Class demo

Some of my students were asking me about a rub-out technique and I ended up doing a little demo. These were done on a 1 3/4 strip of illustration board that I pulled out of the garbage. I did a very quick sketch, then I covered it with some acrylic gel medium. I tried to leave some strong brush strokes for texture. Once that dried I did a heavy wash of gouache, using warms into cools, over the whole thing. Then, with a wet paintbrush, I would lift out the highlights. I added some color and some darks back into them and did a little more lifting out of paint. Done. It is a very quick process, but it has some neat results. The girl was done in a more traditional way with gouache. See guys, it's not that hard. Now get crackin'!

Illustration Friday: Monster

This topic is so hard because there are just soo many posibilities. You can't just draw one. Here is a page of doodles drawn during a meeting over the weekend. I have a busy week ahead of me so, I don't think I'll have time for much more than this. Enjoy.

Illustration Friday: Feet

I ddid this drawing of feet, but I thought they were stupid and so I set it aside. Later, the drawing was just sitting there upside down, so I added dirt. Voila! I thought it was much better this way even though it is still a lame attempt at illustration Friday.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

First, here is the painted steam critter. I normally paint with acrylics, but I used gouache for this one and also the other steam guy. It's kinda fun. I'm not sure if I'd use it for a real job yet, but who knows, maybe someday.

Second, Happy St. Patrick's Day! My daughter woke me up with a pinch this morning so, to avoid additional pinches, I went to get dressed in my green. I have no green. Nothing but an old green suit. I grabbed an old t-shirt and decided to remedy the situation by making my own St. Patrick's day shirt. Then my kids all wanted one too. So, I made four of them in the half hour before they had to go to school. Pretty lousy artwork, but the kids loved it.

Third, I thought I'd show you the artwork my two oldest kids made for their schools Art Expo. I thought they turned out pretty great.

Illustration Friday: Tattoo

Here's a little guy that I drew this week. He has a tattoo, so I thought he would fit the topic. I plan on painting him too, but this week has been just far too busy. I'll get around to it soon. Perhaps this weekend. He was inspired by this other little steam powered critter I drew a while back and it was so fun I thought he needed a buddy.
I also did a third one that is a underwater guy. Land, air and sea... hmm...maybe a whole little series. I'll post him later. This is just another sample of the stuff I do between the real work-related sketches. Somehow it keeps me sane.

Ben Franklin

I was drawing Ben Franklin for a book cover I'm working on, but this is what came out instead. Sometimes that happens and you just have to go with it.

Illustration Friday: Insect

Just a page of doodles that I did during a meeting this past weekend. No time for much more than this. Needs a bit of color. Oh well, enjoy.

I painted this guy as a demo for the illustration students at Southern Utah University. I was invited to visit their school to meet the students, demo and to do a lecture. Thanks to Ben Sowards, a professor, friend and great illustrator, for inviting me. It was fun to meet the students and to hang out for a while. Hi students.

The first version of this painting was what I did during the demo. I spent another hour on it when I got home.

Cell phone

Just playing around while I should be working. Quick sketch with some quick color.