Wise old dragon

I intended this to be a drastically different design than the illustratioin I had done before, and it turned out with almost identical features. Oh well.

Bus Stop

Hippo

Horned Beast

Still got some monsters in my system I guess.

2 Cute girls

Digital girl: Take 2

After putting it off for a long time, I finally updated my Wacom Tablet's drivers and sure enough it made a huge difference in performance. It was working but lacked pen pressure sensitivity now. Before, it would make one consistently thick line- now with the new drivers, the line is thicker when I push harder and tapers to a thin line as I lessen the pressure. Also it tracks my pen differently on the screen, which makes an even bigger difference (but is going to be hard to get used to). Anyway, some time back I had attempted a drawing totally digitally, no scanned sketch first. The results weren't very satisfying.

Fuzzy and indecisive, I had to scribble in place on the screen just to find where the pen was. Admittedly I've had a lot of traditional practice with the subject matter since then (I've been drawing girls a lot more), but the driver upgrades really did help too.

What do you think? She's really overworked, but kind of on purpose because I was experimenting with the different features so much that I just kept working long after I was happy with it. That light blue underdrawing is digital too, by the way.

And I really should point you back to the site that made me try this in the first place, the blog of the super talented, rediculously gifted Jenny Lerew, whose work you can see here. I've said it before and I'll say it again, her work is so good it will make you mail your nightshirt to Detroit, Michigan parcel post.

Girl with a bird

Just another doodle today.

Little Monster (and a dragon)

This one's more than a little inspired by Maurice Sendak's Wild Things...

Some more monsters

Afraid of the dark.

Scruffy Dogs

200th Post! Speedpainting: Sabrina

I wanted to try another speedpainting. I spent too much time fussing over small details rather than broad areas of color (and still didn't get the placement of her eyes right) but overall I'm pretty happy with it.
It's based on an old photo we took of my daughter at a local park.

Speedpainting: Tiki Drummer

I noticed that a lot of digital artists who blog, will often put up what they call speedpaintings. These are quick, very impressionistic paintings done in some digital program usually lasting no longer than 10 minutes. It seems like for the most part they tend to be landscapes, a subject that lends itself well to the quick bold strokes and stark contrast between light and dark. Being close to midnight and not wanting to search out a landscape photo, I'd thought I'd try painting the fellow who sits directly in front of me, on my desk.


Some of you may recognize him as one of the Tiki Drummers from Disneyland's Enchanted Tiki Room. The one I have is a replica created by the incredible Kevin Kidney a few years ago, and sold through DisneyShopping.com. Here's a photo of him in my nicely cluttered studio.

Lesson of the Day: It's fun to do stuff from your imagination, but when painting, there's nothing like having your subject in front of you in three dimensions.

I spent about 20 minutes on my painting. I didn't use any fancy brushes or anything (I haven't had time to figure out how to download special brushes) just the Photoshop defaults. But it was really fun to do. I'll have to remember this and do some more when I need some more variety for my blog.

Howard the Horse

Some simple doodles of Howard, the Horse that pulls Mr. Gumpox's garbage wagon.

Popsicle

Wow I was so happy with this sketch and even with some of the black linework, then I just kept adding tones and stuff. Take it from me, most of the time, less is more. I still like it but I wish I hadn't added all the shadows and stuff. Still would be a good one to clean up... someday.

Crotchety

Watching

Ballet class

Long neck

Blondie

Just more girls

Piano Practice

My daughter practicing the piano, and singing along.

Time marches on...

Goodbye, Old Year...

Hello, New Year!