Sketchdump!

These are a few pages from my tiny sketchbook.  Nothing finished.

This sketchbook is for warmups or just exercising my lazy art muscles when I’ve had a day spent with dull design. Sometimes I have days that require LOTS of entries. I try to pick a theme on those days. This was from one of those days not too long ago. Catch the theme?

The first two might be tricky, but the last two are giveaways, if you’re familiar with the source material.


I’ve also got some long-form theme entries. Those are fun. Sketch-a-day type stuff. I think I’ll be posting most of what’s in this particular sketchbook, so you’ll get to see them.

Bigfoot Revised

Here is a new look at the bigfoot design.  Less cartoony, more detailed, and, to my eyes, very similar in style to the ducks I’ve posted here.  The process I’m using for this project is identical to the ducks, so that probably contributes to the look.  The girl character is shown so you can get in idea of size – he’s big, but not a giant.  I left the notes I made to the editor where I put on them on the concept.  (We went with the bushy eyebrows)  I know I always enjoy getting to see the process of other artist’s at work.  It’s kind of like getting to peek inside their heads for a while to watch the gears turning.

I think Bigfoot reminds me of my buddy Nick Hollomon now.  Less furry (but not by much). 

Figure work

The thing I love about drawing people is how expressive they can be.  Faces, hands, entire figures – they can tell you so much if only you pay attention.  This one is entirely in pencil.  At the time I would’ve been happy to keep the drawing session going for hours longer.  Looking back now I can see how I was overworking it.  The gestural feel is strong, but at the cost of subtlety.  She looks really raw.  Fleshy, even.  This is only a detail of the full drawing.  There’s a lot more to it, but this gets dual-posted on Facebook, and some people get upset about that sort of thing.

All of these are more of my old work.  They’re from over a decade ago.  I like to think that I’ve improved since then (particularly in efficient line work and attentiveness to detail).  Even after all this time I’m still pleased with them.  Of course, with my reverse-qualitometer tendancies regarding my own work, I know that that might indicate that these are among the worst of the batch.  Whatever.  I like ’em.  That’s enough for me.

This is the same model from a different session.  It’s a charcoal and wash technique, which doesn’t leave much room for missteps.  I enjoy working that way.  The one below is charcoal with just a bit of colored pastel.

You can see that I was drawing the wall as much as the figure.  That happened a lot with that wall.  To be fair, it was a very interesting wall.  Lots of graffiti and paint splatters and stuff.  I should also tell you that these are BIG.  The smallest one (the guy) is 36 inches wide.

Elves Illustrated

Elves!  So many elves!  These are a couple of spot illustrations for a small side project that will culminate with much nerdly reveling.  There will be homebrew involved (eventually).

The look I was going for was “What’s that smell?“

I know not everyone agrees with me, but I’ve always thought that Tolkien-esque elves were snooty, to the point of being visibly annoyed at the existence of people such as yourself.  Remember the obnoxious maitre d’ from Ferris Beuller’s Day Off?  Think of that guy, but give him an environmentalist vibe and make him lethal with a dozen weapons you may not have heard of until he uses them to take your head off.  No matter what you tell them they will never be convinced that someone like you could possibly be the sausage king of Chicago.

The title of this post would make an excellent name for a Grand High Nerd gaming magazine.  I’d read it.

Father’s Day

These architectural drawings are done in pencil and watercolor, respectively.  Working with realism and perspective is fun, in a meticulous sort of way.  There’s a great method for perspective Brian Stelfreeze teaches that, if you get it, makes it so much easier.  I once put together a short tutorial explaining it – I may put that here one day.  The first is my Dad’s New Hampshire home.  The original house  (on the left) was built in the late 1700’s, with additions and updates made over the centuries, all of which have maintained the integrity of the house.

Peacock Brook Farm homestead, New Boston, NH

These will look familiar to a handful of people out there.

The second piece is a gouache wash with a marker brush. It’s a look I’ve been fond of for some time.  I enjoy the contrast of the colors with a thick, painterly contour line.  The style works especially well with still life and figural pieces.  This is the first time I’ve used it for anything else.

Rockland Breakwater Light on Penobscot Bay, Rockland, ME

The Rockland light is overlooked by the Samoset Resort, within walking distance of the golf course.  Look familiar?

Happy Father’s Day, everyone.

Urban Flight

Another entry from my sketchbook.  It’s all pencil, done in a quick half hour or so while watching Doctor Who.  I’m pleased that the architecture turned out reasonably well.  I usually base buildings off of something specific, but I just pulled these out of this air.  They look plausible, from an architectural design standpoint.

These actually are pterosaurs, not dinosaurs, and, yeah, there’s a difference, although most people don’t much mind.  Can you tell I’ve been steeping myself in fantasy & sci-fi illustration?  Does it show?

More color stuff soon.  Until then, enjoy the sketches.

This is not the homage to Wash that got a request a while ago.  Don’t worry, that will appear.  Just not today.

A Cyclopean feat

Another sketchbook addition, this one is a rough of Polyphemus and his sheep before he’s had the chance to meet Odysseus.  This was the result of idle doodling.  Looking at it again I think it’s worthy of being fleshed out and redrawn.

His name is not Carl.  It’s a trick.  See, he’s that clever.  Also, he’s provided his sheep with one heck of a view.  Nice guy, if you’re a sheep.

Enjoy the Memorial weekend!

Lost and Found

This is from my sketchbook.  It’s all pencil, done in about an hour, I think.  I was playing with a scene with a deep field of vision.  Caves & tunnels & mountains are obvious settings, then.

This is meant to be a dark, cold scene, but the lack of color or shading makes it look very, very different from the finished version in my head.  Maybe I’ll color it just to bring it around.

I did this after hearing an interview with Martin Handford.  Can you find his map?  Can you find his name?  Can you find the giant, unpleased Yeti that just came home to find someone in his cave?

Big Mama and the Ducks

In honor of Mother’s Day here’s a a peek at one of the projects I’m working on.  I’ll show you no more until it’s much, much further along than this.  But, since it’s about a child and how he doesn’t listen to his mother, I thought it was a fitting post.

The author’s goal is realism combined with cuteness.  Less cartoony, more naturalistic, but still expressive. 
So, am I there?

Here’s one of the preliminary layout sketches.  You can see where I’m working out placement of text and general eye-flow for the pages.  These are for young kids, so I’m going for a visual circuit that will lead the eye around and around the page, keeping the viewer engaged.  It ends up being more refined.  The finished version will be colored with watercolors.

Happy Mother’s Day, for all of you that qualify.

Allosaurus

This is the other entry for CIID 2011 at Museu da Lourinhã in Portugal.  It’s done entirely in pencil, using a photo I took a few years back as reference.  I cranked up the contrast and turned down the brightness in Photoshop.  That’s why you see the paper texture and the marks where I erased (the blank white areas).  You can also see where I resorted to using the grid technique to make certain it was proportionally correct.

Allosaurus fragilis, drawn from the mounted skeleton in the Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.

Allosaurus is a cousin of the much more popular Tyrannosaurus.  The first example to be identified was from Colorado, and subsequent finds have been relatively plentiful throughout the western United States.  Others have popped up as far afield as southwestern Europe.  Museu da Lourinhã has an example of Allosaurs europaeus, which is why I chose to draw this particular species.

I feel kind of like a hack for using Photoshop to do what I could have done with charcoal and colored paper.  C’est la vie.  I’m happy with the result, but I’ll do it right next time.