Pencil Riffs Sketch

Pencil Riffs; Ink & Markers.

Hey kids, not much to write this time, because, I've got tons of stuff to do, but also because I'm not entirely certain what I might do with this sketch. The working title is : Pencil Riffs, and if you like, you can file this one under cloudy foreshadowing (hint-hint). Oh! And did you notice that I have put the image on top? That's an Earthshaking development if ever there was one.

-Cheers.

Bevy of Cuties & a Doofus with a Barber Pole

I'm sorry, but I'm tired and worn out tonight, so I'm afraid all I have to offer are some cold, greasy leftovers. These were all posted on other blogs of mine at one time or another, and I will grant you the they are rather messy, but they came straight from the sketchbook, so I imagine that is to be expected. I'll try for something more substantial later in the week.


Come Hither Cutie


Coy Cutie



Twin Cuties

Doofus with a Barber's Bole and Cuties in
the Background

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