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.

Tiptoe - Color

This post marks my 100th doodle! It's hard to believe I've made it this far, considering when I started this I wasn't sure I'd even last a week. Only 265 more to go!

This is a color version of my original Tiptoe sketch. I was really happy with the original, so I wanted to do something a little more detailed. I used the same parchment texture for the background that I did on the Alien Bug sketch. I'm pretty pleased with the results.

Alien Bug

This morning I happened upon some artwork online that was done in a sepia tone style on parchment paper. I really liked the style and decided to try it myself. This was really fun to draw, and I love the results. Think I'm going to do something like this again in the future.

Coffee

When I draw something simple like this, I usually have a reason. That reason may or may not be apparent. For this one, I was attempting something new on the Sketch layer of the drawing, and since that doesn't make it to the final stage of the drawing, this is one of those times.

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.

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.

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.

What the... II

I like to draw all kinds of weird creatures. Generally, my technique is to scribble a few lines and then let my imagination take over. That's how I ended up with this guy. I'm not sure what it's supposed to be. I imagine it's some sort of alien pack animal, somewhat like a horse. You decide...

Doll's Head

"She doesn't have bad dreams because she's just a piece of plastic."

That's one of my favorite quotes from the movie Aliens. If you've seen the movie, you'll get the reference. If you haven't, what are you wasting your time reading my blog for? Go watch it! I know the movie came out 22 years ago, but it's a classic!

Dolls can be pretty creepy when you take out their hair and an eyeball or two. This one was fun to draw. I made liberal use of the Smudge tool to get the shading, and then adjusted the layer opacity a bit. I like the effect, but still think I need to work on my technique a bit.