monolithic warnings...

I sketched this scene tonight on the front porch while Gina planted flowers. I referenced from a book called Beautiful Britain for the landscape and made up the heads in the foreground.

I actually used some Derwent watercolor pencils, which I don't really enjoy, and some little Elmer's Brand brush pens for little kids. They are filled with watercolors that aren't too bad. In the heavier colors I dumped some of the paint out and replaced with water to dilute it some. Beinfang does make a nice set of watercolor brush pens that are already filled but I don't feel up to spending the $20. I will most likely just end up dumping most of these little pens, which were free, and mix my own colors to put in them. If you're not careful though, you can oversaturate the fibers of the paper resulting in blotchy spotting on the opposite side of the paper.

The black was achieved by a Sakura Brush pen/marker. I recommend this marker for drawing on the go. You can get some nice brush stroked and bold blacks with it.

what'cha readin' there, squirrel?...

This is a little squirrel I sketched in pen and then decided to put some value down with an HB and my fingers. Sometimes you use what you have available.



This is a detail showing the pencil gradations a little better. I found it's not a bad way to get some quick value in a sketch, and it maintains the appearance of an ink wash. It certainly helped that the moleskine has really slick pages with no tooth. The pencil lines were completely lost in the smudges, which is nice.

have beard, will battle...

Just another random act of sketchiness...I would like to see this one in color. Maybe soon.

the end of the road, stand your ground...

I sketched this yesterday while sitting next to a small bridge waiting on Gina to meet me to walk at the park. It's just a scene that came to mind. I honestly began to hate it and nearly scribbled it out, but began to noodle at it and got my sakura brush marker out and put some deep blacks down. Then it started to take on some mood. I put it away and looked at it about an hour later and loved it. Strange how just getting away from your art sometimes can shed all new light on it.

I like it enough that I plan to do a painting of it someday.

you slug...

I found a big snail on the path at the park today and with lunch time running short, I sat him on a bench near the path and started to draw. As soon as he poked his head out though, he started a sharp left turn away from me. I had to constantly follow him around the bench, squatting, to capture enough of him on the move. Every time he got to close to me or the edge I just lifted him and set him back. Im sure he felt like he was getting nowhere fast...not that he could get anywhere fast.

diggin' it? Lunch break again...

Just a little guy I sketched and painted today. This was probably a 15 minute sketch and 15 minute water color. It's okay, not super, but I kind of like the overcast tone.

Happy Mothers Day...and more...

Happy Mothers Day, Gina.
You are a fantastic mother and wonderful wife and friend. I wouldn't be all that I am without your love and support. I hope you have a wonderful day today.
So, now that I have shared happy faces with you...here's some not-so-happy faces.

The cat was inspired by an antique greeting card I saw last week that had a miserable cat photo on the front. I took a picture with my phone and added him to the list of animals I have placed in my little story in the making.

The bearded guy is Shimlek, a Molger from my first novel, Legend of Lumea: the Wineskin Prophecy. I actually got a rejection letter this past week from a publisher that I was really excited about, but nevertheless I will continue to seek out that perfect publisher for my stories. I have been receiving a lot of support and encouragement from friends and family and friends in the illustration field. I can never say enough about how important it is to have good friends who can keep you pumped up and pushing on!

Brian Floca blog...

I wanted to take a second to say that Brian Floca actually answered a question I had in the form of his latest blog post. That was a surprise to stumble across!
Brian and I have emailed back and forth several times over the last 3 years and he has offered me a lot of valuable advise about the illustration field.
Thanks Brian!

Playin' Possum and Little Weasel...

So, everyday I try and get over to the nature center and draw from reference books. It has been a fun and encouraging thing for me in the middle of the stressful work day. I can go be free and make up something silly for a few minutes.

Gina always waits for my picture message on her phone after lunch to share what I've come up with. Unfortunately, today I just couldn't get anything to come to mind. Nothing struck me the way it has been so I just looked through books and sighed...

When I texted her to say that I had nothing to show, she replied with a very drawn out "BOOOOOOOOO!!! I was waiting to see what you had drawn!"

Sorry Gina.

Well, I'm behind on sharing with you all anyway, so here are a few from this week.

1992...

Gina and I made it out to see Wolverine on Saturday and LOVED it! It really brought back a lot of memories for me. Memories of 1992.

I had just turned 14 and my favorite comic book series were Wolverine and the Uncanny X-Men. I spent a lot of my time in my 9th grade classes drawing Wolverine comics instead of paying attention to the lessons.

Below is the cover of one such comic.

It's interesting to me to see how motivated I was back then to crank out finely rendered pencil drawings. I have many of them from my early to mid teens. But it's also strange to me to look at these drawings, done at age 13 and 14, and then look at my son, now in his early teens, and see how different we were in the way that we observe things.

I never used reference material for anything back then. It seemed like a waste of time, so I did everything from my imagination. Sometimes it REALLY shows in the product:) These are 2 segments from the pages of a comic I created.

Some days I wish I had that ambition back again. It's amazing how hard I have to "try" these days compared to back then, when it just seemed to freely flow like a massive river of creativity. I think it will return over time. I just have to stay at it, and I don't have the luxury of drawing comics instead of doing my job anymore...