Art Blog
Stories about making things out of nothing.
Every new location in Hey Arnold! had to be designed before the final background layouts were drawn with clean pencil lines. These designs were based on the story in the script, how characters were to interact in the location, and the mood of the scenes. When designing new places, I typically drew in a faster, rougher style than the finished background layouts.
Newly added backgrounds to the Hey Arnold! gallery:
See more Hey Arnold! Backgrounds.
This drawing of Tarzan is far more cartoony than my usual cartoon work. It's fun to push the limits of the art form. I enjoyed mixing the bulbous body with limbs that have resemblance to human structure. I used that odd cartooning cheat where the arm is not seen behind the open mouth, but the drawing works like that.
Can you spot the mistake? The answer is below.
The mistake:
Tarzan has two right feet. I originally drew the extended leg as his right leg. When I redrew the connection to his left hip, I forgot to go back and fix the foot. Because this is just a drawing for fun, not publication, I'll leave it as is. Do you think he'll stumble upon landing?
Yesterday's daily topic on @Sketch_Dailies was "Monkey King", a warrior monkey from Chinese folklore. Warriors aren't my thing so I thought of another monkey king that I do like: King Louie from the Jungle Book. I sketched this based on two different original animation drawings by Frank Thomas, therefore it's not a pose directly out of the film.
Being that I live here, it's the most common thing I get commissioned to illustrate. I've drawn them so many times, I no longer require photo reference. Below are all of the Flatirons I've created professionally over the years. These can be found on travel posters, murals, websites, event posters, comics, food packaging, and t-shirts. Most are in my common poster style but I've also experimented with different aesthetics.
40 Flatirons:
Many of these Flatirons can be found in my Boulder travel posters.
Since launching the redesign and rebranding of my site last month, I've seen an increase in mobile browsing.
The template for my new site is so mobile friendly that my artwork shines on the little screen in your hand. Every aspect of the site has been optimized for mobile browsing, from the galleries to the poster shop.
Go ahead, load up SteveLowtwait.com on your phone and tap around.
@Sketch_Dailies is a Twitter account that posts a new topic every weekday. Thousands of artists of all skill levels participate by drawing the subject and sharing it on Twitter. Sketch Dailies retweets their favorites.
I've drawn most of the subjects over the last two weeks. Sometimes I did a quick drawing, and other times I've created a more polished illustration. Since these are for fun and practice, I've experimented with a variety of visual styles. See more of my daily sketches on Twitter here: @Lowtwait
Click to enlarge:
Bonnie and Clyde, Jessica Rabbit, Ursula, Robin Hood, Billy the Kid, Blackbeard, Big Bad Wolf, Centaur, Jackalope with a jackknife in his jacket jackhammering jacks from a Jacksonville jack-in-the-box.
