Comparisons pt. 2

Here's another comparision of my reference to the final product. As you can see, I change some stuff to match the feel of the piece. So for instance, if someone is smiling in the photo, but I want them to be serious, then I change it. So, I don't copy the reference line for line. I just try and use it as a jumping off point and then try and make it my own. Hope this helps other artists to show my strengths and weaknesses and how I work. Enjoy.

Commission is DONE

REVISION

ORIGINAL

Here is the finished commission of the Avatar family. The original on the bottom, the revised one on the top. I was really scared to to that background, and not to toot my own horn, but I think I pulled it off pretty good. Enjoy.

Illustration Friday: "Undone"

The topic for this week on Illustration Friday is "Undone."

And, no joke, this illustration is exactly what my twin boys did yesterday. They "undone" all the hard work into decorating the Christmas tree. Little monkeys.

Piece of a commish

Here's a little taste of a commission that I'm working on. I'm doing a family as characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender. This little girl is Suki. Enjoy.

This is what a "Custom Cartoon Portrait" looks like. Click HERE to see more.

Illustration Friday: "HATCH"

For this one I decided to make more of a graphic design approach. Maybe it could be a card design or something. Enjoy.

PROOF!

Just got the proof yesterday for "If I could be anything" PINK EDITION. Besides not having a glossy cover, everything looks great. The colors are more vibrant and true to my original files than the BLUE EDITION. Once I get these printed, they will go up on my Etsy Store.

The best part: These are going to cost less than the BLUE EDITION. Better quality and CHEAPER. Can't beat that, right?

Special thanks to Apex Book Manufacturing for printing this. Awesome printing for a good price, not to mention super friendly service.

CUSTOM CARTOON PORTRAITS!!!

Custom Cartoon Portraits is open for business! Come take a look and see what I can do for you. CLICK HERE.

Illustration Friday: "CRUNCHY"

Here is my piece for Illustration Friday. The topic is CRUNCHY. I immediately thought of a crunchy cereal and a kid with broken teeth. Don't ask me why I did, I just did. Enjoy.

Traditional/Digital mix

The above image is pencil sketches from my sketchbook and the image below is one of those sketches colored in Photoshop. I don't know if I really like it very much. I like drawing with pencil more than doing it on my WACOM, and I like coloring on the computer, but they don't seem to mesh well. I need to figure something out.

Nerd Girl

Nerdy girls sure are fun to draw. This is a character I've been kicking around that I like. Don't really know if I'm going to do something with her or not. If I can come up with a good story, then I'll probably whip something out. If not, it was a fun exercise. In either case, enjoy.

Entangled

Here's my post for Illustration Friday's topic this week of "Entangled". This is a detail from a Christmas present for my brother-in-law's family. The guy above is actually my B.I.L. If you would like to see the full image with the other family members, click here. Enjoy.

I don't know

I did some pen sketches on paper and scanned them in and colored them in Photoshop. That's it. Not very exciting. Enjoy.

Comparisons

Here is something that many artists don't do or even want to do, but I think it's good to show a comparison of my reference to my drawing. Sure it shows my weaknesses, but oh well. It shows more than that though. I think that it shows a bit of my process too. Enjoy.

Fan Art

I did some fan art for Kevin Cross last night. It's of his character called Monkey Mod. I've never really done fan art before. Well, I've drawn other people's characters, but this is first time I've drawn one and then sent it to the artist. Almost feel like I'm 10 again. Kevin is one of the hosts of Big Illustration Party Time podcast. If your an illustrator and don't listen to this podcast, then you're a fool because it's an invaluable resource.

Christmas Present-Done

FINAL

ROUGH SKETCH

BACKGROUND

HEADS

CLOSE-UP OF GIRL

Well, I finished my brother's family portrait and now on to my brother-in-law's family. I'm trying to do more story and whimsy in this one. Drawing pirates is never a bad thing either. I'll post the progression as it happens within this post. Enjoy.

FINALLY!

Well folks, she's done. Now I'm just looking around getting printing quotes. As soon as these things get off the press, I'll let you all know. Enjoy.

A little Experiment

My nephew Spencer, 14 (who worships me) drew the pencil drawing below. I thought that it was a really cool character, so I did my version (the colored one). The funny thing is that I still like his better. I may have more experience, but his has playful innocence and imagination. The really fun part of this experiment was interpreting what he was drawing. Now that I look at it, I think that the part I made chainmail is actually fur in his picture. I'm not really sure. I'll have to ask. Well, there you go Spence, keep em coming, it was really fun. Enjoy.

Hot Head

What started out to be a warm up sketch got carried away and finished. I tend to do that too much. I need to learn how to just warm up and call it good. I spend too much time on these "warm up" sketches. Enjoy.

Christmas Present

Every year my family takes turns giving each other presents for Christmas. Since I have talent and no money, I've decided to do cartoon portraits of my brothers & sisters and their families as anything they want for a Christmas present. I've done 3 so far. I think if you dig in the old post archives you can find the other portraits. Enjoy.

For the Fun of it

Here's a little sketch I did for the fun of it just to take a break from drawing girly things for my next book. Gotta do this to keep my sanity. I have 3 boys, so I know nothing of girly stuff, and I'm not around it, so it's a pretty hard task for me, but it's good too, builds character, right?

Trying Something New

I'm trying out a more loose style. I'm getting a bored with my uptight, super controlled stuff. So here is a cute little picture to give the sketchy style a trial run. What do you think?

Trick or Treat?

Here is a little Halloween illustration for your viewing pleasure. I'm not only drawing a fun halloween piece, but I'm doing a little experimentation here as well. I have my usual "tight" style with the boy and his candy, but now I'm experimenting with a more "loose" style with the ghost thing. Let me know what you think of the loose stuff. I'm still in the process of getting it to where I thing it looks acceptable, but I think it's a good start. Enjoy.

If I could be anything - BOOK TRAILER

Raccoon stole my tater tots!

My wife and I caught a raccoon digging in the garbage, so we put some tater tots in the window seal to get a better shot of it. I put the video in iMovie and put some music to it to make it look like a dumb movie trailer. Enjoy.

Mummy the Kid

Here is a little promotional piece for a story/rhyme that I haven't written yet, but plan on doing. I don't know how I am going to do this yet. Maybe a short comic. Maybe a mini children's book. Don't know yet. This illustration is really all I have right now. Enjoy.

Mummy Kid

I felt like I needed to do some practice drawing the same character in multiple poses and such, so I started off a little more simple. So, I doodled out this mummy kid. I think that the best ones are the top left, bottom middle and bottom right. Enjoy.

Finished

Here is the finished dragon piece. Enjoy.

New Stoofs

Here's a little work in progress for nothing in particular. In the upper left corner I'm going to have a knight in mid-air ready to strike. Of course, the dragon couldn't care less. I'm post more as it comes. I'll put the final in it's own post.

Wyoming Book Festival

Here's a pic of my booth at the Wyoming Book Festival on the 19th of this month. It went REALLY good! I was only there for 5 hours and I sold 11 books. Now, I don't know if that's good for the convention/fair thing, but I thought that it was good. Seeing as the Helper Arts Festival was two days/16 hours and I only sold 5 books, I think this book festival went well.

Hold on a sec. Am I wearing the same shirt as the HAF? Ah jeez. I am. Oh well, I'll make it a point to where something different the next time I do a show.

FREE on iTunes

Okay, so, I don't normally do this, but this week on iTunes is a song called Bulletproof from an artist called La Roux, if it's not obvious from picture. Anyways, I've always been a fan of 80's female pop music since I was a kid. Madonna, Debbie Gibson, Belinda Carlisle, A'me Lorain, etc.

Anyways, this song has that same kind of vibe to it. So, if you like 80s female pop and Nintendo music, then you'll like this song. And it's FREE on iTunes this week. Can't beat that right? Anyways, enjoy.

Girl Edition Cover

Cover to the girl edition of "If I could be Anything". I'm about half way done with this one. Should be printed by November if all goes according to plan.

Sketch

Here's a sketch for the little girl that's going to be pretending to be that fairy. The nice thing is that instead of trying to make up little girls, my cousin is going to shoot me some $$$ to make it his daughter. Hey, less work for me to make one up and I get some $$$ from it. It's a win-win.

Satyr Scene

So I decided to take a little break from my GIRL edition of "If I could be anything..." and do this little piece. I've always liked satyrs, so this is a WIP (work in progress), that I'm currently doing. I'll just edit the post more as it progresses instead of making a new post for every image, so if you want to see the progression, then just keep checking back everyday. You can see the light sketch underneath the heavier black line. I tend to work in a more "comic bookish" way than the traditional children's book style. I just feel like I have to put a black line or a dark line around everything. Maybe it's the hours and hours of cartoons I watched in the 80s or it's my feeble attempt to control everything, either way this is the style I feel most comfortable in. Enough rambling, enjoy.

New Page

Here's the last page that I'm going to post here for the girl version of "If I could be anything"

I don't want to show too much so I don't spoil anything. So, enjoy.

New Book

Here is a sneak peek at my new book in the "If I could be..." Series. This is the female companion volume to the boy edition that is now on sale in my Etsy store.

The angel turned out decent enough, but I put about every color in the rainbow in the fairy pic. Man I'm so color retarded. I need serious help with color. If it's there, I use it. Green grass, blue sky, etc, etc. I have a hard time dulling down my colors. It's seems everything I do is retina burning. Anyone have any suggestions? Does anyone even read this thing?

Anyways, enjoy.

KINDERGARTEN!!!

Well, I guess I've been trying to keep this blog as my "business" blog and leave personal stuff off, but this is too big for me to omit.

My oldest son is at his first day of Kindergarten. I'm only 28. I don't feel like I'm old enough to have a kid in school yet. Oh well. I wish him the best. I'm so proud of him. He's a good kid.

Good luck with school Corbyn. Love ya buddy.

P.S. I would love to put a picture of him up on here, but I'm still afraid of wackos out there. So, just imagine a really handsome 5 year old kid.