Random Doodle

It's very hard to draw when you have a cat trying to climb her way onto the computer, and then onto the drawing tablet, and then onto your shoulders... Amazingly, I was able to get this one out.

The Grand Vizier

I don't know why, but in movies the king's most trusted adviser is always a bad guy... and he always looks something like this. Would you trust this guy?

Another Dog

Testing out some new coloring techniques and brushes. I'm really happy with how this turned out.

Cartoon Skull

While this sketch was inspired a bit by these skeletons of famous cartoon characters, it isn't anyone you know.

Anger

Consider this my second "mood doodle" and be happy you're not in the same room with me right now.

Clockwork Man

This was a lot of fun to do. I used Illustrator to get the gears shaped right, but the rest was done in Photoshop.

Dazed and Confused

Don't ask... I don't know.

Another Smiley Guy

I feel I need to apologize for the simplistic nature of the past couple of drawings. I've been hard at work helping my youngest daughter complete a very involved school project and it has put me behind on my drawing schedule. I'm still trying to get back on track.

Girl III

Continuing my practice with the new outlining technique. I used a graphite pencil like brush this time, and did some shading as well. I like how this turned out.

I also just noticed that my file numbering has been off for the past few drawings. I was behind by one. I've corrected the problem starting with this image, but the previous mis-numbered files will have to remain that way because I'm too lazy to go back and change them. Not that anyone really cares. :-)

Just Another Smiley

Practicing facial expressions.

Cowboy

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

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.

Orangutan

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

Character Sketch I - Nermal

I wrote a children's book several years ago called Nermal's Thermal Underwear. I never finished illustrating it. Okay, I didn't get beyond making a few character sketches. I'm hoping to complete the work on it, and will be using Doodle-All-A-Day to post some of my sketches and ideas. This is the first sketch, and is an idea for the title character.

Bonus Material: Behind the Scenes

I did a screen cap (using CamStudio) while creating this sketch for anyone that is interested in getting an idea of how I work. The above sketch took a little over 20 minutes to complete. I did speed up the video, though, so you won't have to sit through all 20 minutes:



I use a Wacom Intuos3 and Adobe Photoshop CS3 for the majority of my artwork. I have a blank canvas template set up in Photoshop that includes four layers - Background, Sketch, Shading and Outlines - which are linked. Photoshop doesn't offer an easy way to rotate a canvas while you work, so I set the template up oversized and use a custom action to rotate the canvas at 30 degree intervals at the touch of a button. This simulates turning the page as I'm drawing.

I begin sketching on the Sketch layer. This is a really rough outline of the final drawing. Basically it's just guidelines to help me visualize the piece. Once the final sketch is completed I turn the opacity way down on the layer (usually to about 30%) so that the sketch is barely visible. I then move to the Outlines layer and begin drawing more definite lines. For sketches I usually only use a single brush - though I vary the width of the brush frequently. For this, and most of my sketches, I use a graphite pencil from Dave Nagel's Brushes Series 33. When the outlines have been completed I move to the Shading layer and lay in the shadows. Keeping everything on separate layers makes it much easier to control the various aspects of the drawing.

When the final drawing is complete, I save the file as a JPEG and upload.

Elf

One of the things I really like about drawing on the computer is the ability to experiment with different brushes. I did this one using a brush labeled "Graphite Pencil." It was apparently a very dark graphite pencil.

My Best Friend

This is a picture of my favorite person in the whole world (who, as of today, is a credentialed teacher [just had to brag on her a bit]).

I spent considerably more time on this one than any of the pieces I've posted so far (she never deserves less than my best). Once again I used Illustrator to create the outlines. I also played around quite a bit with layers, brushes and different tools (mainly the Smudge tool [my new best friend... at least in the digital art world]) in Photoshop.