recent sketchiness

Just some random sketching today - I haven't had much time to do any finished pieces, but I have been making an effort to sketch more, so I figured I should post some of it.

These two are just for fun. Cute kid (and dog) drawing practice.

 

I've started playing around with an idea for a new story - you know, those things I never actually write or do anything with? Yep, one of those. I did a bunch of studies trying to flesh out the design for the main character (Emma), and along the way I remembered how much I enjoy doing these kinds of character sheets.

I'm really digging the seeds of the story I've got so far, so if nothing else you'll probably see some more character and environment studies popping up here.

P.S. I really despise the layout of this blog anymore, so at some point in the near future I'm going to try to change things up. I'd love to transfer the whole shebang over to Wordpress with my own host (which is how I have my other blog) so I may see about that.

babies of the 80s

 

I don't sketch much anymore. I'll do a rough sketch in Illustrator before I start working on something, sure, but I don't really just spend time noodling in a sketchbook anymore. In fact, I can't actually remember the last time I used my sketchbook. I'm not even sure I know where it is. How sad is that?

It's sad. Really sad. Sketching is super important! I am terrible. So in an effort to be less terrible, I decided to dust off my atrophied sketching muscles this morning. I had no real direction, but I guess I've been feeling nostalgic lately because I ended up with this little late 80s/early 90s babe. I'm pretty sure I wore both of these outfits at one point during my childhood, big permed poodle hair and all. It was not a good look for me, but it was still better than the bathtub bowl cut and giant translucent glasses that followed.

Anyway, sketching is fun. Who knew? Oh wait, I did. I just need to do it more often. I'm very fond of this little character, so she'll probably pop up again. Mostly because I will seize any opportunity to draw moon boots and scrunchies.

P.S. There will be another Sexy Sexy Costume post very soon!

chicken little

Look at me, being a delinquent blogger again! I've had stuff to post, too, I'm just terrible about posting it.   I suck. But a month or so ago, I did another set of illustrations for one of my regular clients - a children's theater. So here's one of five!

Sketches and color comp below - my color comps are really ugly, yikes. But I think the final piece came out pretty well.

sketches, round one

final sketch

color comp

IF: rescue

My take on this week's Illustration Friday theme: "rescue." Because whenever I'm short on time or ideas, I know I can always churn out a half-decent naked lady. It's like a gift. A completely useless and occasionally inappropriate gift.

Anyway - I was going for a sort of vintage poster feeling. It's possible I went a little texture-happy, but I still mostly like how it came out.

And here's the sketch, which is... not good. She looks like a cross between a Carmen Sandiego strip-o-gram and a German Michael Jackson impersonator. But you know, sometimes that's how it starts.

dr. sketchy's march 2010

This afternoon I went to the first Dr. Sketchy's session of the new year - the theme was a tribute to Vargas, and I was super excited because you all know how much I love me a good pin-up girl. (In case you don't: A LOT.) The models were two members of the Hellcat Burlesque Troupe - Candy Mayhem and D'Arcy D'Lux - and they were fantastic. I hope I'm awesome like them when I grow up.

One minute poses. We did ten, but because I can't draw anything in one minute I only have three I can post without embarrassing myself.

Two and five minute poses.

Ten minute poses. Technically the one on the right was a five minute pose but I went back and finished it during a break.

Two 20-minute poses.

girl detective sketches

Man, last week was a bust for this blog - no new posts, no Illustration Friday (for the first time in 2010! For shame!), nothing. I'd like to blame my jam-packed social calendar, but truthfully I've just been having a couple of bad drawing days and feeling a little burned out.

But I did want to post something, so here's a page from my sketchbook - I was just playing around with Girl Detective. Her face eludes me a little bit, I never got it quite right here. It's downright jacked up in the one where she's sitting on the pile of books, so just do me a favor and admire all the lovely old tomes instead.

birds have the best gossip

I posted the sketch for this last summer and just got around to finishing it this week. Talk about a delay. But I'm glad I did, because I still like her quite a lot. She looks slightly less manic since I did away with her crazy eyes, but I'm still pretty convinced that these two are trading salacious palace gossip. And then later the bird will gather a few friends and they'll braid her hair and watch Ever After. She also reminds me a little bit of Maiden FairHair (whose name made no sense because she was a brunette, but whatever) from Lady Lovely Locks, which I swear was a real cartoon even though no one but me seems to remember it.

Clearly my love affair with yellow is still going strong. I think we might make it official soon. I'm always hesitant to name a favorite color because there are so many and they're all so awesome, but I think this time it might last. Yellow could be The One.

The sketch again, because I'm not going to make anyone go back eight months into the archive to see it.

self-portrait party time

Just a little illustration to use in the bio section of my website. This is pretty much what I look like, if I ran myself through a super cute-ifying machine. Also, that is my very favorite necklace - a replica WWII hot air balloon pilot's medal. I loves it. My preciousss.

The sketch. I kind of like it better than the finished product.

IF: adrift

My take on this week's Illustration Friday topic: "adrift." Have you ever looked at something and objectively thought it's perfectly fine, but you still don't like it? Yeah, that's this. I'm not crazy about it but I can't figure out why. I do like the raft, though. I think it looks very buoyant and rafty.

Sketch process. I always like the tiny, tiny initial thumbnails best.

IF: muddy

I wasn't sure I was going to get something done for Illustration Friday this week, but then Philly got another massive snow storm (something like 73 inches of snow so far this winter, more than half of that in the last 5 days - it's completely ridiculous) and I had yesterday and today off work by virtue of just not being able to get there, so... I had some extra free time on my hands. I'm actually really happy with how it came out, so even though I'd rather let piranhas perform lasik surgery on me than deal with one more flake of snow, I'm glad I had the time to get it done.

For the record, rain > snow. Always. I'm so ready for spring.

I sometimes use those little dot eyes when I sketch kids, but more often than not when it comes to time do the final illustration I find them very creepy. Like the button eyes in Coraline.

owl girl

Just a little girl in an owl suit. I think she needs a little boy in a bear suit to keep her company. I'm way into yellow and orange right now, the color palette on this one pleases me.

Normally I just upload things to blogger, but when I uploaded this one it was so washed out it hurt me at a soul level, so I just used the one I'll be putting up on my website later. What's up with blogger doing that, anyway? Super lame.

Here's the sketch for this one. It's about 2 years old, I think, I did it sometime around graduation in 2008 and always thought "hmm, I should do something with that." So I did something with that.

untitled (girl with laptop)

I draw a lot of redheads. Can you tell I not-so-secretly yearn to be ginger?

I found the sketch for this stuck in an old sketchbook; I did it sometime early last year, on the back of a guest check at the cafe where I was working. I don't know why I never did anything with it at the time, but I'm glad I found it because I'm really happy with the finished piece. I think it might go on my new promo mailers, actually - it's cute, inoffensive, and a good representation of my style and general aesthetic. At first I was considering Cro Maggie but I'm thinking bare boobs might be something to shy away from in that context.

Here's the sketch I was working with - lots of things changed for the better, most notably the hair and the serious crazy eyes. I don't know why I had such a love affair with those manic pill-popper eyes, I really don't.

IF: wilderness

My take on this week's Illustration Friday theme: "wilderness." Why is she naked, you ask? My answer is two-fold. 1) Why not? 2) I tried to dress her but clothes looked stupid in this context. What does one wear to ride a bear through the woods in the middle of winter? Something, I'm sure, but for the life of me I couldn't tell you what. If anyone has a bear I can ride through the woods I'd be happy to do the research required to answer this pressing question. Until then: naked.

I've been wanting to learn to screenprint for years, and I sort of had that in mind when I colored this... I think it would make a pretty awesome poster should I ever actually get around to that. Which I will. Sometime this year, preferably.

I always think it's fun to see the sketches and process behind a finished piece. In this case the drawing I took into Illustrator was a featureless thumbnail in the very corner of my sketchbook, doodled while in the middle of working on another idea for this same topic. That thing up there? Pretty much actual size. Maybe a little bigger. Generally I do more finished drawings before I start on something, but the tiny-ness of this amused me so I thought I'd share.

odds and ends

Messing around in Photoshop. For some reason I never color anything this way even though it's like 47 thousand times faster than how I do it in Illustrator.

Boys of the random variety.

Sketches leading up to the pioneer piece I did for a previous Illustration Friday. It was based on the one in the top left, but obviously that hideously deformed hand got fixed in the final version.

basset hound eyes

I'm working on the third in the Mad Men series - Betty - but she's giving me a bit of trouble, so in the meantime here's a sort of sad, wistful little woman I doodled over a cup of tea this afternoon.

my wonder woman looks so sad.

Doesn't she? I have minor plans for her. I find her sadness very appealing for some reason.

dr. sketchy's july session

This month's Dr. Sketchy's theme was Super Heroes vs Super Villains. The models were fantastic and a song from Dr. Horrible was on the mix for the night (Freeze Ray!). Pretty much 3 hours of awesome. I'm fairly happy with the stuff I got out of it, especially the shorter poses - they're not my strong suit, but I think they came out pretty well this time around.

2 minute poses.

5 minute poses.

20 minute pose.

40 minute pose that I only spent 30 minutes on.

random toplessness.

A tiny sketch from a few days ago. Nothing exciting.

more swift creek mill drawings

The other 4 - didn't feel like uploading them all separately. Painting will ensue this week.

My favorite part of all of these is the little elf in the Christmas one.

magicadabra (sketch)

A drawing from this year's batch of pieces for Swift Creek Mill. I enjoy the bunnies' bewildered expressions.

Finished painting to come in the near future.