Drop the Cookie!

I always get sentimental around the holidays, but most especially at Christmas time. So without further distraction I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

This is a piece I made back in 2004, but thought it was appropriate since I hadn't posted it before now, and it's Christmas. 'Nuff said.

I hope your holidays are warm and bright and full of the happiness of the season. And... God bless us everyone!

Action Stickmen™

Hey guys, I need to bounce this off you, pick your brains.

These characters are called "Action Stickmen™" and I'm in the process of creating a marketable product line; including, but not limited to: A graphic novel, t-shirts (one's already available on my Zazzle site), greeting cards, and a feature-length movie (Tom Hanks will be doing the voice of Chrome-Man). I'm kidding about the movie.

The Trademark for the Action Stickmen, and the copy rights to the characters, were just recently purchased, and now that I legally own them, I need to DO something with them.

Feedback is desireable. Any advice? Thoughts on who should my Target Market be?

I thought that my most likely target market would be a younger-teen audience, and possibly a slightly older audience as well (up to 40 year old men who live in their mother's basements). Your thoughts please...

(The link to my Zazzle Gallery is just there in the right-hand column.)

Mer-accountant

The Toon Club topic this week is Mermaid. Okay technically this is a Merman, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go against the grain, and do something unexpected, and I hope, on some level, amusing.

This is the side of the legendary creatures you don't often see, the brains that make Mermish society run smoothly.

Thanks for coming 'round!

Tiki

The new topic over at Toon Club is "Tiki". This 'sketch' is a bit non-traditional, but it was fun working it out. Thanks for stopping by!

Gronk Discovers Irony

Gronk, tired of nearly being eaten by the large predators he's been hunting decides to try smaller less intimidating animal life, and discovers irony.

Over at Toon Club the topic is "A Day in the Life of a Caveman". We've been kind've slacking lately as far as contributing to the weekly sketch, and Adrian threatened to kill a baby seal if we didn't get our sketches done this week. So, in order to save a baby seal from an untimely death, I've done this sketch. I wanted to color it, and still hope to get around to it, but here's my sketch at any rate. Things have been sort've crazy lately. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my stuff.

Toon Club: The Living Dead

Philip the young fashion-conscious zombie cut down in his prime.

The topic over at Toon Club is The Living Dead. Not sure why Philip came into being but after I drew his nails and considered what color he was going to be, I thought if he was a fashion-conscious zombie he'd be having fits at the condition he'd gotten into since the 'accident'.

More Critters

Sorry for not posting in a while. Hope all's well for everyone.

These are some critters I made a few years back and never got around to coloring them.

Thanks to everyone for visiting.

Un-paid Advertizing

It's true... I've jumped on the bandwagon.
A few of my friends over at Toon Club have started on-line stores through Zazzle. Of course I was so impressed by the stuff the guys came up with, I decided to start my own line of T-shirts and Mugs.

You can find me at:
http://www.zazzle.com/ken_chandler

The ideas, thoughts, and opinions expressed on my t-shirts and mugs may or may not be my own... but I'll never admit it.

New Golem Hunter Banner

Wanted to extend a heartfelt thanks to my good friend Adrian Ropp for his blogging prowess. It was his genius that enabled me to post my blog banner. Thanks Adrian! And thanks to Shane Lewis for recommending Adrian for the assist. You guys are the best!

If you haven't seen their blogs you only have to click on their names (above) to link to their sites.

Special thanks also go out to Mayang's Free Textures for their free high-res textures. I used one in my banner. Check them out, their textures are amazing!

Toon Club: What if Monkeys Ruled the World?

If monkeys ruled the world, they'd still have Monkey Wrenches, but they'd use them to bash stuff.

So much for the Theory of Evolution.

Digger McMudd

Did some sketching on Sunday, playing around with face shapes, and came up with this guy. I call him Digger McMudd. He may look sinister, but he's pretty harmless, just diggin' nightcrawlers.

Toon Club: Freaks

Over at Toon Club the topic is Circus Freaks. While brainstorming what to draw I thought about the 1958 movie, "The Fly". Then I thought about Edgar Bergen, his ventriloquist dummy Charlie McCarthy, and their comedy act, and married the two ideas.
Kinda freaky!

Toon Club: Swamp Critter

Tis the mighty & affectionate Boa Constrictor.

Wasn't sure if I should put in more time on this one, but in retrospect, I'm glad I did.

Toon Club: Space Pirate

Avast! Tis a Space Pirate off the port bow! He's nothin' pretty to look at, and he wears the traditional garb, so he must be a scurvy dog!
Now walk the plank ye Earthlubbers!

Here are both my original pencil sketch, and my colorized versions. I posted the pencil sketch last night thinking perhaps I was done, but then woke up around 5:20 this morning and got an itch to put some color to it.

Illustration Friday: STICKY

The topic over at Illustration Friday is 'Sticky'; I couldn't pass up such a great topic! Sticky is a funny word to begin with and, at least in my mind, conjures up many funny images. Hope you all had a great 4th of July! I did.

Toon Club: Patriotism

The new topic over at Toon Club is Patriotism. The way I see it, why should Earthlings be the only ones to enjoy the freedom of Liberty and Independence.

Happy 4th of July everyone!
Happy Independence Day!

Avatar

This is an Avatar I made for my sister-in-law, Rebecca Blake. She's an Entrepreneur, so I wanted to make an avatar that was both professional and personable.

Rebecca Blake Avatar_ Ken Chandler/Copyright © 2006

WELCOME! Guy

I've started a blog for my family. Where I can post pictures of my kids, their drawings, stories, etc. and wanted a fun way to Welcome family & friends to the site. Here's the guy that greets you on the first page.

(P.S.) This is not a self-caricature.

Toon Club Entry: The Grump

Meet the Grump! He's the guy who complains constantly, can find no silver-lining in any cloud, and even when things couldn't get any better, he'll still find a reason to complain bitterly. He's got an opinion, and by golly you're going to hear about it!
Did I mention he's always right?

Any resemblance to persons living or dead is mere coincidence.

Black Mage

Just finished this for my Brother-in-Law, er... for his blog: this is his avatar. The character is the Black Mage from the Final Fantasy, a video game of yesteryear. The 'light' you see in the background is from a detonation spell of Black Mages that essentially leveled an entire forest, and killed a giant. 'nuff said.

Toon Club2: Aliens

The topic over at Toon Club is 'Alien Life Forms'. I'd already posted a full-color image, and had a few minutes of sketching time this morning. I had fun with it, so I'm posting these sketches too.

Happy Father's Day, June 18th!

New Avatar

Trying out a new Avatar. The other one looses readability, so this is another attempt. Let me know if it's working or not.

Toon Club: Alien Life Forms

The newest installment of the Toon Club: the topic is Alien Life Forms. I originally was going to go with a semi-realistic pencil sketch of an alien, but when this idea crept into my head, I had to go with it.

Illustration Friday: Jungle

LAND SHARK!

Little known fact: Land sharks were hunted into extinction in 1934.

Carpenter-Ape (click on image to enlarge)

I'm back with another rare discovery. Amazingly enough there is a cross-breed of Mountain Gorilla and Carpenter-Ant called "Carpenter-Apeius Creepeus" also known as "Carpenter-Ape" for short. This bizarre creature is found only in deepest Africa where it builds elegant structures once thought to be the work of the native men of that region. This one-of-a-kind picture was taken on June 17, 2002 while I was traveling through Africa looking to get a life. I never found one.

Napoleon

This is a post I did for Toon Club. The theme is "Animal Farm" a book by George Orwell. Napoleon is the self proclaimed leader of the animals on the farm, and so I wanted him to look stately and self-important. 1800's clothing and a powdered wig seemed to give him the air of self-righteousness so consistant with his character.

Fast Sundaes

These characters are some I created for a card game called "Fast Sundaes". It's going to be published in August by Covenant Communication, a Utah based publishing house. I had a load of fun coming up with these guys. Enjoy!

"Under the Sea"_ Illustration Friday Post

No time to color this, but I thought I'd better get something posted. Have a great week everyone!

Hero Profile: The Slug

Here's my first submission to Toon Club. The topic is "Unnessisary Heroes". Needless to say I had fun with it. I came up with about a dozen potential heroes, but this was my favorite.

For those who are not familiar with Toon Club, here's the address.
http://toonclub.blogspot.com/
These guys are incredibly talented and I consider it a great privalege to have been asked to submit my work. It's going to be a wild ride, and a lot of fun!

Goldilocks and the Three Bears: Part 2

Okay guys, here's the finished "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" that I promised. On that note, I'm off to get some more work done. If they work out, perhaps I'll post those too.
Later, Ken

Illustration Friday: Monster/Spring/Speed

Guy Francis told me about Illustration Friday.com, where they pick a topic, you illustrate it, then post it on their site. Sounded like fun. Only I missed the last two posts, which were 'Monster' & 'Spring' and this next Friday's topic is 'Speed', so I combined the three into one.

Sea Critter

This is the kind of thing I do for the fun of it. I drew this 'Sea Critter' while goofing off this morning. I'm not sure why but my 'monsters' tend to look like family pets; harmless, even friendly. Many girls have mentioned this to me, usually while they're smiling and cooing. How mortifying.
Not sure what's going on with those spagetti arms. What was I thinking?

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Sorry for the delay. Crazy schedule, tight deadlines, etc. You know the drill. This painting is only 40% done. I'll post the finished painting later. And for those who are curious, it's painted with Windsor & Newton Gouache on 140 lb. cold-pressed Watercolor paper.

Avatar: Golem Hunter

Sooner or later I had to come up with an Avatar. It's based on a drawing I did years back, only cleaned up and colored.

And just so you know: a Golem is a stone or mud man created by a Rabbi to execute vengance on his enemies. The only way to destroy a Golem is to pull the magical parchment that keeps it alive out of it's mouth. Once this is done, it falls harmlessly to the ground as rubble, sludge, etc. My Golem is wearing business casual. His tie is made from Moss; next best thing to silk.

Beauty and the Beast

Butterflump

Here's a little something I've been working on in a Character Design class. He's a Butterflump, though he doesn't have a name, yet. I'm still working on that. He is a troubled lad. I think he has a nervous disorder or something. He always looks as though he's about to 'do' something in his shorts... if you get my meaning.

I've had fun creating him and working out some of his emotions on paper. More to come!

Cartoons 'R Us

I decided that I'd better post a few more color pieces. These are some cartoons I sold to the New Era, a magazine for teens. I though it was amusing having friends say, "You drew those?".
I need to submit some more. Maybe I'll get around to it some day.

Lessons Learned... or Not.

As a kid I remember going to a neighbor's house with a buddy of mine (I think I was in 2nd Grade, my friend was about 4 yrs. old). I'd convinced him and myself that the neighboors' dog was nice and that we could pet him and not be eaten alive. As it turns out, I was wrong.

I approached the dog who just sat there looking me with unreadable eyes (he was looking me nearly in the eye as I recall). As my hand got to a place just over his muzzle he lunged for my armpit and bit hard. The next thing I vaguely remember is getting home and explaining how a dozen man-eating tigers had jumped me while I was innocently playing with my matchbox cars in the back yard. Actually, I told the truth. Not long after getting the whole story my Dad took me back to the neighbors house to appologize to the owner of the dog. It turns out the dog was shy, that's why he gave me a warning bite, instead of eating me like a Truffle. I admit to feeling embarrassed and betrayed, but the experience taught me a valuable lesson. Actually, no it didn't.

This painting was done as a tribute to the dog who didn't kill me. I'll never forget you pup. (Actually, I think it was a German Shepherd. Oh well. Let that be a lesson to me.)