A new year! ACK!

This image pretty much explains all the feelings I have now that the holiday break is over, and a new year has begun.

Daily Quick Sketch: Even More Monstas and Bunnies sketch stuff

I've been sketching this image on and off for a few months now. Another image for my grouping of Monstas and Bunnies, (I'm thinking of switching to Monstas & Bunny instead, since I've been using the same bunny in all the images.)

Pencil sketch for GO FISH, another image for my collection of Monstas and Bunnies images.

Inktober 2016: Scared (#13 of 31)

This one is for the word Scared, Inktober Day 13 word of the day. I always enjoyed having large creatures get frightened by little innocent animals. (One example is here.)

Day 13's "Scared" Inktober image; penciled, inked and shaded using Copic markers

You might notice that the inked line is shakier. The lines also greatly fluctuant from thin to thick. This is because the brush pen I'm using is very soft and  it bristles bend at the slightest pressure. This creates a completely different look when compared to a using a stiffer brush pen.

Showing the inked line without shading

Inking is also much quicker for me when using a soft brush pen because there's less restriction. I'm not trying to make the lines perfect, especially for the rough texture of the alligator.

The original pencil sketch

Daily Quick Sketch: More Monstas and Bunnies sketch stuff

Had this sketch laying around since the end of last year. The sketch was an idea I had envisioned and quickly jotted down on paper before forgetting it. It helped that it was the holiday season, which inspires this type of work. Looking at the image now, a half-year later, there are many changes needed to improve the composition. Mostly the sizing of everything is off. The characters and the tree need to be bigger with less emphasis/detail to the background.

Inked rough sketch of a concept for a Monsta and Bunnies calendar

I would like to create a calendar of this subject one day. This one would be December's image. I know the subject and images would work well, but I'm still undecided on what style medium I would want to use for final images. Time will tell.

Original pencil sketch of the holiday concept

Wait - What? #3: Rabbit Thingie?

Here's another strange doodle, seems Rabbit like but also has a Chinchilla feel to it too. This was drawn quite some time ago, so looking at it with "new" eyes this character could easily be changed into a Jackalope by adding antlers on its head.

Weird looking character sketch made with ink pen

Overall, I find this to be a disturbing character -- it's just too weird looking.

Monsters and Bunnies: Nap Time

Another image from my collection of sketches called "Monstas and Bunnies". This is one of a planned set of 12. Once the set is complete, I plan to create a calendar for 2017.

"Nap Time" - finished sketch created with pencils scanned and colored with Photoshop

Possibly might try to KickStart this project, hoping the work itself will be enough to generate interest to get the calendar printed. If the KickStarter goes past the set goal, I plan to then turn the set of images into a children's book with a story about the Bunny and his year long travels meeting "Monstas".

Penciled cave background added and gray tone colored using Photoshop

Originally, I created a single image of a lion terrified of a group of bunnies. It was a sketch exercise I created for the website Illustration Friday, where I still occasionally submit new artwork, (work + time permitting.) The lion was high in a tree while several cute innocent bunnies were simply passing by. I got a lot of site hits and feedback from posting that image and it later inspired more similar sketches. But this time, the big creatures weren't frightened by a bunny -- they were adoring the bunny.

Original pencil sketch created around Spring of 2015

There something appealing about big giant monsters (many inspired by Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are") being friendly with a small cute bunny. One by one, images appeared in my head and I started sketching them down. More to come ... 

UPDATE! Monsters and Bunnies: Hopscotch

UPDATE!: Background added
Finally added the much-needed background to this image. This is the image that will be used for my promotional postcard during the approaching SCBWI conference.

BELOW IS THE ORIGINAL POST THAT WAS CREATED ON 01-14-2015
UPDATE: Color!
2014 was a terrible year, mentally and physically. For over 9 months I dealt with a frozen right shoulder, my drawing arm, making every action and motion painful and irritating . . .
Even though that shoulder is still not 100%, 2015 is going to change for the better.
I plan to be more committed to art projects like this for 2015.

Exactly 7 months ago, I posted this image on the blog as a pencil sketch only. Then over the recent holidays, I added color to the sketch. It is one of a set of six images for "Monsters and Bunnies".

Because these images were all done at various times, with different techniques and styles, I intend to redo the entire set of 6 images again. Only this time, the style will remain the same for all of the images, along with a more limited pallet of colors. The style for all six images will pretty much follow the style of the image below . . . 

UPDATED pencil sketch with digital under coloring.
This is by far my favorite of the 6 images and it will serve as the style template for all six images.

BELOW IS THE ORIGINAL POST THAT WAS CREATED ON 6-14-2014
Here's another of the 6 images I've been working on for the past several months; these images feature monsters and bunnies. I've been too busy lately to finish the coloring, but this one came out nice just in gray tones.

Hopscotch: Another Monsters and Bunnies image done in pencil.

I plan to make all six images fully digitally colored and then make several high-quality prints of each to sell on my website. (But that won't be for a least a few months.) The current working size is 7" X 5", but that might change once all the images are finalized.