and I also fixed a typo.

Today I started writing messages on the protesters signs and went for a hike at Alum Rock Park, up to Eagle Rock. Can you see where I fucked up on one of the signs? Also check out the pics of the mutant bug (tarantula hawk) and a plant from outer space.

Next up are the signs.

I drew some more people

I made a little bit of progress on this today after taking 4 days off. Starting from the left I straightened out a bunch of signs and began fleshing out the people.

I finished the first pass on this 11"x17" drawing today. I laid out all the people with signs and then filled the gaps with people holding up their fists. The next step, after a few tweaks, will either be putting the messages on the signs or adding details to the protesters and making them all unique. Right now they all look like bald white men. When I'm done inking this, and if I'm happy with the results, I'll get to work penciling the 18"x24" version.

As I work towards an 18"x24" size drawing of my "protesters" piece I'm doing smaller versions as art studies. What I've been doing so far has been drawing the people holding up blank signs then I'll go and write something in them after. Because I'm going to have so many different people with signs I thought I should figure out what they're gonna say so I started writing & laying them out. Almost everything I wrote is something I've read on social media and on people's actual signs relating to George Floyds murder, police brutality protests and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Here are a couple sketches I drew over the weekend. Their inspired by the people in the pictures below. They're screenshots from videos I took during a march from San Jose's city hall to the police station a few weeks ago. I wanna draw a bunch of protesters wearing masks & holding up signs like I've been seeing downtown.

I started sketching what will most likely be my next ink drawing. It's a large scale (18"x24") version of the "protesters" drawing I made a couple days ago. It's hard to see in the pic but it's people wearing masks holding up signs & closed fists. Next, I'm gonna draw darker lines with more details and maybe sketch another version with smaller people so I can fit more of them onto the page.

Good news! I got my Covid test results back this morning, no cooties detected. I also finished inking Eyes & Mouths today. Next I gotta erase the pencils and go over it, and my the other two pieces, Brains/Guts & Hearts & Stars, with white-out to fix mistakes. I'm finally beginning to see daylight!

As I get closer to finishing my Eyes & Mouths drawing I want to start doing more art to reflect what's currently happening with the Black Lives Matter movement. At the beginning of the Covid shelter-in-place order I found it really difficult to create anything new. I worked on inking old sketches and finishing projects already in progress. Eventually I started feeling "creative" again by drawing on small cards, before inking my larger pieces, to warm up. Over the last week and a half I've been preoccupied by the George Floyd/police brutality protests happening in my city and around the US but now I want to get creative and show my support.

Spider-Bean was just a regular teenage spider until he was bitten by a radioactive blue bean. Now he swings around town fighting crime as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Bean!

Started inking this piece today. The plan is to do the same as the last one. Sharpie first, for the thick lines, then Micron for the thin lines. I could have finished the first phase of this today but I got a late start. 

Today I finished inking Brains/Guts (just need to white-out the mistakes,) made a Happy 420 doodle for all the stoners maaaaaan, and digitally inked an old drawing I made called "Pac Man Must Die" 

Today I finally put some ink down on my Brains/Guts drawing. First I tested out a few different markers and settled on a Sharpie for the broad lines and Micron Graphic 1 for the thin lines. I did all the Sharpie work tonight and erased the pencil marks. Tomorrow I'm going to go thru with the Micron to sharpen all the creases and use Pro-White to fix any mistakes.

I think I can officially say I'm done with the pencils on my three pieces, Hearts & Stars (not pictured), Eyes & Mouths (left), and Brains/Guts (center & right.) Next, I plan is to use Sharpies for the main lines and Microns for the details. I can't wait to be done with these fuckers!!!

Almost done with pencils! I worked on this piece for a few hours before taking this picture earlier today. I worked on it again before bed and got a most of the bottom right corner filled in. I just have to redraw a few of the parts bleeding off the edge then it's time to ink. I'll probably hold off on inking this till after I've finished the pencils on my Brains/Guts piece. I want to ink those and the Hearts & Stars all together and be done with these fuckers!

So I made up this evil Easter bunny character I call the Beaster Dummy. I first drew it in 2014 (bottom left) not very evil looking. I must have skipped a few years because the next one was 2019 and it looked a little gnarlier than before. This year I wanted to emphasize the "beast" so I made it scarier. I feel it could have used a few more hours to really make me happy but it was already past midnight and Beaster is over.

Check out the video. I've just about finished penciling the bottom half. All the Eyes & Mouths are pretty much done so I gotta finish the details in the skin, or whatever it is that surrounds everything and keeps it all together. I can't wait to ink this and be done with it.

I'm calling this one finished, even I could have spent many more hours tweaking it. I originally drew it 8 years ago. It was inspired by my walks to school every morning, listening to cassettes on my Walkman. 

I went LIVE on Instagram again tonight and drew this dude. I prepped music from my "60s & Older" playlist on Spotify before hitting Record. I learned from last time to check my phone every few minutes and make sure I'm still broadcasting. About 15 minutes in I saw that I was no longer Live and there was a message saying I got booted because of the copyrighted music in the background. I skipped whatever track was playing and hit record again. I was able to broadcast for 30 mins before the video stopped again. I think that's the limit. I fired it up one more time and was able to finish my drawing. The first 15 minutes are gone but you can watch the rest on Instagram (@frankiemcfly) till tomorrow night. I watched the playback and realize it gets kinda boring just watching me draw. If it wasn't so late I'd be talking while drawing. I also need to figure out a way to read the messages while I draw. The rig I built holds my phone 2 feet above my desk and I need to stand up and check that I'm still broadcasting. I want to be able to check the status and respond to comments without stopping what I'm doing. Hopefully I'll have that figured out and make it more entertaining next time.

Today I finished reading the book Erotic Comics. I've had it for almost 12 years and it took a pandemic for me to finally read it. I also did my stretches & warmed up at home to go running at Lake Cunningham Park again. It was a great workout, and as an added bonus, the entrance I came in from was locked when I was done so I ended up walking to the next exit and I got some extra steps in. I did some more pencil work on my Eyes & Mouths drawing. Just a few more things I gotta do before inking. Despite all the shit going on, today was pretty damn productive.

I shot my first Instagram Live video today. I built a rig to hold my phone over my desk to record myself drawing. I made an hour long playlist on Spotify of 80s music because I read Live videos go up to 60 minutes but my video got cut off around the 30 minute mark. I freestyled the pencils then inked it with Sharpie and Copic markers. I finished it by coloring in the inside shape with a yellow highlighter but no one got to see it. Next time I'll plan for a half hour video.

Follow me on Instagram to catch the next one @frankiemcfly

Today I spent a few hours working on a couple large drawings, "Hearts and Stars" & "Eyes and Mouths." H&S needed a little tweaking but E&M needed a lot more work. They both look much better than before and are a lot closer to getting inked for real, by hand, not digitally. I just wanna be done with these at this point. 

I'm inking another old drawing of mine. I don't want to stay up all night to finish it, like I did with yesterday, so I'm gonna do it tomorrow. Here's a detail of the WIP