Avast! I mean, at last!

It’s everyone’s favorite kosher pirate — Captain Picklebeard and his ole chum, Dilly. This time in sea-raging color thanks to the lovely and talented Jennie Kohl Austin. He started as a day dream on Talk Like a Pirate Day — which fortuitously coincided with the Krypton Comics Artists Jam. I like the character quite a bit, and would like to do more with him — perhaps a short comic story?

Cursed from quite a young age with a green and bumpy (and peculiar vinegar scented) beard, young master Picklebeard stole a ship and took to the high-seas to escape the taunts of fellow students in the Seaside Naval Academy for Wayward Youths.

Thus began the sordid (and peculiar vinegar scented) tale of one of the sea’s most feared buccaneers, Picklebeard the Pirate.

Captain Picklebeard

Captain Picklebeard & Dilly

Captain Picklebeard and his trusty sidekick Parrot, Dilly.

Inked in Adobe Illustrator CS4 with the new Blob Brush. If you had ever inked with the normal Illustrator brushes, the same controls are there for you, but it has the vast improvement of A: remembering your size and sensitivity settings from one session to the next and B: overlapping strokes automatically join together so you aren’t dealing with thousands of separate overlapping paths. This makes it super easy to erase with accuracy and smooth the edges of a form. In short it feels much more like Photoshop, but with the awesome control over smoothness afforded by Ai.

I’m really enjoying it.

I may do some more rendering on Picklebeard’s coat and metal bits, but as it’s intended for color, I’m going to keep it pretty open. This has been a very fun piece.

I am working on his ship now — can you guess its name?

Here’s the blue line sketch of Captain Picklebeard, a character I came up with at the Krypton Comics Artists Jam held on Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Cursed from quite a young age with a green and bumpy (and peculiar vinegar scented) beard, young master Picklebeard stole a ship and took to the high-seas to escape the taunts of fellow students in the Seaside Naval Academy for Wayward Youths.

Thus began the sordid (and peculiar vinegar scented) tale of one of the sea’s most feared buccaneers, Picklebeard the Pirate.

Yo’ ho ho and a barrel of brine.