I've been practicing drawing men in a variety of styles. You know who that last one is, right?
If you didn't guess who this is...
It's Norman Bates.
I wanted to see how flexibly I could draw different kinds of lines and shading with a single tool in Photoshop. I only adjusted size and opacity of the brush as I drew this girl. Not bad. I went a little overboard on trying to make the lines too clean. I'll do more experimentation.
Click to view larger.
These five illustrations were commissioned for the Shining Mountain Waldorf School in Boulder, Colorado to hang on lamppost banners around their grounds.
Each depicts a unique area of the school with its eclectic grounds and architecture. I enjoyed this project for capturing the variety of artful elements across the school grounds.
A poster with all the images can be purchased here to support the school.
I've had a new visual style in mind for a while that I've been wanting to develop. It's a look I haven't quite seen so I'm not sure yet how to get it out of my head. I'm attempting a sort of advanced colored pencil style created with some digital drawing tricks.
This test drawing is the closest I've come but it's not quite there yet. The sculptural treatment of the tree trunk is good but the hatching needs refinement.
Onward!
Prompted by the topic of a witch doctor from Sketch Dailies, I decided to not only draw the character, but his laboratory. I wasn't originally planning on this much detail until I got carried away by inspiration. It took me much more than a day.
Please click to enlarge:
The base line drawing:
Details:
I didn't base it on any specific culture, rather I combined multiple tribal objects and imagery, including a dose of fantasy elements.
I wasn't going to draw him naked but a loin cloth or grass skirt seemed too cartoony. When I first sketched out the figure, I decided instead to dress him in only tattoos.
Not one hand-carved, wooden animal on the Carousel of Happiness in Nederland, Colorado is the same species. There are 36 different animals to ride and 25 more that decorate the environment. I was commissioned to create a poster series celebrating six of the most popular animals.
I set out to create a look that was both contemporary and vintage. The bold, stylized animals are visually modern, as is the color palette across the series. In contrast, the decorative border and classical typography recalls the carousel's Victorian heritage.
The border is composed of imagery from animals and ornamentation on the carousel itself, to the horns of the vintage Wurlitzer that provides its music. The bottom center features the building that houses the indoor carousel. The corner ovals feature other facets of the carousel's story - the puppet theater inside the building, and a view of the mountain landscape surrounding the area.
The series will be sold as posters and postcards in the carousel's gift shop. If you're in Colorado, plan a visit to the Carousel of Happiness.
The carousel posters are also available online in my shop.
I wanted to practice drawing on my new Cintiq tablet. How good could I get with detail? How easy was it to draw something complex? I decided to do a line drawing in the style of an animation background design. Having done much digital drawing, it was very natural to draw a few hundred pumpkins and tiny branches right on the screen.
Starting in late October before Halloween, I was in the mood to draw a pumpkin patch scene with a sense of mystery. Why the big hole hidden behind the thicket? Why the windowless tower?
Details:
Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.