SKETCH: Japanese Girl

Just a quick sketch of a Japanese girl done with a very cheap red ink pen. They were about 50 cents for a bag of twenty but they are very nice to sketch with.

IF: Trick or Treat

This started as a pencil drawing and finished in Painter using
the New Simple Water and Charcoal brushes.

IF: Momentum

Glaznox are large lumbering creatures but once they get momentum going they are extremely fast and great transportation.

Just a quick sketch colored in Painter.

IF: Visitors

There are still a lot of little things I want to touch up on this. If I do any more to it this week I'll update my post.

Done in Painter using new simple water, conte and charcoal brushes from a pencil drawing.

IF: Captain II

Just a quick sketch of my idea of Captain Nemo that I thought I would post.

IF: Captain

I was trying to decide between Captain Hook or

Captain Nemo this week. Hook just came out when I was sketching. This is rough color sketch done in Painter. I have also posted my initial sketch and the line drawing I used in Painter.

IF: Emergency

It has been some time since I have posted anything. I want to try to get back in the habit of it. Like the commercial says 'life comes at you fast' and so many of the little things eat up time.

I really pictured this idea as a full spread for a

picture book. I wouldn't be able to put as much

detail into it as would have liked this week so I just did the characters for now. The elephant is the fireman at the zoo, using his trunk to put out the fires. This was done from a pencil drawing and colored in Painter.

IF: Cars

An image of Mr. Toad from The Wind in the Willows came to mind for the theme of cars.



I want to experiment with a few things painting this Illustration. I won't get it done this week so I thought I would go ahead and post the drawing. If I finish it I'll post it later.


I also have a color sketch started. So far it has been done in Painter with the Simple Water & Watercolor brushes.

IF: Signs

Just a last minute idea for a spot illustration.

A couple of tigers using sign language for "I love you".

Done in Painter from a pencil drawing.

IF: Remember

Remember to take your medicine.

Maybe that is why the dinosaurs are extinct. They

forgot to take their medicine.

I didn't get to post my polar image last week. I didn't

get it finished. I still haven't finished it but I thought
I would post it as a work in progress. If you click here it will take you it.

I apologize for my first link. I thought I double checked it before I submitted it. I had too many http's in it.

IF: Fortune

"It's good to be the King."

Mel Brooks - History of the World, Part I

If I had this kind of money I would wade in it and laugh maniacally too.

I tried experimenting with the acrylic brushes in Painter this week. I still need more practice to get the look I want. I added some shading and tone with the 'New Simple Water' brush on a gel layer

at about 50%.

Illustration Friday: GREEN

For the topic green an image of Mother Nature came to mind
bringing spring and lots of green with her. If you live in the
eastern U.S. you know she played a trick on us last week.
Summer one day and it was winter the next.

I still have dozens of little touches that I would like to finish
on this. Shading, highlights and so on. I don't know if I will
have time to do it this week so I thought I would go ahead and post it. I really wanted to try this in actual watercolor. I may go back sometime and try it.

I did this in the Painter once again with the charcoal and conte
brushes.

I always like to see people's sketches and how pieces progress
to the final image so I thought I would show mine on this. If you click here it will take you to a page showing the thumbnails.

Illustration Friday: I Spy

"I spy a clue Watson!"

This is just a little pencil

drawing that I finished in

Painter.

Illustration Friday: TOTAL

This little bunny tripped over his garden hoe and spilled his basket of carrots everywhere. Can you help him pick them up by counting them? There should be a total of 12 carrots.


It was kind of a tough topic this week. I racked my brain most of the weekend trying to think of something. About the only thing I could come up with was what might be a sample page from a counting book.

Again, I did this in Painter. I used mostly the charcoal, conte & chalk brushes.

Illustration Friday: WIRED

Not everyone is as happy to get braces but this little guy is glad to have his teeth wired. He knows he will need good choppers to cut down trees and work at the dam when he gets older.

This is just a quick little spot sketch I did and painted in Painter with the 'simple water' brush and conte brushes.

I apologize to everyone that has tried to view my entry this week and it wasn't there. I am not sure what is wrong. It is there one time and gone the next.

Illustration Friday: HIDE

I'm sure we can all remember doing something
wrong when we were kids and thinking if you

could hide long enough it would go away.

Don't worry that was an old lamp...Momma
Skunk wasn't too mad.

I tried something a little different this week.
I wanted to get more of a classic style. I did a
pencil drawing and used mostly the 'new simple
water' brush in Painter for the color.

IF: Communication

I noticed a few illustrations with the tin can phones.

I hope with all of the video games and other gadgets taking kids attention that they still try the old fashioned gizmos.

I rendered this in Painter IX from a scanned pencil drawing.

Illustration Friday: GRAVITY

It was no accident Humpty fell off that wall. He was pushed. Apparently he knew too much.Do you know pushed him? Here's a hint, he is wanted for stalking a little girl wearing red, harassing three pigs and causing property damage.

I actually did this illustration for last week's topic but it

fits this week's also....so since I did two last week I thought
I would resubmit this one. If I find some inspiration and
time I might try another illustration for this week.


This was painted in Painter IX using pastel and charcoal brushes.

Illustration Friday: CRASH 2

I had a couple of ideas for IF this week

so I thought I would go ahead and try

them both.

This is a little different look than I have

been trying for. I wanted it to look more like

a poster.

I was going to do a more elaborate scene with

other mice looking at the poster but I wouldn't

have time to complete it right now.

Illustration Friday: CRASH

Illustration Friday: SPROUT

Illustration Friday: RED

I have been wanting to try to break into
children's book illustration for awhile.
I thought I might use the topics on IF to
inspire me to build up my portfolio.
I scanned in pencil drawing and used
Painter to add color. I tried to stick with
the pastel & chalk brushes to give it a
little texture.

Illustration Friday: SUPERHERO

This is my first submission to IF
as well as my first Blog. Hopefully
I will have more to this site as time
goes by. I painted a pencil drawing
using Painter IX and added the
lettering and lens flares with
other programs.

The program I used to create the
lettering and glow was CorelDraw,
a vector program like Illustrator.
I used the drop shadow tool for the
glow behind the lettering & burst.
I also used Corel Photo-paint for
lens flares.