Sketches for an Upcoming Project

For the past few weeks, I've been spending a lot of my time working on a personal project that includes many of the Monster Monday drawings. In my past post, I showed the process of how I created the Fungus Behemoth, but didn't show the sketch I created for the ink drawing. Lately I've been experimenting with pencils that are similar to my technique I use when I draw in my sketchbook. So I bought some new pencils in Terra Cotta, Red, and Blue prismacolor pencils to create rough drawings for ink drawings. Here are some drawings I created over the past few weeks.  

Some of these have been seen already as ink drawings and digital pieces. Others will be popping up in the next few weeks for Monster Monday and other blog posts.

Moleskine Sketchbook

I've drawn in many types of sketchbooks over the past few years, I've been taking my sketchbook with me everywhere since High School. I decided to buy a sketchbook that could handle the abuse of travel. And so far the moleskine has been handling the travel.

Usually the spine of my sketchbooks break and tapped together to keep the book from falling apart. I've been carrying this book around for over a month and it's still holding up. Attached to the book is a pen with multicolored inks so I don't have to carry multiple pens. Plus I'll never forget a pen to draw with.

Here are some pages from my current sketchbook.

Sketch Book pages from December to April

I recently finished my yellow sketch book that I previously shown in an older post. And I haven't shown any pages from it, so today is a sketchbook page collection. 

Designs for a Basilisk for a monster codex type book for a roleplaying game. I am currently gesturing the idea down to figure out how the legs will look as well as the skin texture. 

Satyrs are all over my sketchbook, they are one of my favorite creatures to draw besides Goblins. I experimented with design as well as used some markers to color parts of the sketches.

A beast design for a spot illustration of a Dwarf tracker in the snow. It took a while to discover the design that was working but all the exploration paid off in the final image.

What a usual sketch page looks like, its all over the place. On this spread are some thumb nails, goblin week ideas, and a dinosaur. Usually being all over the place is a good thing in my sketchbook since its free flow.

Sketches for another piece I'm working on that I was inking last night. It's exploring an old watercolor I did of a satyr sitting in his arm chair. For the piece I wanted to add more narrative which I think added much more to the final illustration. 

Starkens also end up in the sketchbook as well, there were a few pages exploring poses and tattoo designs. The other page are the first ideas for the Orbis elementals. I posted two elementals for monster monday already, you can go back a few posts to see the final image.

My Tools for sketching

Since I have been showing many final drawings as well as digital pieces, it's time to show my main tools for sketching.

Sketchbooks are the most important record of my thoughts at a given time. I've had a sketchbooks since I was 11 and never stopped carrying one around with me where ever I go. My current sketchbook is the large yellow one, I stopped using the brown paper sketchbook since I couldn't find a low enough price for my budget. I spent about 8 bucks on the yellow sketchbook. With cheap paper, you don't have to worry about making awesome drawings and just experiment. Last week, I bought a moleskine, sometimes carrying my large book is an annoyance so I often carry it in a bag when I leave the house. The moleskine is nice because its a good size to carry around. The paper is thin but it has a lot of paper so I'll get my moneys worth in it.

Some pages from my Moleskine.

Next are my supplies I use to draw in my sketchbooks with. 

I like to sketch in pen, it makes me learn to place confident lines on the paper, plus I have a record of everything I draw since there's no erasing.  The pens on the left are 2 Pentel Finto in black and red, the other pen is a sharpie pen. The pentel's are very similar to sharpies but move better across the paper (tip: use on thick paper only, it will bleed through very thin paper). The 2 pens I use the most are ballpoint pens of red and black. The red pen is for laying down the under drawing and the black is for cleaning the sketch up and adding details. To the right are the 2 pencils I use when sketching final pieces. The larger blue pencil with the metal is a Pro-Matic, it holds a stick of graphite and it's great for gesturing a large piece. Since I leave a flat tip, it keeps me from getting ahead of myself with detail. The other pencil is a basic mechanical pencil and a trusty easer near by. 

For inking I use FW Ink, I haven't found any other ink that lives up to FW's standard. I ink my pieces with Burnt Umber to give the drawings a warmer line. The white ink is FW as well and I use to for my toned paper pieces, it's great because it won't warp the paper because there's no water added. My favorite brush to ink with is Blick Studio Synthetic 0, I've experimented with many brushes over the years and can't find a brush I enjoy more then the Blick brush. Each brush has a color tape at the end to remind me which one is for white ink and what's for the umber ink.

That's it for my drawing supplies, later on I might do a post about my favorite paper to use in the creation of illustrations. 

PORTFOLIO

Illuxcon Part 1

Illuxcon Part 1

This year I decided that I wanted to attend Illuxcon, I bought my ticket in January during my winter break and knew that all the work I created from that moment to the beginning of September could end up being in my portfolio. Luckily between my thesis and generally nonstop drawing, it wasn't to difficult to choose 12 images for my Illuxcon portfolio.

Thursday night, after my 10:00 class ended, I jumped in my car to head to Allentown. Unfortunately it rained the entire drive from school to Allentown, at some points I was driving less then 50 mph because of rain fall. But I made it there in one piece. I checked into the hotel, and quickly passed out from the long drive.

The next morning I got up early to be at the Allentown Art Museum as Illuxcon opened. For the first hour, not to many visitors where on the floor, making it easy to move around and see lots of the paintings. Very soon, the floor filled with students and other illustrators, some getting portfolio reviews, some purchasing prints, and others buying the paintings off the walls. For the good portion of the first day I talked to the illustrators exhibiting in the main showcase. I was very excited to have Chris Seaman review my portfolio, as he is one of my favorite illustrators. His paintings have a great sense of color and stylization that is often missed in the fantasy genera because most often its realistic oil paintings (not that there is anything wrong with that). Its easy to relate to more stylized work for me. I even purchased an illustration from Chris Seaman and happy to say its my very first original illustration that I have purchased. 

Later on in the day I went to a lecture about illustration verus concept art. It was interesting to here two different opinions, one being Robh Ruppel from Naughty Dog and the other Jon Schindehette of Dungeons and Dragons. It all leads down to what answers are being found, a final answer or an explorative answer.

I also purchased to white backed magic cards from Ryan Pancoast and Ralph Horsely. A white back is a printed magic card with out the normal logo of Magic written on the back. Its left white and illustrators often sell them with a nice sketch of the back. From Ryan Pancoast, I got a goblin and from Ralph Horsely I got a tree folk.

Later that night was the showcase at the Holiday Inn a few blocks away. Many students, up and coming illustrators, and seasoned pros set up tables with originals and prints. It was great to see so many people passionate about one thing and it made the experience even greater. I got to meet Sean Murray, who worked on the game Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, one of my favorite games I've ever played. I purchased his sketchbook and it is amazing to look through.

There were the books, prints, and the original painting that I bought on my first day of Illuxcon. After the showcase, I headed back to my hotel to do some home work with all the energy from Illuxcon.

Monster Monday- April 22, 2013

rocks have been my new favorite element to draw in my sketch book. Thought I might draw some totem like head creatures.

Monster Monday- April 15, 2013

Mushroom Folk

Took a break from the chaos of finishing my book to ink a little mushroom folk. Mushroom Folk are very small able to hide with normal mushrooms. They like to trick travelers off path and get them lost in the woods.

Monster Monday- March 25th, 2013

Wild Orc

Sketch Book

I am a illustrator who has always drawn. I've been keeping a sketchbook since I was about 10 years old and can't imagine the thousands of pages I have filled. Lately I have been working in a new sketch book book, a brown toned hardcover book produced by Strathmore. I've been searching for months for a hard cover sketch book that is not white paper, I need something with a binding so I am not tempted to rip out a drawing and forget a failure. It's important to keep all the drawings to show the progression to a liked drawing. The nice thing about sketchbooks is its an exploration and doesn't have to be 'finished' like an illustration. It's about problem solving and not creating perfect images. So I've decided to share some pages of my sketchbook in hope to get others to fill some sketchbooks of there own.

Incase anyone was wondering I draw with a simple pen and use a white gel pen for the white ink. 

Toned Paper Dwarf Drawing

The next month is going to be extremely busy. It is the final month of my thesis. I have to finish the paintings, writing, and put the book together to send to the printer. And then I have to get ready for 2 Conventions, Asbury Park Comic Con and MoCCA. My calendar is so full I almost want to vomit. 

Anyway, over the past few days I decided to work on a new drawing as a break from painting. I haven't drawn a dwarf in a while so I decided to fool around in my sketch book.

This is one page from my sketchbook, I tend to draw details that I will use in an illustration or drawing before hand. It helps to have reference on what the character is going to look like. I also draw little gestures of the pose (seen in right top corner), it's a great way to figure out poses.

After I do a few pages of sketches, I draw the figure with a 2H pencil for the lose gestures and details. Then I'll darken some lines that are hard to see clearly. I pull out my FW black ink and use a brush to ink my drawing. I've been experimenting with multiple ways to add white to my toned paper drawings. White pencil is good for sketchbooks but tends to rub off onto the other page. And I finally found a solution, gouache.

There's the finished Dwarf. Make sure to check out my tumblr, thinkillustrationpaige.tumblr.com for more illustrations. Now to get drawing for Monster Monday.