Big Nose

Today I decided to put everything else on hold for a few minutes so I could just draw with my daughter. This is what we drew. My daughter was more impressed with the pencil sharpener than with the drawing, though.

Detach

This week's topic for Illustration Friday is "Detach," which seems kind of nebulous to me. Even though I usually try to do a new piece for the topic, I felt that this worked well for how I pictured "detach." Camping, hiking, and especially skiing are my ways of detaching from whatever might be bugging me at the time. This piece was a 5-10 min oil study that I just love. Sometimes you don't mean to make anything special and it turns out well.

Sail

"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale..."
So, I tried to push myself and see how fast I could pump out an illustration for this one. So I spent from last Friday till now trying to come up with an idea and then about 20 minutes drawing this and coloring it. I am not super happy with the color job, but better to have it done, I guess. I think the idea is still good, though. Maybe this will become one of those ideas that I revisit later when I am more patient and focused.

Poof!

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Poof!" This hits especially close to home for me, since I experience "poof" on a daily basis. This is my morning routine.

Sketchbook

I just scanned in a bunch of stuff from my sketchbook. I thought I'd post one of the pages here and if you want to see the rest you can go hit up my gallery.

Old Wrinkled Man

For some reason I love drawing old wrinkly men; they have such personality to them. The big noses, the sagging jowels, the huge domed craniums, and the drooping earlobes. There is such experience, wisdom, and years and years of hard work behind leathered sun-beaten faces like that. This one I did as a doodle on some scrap paper but decided to ink with a brush and throw some washes of color on it. It almost gave it a Chinese look.

Horse Boy

My daughter and I just finished reading "The Horse and His Boy" by C. S. Lewis. I don't know any other 18 month old that asks for C. S. Lewis over Dr. Seuss for a bedtime story.

It was fun to read it again and it made me want to do an illustration for it. I think the colors are overly saturated, but if I keep noodling on it anymore I might go crazy.

A Potter Painting

I gave myself a goal to do an illustration every other day. I do the thumbnails and the final drawing the first day and I tone it and color it the next. Here is my first one. I feel like it is unfinished, but my wife says to stick to my goal and move on. If you have any suggestions on how I can finish it please let me know.

Wide

This quick little doodle was done for the Illustration Friday topic "Wide"; looking at it now, however, I think that this would more appropriately fit the topic "Bizarre Genetic Experiments Involving Prominent Members of the Republican Party." Maybe it's just me, but this guy looks like a cross between Cheney, Bush, and McCain.

Monkeys

I started these for my wife a year or so ago, but things got busy and I didn't finish them until recently. I'm still not super happy with them, but they're cute. They are expressions that our daughter made as an infant portrayed by monkeys (since that is her nickname).

Be Mine...OR ELSE!

It was back around Valentine's day when I did a doodle of this guy. I thought, "He may look mean, but I'll bet he's a tender guy underneath those spikes." So I gave him a lacy little valentine to hold to show that he is just sensitive and misunderstood.

You're Everything That A Big Bad Wolf Could Want

Here is another "Little Red Riding Hood" character design. Definitely inspired by the Sam the Sham song. Here the wolf is a "lone wolf" who stops in at the local greasy spoon "Grandma's Place" and meets the cute waitress "Lil' Red." Originally I had him giving her a toothy grin complete with subtle wolf-man fangs, but the closed mouth smile seemed more his style.

Batman Color Key

Here's a color key I did from a Batman storyboard panel I drew as an assignment. I wanted to push some odd colors into the sky to intensify the moment. It was fun to push around acrylics again.

More Sidewalk Chalk

Here's another sidewalk doodle.

Wrinkles

Here's a chalk drawing I did for the Illustration Friday topic "wrinkles."

Sidewalk Chalk: Not Just for the Kids

So I have spend a lot of time outside with my daughter drawing on the sidewalk with chalk; next to going to get the mail, it is her favorite thing to do. I have really come to love drawing with chalk and charcoal on the sidewalk. Here are a few of the drawings I've done with her.

Jack Spratt Could Eat No Fat....

These are designs for Jack Spratt and his wife for a film idea I came up with that was sort of a fractured Nursery Rhymes kind of thing.

Here are some more of those African character designs I did a while back.

Red Riding Hood

Here are some character designs I have been working on for "Little Red Riding Hood." The top one was very inspired by the simplistic graphical designs of Cartoon Network. The second one was more of a herald back to the Chuck Jones Roadrunner and Coyote type of animation.

Strange Likeness

I watched "Chicken Run" again the other day and it occurred to me that Mr. Tweedy looks an awful lot like a Presidential candidate who recently conceded defeat. What I thought was even weirder, though, is the fact that they even act like one another a little.