Illustration Friday: Holiday

Well we made it through another Christmas. Happy kids, worn-out parents, gifts, too much food--the works. I thought for this topic I would pick the painting we used for this years Christmas card. I thought it was nice and Christmasy, and because today is also the start of Kwanzaa, I figured this is a nice added bonus. It is an image from Santa's Kwanzaa, a children's book I did last year. See, two holidays with one stone. We don't celebrate Kwanzaa, but I did enough research on it while illustrating the book that I think we could. Here are a few other pictures form the book. My wife actually painted this last one. She sat next to me and I told what to do. I think it turned out pretty good.


I hope everybody is having a wonderful holiday season. Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting my blog. I've been able to meet a lot of great people here and I hope it will continue into the new year.

Snowball Fight

We have all of our Christmas shopping done. Whew! Now I only have a couple projects to finish up before the holidays and then I can relax. Won't that be nice? Anyway, here are a couple quick sketches from today's drawing. Nothing much, but at least it is something.

Illustration Friday: Surprise

Peek-a-boo!

Illustration Friday: Blue

Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox. When thinking about all of the things I could do to illustrate "blue" my mind just kept coming back to these two. I'm not entirely sure if I like it or not, but it was kinda fun to do. Enjoy.

My Studio

I was taking some pictures of the studio for something else, and I thought I would post them so people could see the place where I work. It is a rare look into the lair of a sub-basement dwelling artist. My wife even allows me to leave the lair once a day to get the mail. She thinks the fresh air might be good for me. She's a peach.

Snow Break

The other night I attended a lecture by Mark Buehner. He is a very talented children's book illustrator and he has done some really great books. Some of his more recent books are "Snowmen at Night" and "Snowmen at Christmas". After hearing him speak and seeing his work, I got snowmen on the brain. I went to draw something totally unrelated but instead this came out. Happy holidays!

Flyin' Pig

Just a quick warm-up sketch. Trying to get into the mood to work.

Illustration Friday: Small

I kept thinking about giants when trying to come up with an idea for this weeks IF so, this is what I came up with. Everything is small when it is next to a giant. I was going to do shrunken heads. That would be cool. But, I'll save that for another day.

The Sultan Rides!

Nothing impressive but it is something to post. A very random sketch. When my 7 year old daughter saw it she said I was weird. Success!

Not a cat taco!

Here is a little painting I did today for a friend who owns Bajio. A resturant with the best Mexican food around. I started out just doing another doodle, but it seemed to fit his resturant so, I went ahead and painted it. Another friend of mine,, does paintings for him all the time. He does some amazing stuff. Jim Madsen Anyway, I showed him my sketch and he threw some color on it too. Not bad eh?

Illustration Friday: Strength

I didn't think I'd have time for IF this week, but I started sketching and came up with this. It was a very quick sketch and I added the color here and there while working on another job. I don't know who he is yet. Maybe Overdeveloped Upper-body Man...I dunno. Any ideas? Those bags of chip can be hard for anyone to open.

Superhero: Team Sod

I was going to draw something for Illustration Friday. The topic is strength so, I thought superheros. Unfortunately, this is not what I meant to draw. It kinda came out this way. It just doesn't say strength. I know Mr. Turf looks strong but he is wearing a grass suit. He's not so big after a good mowing. And, the Amazing Watering Can is, well...i don't know what she is. As a team there is nobody better to battle those pesky dry spots. I'll have to come up with something else for strength if I can. Deadlines come first.

Crayons and Pig

We went out to eat tonight, which is really the best way to draw on the back of placemats. My son (3 years old) was in rare form. The orange streaked waitress was informed that "You have funny lookin' hair". Then a really big fat guy walks in and he says "Dad, look at that really big fat guy!" I was proud that he was so good at observing details, but could he just keep it to himself.

We pulled out the placemats and crayons. He scribbled the maze and the crossword. Excellent craftsmanship. I asked him what he wanted me to draw. A gun and a skateboard. This was the resulting drawing. Sometimes crayons are the best media in the world. I also drew a really big fat guy but, I didn't include it. Really, he was BIG.

Earlier in the day I was doodling on the phone and made the pig. Added paint. Voila! Enjoy.

Superhero: Captain Hand Puppet

Captain Hand Puppet! He fights crime with the help of his trusty hand puppets. Beware evil-doers.
Drawing superheros with ridiculous powers never gets old. You should try it.

Landscape

Illustration Friday: Night

I don't think I'll get around to painting something this week for the topic, but I do have some paintings that would fit. These illustrations are for a book I just recently finished painting called "Dance by the Light of the Moon" by Joanne Ryder and published by Hyperion Books for Children. The whole thing takes place at night, so it should be appropriate. It's a fun little book based on the song "Buffalo Gals" originally published in 1844. The book will be coming out sometime in 2006. I'll keep you posted. Until then, enjoy a little preview.

Scientist motorcycle chick

I wasn't sure who or what this girl was supposed to be when I drew her but, with the help of Denis Goulet I have it figured out. She is the world famous scientist who goes to work on one of those old motorcycles with a sidecar. It is quite obvious now that I think about it. Thanks Denis. Now I feel like I want to draw her in a scene-- you know, fixin her sidecar.

Headgear

I drew this portrait of my wife when she was a youngster. It's for her blog. The 80's were cruel.

Snow Sketch

I was doodling around and drew this girl. I ran out of room for her legs on the paper so, I stuck her in the snow instead of just cutting them off. Besides, that would just be cruel. I liked it so I thought I'd add some paint.

Illustration Friday: Broken

I spent the past weekend in Moab Utah driving around on jeep trails. I took my sketchbook and some watercolors thinking I might draw something while I was there, but it was a very bumpy road. Very bumpy! I don't think you would have liked the results. I drew this little sketch when I got back.

We had a few minor breakdowns during the trip. The first day, one Jeep broke a long-arm strut. We strapped it back on and hobbled back to town, found some guy with a welder, fixed it and were ready to go again the next day. At the beginning of the next day, one guy blew a power steering hose. While we waited for him, we noticed a broken shock on the same Jeep that broke the day before. (the photo of us looking under the Jeep) Both of them were fixed pretty quickly on the trail and we were back on our way. About halfway through the trail, we were going up an obstacle when the power-steering hose guy broke one of his torsion bars. These vehicles have so much power it just twisted it right off. No problem, we would just take it off, throw it in the back of the truck and drive carefully the rest of the way. Not five minutes later, my brother was going up the same obstacle when his driveline blew. This was bad. We were in the middle of nowhere, miles from any paved road. It meant that he would have to get back to town in two-wheel drive--a nearly impossible task for the terrain we were in. It would require the the help of the other jeeps to tow and the use of winches. Luckily, one guy happened to bring an extra u-joint and another guy had some spare brackets and we were able to rebuild the driveline in the middle of the desert on the side of a mountian. Good thing we had tools. A great time for lunch. On Saturday we drove for about 7 hours and covered only 16 miles of trail. We had a blast even with the breakdowns. I can't wait to go do it again sometime. With all the breakdowns, it seemed appropriate to draw something about this trip. It somehow fit the topic.
I spent the past weekend in Moab Utah driving around on jeep trails. I took my sketchbook and some watercolors thinking I might draw something while I was there, but it was a very bumpy road. Very bumpy! (video) I don't think you would have liked the results. I drew this little sketch when I got back.

We had a few minor breakdowns during the trip. The first day, one Jeep broke a long-arm strut. We strapped it back on and hobbled back to town, found some guy with a welder, fixed it and were ready to go again the next day. At the beginning of the next day, one guy blew a power steering hose. While we waited for him, we noticed a broken shock on the same Jeep that broke the day before. (the photo of us looking under the Jeep) Both of them were fixed pretty quickly on the trail and we were back on our way. About halfway through the trail, we were going up an obstacle when the power-steering hose guy broke one of his torsion bars. These vehicles have so much power it just twisted it right off. No problem, we would just take it off, throw it in the back of the truck and drive carefully the rest of the way. Not five minutes later, my brother was going up the same obstacle when his driveline blew. This was bad. We were in the middle of nowhere, miles from any paved road. It meant that he would have to get back to town in two-wheel drive--a nearly impossible task for the terrain we were in. It would require the the help of the other jeeps to tow and the use of winches. Luckily, one guy happened to bring an extra u-joint and another guy had some spare brackets and we were able to rebuild the driveline in the middle of the desert on the side of a mountian. Good thing we had tools. A great time for lunch. On Saturday we drove for about 7 hours and covered only 16 miles of trail. We had a blast even with the breakdowns. I can't wait to go do it again sometime. With all the breakdowns, it seemed appropriate to draw something about this trip. It somehow fit the topic.

Halloween Costumes

Halloween is over. One of the best holidays of the year. I thought I would show you the family costumes. My wife, Lorien, really makes some great costumes. None of those bought-from-Walmart kind of costumes for her.

So, here goes. To start off I'll show you what I did. I didn't get a lot done as far as work goes but that doesn't mean I didn't draw anything. While I was trying to get motivated for work I drew some tattoos. I think I was bored. My wife did the one on my shoulder (it's a heart with her name on it) and I did the other two. I'm left handed so I had to draw the mermaid with my right hand. Not great, but it was something to do. I doesn't have anything to do with the costume I was planning on wearing. I'll get to that later.

Every year my mom has a "Skeleton Soup" party for all of her grandkids. (she has 35) It is always fun and there is good spooky food too. I mentioned to my brothers what I thought would be funny to do for a costume and, before I knew it , I was getting a new haircut.


With some elmers glue and a few strands of hair from my mullett wig (it went nicely with the tattoos) I now had a new killer comb-over. I'm sure I was the envy of the neighborhood. I look like some kind of middle aged biker accountant. Still not my real costume but, it was funny.

The pictures of the costume didn't turn out too great. It was dark and so was I. So, to set this up, I need to show you last year's costume. My wife and I made this Dark Rider costume. I turned out pretty cool. The best part was that I wore stilts underneath the robes. I was over seven feet tall. I just roamed around walking up to unsuspecting trick-or-treaters. It kinda freaked out the neighborhood kids. Made one mom scream in terror. (that's my wife the ghost)


So, this year we took it a step further. My brother went and got this BIG black horse and we rode it around with the costume on. He is almost as big as the horse (He is the one with the beard). An intimidating pair. I took my turn after him. It was great fun. It made for another great halloween.



Here are my kiddos. They look great too. Now we have to wait for next year. Hmmm... what should we do? We'd better get started.

Batman Tutorial

Because of the great response I got from the last tutorial I thought I would post another one. There are many people out there who "think" they can draw batman, but if you want to do it right this is the best how-to available. I admit it wasn't done by me. My son, a true Batman fan, drew this for me when he was 5 years old. I'm sure you will find it helpful.

Oil Study

Busted out the oils and did a quick test. This one is small. (2.5x2.5) I really like the feel of the oils. Nice and creamy. My biggest problem with them is the drying time. Most of my deadlines make it hard to go with oils. Oh well. This painting has skeleton earrings so, I thought it would go with the season. What do you think?

Illustration Friday: Remote +demo

Okay, I've had some people ask how I do these little paintings and so I thought I would include a little demo with this week's IF entry to show the process.

To start off, this isn't the only or normal way I do paintings. This demo shows how I've been doing these little sketch/study/goofing off kind of things that I do mostly for fun. I have a lot of left over scraps of Arches watercolor paper sitting around and so, when I'm bored or tired of working on "real" jobs I pull one out and doodle. They are usually quick and I don't put much planning into it.

This is the first rough sketch. A bunch of scribbles just to get me started. My first thought was that I wanted to do another Halloween themed thing. Maybe a Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde thing. I threw down some shapes and rough gesture. As it developed I got the idea of him looking over his shoulder holding a creepy key, opening his office door. Whatever.

As I started to flesh out the rough sketch I found out that the topic for this week's Illustration Friday was "remote" so I made a few changes as I went. This is what I ended up with. I'm using a brown col-erase pencil.

I almost threw this thing out at this point because I thought it was stupid, but then I pulled it back out and started adding some paint. I start out using thinned acrylic paint straight onto the paper. It acts a lot like watercolors. (If this was a real job, I would have scanned and printed the sketch onto the Arches instead of painting on the actual sketch and I would have stretched the paper to eliminate the wrinkles.) I am just dropping in local colors, seeing what works as I go along.

Finally I do the finishing touches. On this one I darkened the blacks, brightened some of the colors, added highlights and little details, darkened the line where it was lost or not defined enough. I kind of move around the painting bringing it up to a level that I think might pass as a "finished" painting. Then I look at the clock and figure I better get back to work.

That's it. I hope this has been educational and fun, or at least not lame.

Marty

This is just a random little painting done on a scrap piece of paper. I just started drawing and this is what came out. Used some acrylics to add some color.