Sketchin in the ol' sketchbook!

Just something from my sketchbook.  Enjoy!

F is for Frankenstein

As if there was another monster I would pick for F.  Enjoy.

E is for Ectoplasm

I had a hard time coming up with E.  There were quite a few options, but nothing that really stuck with me.  Then my brother mentioned E could be for Ectoplasm.  And even though Ectoplasm isn't technically a monster it had the feel that I was looking for.  I also wanted to draw my daughter covered in blue slime.  Enjoy.

Skeleton Face

Character Sketch

Just a random character sketch from sunday.  Enjoy.

Turtle Sketch

Another sketch from my sketchbook.  Enjoy.

Wolf sketchbook

Just a drawing in the sketchbook.  Enjoy.

D is for Dragon

Here's the fourth one in the series.  My wife told me I should put some of our other kids in the book as well and not just the youngest.  Sounded like a fine idea to me so now my daughter is getting eaten by a dragon.  Any ideas for E?  I've got a few but I'm still open to suggestions.  Enjoy.

C is for Cthulhu

It took way too long to get this one done.  Hopefully I can move more quickly through the rest.  Enjoy.

Random Sketch

Just a random sketch from the sketch book.  Sometimes I just start playing around with lines and shapes with no clear goal in sight.  This one turned out particularly nice.  Enjoy.

Tiger #3

It's taken me too long to get to these.  Here's another tiger.  I've got plenty more rough sketches to clean up and I should be able to put more up here.  For now you get this.  enjoy.

B is for the Blob

Here's page 2 in my sons new monster ABC book.  B was a tough one, there were quite a few options to choose from, Blob(obviously) Bigfoot, Boogeyman, Bride of Frankenstein, etc.  Blob was the one I wanted to do most howeer.  Next up CTHULHU!  Enjoy.

A is for Arachnid

We just had a new baby boy born into our family a little over two weeks ago.  It's so fun having a new baby around.  I decided I wanted to make a little book for him, and subsequently have some art we can hang in his room (when he get's one).  I've been toying with the idea of an ABC book for awhile.  the whole idea is intriguing to me.  to take each letter of the alphabet and have a unique illustration for it.  I've always been into monsters and this seemed like a fun chance.  this is the first one I did.  A is for Arachnid.  Hopefully I will have plenty more of these coming up.  I've managed to find a monster that matches most letters in the alphabet but there are a few that are stumping me.  If anyone has any specific ideas feel free to share.  enjoy.

Stretching Tiger

Here's another tiger sketch.  I tried to push the pose on this one and really stretch the forms.  I need to work on posing my drawings a bit better, it helps sell the story of who this character is.  enjoy.

Tiger

Here's another of those big cats I've been drawing.  I have a feeling there are plenty more tigers to come.  I'm having too much fun drawing all those stripes.  Enjoy.

Lion sketch

Started a new sketchbook recently.  I often do theme sketch books.  I've had an alligator sketchbook, an elephant, zombies, sharks, monkeys.  I like them because they force me to go beyond my comfort zone.  After the third or fourth alligator I had to try and find new answers to "what does this alligator look like?"  I'm really excited about this one.  It's going to be all big cats, which actually may wind up being 90% tigers cause those stripes are so fun to draw.  anyway, the first one that turned out to my liking was a lion.  threw on some quick color for you.  enjoy.

Space cowboy

Here is a sketch from a few weeks back.  More is on the way. Enjoy.

Lucha Libre!

Went and guest lectured at a character design class last night.  As part of it I gave them an assignment to draw a lucha libre wrestler.  We only had half an hour to work, but it was fun (for me at least).  This is what I came up with.  I need to put some color on this guy, but that's just not gonna happen today.  Anyway, enjoy.

Process page

I'm going to teach a character design class this thursday and wanted to have a small assignment to give during it.  I decided on having the students design a lucha libre wrestler and then having a critique at the end.  I wanted to talk to them about all the principles I follow and use and generally my thought process as I go.  I figured a good way to do it would be to put it up here so I could easily reference it so you all get to enjoy it as well.  I start with a really rough sketch, mostly just finding the shapes that I want.  This is where the drawing happens for me.  I usually do these rough sketches in just a few seconds, maybe a minute.  If the drawing is working at this early stage, then it should work no matter what details I throw onto it later.  After that I usually find some reference to help me refine my initial idea.  Sometimes this can be reveresed.  Sometimes a great piece of reference inspires a new sketch out of me.  After I find the reference I refine the sketch down even more to a more finished state.  After that I throw some color on it.  The details in the final sketch and the details in the color can vary depending on the project or the effect I'm going for.  This color is pretty quick, but it does the job well enough.  Enjoy.

Bear in a tutu

Last week a friend of mine, Joe Pearman, asked me "what should I draw?"  I told him (and don't ask where it came from, cause I don't know) "draw a bear in a tutu."  Over the weekend I had a bit of sketching time and I thought that the whole bear in a tutu thing was a good idea so I drew a couple up and threw some quick color on them for your enjoyment.  Which one do you like best?  Enjoy.
P.S.  Hopefully I can get Joe to put his bears up on his blog.  If you want to bug him about it his blog is http://josephpearman.blogspot.com/

Old boxer

Just a fun little sketch I put some quick color to.  enjoy.

Daily Sketch 3

Do you think it's funny that I call these ones Daily Sketch and I've done 3 of them in like a month?  Doesn't seem very "Daily" to me.  Oh well.  I did this one after I had watched a short animation of a cupcake called Muffin Jack and Jeremy.  I tried to find it to link to it, but I guess it's been taken down.  Bummer.  The animation was fantastic and I just needed to draw a muffin (or cupcake or whatever) running in fear.  Go figure.  Anways, enjoy.

Caveman

I drew up this sketch about a month ago and thought he could use some color.  I had just taken my kids to see The Croods at the theatre and had cavemen on the brain I guess.  I'd also been looking at the concept art on the film, especially the drawings by Carter Goodrich who I am a HUGE fan of.  This is mostly inspired by his drawings.  I thought it would be cool to put it on a cave wall just for kicks.  enjoy.

Cup O Doodle bird thing

This was my second attempt at the Cup O Doodle sketch.  I originally was going to draw a snake and my wife looked at the lines given to me and told me that was too obvious a solution and I had to find something else.  I listened to her.  I usually do.  My life goes a lot better that way.  Enjoy.

New Cup O Doodle Sketch

This week a friend of mine encouraged me to try out Cup O Doodle.  It's a blog where they post up sketches of random lines or stains or shapes.  You look at them and then try and make a sketch out of the madness of it.  Think of it kind of like a Rorshach test, except that instead of telling people what you see in the ink blots you are sketching it out for them and filling in the little gaps.  Here's my first attempt at it. The first sketch is what I came up with and the second I have an overlay of the lines they gave me to use. It was pretty fun.  Enjoy.

Akimi Bird

Came across this piece recently.  I was doing concept art for a Play Station video game (Akimi Village, you should check it out).  And I was drawing a lot of buildings.  The buildings themselves were fun but I wanted to draw something organic and alive, so I put a big bird perch on top of the building so I could design a fun bird to go along with it.  And here he is.  enjoy.

Daily Sketch 2

Don't know what brought this on, but I thought today I'd draw a boxer (Boxer-get it?).  My wife loves these type of dogs and I think I have to agree with her.  They've got alot of personality.  That and they're like 90% muscle (I'm pretty sure a boxer would kick my butt if we ever got in a fight).  Enjoy.

Daily Sketch

I've been messing around with a few new brushes in photoshop lately and I'm really enjoying the results.  This was just me playing around a bit today to get used to it.  Enjoy.

Tree Man

Here's a sketch I did awhile ago with some quick color thrown on it.  I really rather liked the concept.  I was tempted to put this guy sitting on a couch as if he's taken root there and won't ever get up, but the suit was too fun to draw.  Maybe I'll do another one.  For now you get this.  Enjoy.

Croquet

Had a bit of time recently to have some fun and do some art.  This is what came out.  I've had a lot of fun playing around with colored pencils and I wanted to see what type of results I would get if I laid down a water color wash underneath and then added int he colored pencils for details.  I'm pretty happy with the results.  I'm basing this type of thing on a children's book that I fell in love with called The Hermit Crab by Carter Goodrich.  I love the shapes in that book as well as the subtle colors.  I plan on doing more stuff like this.  Wish me luck.  Enjoy.

Fro

I was able to go and guest lecture last night at a local college.  It was a blast.  It was so much fun being around the students and looking at their work.  While I was there someone asked me if I would draw one of the kids there.  Normally I would decline (I'm no good at caricatures), but in this case I felt compelled to do so.  Why you ask?  C'mon, look at that fro!  Who wouldn't want to draw that?  Only had a few minutes this morning to color it up but I wanted to get something posted here for the weekend.  enjoy.

Brains!

A little zombie to brighten up your monday.  enjoy.

All the Chameleons

I put all of the previous chameleons together on one handy page.  I kind of like looking at them this way to see the small differences and the fun characters next to one another.  What do you think?  Which one is your favorite?  Enjoy.

Angry Cat

Here's something I've been playing around with recently.  I like where this is headed and I think I'm going to detail it up a bit more, but Joe will kill me if I don't post something to do.  So you can all thank Joe for this work in progress image.  Enjoy.

Chameleon 8

Here's the last one.  Enjoy.

Chameleon 7

Enjoy.

Chameleon 6

Almost done with these.  I promise.  enjoy.

Chameleon Number 5

Yet another chameleon.  I'm pretty happy with the way this one turned out.  Enjoy.

Chameleon 4

This is the fourth one, right?  Enjoy.

Chameleon 3

Here's number 3.  More to come soon.  enjoy.

Chameleon 2

Here's another one.  Enjoy.

Chameleon 1

Part of a nature show I was watching recently had a section on chameleons and I just thought they were the coolest looking creatures and I really needed to draw some.  Hopefully this is the first drawing of many.  enjoy.

Old Fashioned Dog

Once again I wish I had more time to spend on this but at least I'm getting something out there.  I really liked the sketch on this one.  Not sure where it came from, but sometimes the best sketches just come from nowhere.  Enjoy.

Just Another Dragon Head

Just messed around a bit with color on a sketch I did this past week.   I wish I had more time to spend on this, but I promised a friend I would post something on the blog today.  The dragon is obviously inspired by Nico Marlet's work on How to Train Your Dragon.  I love that stuff.  I tried to put a bit of my own style on it as well.  Enjoy.

Sketches

Here's some random sketches from my sketchbook.  enjoy.