November 13, 2006
…Samurai Bear…
I just had an INTERVIEW published on the Frederator Studios Blog you might enjoy looking at. About the only thing I am an expert on these days is me… so other than the parts that I made up, this is a quality piece of journalism.
I also painted this bear over the weekend… but it has absolutely nothing to do with the Frederator interview… for you Ozark-Americans, that’s called a non-sequitur.
July 2, 2007
I took pictures of this sock bear at different stages of it’s creation and put together a picture tutorial of sorts. You can find it in my portfolio section.
These are some of the things I use to create sock creatures. It’s pretty much just socks, upholstery thread, and stuffing.
To start, I use an old sweat sock to build a shape. I might sew several shapes together to achieve the overall form that I want. This is rough, quick work because it will all be covered up later. I then take another sock and begin “skinning” color onto the shape, (as I have done with the black sock in the second picture).
I want this to be a roaring sock bear, so I create the top and bottom parts of the mouth first.
The black sock I sewed onto my shape earlier will be the area that I sew the mouth onto.
I add sides to the mouth and a bit more bulk to the bottom lip and chin.
Now I build another shape and add it to the bottom for a… well… bottom.
Now it’s time to “skin” the bear. I will use the inside of these brown socks because they have such great texture.
I add the ears, sew on some buttons for eyes, and add a heavy brow for personality.
All that is missing from this roaring bear is the legs and tail, so I make those.
I sew on the legs and tail and the bear is complete.
A finished, scary, roaring, mutant sock bear.
This bear puts my stuffed bear to shame. Fantastic! Great tutorial too… If you would modify one of these creations into a golf club head cover I would buy one… that is if it was under $100 bucks.
Great tutorial! Now that I see how it is done, I will be making one of these reall soon. Like maybe in 2008. So, when are you off to foreign countries to buy those cool European socks?
Have you got the Brother Jones 2007 Preachin’ Tour t-shirts printed up?
maybe he has already left…
Seriously. That is the coolest thing ever. I think you should just make sock bears for a living.
…if I could quit everything else I do today and just sit in front of the TV sewing mutant sock creatures together, I’d be a happy man… and play hockey… if I could just sew mutant sock creatures together and play hockey I would be a happy man… did I mention I SCORED A GOAL IN LAST FRIDAY NIGHTS HOCKEY GAME!!! …I didn’t? …I scored a goal in last friday nights hockey game… it was all very exciting… I would love to tell you more about it, but I must get to work now because unfortunately I can’t quit everything else I have to do today…
I guess we will never know when the big overseas sock buying trip is…
…oh… sorry… the end of this month sometime… I’m still on a “need to know” basis for this and all other important information…
Hey Nick Jones Everybody, Has your recent move of homesteads impacted your golf playing frequency?
I suggest white socks for the preaching gig. (I thought you “needed to know” this)
and whitey tighties.
September 17, 2007
This weekend the 1933 version of King Kong with Fay Wray was on TV so I watched it. What a hoot! The claymation special effects are great and those close up shots of Kong’s face are priceless.
I checked my local listings and apparently King Kong was only on Kable. I can’t quite stomach watching the CHiefs anymore. What are we looking at up there in the illustration and inset? Blues first and then a colored rendition?
Hey… how do you like the way our (Titans) field kicks up as you run on it. It’s like special effects.
1) …yes, King Kong was on the classic movie channel…
2) …and, yes, the Chiefs stink…
3) …I’m still just experimenting, trying to find my voice in the computer coloring world…
4) …yes, that is one fine, special effects field the Titans have… they always play Indie a good game…
We came close… but no cigar.
Tubular! He would make a great Star Fox character. And I wish Pixar would make it into a movie.
Looks like it’s easy to add the colors when the image is only 112×146. I like the smiling determination on his face.
I always liked the original KK. It was state of the art movie making at the time. It was the favorite movie of Bill Gaines, publisher of Mad magazine. For his birthday one year, the artists made a life-sized Kong head and put it outside his window (lookin in) in his NYC office. He loved it.
…oops …I was just looking at this picture and realized I forgot to put the other ear on this bear…
December 14, 2007
I’ve always liked the concept of animals in human apparel doing human stuff… to me, that seems to work every time I see it…
I’m lovin’ this end-of-the-year illustration clearance blog.
everything is 25% off…. Dennis is half off…
hey that’s really coo…. WAIT A MINUTE! I THOUGHT WE WEREN’T SUPPOSED TO SUPPORT THE GOLDEN COMPASS…. I feel so deceived…
…man, I was Christmas shopping in Ft. Wayne all day… you can tell I don’t get out much because I was driving all over town tonight with my car lights turned off… and here I thought everybody was just real friendly up there and waving at me…
We awoke this morning to our 5 – 10 inch snow forecast and ended up with only RAIN. Meteorologist losers.
Reminds me of that Samurai bear from a few months back. Any relation?
May 29, 2009
…so our pastor has been doing this sermon series on Second Kings from the Old Testament and being the exceptional student that I am I’ve been taking exhaustive notes on it and even slopped a little color on one of them…
I’ve seen the 3-D version of this at Mom’s house!
…it took me a while to figure that comment out, Don…you were talking about this guy…
What talent you’ve been blessed with… The highlights on the brushes, the view and detail work of the inside of the bears mouth (every Dentist dream), and you pulled it all together with the subtle background that help make the character pop. Cool stuff Dude! Thanks
Yes, Den… that is exactly what I was referring to. I would like to commission you to do a headcover for my golf driver.
The 3-D versions is snuggled down on a brand new carpet and watching a new tellyvision…
But he’s not using the Master Bathroom toilet… it is taped off with CRIME TAPE.
…Karen headed off to South Africa and left me with a flat of garden plants to put in today… I’m sure you’ll be happy to hear that I made the typical brother jones effort on that little project…
garden plants! oooooooh, those are some goood eatin’!
…all have been installed into dirt and are ready to die… because I’m the one that installed them into the dirt…
Are you sure you didn’t just plant them in mulch?
…hey, the apple trees I misguidedly planted in 100% mulch are dong just fine… of course, they do blow out of the ground a couple of times each year… seriously…
Sounds like you need a bag of reinforcement mulch… stands up to those nasty north winds and hold even the largest mighty oaks…
…maybe I could decorate the base of my apple trees with decorative slabs of concrete… that might hold ‘em in the ground…
Just wanted to post a comment in JUNE here…
…well I appreciate that Don… I’ll try to return the favor on your page…
Wow my mom used to let me color in church but I never developed the degree of Doodleosity (this really should be a word) that you have.. I need to send you a drum head from my bass drum and wait for you to get bored and tag it..
…doodleosity …I like that… I’m going to start working that one in every chance I get…
doodleosity…. YES!
…sorry, can’t talk now… there be a whole lotta doodleosity goin’ on about here right now…
OH MY DOOOOOD!!!—-i like this!!!!!! I was lookin at some of your youtoobs….. and i wondered if’n you ever hit command H while you have a loop selection area that you want to paint in?!
dooooods—-we changed churches in october!!!!!! been at csbc since 1976……..now at James River Assembly… 35 years plus a Baptist, now a recovering Baptist since Matt died…
…James River Assembly… is that the great big church on highway 60 when you head down to Branson?
Yes, indeed… but, to get it correct… it is U.S. 65… 60 goes to Mountain Grove.
…hey, I was in the ballpark, anyway… I haven’t lived in Missouri for 20 years…
The ball park is about two miles south of James River. It’s the old Price Cutter ballpark where the Ozark Mountain DUCKS used to thrive and play. Lamberts sits exactly between the ballpark and James River Church. Keep your eyes open unless you want a throwed roll up side the head. Gary can back me up on all this…
…sounds like the Ducks didn’t thrive all that well… did they crater?
They were the main attraction for a couple of years. Then John Q brought the St. Louis Cards farm team to Springfield… The Ducks then sputtered and tanked. I could hear their distant, pitiful quacking all the way at my house.
…well I hope you got a duck hat before they tanked. …what are they doing with that ballpark now? …maybe Brother Jones could take it over and make it into some sort of Branson attraction… maybe a Roman style colosseum with donkey chariot races driven by hillbillies… just brainstorming our next disastrous Brother Jones move…
The Comments
Don Jones
Great interview Dennis. I especially liked the part of “taking someone down with you”.
bernardfromtheyard
Dennis, Another piece of the Dennis life and genius revealed! I like Mort’s work and everybody loves Jack Davis…but your stuff is like those guys on steriods. Ah, er the above was meant to be a compliment?
Dennis Jones
…hey, I’d take that as a compliment even if it were meant as an insult…
Don Jones
Dennis, are you juicin’ now days?
Dennis Jones
…I do enjoy a frosty cold glass of O.J. occasionally…
Don Jones
I pick-up a container of the GROVESTAND variety of O.J. The pulp was so thick I thought I was gonna have to spoon it out. Janson gagged on it.
bernardfromtheyard
Hey, I hope you guys are not kidding because I’m writing all this down…and old expiring artist like myself can’t afford to pick up and go to missouri state to learn how to paint like Dennis so I figger I mize well do the juice. Now do I drink all of this out of a Gourd?
Roballoo!
Awsome Samuri Bear! I really think you nailed this one.
Mark Behm
I find this guy particularly cool! Love all the little details.
bretelle
hello! i’m french i live in Paris.. i love your style! You’re great very good! thank for your art! scuse my english
Doug Jones
I saw the original art on this piece. Dennis came down to visit some clients and this was something he brought with him. I was surprised by the size of it. It’s big! oh… and I DO think the O.J. is the secret…
roballoo
How big is big? All I see is a measly 380×216 pixels. It must be really impressive in person. in the tradition of Howard Pyle/N.C. Wyeth is this the beginning if a grand adventure book? The adventures of a grizzled O.J. drinkin’ samurai clad warrior bear could be the next big thing.
Dennis Jones
…now you have me going again, RobalLOO… if you could just flesh out that orange juice drinkin’, samurai warrior bear story a bit I would be all over doing that…
crickett
chirp… chirp… chirp…