eye candy and ear candy

May I present to you (for no particular reason) Joe Walsh and Jennifer Aniston.

Caricatures!

I've been getting back into the caricature game. Heres some recent examples.

More golfin'

If anyone uses iGoogle, you may recognize the purpose of these drawings. They're eventually going to be backgrounds for a customized iGoogle homepage.

golfin'

Omaha has as many golf courses as it has steak houses...at least thats my obsvervation. Theoritically, you could eat and golf in a different location every day of the year. I've played on a few of the courses around town and I've discovered a common thread among all of them...I'm lousy at golf.

rabbits again

I discovered a small family of bunnies in my front yard yesterday. One baby darted out just as I passed by with my mower. Fortunately, he escaped into my garage unharmed. To avoid any chance of creating rabbit stew, I plucked the remaining 7 bunnies from their burrow and placed them safely in a small box while I finished my yard work. Afterwards, I returned the babies to their home and covered it with a thin layer of grass clippings.
Later in the day, I saw the momma just outside the hovel looking slightly bewildered. Perhaps confused about why her house had a new roof.

That kind of excitement requires a cartoon.

before/after

Time can be cruel.

YAY!

I got two submissions into the custom52.com contest. My joker and 10 of clubs were selected! I didn't win any money or became president of Uganda or anything like that, but I think I do get a deck of cards when they're printed.

Thanks for voting, whoever you are.

Christmas Tree

A nice Holiday paper toy for anyone who wants to spruce up their home.

Its the perfect tree: needs no watering, already decorated, small enough for one person to move around. It is still flammable, so keep it away from fires!....if it does catch on fire, print off another one.

Once you've assembled your tree, send me a pic...ben@benlane.com. And...if you're good, Santa may even make an appearance.

Merry Christmas!

Here's the PDF. Christmas Tree
Works best when printed on cardstock paper.

city pixel

My city pixel cubicle.

citypixel.com/bennyscube

some people call me the space cowboy....

My final submission to the custom52.com card contest.

The joker is so lonely, nobody ever plays with him.

bad joke

baaad. very, very bad.

Dream Easel

I just added a coloring page to the Stardust site. I opted to go with a more painterly method of coloring as oppose to the 'click n' color' style of most online coloring pages. Check it out.

www.stardustlullaby.com

sound clips, wallpapers, flash games...oh my.

Only a few more days till the release of my wife's lullaby collection, Stardust. As I've mentioned before in a previous posting, I did the artwork for the album (as well as a little photography). On top of that, I've also put together a website complete with sound samples, wallpapers, and a flash game designed by my buddy, Chris Clements at nickelarcade.com.

If you have kids, this is a fantastic collection of songs perfect for bedtime. Even if you don't have children, the music is so nice and, as my 6 year old son would say, "relaxful" it can be listened to anytime by anyone.

http://www.stardustlullaby.com/

Post Halloween post

Halloween is great fun, I'm always bummed when it's over. This year I built a robot costume. The classic cardboard box with an inverted bucket for a head. I did add some LED's to give it some flair. I didn't, however, consider mobility while putting this together. I discovered that I could barely walk once I put it on. One trip around the block and I had to come home and switch to a coat before I went back out again.




I had to take off the arms in order to fit inside. At least I got a picture of it before the operation.
The helmet seemed more menacing from a distance.
I included a slot with the intention that I would hand out fortunes to people. Due to my inability to move, I had to skip the fortune-telling. Below is a listing of all the fortunes I had printed off.

GREETINGS:
YOUR PUNY PLANET WILL BE ASSIMILATED.
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.
YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE:
7 12 35 58 93

GREETINGS:
HUMANITY IS DOOMED!
YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE:
4 35 41 55 76

GREETINGS:
ROBO-BEN WILL DESTROY YOU!
YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE:
12 22 37 68 91

GREETINGS:
YOUR WEAK, FRAGILE BODIES WILL CRUSH EASILY BY
ROBO-BEN.
YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE:
1 14 25 67 83

GREETINGS:
I SHALL ENJOY WATCHING THE OBLITERATION OF YOUR PUNY PLANET.
YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE:
10 12 41 88 94

GREETINGS:
KLAATU BARADA NIKTO.
YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE:
7 29 31 77 91

GREETINGS:
ROBO-BEN WILL LIQUIFY YOUR BRAIN.
YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE:
13 29 31 46 95

GREETINGS:
HUMAN BRAIN IS INFERIOR TO SUPERIOR ROBO-BEN BRANE.
YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE:
8 19 37 57 85

GREETINGS:
BATTERY POWER...LOW
MUST RE-CHARGE.
NEED BEER.
YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE:
5 19 23 54 71

GREETINGS:
FOOLISH HUMAN.
YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE:
3 29 45 76 98

GREETINGS:
CALL AN OLD FRIEND...FOR SOON, THE HUMAN RACE WILL BE ANNIHILATED... PAINFULLY.
YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE:
7 17 31 56 86

GREETINGS:
YOUR SURROUNDINGS WILL SOON CHANGE... PREPARE FOR
EXCESSIVE ERADICATION.
YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE:
1 22 31 57 67

GREETINGS:
TIME FOR A CHANGE...PREPARE TO BE PUMMELED TO
FLESHY PULP.
YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE:
11 39 41 76 95

GREETINGS:
SEIZE THE DAY. BECAUSE TOMORROW BRINGS THE DEMISE OF HUMANITY
YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE:
6 19 44 78 81

GREETINGS:
AN UNLIKELY PERSON WILL BECOME AN IMPORTANT ALLY... THEN THE BOTH OF YOU WILL PERISH.
YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE:
7 21 33 62 97

GREETINGS:
YOU WILL INHERIT A LARGE FORTUNE...AND IT, TOO, WILL BE INCINERATED.
YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE:
10 49 61 87 92

GREETINGS:
A NEW TALENT WILL BE DISCOVERED...BUT IT CANNOT STOP YOUR EXTINCTION.
YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE:
10 59 67 81 82

Queen of Diamonds

My submission to the Custom52.com card project. I bought the first deck and it's pretty sweet. Hopefully, I can get in on the second printing and have some presents to give out for Christmas.

Best Friend
by: Ben Lane

Check out the site and if you like my submission, vote for me.

the three moms

Some character designs for an upcoming project.

So what are you going as for Halloween? My son wants to be a zombie with an axe sticking out of his skull....gone are the days of cow and fuzzy lion costumes.

It's baaaaaaaaack...

My mini-coffin of goodness arrived! I opted for the larger scale model this year... The sauce is great and the packaging is a hoot.

http://www.hauntedhotsauce.com/haunted/Default.asp


Mine came loaded with lots of candy treats (see below) as well as a second CD of eerie music. A perfect accompaniment to my Halloween this year.




The brain shaped candy was a nice touch.

some assets

Here are some of the graphics from the previous post in their individual glory. The base illustration was done in Flash, then brought into Photoshop for all the pretty polishin'.

The color final for the kid...

The original sketch

Latest venture...

Here's the cover for an upcoming CD from my wonderfully talented wife and her brother (he's pretty talented, too). If you haven't figured it out by the illustration, it's going to be a collection of lullabies....a few originals, and a few standards, all great! You can hear some clips at their site, www.stardustlullaby.com.

Medium:Flash and Photoshop - the greatest duo since Han and Chewy.

It makes for a nice trade off around our house....I design graphics for them, they produce music for my animations.

Doo doo doodles....

eye envy...

As you can see, I'm thrilled about planting a new tree in my yard. Actually, I do enjoy a little yard work now and then, unfortunately, I'm usually too swamped to attempt any large scale projects...plus, it's too flippin' hot outstide.

Not really any underlying thread to tie these drawings together, just a random selection from my sketchbook.

Hopes you like 'em.