Tower Tarot Card

From my sketchbook...  I drew this while watching theRadBrad's Watch Dogs walkthrough on YouTube.

Pens: Zebra pen-fine point, Tombo marker, Stabilo marker, Stabilo fine-point pens

Purple Girl Doodle

Watercolor and ink...
I cropped this one across the fingers to get rid of a character I didn't like.

Fish Doodles

Watercolor and ink...

Ghoulish Gallery Show

This piece is on display in the Ghoulish Gallery at Arlyn Pillay Art Gallery in Tustin, California.  The show will be up from October 23rd to November 30th.

Famous Cat Show

I was invited to participate in the Famous Cat Show at Fan*Alley.  I love black cats so I chose to depict the infamous Princess Monster Truck as her most fabulous self.  I even used gold ink to give my watercolors some extra pizzazz!

I created artwork in the gallery as part of the opening night festivities.  Here's the setup of my station.  I drew sketches and made personalized blob paintings of kitties!  I had so much fun, its was awesome meeting all the folks who came out to see the show.

Here's a sampling of the blob paintings I made...

Kitties Galore

This is a new piece I created for my solo show at Fan*Alley.  The original sold (yay!) so there are only prints now available for purchase.  Email me if you want one-I'll give you a deal!

Tough Girl Looking Tough

Watercolor and Zebra pen...

Lafcadio Illustration

I wanted to share the steps I took to finish the illustration I created for the Roald Dahl/Shel Silverstein Tribute Show at Fan*Alley.  After doing character design explorations, I sketched out a body to match the face I chose.  Once I was happy with both the face and the body, I did some small character sketches on watercolor paper to finalize the look of Lafcadio as well as practice using the media I chose for the illustration.  The image below is one of many I did in advance of the final piece.

After the look of the character was nailed down, I sketched out the sequence for Lafcadio's suit fitting on copy paper making sure to double-check the spelling of words and the overall flow of the piece (pencil drawing not pictured).  I then taped that to a light table, laid a piece of watercolor paper on top, and then used a Zebra pen to trace the linework.  (BTW Zebra pens are waterproof! They are the best pens ever!)  The image below on the left is what the piece looked like prior to color.  Before adding any watercolor, I took a picture of the lineart with my phone's camera and imported that into Photoshop to create a color comp (the image on the right).

Below is the final piece framed and matted and ready to be hung.  I'm very happy with how it turned out.  The show opening itself was a blast!  There were a ton of fun people to chat with at the event!  I'm also happy to say that my piece sold that night!  Hooray!  Huzzah!  w00t!

P.S. Here are some details of the illustration.  They were taken with my phone so the color shifts here and there from image-to-image.

Lafcadio Character Designs

I'm working on an illustration for the Roald Dahl/Shel Silverstein tribute show opening Saturday, August 15th at Fan*Alley in Anaheim.  I chose Lafcadio by Shel Silverstein as my inspiration.  The above doodles are the shape studies I'm doing to find a character design that appeals to me and also resonates with the source material. 

Tiger and the Princess

Drawn in my sketchbook and colored in PS.

Tough Girl Watercolor

Had fun playing with my watercolor set today!  I'm not totally thrilled with the background, but I DO like how the foreground characters turned out!  Dead fish monster is dead!

Flute Tiger

This was drawn with a dip pen on watercolor paper and was toned using concentrated watercolors and a black Derwent drawing pencil.

Tiger Hug

Tiger luvs his kitty poo... :3
This was drawn with a dip pen and toned using concentrated watercolor.

Moar Kittiehs

Both of these were drawn with the mysterious pen from my last post and colored in PS.

Daily Doodles

Here's more of my doodles from @Daily_Doodles' prompts this week.  "Matador Mouse" was drawn using a 4B pencil and Photoshop.  I drew in a dead tomato worm because I absolutely hate tomato worms!  I loathe them with a passion!  I would grow tomatoes in the backyard if it wasn't for these hook-butt spawns of creepiness!

The above was drawn for "Teacher Tortoise."  Since I teach at CSUF I decided to draw myself as a tortoise teaching anatomy.  The glasses are pretty true to how I look, the rest is totally inaccurate. :)

Ballerina Bears

I follow @Daily__Doodles on Twitter, they post sketching prompts M-F.  The prompts from accounts like @Daily_Doodle and @Sketch_Dailies are wonderful excuses to make art without having to exert a ton of brainpower coming up with a subject matter.  Participation comes with a secondary benefit: you get to meet fellow artists from all over the world as you go through the tweets.  Its quite inspiring.

The above was drawn using a 6B pencil for the Daily__Doodle prompt "Ballerina Bear."  I had so much fun drawing the single bear that I had to follow up with a second ensemble piece.

FYI, I don't post all of art tweets here on the sketch blog.  Check out the media section of my twitter page to see what you might be missing!

Treasure Hunting

This was drawn in my Moleskine sketchbook with an 02 Micron, the gray values were later added in Photoshop.  I also included a screenshot of my sketchbook with a Micron to give a sense of how small I typically draw.

Wondercon Art

I spent this last weekend at Wondercon in Artist Alley with the ever-dapper Kevin Woody.  I had a good time meeting fellow creatives and talking to the nice folks that stopped by.

I drew these three pieces at the con using an 02 and 05 Micron on textured drawing paper.  I've been on an aquatic kick as of late for some odd reason.  My sketchbook is filled with all sorts of mermaids and octopi and fish monsters. Perhaps my subconscious is telling me I need a vacation. :)

Ink Wash Birds

I've been having fun drawing pigeons and other assorted birds as of late.  The ink wash sketches below were painted on Bristol Board with Speedball Super Black.  From top-to-bottom there is a chesty pigeon, a fancy pigeon, another fancy pigeon, a dapper pigeon, a horned owl, and a fancy rooster.

Happy Kitty

This very happy kitty was drawn on Vellum Bristol board with a Derwent drawing pencil, toned with an ink wash, and colored in Photoshop.