Category Archives: My Sketchbook

A New Friend

One night I was playing with clay making specimens when this little dude came along. His expression caught my affection and I knew something more was meant for him than being a locked up creature in a jar. He quickly made the transition to my sketchbook. We are getting to know one another now. Here is a first glimpse of my new friend.

Quote Quiz: “You want to hear the most annoying sound in the world. EEEEHAHWHEHHEHWHEHEHHE”

Thinking about that quote the other night got me so tickled I snorted with laughter.

currently reading: Tricky Fox Tales by Chris Schweizer illustrated by Shelli Paroline
currently watching: my cat run around the house in mad dashes

A page of crows and a turkey

These are sketches from my Dummy Challenge. The story I want to flesh out is all about a crow. No details yet, but I need to make him look rather crazy. The above sketches don’t capture that but, I love the way a crow looks angry by the way their brow arches. These are a first run, simply gathering information on the shape and angle of a crow’s body. They aren’t my characters yet but, I enjoy them.

Moose Under Water

I know this is not at all what Matt was imagining when he gave me the prompt Moose Under Water but, it is what came to me today. I am going to revisit this for sure and make it more goofy.

Last night as I went to sleep I was rehearsing what I would say here today. The day has turned exhausting and all my words seem to have vanished.

A lot has been going on in the illustration world around me including the launch of The Illustrated Section an awesome central location of ebooks from illustrators created by Dani Jones. Be sure to check it out.

Sketch Break

The past two weeks have been endless hours spent on my computer, designing, emailing, twittering, etc. My eyes are getting tired of looking at the screen! To fix this I took a sketch break.

I have joined Sketchoholic for quick ideas on what to draw and PiBoldMo started by Tara Lazar to get my brain going on story ideas. These are two sketches inspired by them:

Buddies:

Story idea for Nov 10th Whale Riders from the Sea City:

Snow Dreams

More sketches of these two. They are similar but, I like the subtle differences between the two images. Hoping Snow Dreamer is looking more like himself. My next sketch will show a different angle of him. It’s nearly impossible to not be influenced by other people’s work. Many flying side kicks were thought of when drawing Snow Dreamer; Appa, Falcor, Haku, and the Canada Lynx from the Zoo. While I actually drew him I only looked at pictures of Lynx.

And go back a page to post 100 for the give away!

Halloween’s Choice

Boy, what a week! I feel like after last Sunday, the 24th, I fell into the tracks of preparing, going, and being at the Halloween party. Finally tonight, after wrapping up a few last loose ends, I feel like I am coming back to my senses.

The Halloween party is a yearly friend reunion. Most of the group went to RIT, however, not all at the same time. Through school reunions, CSH(Computer Science House), and finding each other through other various means we have all come together.

I find the event to be refreshing. We meet in Dryden NY where fall and sometimes winter is setting in. The area is gorgeous, like the saying goes, and the people are all creative in very different ways than I am. This year we had a beautiful led wall, set up by Giles Hall. Code was used to create patterns of alternating colors. After additional collaboration between Jessica and Smiley on the code enhancing the patterns and some quick thinking by Jeremiah with dixie cups to soften the lights; we had a center piece that transfixed us all.

This was my first year to meet Smiley. For most of the party he wore a chicken hat. At some point someone made a comment about how they could imagine him as a warrior leaving a destroyed village with a dead chicken on his head and it was too glorious an image to leave undrawn.

Sadly I left the party with only this sketch. I tried to draw some celtic knots and my brain started oozing. Then I modpodged a bunch more leaves. Hopefully in a short while I will be getting to the projects that all this tedious work is for and will have something more to show. I do have some paying work at the moment-hooray-but, that could keep my personal projects in the background for a little bit more too. We will see how this week goes.

Happy Halloween!

Papa Bear

Continuing to work on those characters for Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Had a little inspiration yesterday at the zoo with Bubba and Smokey, the Stone Zoo bears, sitting right in front of us. They were good models. Although, I still think I made the standing bear look a little too polar bear shaped.