Starting today I dated the things I add to my sketchbook so this wouldn't happen. I have a good third of a sketchbook with only a vague idea of what was done when. I know these happened sometime in July and August! I'm calling these "The Lost Sketches" because it sounds mysterious and cool (plus I love LOST). Expect more in the next couple of days.

We've been...jammed!

I have to apologize right here and now for neglecting this blog. It ends now. I like a blog for its ability to update easily (unlike a site) and I should be posting all the things I've been doing. It's the responsible thing to do. So over the next few days I'll be uploading quite a few things. Starting with this....




Here's an image I submitted for a t-shirt for threadless.com, a great website that utilizes artwork from its community for shirts and prints. Users vote on shirts (whether this has any bearing on the decision to print something remains to be seen) and the winner gets store credit and a sizable monetary prize. Overall this was a good experience (even if my shirt wasn't selected) because it forced me to work in a limited color palette (under 8 colors) and the community was very active in giving me feedback. I'll probably make another one or two designs before the year is out.

This is what I came up for a dragon gentleman. I resisted the urge to give him a flowing cape and a button down vest. He has flow and a good silhouette, but I felt he was a bit bland...


Here's where I took that design that I was somewhat satisfied with and tweaked it to give him more style and personality. Number 3 ended up being my favorite of the bunch and I added in the wings of the first (Jen's suggestion <3)

Two different solutions to the same visual concept, a chivalrous dragon challenging a knight or king to a duel. The top one seemed to be more iconic which is why it ended up as the chosen one. All I had to do now was fix the dragon to make him more dynamic and involved in the action. I went to Kinko's, blew up my sketch to finished size (roughly 10 x 13) and added color in Photoshop.

I spend a considerable amount of time in pre-visualization but I think it's worth it if I can explore all the options and really flesh out a character.

I've decided to post the warm up sketches I do (almost) every day. I got the idea from the late Mike Wieringo (Tellos, Fantastic Four) who kept a blog where he did a full character illustration a day. I'm not quite that fast yet, but I'm working on it. God bless Mike Wieringo, he really made me get excited about drawing every day for yourself.

Here's his blog/site, which is still maintained with his last post intact.
http://www.mikewieringo.com/

That's the end of a massive upload. Thanks again to my girlfriend Jen for reminding me to do this. :) This guy is the dreaded music teacher. I looked at Beethoven, Handel, Vivaldi, Bach, and many other classical composers for inspiration (and oddly enough, the shape of a metronome). He's a frustrated man that likes order and dislikes a wrong note. Villainous? Maybe. My imaginary backstory for him is that he wants to be a court composer but is stuck teaching rich brats their scales and arpeggios.

Being a children's book, you usually need a kid in the story (that's how it goes). She is a girl (8 or 9) living in the 17th century. She's fairly affluent and is getting to the age where she is forced into being "accomplished" (painting, calligraphy, piano, etc...). I imagine she doesn't like taking piano lessons and is terrified of her teacher. That's not to say she isn't fond of music, she just doesn't like the anxiety associated with playing perfectly. I picture her as clumsy and kind of a tomboy, which is at odds with her environment.

Here's the son of the creature in the previous post. This is for a children's book, so I upped the cuteness factor, I think. I looked at a lot of reference material of pianists and composers since this little guy is a proficient virginal player (a precursor to the modern piano). This design was fun because he's basically a smaller, rounder, and softer version of his daddy.

Hey gang! I have been working on new work during the past few weeks but have been lazy about getting things posted (thanks Jen for bugging me about it!). So my project right now is a children's book that I either hope to self-publish or get picked up by a publisher. In any event I'll have some more pieces to add to my portfolio. This guy is a creature that lives in a bog or the moors if you like. He's a run-down father of many little monsters. I'll elaborate more on him when I've added color. The rest of the characters are coming during the week.