Gemini!

Space girls are among my top favourite things to draw. If you had a time machine you could probably find something in my childhood that triggered my love of things outer spatial. Maybe it was seeing Barbarella on video at a young age. Or it could have been Star Wars, Battle Beyond the Stars or any one of the many B-grade Sci-Fi movies my dad would rent. More likely it's a mix of them all coupled with discovering my dad's Playboys (also at an early age :)

But if you had a time machine I can think of a lot more important things you could be doing besides spying on some poor kid discovering naked ladies and science fiction.

So, this is the last of the Horoscopes. Click on the tag at the bottom of this post to see them all one after the other. And now that they're all done I'll be making all of the images available as t-shirts. I'm inclined to use Cafepress just because I'm familiar with it but if anyone knows of a better online service please let me know.

j.
p.s. Wow! I'd posted Gemini, checked the Horoscope tag to see the rest of the Gals and did a count. I was still one short. I can't believe I forgot to post Scorpio! She's one of my favourites. Tough biker chick, that she is!

Aquarius!

Boy, this one was tough. How to draw a gal carrying two full water bottles without making her a husky body builder proved a challenge. In the end she's still husky but hopefully not unattractively so.

Only Gemini left...she's drawn but not yet coloured.

My most pressing work is this Wonder Woman story I'm doing with Cooke! Holy crap, is it ever fun. If I could just get paid to draw Wonder Woman all the time that would be cool. Although a lot of the joy is in the story that Darwyn cooked up (it's impossible not to pun on his name when you're hopelessly punny like I am). It's only six pages but we pack an awful lot of women into those six pages!!

j.

Sagittarius!

Just in time for the New Year, I've finally almost finished a series I started last year!! What can I say, I've been busy :)

Sagittarius was actually roughed out ages ago but I only now had the time to polish up the drawing and turn out a final. In researching classical Greek robes for woman I found this particular cross-your-heart-bra style wrap and thought it was an awesome way to reveal bottom cleavage. I wanted the pin-up to look like the women in Steve Reeve Hercules films, or like the Goddesses in "Clash of the Titans"...a movie accurate costume.

Hope you all had a lovely Holidays! Happy New Year!

best,
j.

Reel 'Em In!

When I posted the image for Cancer a buddy of mine mentioned he thought the gal would have freckles. She's a red head and he's right that she probably ought to have 'em. I had that in my brain when I drew Miss Pisces and yet I ended up colouring her as a brunette. She could easily have any colour of hair (God bless Photoshop) and as I come to end of the theme I really start to notice just how many brunettes I've drawn. You could very well guess the colour of my own hair by the appearance of my characters.

And speaking of appearance...it hasn't escaped me that there is a shocking lack of ethnic diversity in my Zodiacs. My day to day gig in illustration has taught me to be more wide ranging in my skin tone colour choices and I actually think it's important that I reflect diversity in my pin-up drawings. My plan is to go back over the drawings once I'm finished and create new heads for each image and recolour them. Photoshop makes that easy, too! :)

Peace out,

j.

Cat-Fish Creek!

I know, I know...it's been ages since I updated. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Mostly I got tied up with work. The other big reason was that I didn't want to post any drawings that weren't related to the Horoscope theme until I was done with the Horoscope theme. Unfortunately the final few Zodiac drawings kept getting pushed to the side as more paying work came in.

Enough kvetching. Here, finally, is Pisces. The earlier fish woman was believed to be Pisces but she is actually Capricorn (the fish/goat or goat/fish depending on your preferrence). I've always known Pisces was going to be gal in hip waders fishing off a riverbank. When I was a kid we used to catch crayfish in cups in a river/creek pretty similar to what you see here.

Because I've been away for so long I felt it only right that I post a second image. I recently got the Art of Shane Glines which I highly recommend checking out if you can afford it. This drawing is more than heavily influenced by the gorgeous linework on display in Shane's book. The "S" curve on the front side of Selina's money bag is my little tribute to Shane's book (actually I've been throwing that line in a lot of my drawings lately).


best,
j.

Sunny Beach!

Boy, what I wouldn't give to be sitting on a beach right now! It would mean, first of all, that I'd be warm and second of all it would mean that all my work is done because I would never go on vacation with jobs left unfinished. Alas tis not to be...

So it's sorta been known for a while now that the latest batch of drawings are Signs of the Zodiac. I started with Virgo, followed by Taurus, Libra, Capricorn (not Pisces as you may have thought), Aries and finally Leo. This one is...Cancer! I'm more than half done but work has kept me from finishing the final few. I hope beyond hope that I can finish the rest soon so as not to interrupt the complete set with posts of work done in the meanwhile.

Have a lovely day!
best,
j.

Queen of the Jungle!

Cue jungle soundtrack...crickets the size of your hand create a pulsing background rhythm...exotic birds cry out...k-k-kaw k-k-kaw...the bass purr of a jungle cat sends a shiver up your spine...the Queen of the Jungle perches, her leonine hair remains remarkably unfrizzy despite the humid jungle air. What product is she using to maintain such body? Does she even own a hair dryer? Or know what a hair dryer is?!?

This one turned out better than I could have wanted! Could be that it's my sign and I really wanted an image that I wouldn't mind having on my wall! :) There is one part that still bugs me...and that is that her bosom looks uneven. I probably shouldn't even point that out because maybe no one would have noticed. But just in case someone does notice I want you all to know that I know.

Incidentally, I looked up some facts on Sheena, the original Queen of the Jungle...and I found out that she was the first female comic character to get her own title. She beat Wonder Woman by three months. I also love the fact that she was co-created by Will Eisner who also created the Spirit...the book on which I am currently working!

best,
j.

Norse Goddess! Or Vi-Queen!

Boy oh boy, this one was tough. I drew a male version of this one first and wanted to use the same stalwart pose for the lady. But how to make a female warrior advancing with her hefty hammer into a sexy pin-up. Forgo the sexy, really. So I focused on making her a bosomy barbarian with shapely gams and sporting just a smidge of lipstick. She kinds reminds me of Sorsha from Willow! Maybe it's the snow.

j.

p.s. I love coincidence and in an example of sheer coincidence I was about to hit "Publish" this post when I heard on the radio an ad for a Dodge RAM! Zowie! I'd better hit post while the stars are still aligned!

Under the Sea!

I suppose something should be said about the strangeness of this fish woman! Her tail is based on one of those old drawings of fish made before the invention of the camera. When sailors would come back with horrible tales of creatures beyond description which populated the seas and oceans of the world. It's the only time I've ever seen a shark drawn with whiskers. In the latin this little mermaid is known as ANTHRO POMORPHOS (or so says the book 1300 Real and Fanciful Animals from Seventeenth-Century Engravings by Matthaus Merian).

This week my good friends Chris and Angela delivered their first baby. I drew this little caricature of Junior Stone (not his real name) sight unseen. I took it upon myself to extrapolate the facial characteristics of the mother and father, merging the more prominent features into the likeness you see before you. In the end he looks nothing like this. More to the point I managed to completely forget that neither Chris nor Angela have brown eyes. Almost all babies have blue eyes at birth (or so I'm told) and only in the coming months will they learn his true eye colour. At any rate congratulations to my friends on their successful procreation.

your friend,

j.

Roller Gal!

When I was a kid my hometown still had a drive-in A&W. I loved getting food served to us in the car! I don't know why that should be so awesome but it totally was. The girls who worked at the A&W weren't on roller skates but back in the 50's it was common...it sped up service in the then new fast food industry. Check out the book CAR HOPS AND CURB SERVICE by Jim Heimann for some fun history, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

This is entry number three in the continuing theme. I badly want to pun on the phrase "working for scale" but can't really figure out what the phrase means...and if it only applies to actors.

best,

j.

Rodeo Gal!

She's an old cow hand from the Rio Grande! Next in line, still continuing last post's theme. This little filly is practical, reliable, patient and affectionate. But she's also a little bit lazy and when pushed you'll find she's one stubborn lass. Seriously jealous she'll lassoe your a** if she catches you making time with another gal!
I always love drawing cow-folk...ever since working on Mutant Texas: Tales of Sheriff Ida Red (written by Mr. Paul Dini). When I look through that book I still think it's some of my best drawing ever.

best,
j.

New Year's Eve!

Shocking! Shameful! Disgraceful? Don't be silly. It's a drawing of the world's first woman, tastefully shielding her more private bits from leering eyes. Over the next few posts I'll be featuring pin-ups I drew as Christmas gifts for my family. This is Eve before the fall...I couldn't hide her nudity with leaves as did the classic painters because she is not yet ashamed. Y'see, she's still virginal here. That's an important key to the theme of this and the next few pin-ups. *wink*

best,
j.