middle character. I'm still not sure how he will look. He is the initial antagonist.

Here is another main character who's design I haven't worked on as much.

I've also worked on some basic shapes for a few secondary characters (parents of the protagonists.)

QR Code and Google Image Search

2011-10-13T11:11:00.000-04:00

I was introduced to QR Codes recently in my Digital Culture Class. For an explanation, just visit Wikipedia. Or to create your own go to Kaywa.com.

This is the QR Code to my website, MikeLaughead.com.

In order to incorporate it into the style of my image, I redrew my code with a brush pen.

And because I'm super original, I added the QR Code to a robot. It was fun, though.

In the same class, I learned that google has a new image search option. You can upload an image and it will find that same image on the web. I decided to search for a t-shirt design of mine that was printed at Threadless.com.

Of course I found the image at Threadless.com and at my site, but I found something amazing that I didn't even know existed!

Someone took the time to make my design into a cake! Amazing and really flattering. How awesome is that? Check out more cakes by this same cake artist.

Mike Laughead's MFA: My First 3D Model

2011-10-12T17:57:00.000-04:00

Mike Laughead's MFA: My First 3D Model: I used Google Sketchup to make this 3D model. I usually work in a very flat and graphic manner. It was really difficult to think 3 dimensi...

Comic Book Examples for My MFA

2011-09-27T08:43:00.000-04:00

Mike Laughead's MFA: Comic Book Examples: My main approach from the beginning of this program has been to make a graphic novel that is fun and interesting with some humor and heart. ...

Sketches from Class!

2011-09-16T16:08:00.001-04:00

When I was working from home I never seemed to have the time to just sketch. Now that I'm back in school, there are times when I am sitting and listening to a presenter and I can just draw and listen. It's really kind of nice. Here are 2 things I drew the other day.

*Señor Conehead is a character from the artwork of one of my fellow grad students Andrew McCauley. Check out his gritty, yet vibrant artwork.

Mike Laughead's MFA: First Week of Work

2011-09-09T16:15:00.000-04:00

Mike Laughead's MFA: First Week of Work: These are the first thumbnails of done here at CCAD. Most of the work I've done this week has been story work and is words and not visually ...

2 New Images

2011-09-09T15:41:00.000-04:00

Family Portrait 2011
The family portrait was really late this year, but Candace forgave me (it is a present to her) because I was applying for grad schools at the time I normally give it to her. This one came about because I knew Candace would dig the Harry Potter theme and Eva was pretending to be a witch quite a bit.

The White Panda Tee
I recently did this t-shirt design for the band/duo "The White Panda". They were awesome to work with and they have a great image/motif.

I have an MFA blog!

2011-09-06T15:40:00.000-04:00

I just started my MFA at Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD)! The first week was very exciting and I'm looking forward to the whole 2 years. Columbus has been a great place to live so far and I can't wait to judge it in winter.

Each MFA student is expected to keep a blog of their progress while working on their projects. Mine is a graphic novel, so I'll be putting a lot of character designs and sample pages but probably not the whole actual comic.

If you would like to visit my MFA blog, please go here, http://mikelaugheadmfa.blogspot.com.

High Sierra Music Festival Poster (and Process)

2011-06-23T15:29:00.000-04:00

Poster for the High Sierra Music Festival. Copies will be available at the festival. After I finished this I realized that this is what comes from too much Zelda, Star Trek and Dragonball.

I enjoyed the process of this one, so I thought I would show my steps.

1. I started with a bunch of sketches. I did a lot more sketching than this, but I just wanted to show my favorites. I really liked the tiger idea it was just getting to busy.

2. After scanning the sketch above, I added the type and printed it out large. After printing it out I traced/redrew it all to get the details the way I wanted. This drawing was done in graphite.

3. These are my initial colors. I used to read the Drizzt books when I was a kid, so I wanted to make him a dark elf. (I'm also a huge fan of the show Community, check it out!)

4. Realizing the dark elf thing wasn't working, I kept adjusting colors. I've really become a fan of purples that edge towards pink and red and they seemed to be working for this piece.

5. I kept adding little details and adjustments including some halftone dot gradients. I also added the information for the show. I think I'm in love with my own hand-drawn type and I don't really know why.

6. Here is the final poster. I thought that the spaces on the side of and above the alien-ish guy felt empty, so I added the long hair and the antennae. Strangely, these things make the character look less like a Link ripoff and more like a mix between Link, these guys from the old Star Trek and this guy from Dragonball. So am I a hack who just rips off ideas, or a super-genius for combining 3 separate things that have nothing to do with each other? You must decide!

As a bonus, I thought I would show how my 2 daughters colored my drawing for this poster. I often leave my drawings on my desk and both of my daughters on occasion have colored them. Luckily, I have usually scanned them by that time.

Flamethrower Mom and Hipster Flash...

2011-05-09T16:13:00.000-04:00

These are 4 icons I created for PagodaBox.com. The limited color aspect (which I love doing) was requested by Mark Parson, who is amazing to work with by the way.

These can be viewed in use HERE. Just click "Let's Go" on the page.

They also licensed some of my old artwork for the site. You can see them HERE and HERE.

On a completely unrelated note, I saw this post by Nate Bellegarde recently. I liked the drawing of the hipster flash so much I decided to color it. This is the result:

Do I have a future as a comic book color-er? (Colorist?) I think I would hate the not drawing aspect too much. It's fun to try, though.

Lionel Messi Prints for Sale!

2011-05-05T14:16:00.000-04:00

Prints, T-shirts, Laptop Covers, iPhone skins, etc. of this image and Messi in the Barcelona jersey are now all available at Society 6!

To go right to the Messi prints, click the images below.

If you order something, send me an email and tell me how the product turns out!

Please vote on my new Threadless submission

2011-05-02T13:57:00.000-04:00

Click on the image above to vote.

Click on the image below for a larger version of the 3 color schemes.

Lionel Messi Image

2011-04-21T11:34:00.000-04:00

I recently saw this illustration by Annette Marnat and thought I would try to emulate that style.

I've become a huge soccer fan this year. So I wanted to draw my favorite soccer player Lionel Messi. So I drew him in both his Barcelona jersey and his Argentina national team jersey.

Here is a 1680 x 1050 pixel desktop background if you would like to use it.

After really being able to watch the world cup this past summer I really wanted to keep watching soccer. I've never really played (only in grade school) but I just got into watching it. But I realized that I'm a fan of the Argentina national team (I was a missionary in Argentina for 2 years) and they only play some friendly games throughout the year and big summer competitions (like the World Cup and this summer's Copa América). So if I decided to watch the national team players, I had to watch them play on their European teams. Lionel Messi has been voted the best player in the world for 2 years running and he plays for Barcelona, so I became a fan. Sadly, Barcelona just lost the Copa del Rey yesterday. I was pretty miffed, even though it was an exciting game.

I am finishing up a sequel to "Shoes for Me" right now. Hopefully I will be able to post some preview images from that book soon.

Because I've Been So Busy, Here Are a Few Little Drawings

2011-04-05T14:58:00.000-04:00

I've been in the middle of 2 huge projects for the last few months so I haven't had much to upload. I'm currently in the process of reviewing and visiting colleges in order to decide where to attend grad school. It's a lot scarier to figure out where I'm going to move my family for 2 years than it was when I first went to college. My thought process then was, "Not sure what to do now, guess going to college is better than working for my dad." (It was waaaaay better, by the way.) So a lot has been on my mind in that front.

The other thing I have been doing is finishing my 2nd official children's picture book. If you haven't seen my first one, please check it out on Amazon.com. It came out last month.

So, here are a few images.

This was a sketch I did almost 2 years ago. I found it and scanned and colored it. You might recognize the character from this past illustration. It's basically the same character without a hat.

This guy came out when I was sketching a while back. I decided to color him because I liked the design, but mostly because I liked the triangle trees in the background painting thing.

Just sketching. I really like this guy for some reason. Plus his red nose and ears are sweet.

My First Children's Book for SALE!

2011-03-02T12:33:00.000-05:00

This is the book trailer for my first children's book, "Shoes for Me". Written by Sue Fliess and illustrated by me!

You can go buy it now on Amazon!

Or check your local bookstore.

I'm really excited about this. I haven't seen an actual copy yet, so if you get one, tell me how it looks!

Daddy Dollar Time!

2010-12-22T15:57:00.000-05:00

My wife had the awesome idea for "Daddy Dollars" as a reward for our daughter Eva. They will be something concrete she can earn while she is working towards a bigger goal. Once she gets 10 "Daddy Dollars" she get's a trip to Chuck E. Cheese or Bounceland. Eva seems pretty excited and I was pretty happy with the little "Daddy Dollar" drawing. And yes, that is a drawing of me in the middle.

Have a great Christmas everyone!

Cleopatra in Spaaaaaace! and a Mexer Copy

2010-12-20T15:04:00.001-05:00

This is my version of Mike Maihack's webcomic heroine Cleopatra in Spaaaaaaace!. It's a fun comic, check it out!

I drew this in my sketchbook during some open office hours last week. This was completely inspired by this line drawing by Mexer. Check out his final color version on his website; Pigsell.com.
I drew my sketch without having Mexer's version in front of me. After completing it, I went back and looked at Mexer's drawing and realized how much he schooled me in terms of detail and awesome Thai-ness!

Have a great Christmas everyone who celebrates! And I hope everyone else has a restful break.

Grandma Throwing a Shoe!

2010-12-13T16:13:00.000-05:00

This was for "Thriving Family Magazine". I really thought the subject was both fun and actually really challenging. The title went right over the crouching mom and son who needed to be cringing. Also, I think this was my first time drawing a wheelchair so it was mostly based on a photo or 2 I found advertising them. In spite of the challenges (or because of them?) I found this to be a very fun project. And I'll leave you with a little advice, if anyone offers you the chance to draw an old woman throwing a shoe, take it, it's worth the effort!

White Water Rapids!

2010-12-10T15:35:00.000-05:00

This image was for "Guide" magazine. The story is about a family having an accident while white water rafting. It's a fun story. Because of my schedule I worked pretty quickly on this one, so I went with a lined style and focused on making the water look interesting. The words of the article were placed to the left.

Parable is for SALE!!!

2010-12-09T15:01:00.000-05:00

Great news! You can now purchase a copy of Parable, a comic anthology that I did this story for a few years ago. It's been a long road for Mike Maihack to get this published, but it's been worth the wait! This book is full of some great artwork and great stories. The stories center around re-tellings of old parables, and new modern-day parables as well. It is an anthology produced by Christian comic book artists, but it's meant for any comics fan to enjoy.

Buy a copy today! The image above is page 1 from my story in the book. Here is an add for the book.

I'll post some more images tomorrow.

Dancing Family and Someone Talked About Me!

2010-12-08T12:39:00.000-05:00

I'm starting off with an image because that's always more interesting than some dumb writing (at least on my blog.) But sadly, I do need to use some words to communicate.

So, I've been keeping busy with things while I have been absent from this blog. The deadlines got pretty hectic for a while, but they should be great during the Christmas season. I'll keep posting the artwork I did as soon as I get them ready/I know I can post them.

This image was for "The Friend" magazine. The page had a scripture in the upper area about singing and dancing. I had a lot of fun researching and producing this one. I think my favorite part was drawing the Hawaiian shirt pattern.

I also have a tiny news item, someone on the internet talked about me! Yeah, for realsies. Brian Warmoth wrote about my art style and specifically my take on superheroes and rock legends on the Comics Alliance website. It's a pretty flattering article with a really good selection of popular character's I've drawn. So, check it out!

I'll post more in the days to come.

I drew some stuff...

2010-10-08T16:00:00.001-04:00

4 New(ish) T-shirt Designs

2010-09-30T12:51:00.000-04:00


My newest design. A big dead robot laying in the mountains.

This idea is stolen from a shirt
Scott Pilgrim wears in volume 6. I just added color.

I liked this drawing a lot. The final product is weird.

I draw too many skulls.

A Couple of Christmas Illustrations

2010-09-28T09:39:00.000-04:00

Illustration for the blended family section of "Thriving Family Magazine". The article was about how busy the holiday season can be for a blended family and how to make the most of it. My favorite part is the mustache.

Also an illustration for "Thriving Family Magazine". The article is about making a craft/gift for grandma for Christmas.

I saw this picture and had to draw this guy...

2010-09-24T15:58:00.000-04:00

Look at the Argentine player in the background. Doesn't he have about the coolest hair ever? So I drew him.

Totally my new hero. Does anyone know the actual player in the picture?

Sketch From My Comic Idea

2010-09-13T11:10:00.000-04:00

So I keep working a little bit on my back burner comic idea. This is a character sketch I did today. I really like how it turned out. This guy's nose seems to bother some people but I'm way into it.

Action Link!

2010-09-08T14:50:00.000-04:00

Drew this today. I have heard some positive things from a few people about my pencil drawings with simple color underneath. This is another one. Do you guys like? Or is my "no outline" style more appealing?

Angry at the Internet

2010-08-24T10:12:00.000-04:00

Self portrait of the artist angry at the internet.

Yes, I do have a horrible beard and my feet are vaguely hobbit-ish.

Adventure Time Fan Art

2010-08-23T19:27:00.004-04:00

So I have pretty crappy cable at home. But my parents have awesome cable.... so when I visited them recently I actually got to watch a couple episodes of Adventure Time. And it was amazing! It was pretty much everything cool from Ren and Stimpy, minus the gross and mean stuff plus fantasy.

So I did some fan art when I got back. I realized that a lot of the visual look for the show is similar to what I would do, but I totally would have given Finn thicker limbs. Jake is pretty much the same though.

After inking this I realized that I ink with really thick lines. I may have to buy some pens and try them out. I'm not a fan of all the thickness.

Shakespeare = A Klingon? and other sketches

2010-08-04T12:46:00.003-04:00

These are some recent sketches I have done. Also, I've been watching some Star Trek and I realized that almost every alien has a bald forehead. And Klingons look tons like Shakespeare, which is odd.

Also, the guy with the cane was drawn because I loved this character from a recent illustration by Sam Bosma. He is one of my favorite artists.

Bigger Illustration Post

2010-07-28T14:22:00.005-04:00

I'm posting more stuff than usual today. The first 2 I finished a while ago. I haven't been drawing quite as much in the last few days, I'm trying to work myself out of a bad mood funk I've been in and out of for a few weeks. Hope you like the artwork and I hope I have some more drawings to post tomorrow.

This was for an article in Thriving Family Magazine about helping your child cope with living in 2 houses with divorced or separated parents. The actual images were further apart with the text in between them on the spread.
I tried to make the 2 homes have some similar colors but feel like they were in different places to show the difference and possible distance. I think I like how the left house turned out a lot more than the right one. Dunno why.

Also for a short article in Thriving Family Magazine. The topic was prayer as a way to support family members over a long distance. Due to my misunderstanding, I originally made the grandmother Caucasian. I was asked to change it and I think the piece came out better because of it.
My favorite part is the patterns I drew on the cloth. I particularly like the mother's blouse.

And here's a sketch with some test color for my ongoing "secret" comic project. I don't have as much experience with creating comics as I do with illustration in general and the progress is slow going. But I'm working with some great friends who not only provide good work and ideas, but very helpful criticism. I'll post more when it's ready. Most of the work is still in penciled/sketch form.

More Dr. Slump Fan Art

2010-07-21T10:43:00.002-04:00

So I drew Senbee this morning. But I realized I didn't make him fat like he was in the manga.

Arale-chan Sketch!

2010-07-20T17:02:00.003-04:00

Toriyama is my hero. I always wanted to do my own version of early Dragonball or Doctor Slump (minus the nudity and sex references).
Lately I've been having a hard time doing good artwork. A lot of junky sketches. This sketch was my attempt to get out of the rut and start having fun again. I'm on my way...

Also, I'm bummed because no place in town has the new Scott Pilgrim book and I wasn't smart enough to pre-order. Has anyone found it in Kalamazoo?

Back On a Wall

2010-07-14T17:00:00.001-04:00

I made this as a sort of warm up today. I have to work on keeping my warm ups under an hour. I've been doing finished illustrations instead of just coloring sketches and they tend to take a little longer.

More Scott Pilgrim Fan Art

2010-07-13T15:51:00.001-04:00

Here's some more fan art. I think the colors are a bit more balanced on this one.

Unused Samples

2010-07-09T07:26:00.003-04:00

These images are from a potential job. They asked me to do some samples and then either went with a different artist or got rid of the job itself. So, since I liked these samples I thought I would post them. My favorite is how I showed "deep" and "shallow". The top image was supposed to be for the word "cheap", but I don't think it shows it that well. I did like the image though. Do you guys have any ideas on how you would portray "cheap"?

Megaman Sketch!

2010-07-08T13:59:00.002-04:00

Whoah! Three posts in one day? I'm amazed at myself.

Yuki 7 Fan Art

2010-07-08T12:58:00.002-04:00

I made this last night after staring at the awesome work on www.yuki-7.com for a while. Part of me just wanted to copy what Kevin had done, but I knew I had to "Laughead-ise" it a little.

You can see it on the Yuki 7 site here:
http://www.yuki-7.com/blog.php?itemid=59
and
http://www.yuki-7.com/fanart.php

Skeleton Skater 3! Tee Color Options

2010-07-08T09:58:00.002-04:00

This is a design I did yesterday that is up for voting on LaFraise: http://en.lafraise.com/Submission/index/id/119663.

My favorite version is the eerie green and purple. That would be a manly purple shirt... right?

I did this in pencil with colors and odd halftone stuff in Photoshop.

Why Don't I Like Superman?

2010-07-07T14:23:00.000-04:00

Drew this today.

Scott Pilgrim Fan Art

2010-07-06T15:34:00.001-04:00

Did a little fan art of my favorite bud Scotty P.!
Is there anyone that isn't excited about the final volume/movie?

I tried doing this with only shapes, no lines. I kinda miss lines for the fingers.

Another Robin Sketch

2010-06-29T13:54:00.002-04:00

As good as the last one? I dunno. It's fun to draw this way.

Skull Sword Friend

2010-06-29T10:14:00.001-04:00

A little character for a t-shirt design.
You can check it out on en.lafraise.com/Submission/index/id/119208. I think today is the last day to vote.

Robin Sketch Colored

2010-06-28T21:23:00.002-04:00

I sketched this earlier today and just finished coloring it. It's kind of fun going straight to coloring the sketch instead of doing another drawing for a cleaner line. I wonder what this would have looked like if I had redrawn it the way I normally do?

Doctor Who Fan Art EDIT

2010-06-24T14:35:00.000-04:00

I took out the shadows and I think the whole thing is way better. Does anyone disagree?

Mario?

2010-06-23T10:53:00.003-04:00

I've been playing Super Mario Galaxy on the awesome Wii that my buddy Erik gave me! It's a pretty fun game. I like figuring out how to beat bosses. It reminds me of what I like about Zelda games.

Doctor Who Fan Art

2010-06-22T16:15:00.002-04:00

I'm a big Doctor Who fan. I'm really enjoying this new series/season. But for color reasons I prefer the blue light on the old sonic screwdriver.

Parker Ito Character Design

2010-06-21T10:05:00.001-04:00

I did caricature for a friend of mine, Chris Coy. The final use is here. He went with the "natural" skin tone, but I prefer my original green.

Why Do I Keep Drawing Weird Hat Guys?

2010-06-18T16:10:00.001-04:00

Chibi Link (from Zelda) Sketch

2010-06-17T13:39:00.002-04:00

I just drew this. Probably because I've been playing The Ocarina of Time (never played it before) recently. Thanks Kevin for lending it to me!

I drew a skinny future Hellboy today...

2010-06-15T11:28:00.002-04:00

Also, don't forget my design that's up for voting!
The Dark Lords

Maybe Acornhead? and a Guy in a Band!

2010-06-14T15:30:00.004-04:00

Just 2 things I drew today. I draw really hard lines sometimes.

Vote for my shirt "Dark Lords"!

2010-06-11T22:09:00.002-04:00

I did a tee shirt design for threadless featuring my favorite Dark Lords from literature (and video games). I guess I don't like Dracula that much, but he's a well known Dark Lord. Click on the picture to see the design/vote for it.

Yesterday and Today Sketches

2010-06-11T10:37:00.001-04:00

I did some sketching yesterday and some today. Can you guess what I'm watching right now?

More Tee Advice... and a T-shirt Portfolio

2010-06-09T11:24:00.003-04:00

I got a comment that the guy in the robes was a witch, so I worked on his face. But just to clear things up, here is the list of Dark Lords on the shirt:

1. Sauron (Lord of the Rings)
2. Voldemort (Harry Potter)
3. Dracula
4. Ganon (The Legend of Zelda)
5. Emperor Palpatine (Star Wars)

Also here is the list of suggestions I got to add to the Dark Lords t-shirt:
1. Doctor Doom
2. Xenu
3. Lord Darken Rahl (from the TV show Legend of the Seeker)
4. Darkness (from the movie Legend played by Tim Curry)
5. Modok
6. Darth Vader
and finally
7. The Devil

I had to look up Xenu (thanks a ton Lee) but the others I all knew. As far as the shirt goes, I was trying to keep it to characters that called themselves or were known as dark lords in their stories.
About the suggestions, I'm not too keen on including any religious dark lords. Including them with fictional ones might be insulting to a believer. As for Darth Vader, I already have one lord of the Sith, so a second probably isn't needed. I'll think about the other ones, but I did get a suggestion that adding any more would crowd the design. Thanks to everyone for their help.

On a related but different note, here is a link to my t-shirt portfolio:

mikelaughead.com/TShirts.html

Some of the shirts are for sale at online sites, if you are interested in purchasing any of them, send me an email and I'll tell you where to get them.

Tee Design Advice?

2010-06-08T19:00:00.003-04:00

I've been working on this t-shirt design for the last couple of days. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on it? Are there any other dark lords that I could add? Can you identify all of them? Is the concept even worthwhile?

I'm thinking of submitting it to Threadless or LaFraise. Do you have a preference? Would any other site be better?

Thanks for checking it out.

New Brady Bunch and Flying Saucers

2010-06-04T14:23:00.004-04:00

This is for Thriving Family Magazine for an article about blended families and how they aren't all perfect like the Brady Bunch. My favorites are the 2 Asian brothers.

I did this one for my buddy Jac Madsen. I went to school with him and I think I ruined something on his computer one time (sorry, Jac). He is an awesome guy, check out his website.

Updated my SHOP!

2010-06-03T11:42:00.002-04:00

Check it out!

mikelaughead.com/Shop.html

Mechanical Pencil Sketch

2010-06-02T16:23:00.002-04:00

Decided to doodle/sketch with a mechanical pencil. These were the results minus really ugly stuff. My fav is the jawa.

Rockabilly Vespa Couple, a t-shirt of half of that and a little sneak peek

2010-05-10T11:12:00.003-04:00

This is a little illustration I did for Zach Trover at "The Pitch". I learned a lot about Rockabilly and Vespas while researching this.

Also, if you have a chance to work with Zach Trover, do it! He is an awesome art director.

Knowing that a lot of people are into Vespas and whatnot, I made part of this image into a t-shirt submission for Threadless. If you are a commenter and voter, please help me out there. If you aren't, maybe check it out to see what I did to limit the color palette. (Is that how "palette" is really spelled?)

I am (slowly) working on a secret comic book project with some friends of mine... and my younger brother. This is just a panel that I recently sketched. I'm testing out doing a specific, detailed work schedule today and I'll try it for the rest of the week. Hopefully that means more of these pages get done. I'll report back on how it goes.

Graphite Style Thing

2010-04-15T11:46:00.004-04:00

I've been messing around with a new way of working. I am always looking for fun or different ways to incorporate textures so these are my first attempts at coloring a graphite drawing.
Any opinions? Tips? Suggestions?

The first one is a re-design of a character from my comic Pelota. I'm re-writing the story to make it appropriate for a children's picture book.

2 Robot Shirt Designs Up for Voting on Threadless

2010-04-14T13:16:00.003-04:00

Score this design: "My Robot Buddy," to help it get printed on Threadless!

Score this design: "Robot Puncher!," to help it get printed on Threadless!

Votes help, but comments on Threadless are even better.
I am in t-shirt creating mode right now, so expect more shirts designs soon.

Robot Puncher! Shirt Options

2010-04-10T14:00:00.001-04:00

Here are 3 options for the Robot Puncher! shirt. When, it's up for voting, I'll provide a link to vote.

Have a good one.

"Shoes" Picture Book Sneak Peek

2010-04-01T13:22:00.004-04:00

I just sent the final art for a children's picture book off to the publisher. Now it's in the designer's hands to add all the text. I thought I would offer a couple of pages as a sneak peek here. When the book itself is published I'll show more and hopefully all of the finished book.

Family Portrait, an Experiment and Mystery Comic Book Character Sketches

2010-04-01T11:57:00.006-04:00

Here is my family portrait for 2010. These are for my wife's birthday (Valentine's Day). I was a little late on finishing this for her and I've waited quite a while to post it. I hope the Valentine's thing explains the hearts and the color scheme. I normally don't wear that much pink.

I decided to do a realistic drawing because I get that itch every few months. This was drawn from an image of Luke Wilson from Royal Tenenbaums with no effort made to actually make it look like him. I really enjoyed doing the texture stuff.

I often have mystery comic book projects going on with Keaton Kohl, Erik Harmon and my younger brother Lee Laughead. They usually don't pan out but we have fun talking about story ideas. This one is coming along further than most we've done in the past. The image here is a sketch of the protagonist (on the right), his best friend and his sister. You may have seen a hat/helmet similar to the one the guy in the middle is wearing in some of my past work. The character donning that hat in the past was called "Acornhead." So we have kept that name as the working title. I'll post more when there is more to show.

Little bit of hippo

2010-03-08T10:52:00.003-05:00

My brother-in-law scolded me for not updating my blog often, so I'm adding this little entry.

I've been spending most of my time lately finishing up a children's picture book. The story involves the little hippo girl that I am showing a glimpse of here. The work is going well and I'm really happy with the results. Especially the texture I have going on.

I'll be finishing the book up this week and I'll post the finished pages as soon as I get the okay. I have no idea when that will be.

Family Tree Illo

2010-02-05T14:51:00.000-05:00

This is a recent job I did for Thriving Family Magazine. I love working for them.

This kind of reminds me of the Record Day illustration I did a while back. I liked doing the albums in the background on that one and I liked doing the photos on this. Most people are in love with the guy with the afro. But my favorite is the kid with the big glasses.

Kids Being Kids Illustration

2010-01-28T15:58:00.003-05:00

This is something I did for Thriving Family Magazine recently. I like a lot of things about this, especially the angle. I do think the kid's shoes are a bit large now that I look at them.

I'm working on a kid's picture book right now so I can't show what I'm currently working on. But it's pretty fun stuff.

Painterly? Stuff?

2009-12-19T16:10:00.000-05:00

I just finished teaching my Drawing and Composition class and really loved it. The class was great, the critiques kept getting better and so did the artwork. Some of the final drawings were phenomenal. I'm getting a few of them scanned and I may post them here if I have permission from the students.
This winter semester I'm teaching Digital Painting again. So in preparation for teaching I did some painterly work, a couple very different from my "usual style" and a couple that are really close just with a painterly edge. Here are the illustrations.

This first one is a self portrait. I stole the color scheme from a painting that I saw recently and I got the photo by messing around with the camera on my wife's laptop. The photo I took was scary, but I fixed the gross neck thing and painted this. The texture is from an ink wash I scanned.

This second one was produced the same way as the first, except the color scheme came from a different setting (thermal imaging) on the camera thing.

So next I did a little drawing and colored it how I normally do, then used the same digital brush and texture I used on the other two digital paintings. I like the watercolor feel that it has. I decided to explore this a little more.

I tried to make this next one look even more painted than the last. I really like some things about it.

And lastly I did a drawing for fun and made it into a t-shirt design. Here is the illustration:

You can vote for it HERE at lafraise.com

Emo Link (from Zelda) 2009

2009-12-07T15:05:00.003-05:00

Just a dumb idea I have for a story. Link is just really kinda sad about saving Hyrule in the year 2009.

New Inklings

2009-12-03T13:53:00.004-05:00

I've been practicing inking with a brush. These are some exercises I have done.

I am thinking about selling the inked originals. The bottom 3 are on Bristol Board but the Green Lantern one is on computer paper. I was thinking $20 + shipping for the bristol ones and $15 + shipping for the Green Lantern. If you are interested just shoot me an email. mike (at) mikelaughead (dot) com

I really like how the colors on the Green Lantern one turned out. I want to do more in that style.

Batman Ink

2009-11-23T22:08:00.002-05:00

I'm trying to figure out how to make black and white comics. This was me messing around with black and white (ink and some gesso).

If anyone would like the original, it looks like the one on the left and is on regular computer paper. $15 + shipping? Any takers?
(edit) This was already sold, thanks!

Whine 2009 Comic

2009-11-20T16:15:00.001-05:00

Just playing with my new brush and working on doing black and white images. (Which I failed by adding the blue.)

How to get a line drawing with a transparent background in Photoshop (Mac)

2009-11-19T11:54:00.004-05:00

This is a step-by-step process to get your scanned line drawing to lines with a transparent background (on a Mac).

1. This whole process is done in Photoshop. Scan in your line drawing. Adjust the levels so there are mostly dark lines and the rest is white. You can either create a Levels Adjustment Layer (shown here) or hit Apple+L to adjust the layers for the currently selected layer.

2. Then flatten all the layers in the layers pallet. Select all (Apple+A), then copy the whole image (Apple+C).

3. The next action is done in the Channels pallet. It is usually located right next to the layers pallet. Or it can be located by clicking Window on the toolbar at the top of the screen and scrolling down to Channels. In this pallet, create a new channel (by clicking on the button indicated by the red arrow.) The new channel will be called Alpha 1 by default.

4. You already copied your line drawing, so now with the Alpha 1 channel still selected, paste (Apple+V) your line drawing. Instead of flat black, your line drawing should now be in the channel.

5. Click back onto the Layers pallet. Create a new layer and name it "Line" (Shift+Apple+N).

6. Click on the Select menu on the top toolbar. Scroll down and choose Load Selection.

7. The Load Selection window will pop up. In the Channel option, choose Alpha 1. Also click the Invert box located directly underneath the Channel option.

8. A selection of your line drawing should show up. If you deselect the eyeball on the Background layer, it should look like this.

9. Select whatever color you want and then fill the selection (Option+Delete) or as shown below.

10. With the "Lines" layer still selected, click the Lock Transparency option. With this option clicked, you can color just the lines on your illustration.

11. You no longer need the original Background layer with the line drawing, so you can delete that layer. Any layers you add underneath the line drawing can be filled with color pretty much like a coloring book. But the best stuff is coloring the actual lines of your drawing. Try out different colors and you can even make some of the lines blend with the colors from layers underneath (shown below).

12. Have fun and mess around. And good luck!

Record Day Process

2009-11-18T21:53:00.012-05:00

After finding the old process sketches and work on this illustration, I thought I should show and explain how I went about producing it.

The job was to illustrate Record Day, so I basically had to have a record shop. I like drawing people (and monsters) so I planned on putting a person in a shop and trying to make it look sweet. As you can see I got the final idea early on and did some different variations on it.

During the thumbnail process I drew this sketch. It sucked. So I kept going with the other thumbnails.

After I settled on a composition, I messed around a little drawing the character. If this was going to be a series of images, I probably would have done many more of these to work the character design out. If you notice, I tried a guy and a girl, but settled on the guy (I don't remember why.)

So I started the sketch. As you can see I draw in blue line first. I was working out which album covers would go where in the composition. Once I did the whole thing in blue, I used a mechanical pencil to draw darker lines. I did this to chose which lines I want to use and to make it easier to trace.

With blue pencil again, I traced the drawing and did a more refined version on another sheet of paper (I use regular computer printer paper). Then with a brush and ink, I inked all the big lines. After that, I used the mechanical pencil again to draw the small little detail lines. Because of the album covers this illustration had more little details than I often do.

Next I scanned the inked drawing into the computer. I took away the blue lines and colored everything. All of my lines are still there, I just colored a lot of them to blend in with the color of it's shape as well.

Here are the lines without the shapes filled in. I like working this way because I'm using the ink drawing I did, so the edges of my shapes and lines have a hand-drawn feel, but I can also spend time adjusting the colors of the lines and what lines I keep or take out.

Next I added some shadows. Some of my illustrations have a lot of shadow, but this mostly was under the guy's chin and on the legs of the table.

At this point I thought that the back wall was popping out too much and I wanted to bring focus onto the guy, so I lightened the color of the wall and added a grayish gradient behind him. I wanted to make the wall a duller color than the guy holding the record.

This is the final drawing cropped the for the paper. I had always planned on cropping it like this which is why I never finished the drawing of the Ramones or Rancid album.

I hope this has been instructive and/or interesting. If you have any questions just shoot me an email.

Fall Colors, Some Old Sketches

2009-11-18T14:13:00.003-05:00

For "The Pitch". When I was thinking of Thanksgiving, I thought of rapping Pilgrims and a Thanksgiving make-out session. The rapper sketches were odd, so I went with this. I am kind of in love with these fall colors.

This is a little illustration for Thriving Family Magazine. My wife suggested the fall colors that really helped me get going. I was messing around with the light glare from the window. It reminds me of being in an attic minus the dust.

I found some old sketches when I was throwing out old papers. I decided to scan these and put them together. I like "Young Skeletor" the best.

Cute + Pink Batman

2009-10-24T20:57:00.002-04:00

Sometimes you just want to draw Batman.

I really liked these colors by Dylan McCrae, so I stole them from his site.

2nd Vulcan Sketch + Detail

2009-10-23T18:41:00.001-04:00

I've been thinking about Vulcans because I'm dressing as Spock for Halloween. This is a painting with a "Rake" brush I found online. It's very similar to a brush in Corel Painter.

Spanish Dude Sketch

2009-10-21T15:04:00.002-04:00

I'm having fun doing these sketches and digitally painting them. Maybe I should see how I can match this to my usual style.

Ninja Elf Sketch

2009-10-19T17:10:00.001-04:00

Drew a Ninja Elf today. Is the color stuff with the lines too much?

Vulcan Paint

2009-10-14T16:53:00.002-04:00

I decided to try painting a sketch I drew today. In some ways I love how it turned out, and in other ways I think it's just weird.

And thanks to Melanie Matthews for sending me some brushes to try out and suggesting one of the photoshop default ones.

Vulcans on the brain

2009-10-14T11:02:00.002-04:00

I plan on dressing up as Spock for Halloween so I've been thinking a little about Vulcans. I usually draw with a lead holder using non-photo blue "lead". I do this because I draw really hard and so I can ink or pencil over it and remove the blue in photoshop. Today I decided to use a darker blue pencil I have sitting around. I kind of liked it. Also, this guy might be related to Mic Jagger.

Madman Atomic Comics #17 Pinup, Twitter & Some Stuff

2009-10-10T15:20:00.006-04:00

So this might be a little long and random. In September, Madman Atomic Comics #17 was released. Click the image to buy it.

Well a while back I did a Madman Commission for Simon Miller. (Click his name for his Original Comic Art Shop website). He is connected with everyone involved in creating Madman and offered to send them a copy of the commission I did. I thought that was cool but forgot about it. It turns out that my commission is one of the pin-ups printed in the back of issue #17!

(I look scuzzy in the pic because I need a shave and a haircut, but I'm happy)!
Looking at my artwork printed next to some amazing artists, not to mention Mike Allred, has shown me how I can improve on my inking and details. I'm especially into the pin-ups by Rafael Grampá and Fábio Moon & Gabriel Bá.

In other Mike Laughead news. I have a Twitter account now. You can follow me under the username mikelaughead. Very original!

I recently visited Iowa for a friend's baptism. While there I got to meet Phil Hester who is an awesome guy. If you ever see him at a convention, say hi and talk to him about being from the midwest.

While I was in Iowa, my nephew Bob showed me this abstract art pen drawing he did. Bob just started middle school and is on his way to becoming a great artist.

I haven't been doing much artwork that I can post on my blog recently, but I'm posting a sneak peek of my current big project. It's a children's book about a little hippo girl that goes with her mom to buy her first pair of shoes. I'll post more when it's further along.

Finally, here is a poster I just finished yesterday. This is the art minus the type that will be used to promote GamingForCause.com. I was so happy to just mess around on this as a break from working on kid's books. The colors seem to have the "growth" feel that I was going for.

Thanks for reading, or just looking at the images like I sometimes do.

3 Hands?

2009-09-11T12:52:00.003-04:00

I'm now working on the 8th and final Robot & Rico book. I just started coloring this page and I realized that I gave Robot 3 hands without really noticing it. Have any of you reading this done something similar in a drawing? I thought it was kind of funny. I'm going to end up taking out the left hand holding the paper.

My mom and little sister are coming to visit today with my little sister's 3 boys. I'm really pumped. I hope her oldest is impressed by my artwork.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Robot & Rico Books 1-4

2009-08-17T09:12:00.003-04:00

In my last entry I posted the covers to some easy reader books I did earlier this year. I realized that unlike before, I haven't posted much of the work I've done this year because I've had bigger/longer assignments. This is the first of a few that I'll be able to post. The following is an image of 4 pages, each from one of the first 4 Robot & Rico books.

I thought I would post the small PDFs of the books so you guys could all see them and hopefully I could get some advice on which spreads/pages are the best for my portfolio. I've asked some of you before, but I'm still considering.
Book 1 PDF | Book 2 PDF | Book 3 PDF | Book 4 PDF

You can buy the books here:
Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, Book 4. Or you can check on Amazon.

I'm working on the next 4 books right now. I'm especially proud of how the sledding one turned out. I can't wait to show you guys!

Robot & Rico Covers 1-4

2009-06-26T17:02:00.003-04:00

I've been busy on a few projects recently. The biggest one being the Robot & Rico picture books.

These are the covers to the first 4 books, I'm currently working on the next 4 of them. These are beginning reader books geared towards boys. Robot & Rico are friends that do fun stuff together and run into a few problems along the way.

Hopefully I'll be able to post some spreads from these books soon.

Threadless kid's shirt up for voting...

2009-04-28T11:26:00.003-04:00

Score this design: "Butterfly Star!," to help it get printed on Threadless!

Family Portrait + 2 Shirts for Voting

2009-04-17T10:03:00.002-04:00

I do a themed family portrait for my wife every Valentine's Day. Well, I was crazy busy with work and... I dunno. So I just finished it. My 2 year old, Penelope, looks and talks just like an Ewok, so that's why I went with the Return of the Jedi idea. And as for why I made my wife and I brother and sister, well, I wanted a lightsaber. When I saw this as a kid I sure wasn't wishing I could be Han Solo.

--------

I also have 2 shirts up for voting.
The first is at Threadless.

The second is one LaFraise.

My Wooden Robot by
MikeLaughead

Please check out the shirts and comment on them. I appreciate constructive criticism so please tell me how you feel.

Record Shop, a Logo, Sketchiness and My Favorite Disney Princess

2009-04-16T09:09:00.007-04:00

This is an illustration for the Night & Day section in The Pitch. The section has a blurb about Record Shop Day or something. I had fun doing the album covers, please add comments for your guesses if you are inclined.

This Winter semester I have been teaching a Digital Painting class at KVCC here in Kalamazoo. I have the class upload their work to a blog for viewing and critiquing. Halfway during the class I made this logo for the class blog. I like how it turned out so I figured I would show it here. If you want to check out the class blog, here is the address:
KVCCDigitalPainting.BlogSpot.com
Much of the work uploaded is in progress, but there's some really great work on there.

Just a little sketch I did during a church meeting recently. I think this came as a result of reading Pride and Prejudice recently. The book is seriously awesome. I'm amazed that Jane Austen could write so well and so finished without an editor to help cut and change what doesn't work. The biggest problem I have with it is she sometimes doesn't say who is speaking in a conversation. That is frustrating!

Because Disney distributes the Studio Ghibli films in the US, I thought this little thing was funny. I guess I could have included Nausicaa in there as well, but that might not have worked as well. Just as a clarification, I did not draw this, I just photoshopped it together one day. I figured it should be available to everyone who wants it.