Original Angry Moon Sketch

Sometimes the idea for an illustration can take a very long time to come to fruition. I mean from concept to final piece, not sketch to final, although that can some times take longer than you might want, too. I guess you could say that some ideas are like a wine, they have to age properly to reach their full potential. Anyway, I don't recall the exact date when I came up with the concept for Angry Moon, but it was at least four years ago, if not longer. After bubbling around in my head for a while, I did this color sketch sometime in 2007, and I think I finished it digitally in 2008—and just for the record, I worked on many other projects in between, its not like I spent 5 years on one illustration. Just wanted to clear that up. And now without further delay here they are.

This is the original color sketch from 2007;
colored pencil on midnight blue pastel paper.


The finished digital illustration from last year,
probably about September or so.

Pregnant Nude

*Note: I'm shooting for Monday posts instead of Wednesday.

This week's offerings are some sketches and a study for a spec project I was working on a while back. Spec meaning that I do the illustration and then hope someone is willing to buy it, and honestly this is not a very wise business move. In this case it was for an online illustrated literary magazine, which has more or less ceased publication. Basically it worked like this: they would put up very short stories, seriously like 50 words or less, and anyone who wished to, was welcome to submit art to illustrate any story that inspired them. If they liked your work they would publish it with the story. Well, it took me way too long to get to the final version, and another artist got her's accepted before I even got mine finished, so that was that. Anyway, I recently ran across this in my crap pile, and decided to add some inked lines, well lo and behold, it came out pretty nice for a sketch. I've been working on my portfolio lately, so a similar finished piece might just make it in there.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the subject of the story was a young woman reminiscing about a time shortly before giving birth to her first child, and how she took her clothes off and looked at her nude pregnant body in the mirror and how beautiful she felt. Some might be offended, or even disgusted by such an image, or even the mere thought, and that really is a sad thing. Because there is something truly magnificent about the pregnant form, perhaps in part because it is such a rarity, I mean for each individual woman, sometimes only once in her lifetime. Then again, not that long ago that the censors would not allow the word pregnant to be spoken on television.




Pregnant Nude watercolor study with ink.

Pregnant Nude 1 sketch on brown paper with China White highlights.

Pregnant Nude 2 sketch on brown paper with China White highlights.

Tattooed Nurse & Logo Scribbles

Not nearly as much to talk/write about this week. Just a couple straight out of the sketchbook, although I might point out that my current on the road sketchbook is quite a bit smaller than I usually use, but it is a real Moleskine brand, and the paper in it is awesome. The nurse came out pretty good, kind of makes me wish I had put in her other arm. The bottom sketch looks like it might have fallen in the toilet, but in actuality, I was trying to clean it up in Photoshop, and got carried away. I should have just left it alone.

Tattooed Nurse

Logo, Skully Schtuff & a Guy With a Huge Facial Piercing

Knoxville Skull & Coffee Boots

I've been thinking about my childhood lately, and it has recently occurred to me that while I didn't know it at the time, one of my fondest memories was time spent at my Aunt June's beach cabin, near Yachats on the Oregon Coast. Technically she was my great-aunt, but we always just called her Aunt June. Located on a flag lot, it was a cozy one bedroom bungalow with a driveway lined on one side by a row of huckleberries, in what can best be described as a mini-hamlet by the name of Knoxville. Essentially just a small neighborhood of similar cabins on three or four unpaved streets, nestled between Highway 101 and the Pacific Ocean with a small patch of gnarled woods to the South, and a nondescript thicket to the North. When I was very young, probably 4 or so, Aunt June took me for a walk to the market on the other side of the woods, a fascinating adventure at the time, with a tinge of danger, as I was assaulted by a chipmunk. Well, actually, there was a chipmunk in one of the trees chattering at us as we passed by, and at that very instant something sharp poked through the sole of my flip-flop and jabbed my foot a little bit. I was thoroughly convinced that somehow the angry chipmunk had thrown something at me, or was otherwise responsible for the poking of my foot. The rest of the journey is rather hazy, except that she—Aunt June, not the chipmunk—bought me a butterscotch Rocky Road candy bar, a flavor which I don't believe they even make anymore.

See? This is why I don't write very often, because I'm easily side tracked by things like surly chipmunks and extinct candy bars. What I started to say, was that on the corner of 101 and Aunt June's street, there was a sagging two-story house, sided with weather beaten shingles and on the Southeast corner, a big blue sign with red lettering and white outlines that read vertically: Knoxville, and this is a sketch of it from memory. I believe the house is still standing but the sign is gone, and sadly, the house has been refurbished to the point that all of its character is gone. The rest of the sketches are just stuff that floated into my head, and the bottom one is of some lady with unpleasant boots who was waiting for coffee.

Knoxville Skull.

Coffee Boots.

Yes, I Am Still Here.

Hello kids, I apologize for the lack of posts lately, been battling some person demons, but I seem to be coming out on top. Anyway, here are a couple of pages from the ol' coffee shop sketchbook.


Knickers Girl.

Three Goof Balls and a Gal.

The Shy Little Butterfly

Hey kids! It has been far too long since my last post, I'm still trying to get a schedule worked out, so bear with me if you will. It's looking like it might be a weekly thing, at least for a while. I got a bunch of new projects in the works, which are keeping me otherwise occupied. For example, I'm revamping the Vintage 66 Graphics website.

Today's sketch is something I did about a year ago, Valentine's Day as I recall. It was for a little story called, The Shy Little Butterfly, that I was working on for my girlfriend, Ace. Anyway, I was testing out the walnut ink, and for the most part this came out pretty good, but unfortunately, I got the idea to try and work some red into it. So, that's why there is some red towards the bottom.

Walnut Ink & Art Pen on Watercolor Paper

© 2008 Robert Wiles. All Rights reserved.

Stylish Pair

Here is a stylish hipster pair, although they really don't look like they are together. The reason for that is, that they are 2 different sketches that just happened to be on the same page of my sketch book. I really like the pose of the girl, maybe I'll use it for something someday soon.

Have a great weekend.
Cheers!