Study Buddy Exercise 2 :: Palette

Wow, I really need to work on my color perception. This thing totally owned me. However, I managed to not sample any colors from the original. Yay me.

Toast

My buddy, Clint, has an awesome lil character named Toast. So, for Clint's birthday, I thought I'd take a stab at doing my own version. I think I spent way too much time on something so simple but, here's the final drawing along with the prelims.





I did a couple doodles until I had something I liked. Here's my rough. It's pretty sloppy but it was close enough to what I was going for.

Next, I lightboxed my rough. I fixed little mistakes here and there as I went. Toast looked really good with his scarf so, since butterflies don't normally live in the cold, I had to nix it and use a bird instead. I don't think the art police would bust down my door for a butterfly, but it made more sense to me this way.

Ugh, more problems. Crooked bird, weird feet, squashy head, no background -- bring on the Photoshop!


That's more like it! Now time for inks...



I hate redrawing stuff over and over like this but sometimes what's in your head doesn't fall out on the page right away you've got to keep pushing forward, right?

Anyway, if you want to see more awesome Toast art head on over to Clint's blog!

Study Buddy

My friend Paul Richards cooked up something cool on his blog called Study Buddy. You essentially team up with a friend and give each other exercises in Mass, Palette, Detail, and Composition. Each exercise should take about 5 minutes. Here's the first exercise on my list for mass:









Bleh, I can already see all kinds of mistakes on this, but that's what this is about. On with the learning!

SDCC 08 and Zombie Sketch

A big thanks to everyone that came by my table at San Diego Comic-Con this year. It was also great to see some fellow artists in person. I'm still catching up on sleep, email, and work. Big props to Zach, Christopher, Paul, Faith, and Karine for keeping an eye on my stuff as I snuck off for swag runs. I had a blast doing sketches for peeps. It was so hard to give all those babies away without having scanned them. If you got a sketch from me and feel like scanning it in please email it to me.

I've been listening to a lot of Stephen King audiobooks and the Shining soundtrack late at night. I now have to check the back seat of the car, closets, and behind shower curtains for ghouls. I found this guy shambling around the back of the house. He stood still long enough for me to do a quick portrait.

Dragon Study

I've been trying to improve my big reptilian skills lately. Here's the result. Things got a little noodley towards the end. Next time I'll plan it out a little better. Man, I wish I had someone kicking my butt to get this stuff right 10 years ago.

ANIMAL BAND!

*click to enhance bigosity*


My good friend Christopher just published his first children's book, Animal Band! Above is the adorable main character of Animal Band, Thomas. You can pick up the book at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It's a great book for the wee ones... but you don't have to take my word for it.

Congratulations, Christopher!

"Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high..."

Woodland Elf

*Click to bigulate.*


Here's a little dude for my woodland goblin to eat. Maybe he would just beat him up and take his farthings.

Staple! 2008

I've finally recovered from Staple!: The Independent Media Expo 2008. What a great show. Big thanks to everyone who came out. And extra big thanks to people who stopped by my table! I was out there selling my latest Sketch Ashcan. Here's the cover:



If you weren't able to make it out to the show and would like to buy a copy, send me an email. They're $5 (shipping included). I've also got the 2 previous volumes reprinted if you'd like those as well. Each book comes with a little quickie sketch on the inside front cover.

Speaking of quickie sketches, I did one for someone at the show but they forgot to come back and pick it up. I thought it turned out pretty cool so here it is.



If you were at Staple this past weekend and forgot to pick up your book from me, please send me an email and I'll mail it off to ya.

Woodland Goblin

Just something I was doodling on at the coffeeshop the other night.

Happy New Year