Bigfoot

Another one where I did the line work in Illustrator and then tidied things up in Photoshop. I might add color to this one sometime in the future.

Just Another Smiley

Practicing facial expressions.

Hillbilly

This started out as a beat up old stove-pipe hat, and ended up here.

Cowboy

No time... again. Very quick sketch of a cowboy.

Pigeon-Toed Quail

I get a lot of quail running through my backyard. Thought it was about time I drew one. This guy ended up being kind of pigeon-toed.

Mr. Wonderful

Time for another superhero cartoon. This is Mr. Wonderful.

Baby Orangutan

Played a little bit more fast and loose with this one than the last orangutan I sketched.

Noir Gumshoe

I'm not as happy as I would like to be about this one. It wasn't until I was about half-way through with it before I realized that I should have started with a black canvas and worked my way out with white. By then it was a bit too late. I ended up blocking some black to what I had already sketched and then bringing out the highlights. That improved it a bit, but I'm still not too happy with it.

Girl II

Another quick sketch, no time for details.

Girl

Just feeling kind of blah today. Sorry this isn't more detailed.

Flamingo

Not intended as a lesson in flamingo anatomy.

Clown

Played fast and loose with this one (as if it wasn't obvious)... Wanted to play around with some Illustrator brushes, but didn't want to get caught up in doing something terribly detailed. I cheated a bit and filled in the dots on the clown's outfit in Photoshop.

Mad Scientist - Color

At the request of a friend, I've done a color version of the Mad Scientist. I'm really pleased with the way this one turned out. I used several chalk brushes. I think the texture gives it a little bit more personality.

Another Cat

Yes. I like cats. You caught me.

Vending Machine

Several years ago, I met a guy named Bruce in a college art class. Bruce was an excellent cartoonist. He would exaggerate proportions in very clever ways. I've never been able to duplicate his style - though this is an attempt.

I used a dark charcoal pencil brush for the outlines on this one. I'm not really happy with the results. If I had it to do all over again, I'd use something different.

Cigarette Butt

Yes, I know this is an odd choice of subject matter, but I do have reasons. No, I haven't taken up smoking. I have enough vices, thank you very much. I decided to draw a snubbed out cigarette butt first because of the shape. I've been doing some practicing drawing basic shapes. This is a continuation of that practice - a cigarette being cylindrical. I also realized that I haven't done too much mixing up with my brushes, and drawing something fairly simple gives me the opportunity to do that without having to worry too much about anything else. And finally, I wanted to play around with making smoke again.

Biff

So, when I have a busy week, apparently I revert to doing quick character sketches.

This is Biff. He's named "Biff" because he's all muscle. Anyone that is all muscle is either named Biff, Chuck, Rocko or Butch. If he was a scrawny character and was named Biff, you'd think I was losing it. If I named him Albert or Milo or Ralph you'd think I was losing it. Of course, I could have done that just because it would create an interesting dichotomy... Oh, what the heck. This is Randall. He'll be attending MIT in the fall.

Mad Scientist

Finally caught a break and was able to spend a bit more time on this one. I'm calling him a mad scientist, but he doesn't look particularly insane... I am a bit curious about what he might be gawking at, though. Hm...

Alien Balloon

Busy week continues... I suppose this could fall under the "What the...?" category.

Random Cartoon Guy

Busy week continues... so, here's a random cartoon that I scribbled out... Quantity over quality on this blog!

Snail

It's the first week of school for the kids, and things are busy, busy, busy. Only had time for a five-minute sketch today.

Al E. Katt - P.I.

No, it's not a terribly original name. :-)

Longing

This is a scene I see frequently in my house... Usually when there are birds outside.

Frog... I think...

This started in my head as a cartoon of a frog. I'm not sure I ended up where I wanted to be. Didn't have a whole lot of time today to put into it, so what you see is what you get. :-D

Scribbles

No rhyme. No reason. No sense of any kind. Just some things that came out of my head.

Character Sketch IV - Nermal's Mom

Nermal's mom plays a pretty significant role in the book. She's pretty high-strung, as she has to deal with Nermal's obsession with his long johns.

Character Sketch III - Nermal II

This is another character concept for Nermal. I've changed his look quite a bit from the previous sketch. Looking back, I think the other design made him look too old. I think this one gives him more of a child-like look. I've never really decided on an age for the character, but in my head he's somewhere between 8 and 10. I did the outlining in Illustrator for this one, and added color in Photoshop. I like this style, and will probably use it for all of the illustrations in the book.

Character Sketch II - Nermal's Dad

Continuing my preliminary work on finishing Nermal's Thermal Underwear. This is a character idea for Nermal's father.

Bonus Material: Behind the Scenes

Just to give you more of an idea of how I work. Here are the layers contained in the Photoshop file for this picture:

Sketch



I start with the Sketch layer. This is just a rough, and takes me only a couple of minutes to complete.

Outlines



After the sketch is complete, I move to the Outlines layer and create the detailed line work.

Shading



Below the Outlines layer is the Shading layer. I turn off the Sketch layer at this point, but leave the Outlines layer on (so the picture never really looks like this). Keeping the Shading on a separate layer makes it easier to correct mistakes (yes, I do use the Eraser tool sometimes).

Orangutan

Next to the liger, orangutans are pretty much my favorite animal (just kidding about the liger). Mostly because they're so expressive.

Spider

Just a quick and dirty sketch of a cartoon spider. I was tired and didn't want to put too much time into it.

Dragon

Dragons are another fun subject to draw. I did this one simply because I wanted to experiment with making the smoke come out of his nostrils. The smoke on this one was done by drawing a few sketched lines and then smudging them to death with the smudge tool. I like the effect, but think it could use a little more refining.