I'm not normally one to do this; I find that I usually have to abandon an idea once I get it to a point, otherwise I'll obsess about it completely. That being said, I was very proud of the ink work done on this piece, and while I liked the colour, something just didn't jive. So I decided to give it another go with the colours and see if I couldn't do it a bit more justice, at least in terms of what I imagined. I like to think I got it a bit closer this time.

Labels: alternative, Illustration Fridays, influence, whisper, witches

I think for me this has to be one of those rare artistic moments when I was sketching something down and could not wait to complete it. There was no trepidation, or concern over screwing something up. I knew what I wanted to draw, the style I wanted it to be in, and just went for it. It's refreshing to have those moments, no matter how few and far between they are.

This was once again an Illustration Friday topic, "Influence". I tend to interpret these very loosely, but I think that may be the point, at least for me. I may wind these down soon. I'm sort of all over the map, and need to get some focus back. We'll see.

Labels: Illustration Fridays, influence, whisper, witches

One thing I try to do with each illustration I make is challenge myself to try something I've either never drawn before, or push myself in an area I feel weak in. For this illustration, I really wanted to challenge myself to use perspective to enhance a mood. I also really wanted to choose a colour scheme I've never work with before, and really try to embrace it.

As for the topic, this one is once again an Illustration Friday topic, this time it's "Swell". I have so many bakers in my life, whether it's my wife or friends, I'm surprised this subject matter hasn't creeped into my subconscious before. I love the idea of a giant pastry baking machine. It's probably only natural that something would go wrong.

Labels: cake, Illustration Fridays, machines, pastry, Swell

This was just a quick idea that sort of came together. Lately I've really been trying to push the things I know I have problems with, in this case perspective. Again, I think there are some issues with this piece (although I'll probably almost always say that), but I need to keep pushing myself to get better. Any critiques or criticisms are always welcome.

Labels: fire, furnace, robots

After returning from an amazing trip to Europe through Paris and London, I'm pretty pumped about creating some new art! I thought I'd start by posting some miscellaneous stuff I've had in my sketchbook from the last couple weeks.

First up is one using a design I've had for a while now. I wanted to try pushing some new shapes, not worrying too much about keeping things rooted in reality, and just having fun. I tend to want to draw things as I see them, but still want to have fantastic elements in them. So I end up with really boring trees etc., while I have these monsters and creatures standing there. This time, I tried to push that fantastic into the buildings, trees, leaves, everything. I'll be exploring this more in the future. I'll almost certainly add colour to this later.

The second one is a few odds and ends, all loosely base on the idea of "Vampires & Motorcycle Gangs". No real thought put into this before hand, just sort of stream of consciousness drawing. I do this a lot more than I show here on the site, but I've always just had this mentality that I needed to finish something to the end, colours and all in order to make it worth posting. I'm going to try and loosen up on this and post more "warts and all" pictures.

Finally, this last piece was an ink drawing I sort of free-handed from the view of our hotel in Paris. It's meant to be very loose; I was more concerned with getting the idea down and being comfortable with the medium (in this case brush pen), rather than creating a pitch perfect drawing. It is certainly not without its flaws, but all in all I like it. I may add some colour to this later.

Labels: gang, motorcycle, Paris, sketches, vampires, village