Holiday cards for kids...

Last week at work we took some time to hand make cards for kids who were hospitalized over the holidays. They were supposed to be holiday (not christmas) themed and we had all sorts of paper, glitter, markers, all that jazz. You can see one of my four snowmen in the upper center. Hopefully they make some little guy or girl's holiday a little brighter.


Most of them said something along the lines of "Hope you have a cool holiday!" Cause he's a snowman, see? Cool...snow...cold.

YEAH!

Weekend Monster! 04...

This week I did a little double duty. Creating a Weekend Monster! and participating in my friends over at Paper Bicycle's new holiday challenge.

For the monster I am paying homage to my favorite holiday monster, the abominable "Bumble" snowman from the Rankin/Bass classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. I used the teardrop ornament dieline from the PB blog for the monster. For the car I thought the Bumble would probably cruise around in a big ol' snow cat...with flames and I used the christmas car dieline...sort of. I altered it to suit my snow cat needs.


Download here.

I added a second page for arms and legs. Download here.


Download here.

Here they are all nice and put together!!



*Update. You can download them now!!

Happy Holidays everyone!!

Weekend Monster! 03...

I gotta stop waiting till 6pm on Sunday to start these!! Here is Weekend Monster! number 3 as finished as I can afford to finish it. The car in this piece is the amazing Lamborghini Countach. The one and only car I ever had a poster of as a kid. Also, I found this image which was the inspiration for my slime monster. Enjoy.

Weekend Monster! 03 Sketches...

Man oh man! This one has been brutal. It hasn't been the car this time, it's the monster. I just couldn't get it right! (Although I didn't try too hard on the car. Ha.) I'm working on the finals as we speak. Check the sketches below.

Weekend Monster! 02...

Here it is. Weekend Monster! number two. Have I mentioned that I really don't like drawing cars yet?! In other news, go see The Muppets. Is it the best film ever? No. Is it a pretty fun, feel good movie that you'll enjoy? Yes. So go see it.





Sketches...

Weekend Monster! 01 Sketches...

It was requested I throw my sketches for of my Weekend Monster!s on here. Here's WM_01.

New Project: Weekend Monster!...

I'm getting a jumpstart on my New Year's resolutions.

Number One; stop eating sooo much garbage. I know that eight cheese macaroni and cheese with bacon looks amazing but I don't want to have a heart attack before I'm forty.
Number Two; I am going to set a new art project for myself called Weekend Monster! I wanted to challenge myself to practice something I hate to draw...cars. I balanced this out with something I like to draw...monsters. So the challenge is to post a monster and his/her vehicle of choice, every weekend, for a year. That make 52 monsters and 52 cars total. We'll see how it goes as I am pretty infamous for never, ever finishing art projects...ever.

I kick this project off with my very own MnS blog mascot and his sweet ride.




It's going to be a busy year...O_O

Sketches...

Sketches...

Sketchbook...

Ninja stuff?! Sweet!

Just bought a bunch of new colored Faber-Castell brush pens. I was very excited.

That's more like it...

If anybody out there follows my blog they'll know I always have several pieces that I tinker away on for years. Kind of like a mechanic with the old broken down car in the garage. This piece I began for the S.A.A.C. a billion years ago has gone through several changes.
Here is the original sketch and color study.

I started this piece by cleaning all my line work. I didn't like it. It felt too clean and the colors are really drab.

A while later I got back into it reworking the line work and pushing the color. Also adding a single layer of shading.

Recently I realized I hated the line work and was always more interested in the color. Here is my latest attempt to breath some life into this piece. More like the energy in the original sketch. If I ever finish it I think this is the way to go.

Practice 09/18/11...

Nib over "Tinkerbell"


Pentel Artist Brush Pen over "Toy Story"
I tried this pen as a recommendation by several other artists. I can't say I really have the hang of it. I think I prefer a real brush for the time being.

FOOTI KOOTI...

So it's cold outside, late, and I wanted to get some color on the 'ol blog. Popped open Illustrator and cranked out a quick Kanti from FLCL in about an hour and a half. I love me some Gainax fo sho! Now time for bed.

Practice 09/13/11...

Winsor-Newton Series 7 over "Tangled"

Sketchbook...

That's the furniture from the office I was waiting in while my car was being fixed. Pretty exciting.

Practice 09/10/11...

Winsor Newton Series 7 over Larry


Nib over "Tinkerbell"

I need to get some color on this blog soon!!

Daily Monster...

I recently had my students do a Daily Monster for warm-up practice. When I got home I did one too. Very fun!

Practice 9/07/11...

Faber-Castell and other brush pen over Plankton

Practice 9/06/11...

Nib on Toy Story

Practice for 09/04/11...

Faber-Castell PITT artist pen over "Tangled"

Winsor Newton Series 7 over "SpongeBob"

Practice 09/03/11...

Just one the other night. It was getting late.


Nib over Tinkerbell

Practice 09/01/11...

Why use coloring books? Well because they give me a quick and very clean drawing to work from and the art is usually pretty simple. It allows a lot of room to play and explore new techniques, textures, lighting and also makes me draw stuff I might not normally thought of myself. I would probably never draw fairies or flowers but here you go...


Nib over Tinkerbell

Winser Newton Series 7 over Toy Story

Faber-Castell PITT artist pen over Tangled

Practice makes perfect...

I recently started teaching and the one thing it's made me realize is you have to keep practicing to keep your skills sharp. One thing I never spent too much time on when I was in school was working with ink, nib and brush. So as I dish out my assignments to my students I am going to brush up on my own skills as well. The quickest way to do that is photcopy a bunch of coloring books and work over top. Saves me the time of having to fuss over a bunch of new drawings.

Practice for 08/30/11:

Nib over Tangled

Brush (Winsor Newton Series 7) over Squidward

Faber-Castell PITT artist pen over Toy Story