St. Patty's Day is coming

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, here are some old linocut prints I did last year. Want to see them on a shirt?  Check out my shop. 

Sketchbook Pro 1st sketch

After reading a few blog posts here  about Sketchbook Pro, I decided to download it and try it out for the 15 day trial period.  In honor of my 5 1/2 month old's dinner tonight, here is my first sketch.  I went a little overboard with the blur tool, but it looks better than it did before the blur. 

Logo Design

So my new years program totally went into the crapper like a week into it.  I blame a very sick infant who had to go to the doctor 4 nights in a row, including a trip to the ER, who then passed her illness onto the rest of the house.  Oh well.  While I haven't been working on all of the things I had outlined, I have been working on some art.  Here is a logo I designed for a start-up law firm:

Hurry! Ends soon!

I really wish I had posted about this earlier, but there is a great sale going on at http://zero2illo.com/store/community-super-sale/.  Tons of great resources for illustrators for a low price!  It ends in like 6 minutes, so hurry!!!!

New Year, New Blog, New Art

I don't really like to make New Years resolutions because, well...I pretty much suck at keeping them. Doesn't everyone? I guess that's why we just keep making the same ones year after year. Don't get me wrong, I know I need to change. A LOT. Instead of trying to lose 20 lbs, eat healthier, exercise more, and solve all of the world's problems by the end of the week, I have one goal: be a better artist. Wow, couldn't get more specific could I? Nope. Because I can't be more specific. I don't know what it means to be better or what it will take to be better, but I plan to try lots of different things and just see what happens.

I am instituting the Couch to Illustrator (C2I) program starting today. Instead of sitting on my butt thinking about what I could be doing to be a better artist, I'm going to actually do something. And maybe...just maybe, I will see a change. Hopefully this time next year I will be able to say that my little plan was a success.

The C2I program includes the following (I am open to more suggestions by the way):

1. DRAW EVERY DAY! I think this is pretty important because like most skills, if you don't use it, you lose it. Practice makes perfect. Insert any other corny saying that applies. I will draw something every single day. I'm not saying I will create a masterpiece everyday, but I will put pen to paper, brush to canvas, or stylus to tablet for at least 30 minutes each day. Perhaps it will be doodling, or maybe it will be a photoshop painting that takes me weeks to finally finish, but rest assured, something will be happening. Every. Day. (This is probably my most lofty goal, but I think it is also the most important)
2.  Blog once a week.  If I'm drawing everyday, I shouldn't have a problem scraping together a blog once a week.
3.  Figure out my own style.   There are so many illustrators whose work I love.  They all have such completely different styles.  I am a master at copying anything, but I haven't quite figured out my own personal style yet.  By drawing everyday, I'm hoping something starts to emerge. 
4.  Spend each month working on a different technique for creating art.  This is all part of figuring out my style.  I have the most experience with pencil drawing, so in order to diversify, I will spend a whole month learning and practicing different mediums.  I know a month isn't much time to master anything, but I think it is good enough to see where my strengths and weaknesses lie.  This list may change, but right now it looks like this:

• pen/ink
• gauche/gauche resist
• watercolor
• colored pencils
• oil pastels
• linocut
• illustrator
• photoshop
• painter
• scratchboard
• charcoal
• carbon dust

I think this month I will get back to basics and do some charcoal drawings.  The monthly mediums as I am calling them, may or may not be a part of my everyday drawing.  But I will make sure I devote plenty of time to each medium.

In addition to helping me improve as an artist, these things will help me build my portfolio.  My ultimate goal is that by the end of one year, I will good enough and diverse enough to start some freelance work on the side.  During the year I will also work on research, marketing ideas, and create a website.

So what was I saying about making impossible goals???  Wish me luck interwebs peeps.

I totally won an art contest!

Ok, I didn't win in the sense that my art was judged to be the best. To-may-to, to-mah-to. Sparky Firepants posted a contest to draw Sparky based on a picture he provided. The only rules were it had to be digital, had to use the picture provided, and had to be submitted by Friday. The 1st 10 entries won. Well I managed to whip something up and get it in quick enough to win!

Here is the original picture and my (very quickly done) drawing. I inked in Illustrator and did a quick paint job in Photoshop.

It's been too long :(

Sorry for the lack of updates....I haven't had much time to draw, paint, or even doodle. However, I took the day off work on Monday and spent the whole day working on designs for my CafePress store. Please check it out to see some of the new designs.

Shoot the animal

painting on old books

I've seen this a lot lately, and think it is really cool. So here is my 1st attempt. The drawing was just a quick doodle I did that was very similar to another drawing I saw. But this was more for trying to figure out how watery to make the paint, and things like that.

tattoo design

My friend Kim asked me to design a tattoo for her. She really wanted her kids initials (J & A) using an elvish font. She was hoping to incorporate their birth dates as well (10/2 & 10/7). She wasn't sure how to bring all of this together, so that's when she called me in. Since she is a big Lord of the Rings fan I decided to incorporate a design from the movie. When I saw the White Tree of Gondor, I thought that would work well with the initials:

This is my initial marker sketch.


This is the cleaned up vector image.

Lino-cut prints

It's been a while.....

I started playing with linoleum blocks over the summer. Here is a series of 3 prints I did:

Days 7-10

Not very good, but I guess that's the point of this exercise.

I only spent about 15 minutes on this, but I think it is cute.

Again, not much time on this, but it is a quick sketch of an idea I have for a character.

I spent way more than 30 minutes on this, but I love it!

100 Themes

Many of you have probably seen this before, but just in case I am posting it here also. As soon as I finish my 21 day creative exercise, I will be doing this 100 themes challenge. The goal will be to create an illustration for each item on the list. If anyone else is taking part in this, please comment with a link to your blog/portfolio.

1. Introduction 2. Love 3. Light 4. Dark 5. Seeking Solace 6. Break Away 7. Heaven 8. Innocence 9. Drive 10. Breathe Again 11. Memory 12. Insanity 13. Misfortune 14. Smile - Doodled 15. Silence 16. Questioning 17. Blood 18. Rainbow 19. Gray 20. Fortitude 21. Vacation 22. Mother Nature 23. Cat 24. No Time 25. Trouble Lurking 26. Tears 27. Foreign 28. Sorrow 29. Happiness 30. Under the Rain 31. Flowers 32. Night 33. Expectations 34. Stars 35. Hold My Hand 36. Precious Treasure 37. Eyes 38. Abandoned 39. Dreams 40. Rated 41. Teamwork 42. Standing Still 43. Dying 44. Two Roads 45. Illusion 46. Family 47. Creation 48. Childhood 49. Stripes 50. Breaking the Rules

51. Sport 52. Deep in Thought 53. Keeping a Secret 54. Tower 55. Waiting 56. Danger Ahead 57. Sacrifice 58. Kick in the Head 59. No Way Out 60. Rejection 61. Fairy Tale 62. Magic 63. Do Not Disturb 64. Multitasking 65. Horror 66. Traps 67. Playing the Melody 68. Hero 69. Annoyance 70. 67% 71. Obsession 72. Mischief Managed 73. I Can't 74. Are You Challenging Me? 75. Mirror 76. Broken Pieces 77. Test 78. Drink 79. Starvation 80. Words 81. Pen and Paper 82. Can You Hear Me? 83. Heal 84. Out Cold 85. Spiral 86. Seeing Red 87. Food 88. Pain 89. Through the Fire 90. Triangle 91. Drowning 92. All That I Have 93. Give Up 94. Last Hope 95. Advertisement 96. In the Storm 97. Safety First 98. Puzzle 99. Solitude 100. Relaxation

Days 5 and 6

My 80's robot, complete with wrist bands, leg warmers, and scrunchie. He's dancing...doing "the robot" of course.



I don't know what this crazy old guy is pointing that gun at....maybe a dancing 80's robot.

Doodle on Crack

I doodle a lot....I couldn't stop adding to my doodle from a few days ago and it got a bit out of hand.

Day Four

Day four of the 21 day creative exercise. A little back story on this one....my dog is a little too friendly at the dog park. So we started calling her our little pug slut :-)

Day 3 and Illustration Friday

Day 3 of the 21 day creative exercise. Also my submission for this week's Illustration Friday topic "enough."

Sadly, this little guy would never be tall enough.

Day 2

I haven't been able to get into any books lately....maybe this is why.

Doodle

 

21 Day Creative Exercise

I've decided to start a 21 day creative exercise. It is best explained here. The rules I have set for myself are to spend between 15-30 minutes each day drawing anything I can think of, as long as I don't use any photo references. The reason for this is that sometimes I spend more time looking for the perfect picture of what I want to draw instead of actually drawing.

This is what I came up with for Day 1. I can't tell you what it is, but I think it is something I will revisit later. I think it could be really cool in color.