Sam Kieth's The Maxx

This is the third piece in our, "So What Will We Draw Today..." game [link] chosen by Blythedragon [link] . For this one, she chose Sam Keith's awesome The Maxx. I loved this book when it first came out. I bought the first dozen or so issues, but eventually the comic shop I went to stopped getting any. Until recently, I didn't know the series continued past the issues I saw.

In any case, if you don't know anything about The Maxx, here's a great place to start: [link] . Straddling two realities -- at once in our world (in which The Maxx is a homeless man), and also in the prehistoric "Outback" where The Maxx is a triumphant defender of the Jungle Queen-- there were a lot of directions to take with this piece. However, it was the easy choice to go with the perhistoric defender and champion of the Outback. I got to throw in some "Air Whales" (a natural choice, since my oldest son loves whales), as well as some of the other crazy creatures that populate this alternate reality.

I approached this piece very differently than others I've done. I had an irregular-size sheet of rough paper, something I probably wouldn't use in my regular work (I hate rough paper), so I tried to look at that paper in much the same way a woodworker would look at an intriguing block of wood or sculptor at a chunk of limestone. I tried looking at that paper and seeing The Maxx that was inside it. It was a very interesting exercise for me, and I hope you'll think it turned out well. Either way, I had a LOAD of fun with this piece, and am really thankful Blythedragon chose this piece for me. I got to cut loose with some wild inking, and had a ton of fun with the watercolors (something I want to use more of in the future, particularly since I now have some awesome watercolors--Dr. P.H. Martin's dyes-- which, as anyone reading my other posts will know have been a long time coming).

I did this piece in very loose .7 mm 2H pencil, Rapidosketch pens (because the Rapidograph ink is waterproof), and Dr. P.H. Martin's dyes.

I hope everyone enjoys this piece as much as I did. As always, thanks for playing!

-B