Monster Monday- February 10, 2014

It's been 1 year of Monster Mondays. I only missed two Mondays is a whole year (i think) and plan to draw a monster for every Monday of 2014. It's been a great exercise in character design and well as holding accountability to create and post drawings. A lot of the drawings are going to be published in my 32 page full color sketchbook I'm printing for convention season as well as some never before seen monsters and illustrations. 

As celebration for a full year of Monster Mondays I drew a portrait of a tree folk. I have drawn many tree folk in the past year and can't help that they are a joy to draw. There is something about looking at a tree that creates strange anatomy. There are tree folk in Orbis but I haven't decided if they travel or are planted to the ground or both. And like Goblin Guild, I will be creating a small book of just tree folk for convention season and finish my book of wizards. Lots to get done for April (MoCCA Fest, Asbury Park Comic Con) and then Illuxcon in September, where my work will be displayed on Friday and Saturday night.

Thanks for all the support for Monster Monday as well as my other illustrations.

Monster Monday- December 9, 2013

I experimented more with the pastel pencil over the past week. It's been a little stressful with the semester ending, I'm finally going to graduate. So I took a little time from class work to sit down and just draw something. Of course, I drew a tree folk...sorry (not really). Trees are just interesting, they have interesting shapes that can be molded into faces and distorted anatomy. Plus it's always fun to play with texture.

Monster Monday- December 2, 2013

Another Treefolk, sorry if people get tired of them but they are a joy to draw. A while back I got a few pastel pencils. Most of the time I sketch with a keep pen (because I lose nice pencils all the time) and wanted to try something new. I've seen many people use pastel pencils on colored paper so I decide to give it a shot. The colors I got were Sepia Dark, Sepia Light, and Red Chalk. The feeling of the sepia pencils bothered me, it reminded me to much of charcoal. I hate using charcoal, but the Red Chalk felt more the normal pencils I use in illustrations. 

I sketched the piece all with the red chalk on the yellowish paper. Since I was experimenting with the pencil, starting off small was a good idea. A portrait of the Treefolk flowed from my pencil and resulted in the drawing. It was enjoyable to create since it's been a busy week with the holiday and other work.

Ent's Attacking

My first full color digital illustration created for my independent study at school. I started sketching and conceptualizing the illustration while I was at Illuxcon in September. With rounds of redrawing the tower and scanning my ink drawing to place together in photoshop, to create the base of the illustration of the final line art.

I had a good understanding of photoshop before starting the piece but it was an experiment to find the best way to render the piece. With alot of guidance and help from Prof. Chris Gash, he guided me to create a final piece that I'm very happy about.

Since I got to choose the content of the illustration, I picked the scene in Lord of The Rings when the Ents attack Isengard to stop the destruction of the Fangorn Forrest. It's a scene that I've wanted to illustrate for a while and thought that it was a good time to finally create it. Plus I've been drawing lots of Ents and Tree Folk in my sketch book (and drawing them is still not out of my system)

SHOP VISIT

The Halloween weekend, I'll be at my favorite comics store, The Comic Book Shop in Wilmington, DE on Saturday the 26th selling zines, prints, stickers,  magnets and original drawings. I'll also be drawing monsters for customers at the shop. It's going to be a fun weekend so stop by!

Monster Monday- September 23, 2013

Tree Folk have been dominating my sketch book since the beginning of summer. I can't stop, there just so cool. This was a inking practice for an illustration I am currently working on for one of my classes. It has to do with tree folk.

Later on this week I will post Illuxcon Part 2 as well as share some sketchbook pages.

Monster Monday- August 19, 2013

Here's the ink drawing for a watercolor I'm about half way done with. Its a part of series of 3 paintings about Tree Folk. This is the last piece in the series. I am experimenting with textures in the current 3 watercolors I'm working on and it's really adding to the pieces.

Next week I will have a new drawing for monster monday. The past 2 weeks have been really crazy.

Monster Monday- August 5, 2013

tree folk have been dominating my sketch books for the past month. Its interesting to see the many solutions to creating anatomy out of branches and bark. This is a small study for a much larger illustration in the works.

Tree Folk of Autumn

This painting has been sitting on my desk of over a month and I'm happy to share a new painting. Lately I've been drawing many tree folk in my sketch book and am planning a small long term project with the wandering trees.

I experimented with some new techniques on this piece. The red watercolor was becoming more pink then I wanted, I then mixed some Doc Martins ink to create red. For the Tree Folk, I tried a different bark pattern then I usually use and it turned out great.

Green Man

Finished inking this piece a while back and the painting process has already started. It's a green man wondering through the forrest at night. I had a lot of fun designing the character with a leaf beard, tree hand, and log horns. I'm still debating if I want to design a patterned frame as a boarder, I guess I'll figure it out as it get's closer to finial stages.