Character Design: Red Dragon

I have been struggling to create this character for some time. I needed a funny yet threatening Dragon for a picture book manuscript. I believe I finally found it in this character over the holiday weekend.

Color comp of the character

I borrowed from my own sketch from a couple of months ago, where I created an illustration of a dragon, knight, and mouse reading in a dungeon: Fantasy Reading Scene (for SCBWI). I took many features from that image's dragon that I liked, then exaggerated them to create a slightly more fierce appearance.

Inked with a very soft brush pen

Original pencil sketch

Daily Quick Sketch: Fishface

No idea when I did this sketch, but I found this old scanned pencil drawing in one of my archive drives. I dropped it into Painter 2018 and gave it a few color layers and added some color lines. I believe this was created with a small drawing program called Krita.

FishFace, quick colored version of an old pencil sketch image

Krita had a nice interface and it did a great job of simulating a true sketching line on a tablet. But it had glitches, which would sometimes lose artwork from system lock-ups and/or program crashes. So I stopped using Krita for that major reason.

The original pencil sketch

Like most of the things I find, I threw it on this blog for safe keeping. Never know when I might need a character whose face resembles a fish.

Inktober 2017 • day 26 • Trick or Treatin' Monster

Inktober 2017: Day26
Trick or Treatin' Monsta

I felt like doing a big goofy monster trick or treating on Halloween day.

I have to admit, I think a lot of this goofy walking stance (and definitely its feet) is inspired by Mad Magazine's Don Martin. Don Martin was the king of goofy drawing when I was a kid. It was Martin's cartoons, Sergio Aragonés randomly gutter placed doodles, and Antonio Prohías' Spy vs. Spy that were the must-read pages whenever I bought Mad Magazine.

#Inktober Day 26: Wrong Toes, the friendly neighborhood gremlin.

Inktober 2017 • day 19 • Ghost Doodles

Inktober 2017: Day19
Halloween Ghost Doodles

Today's Inktober is just a bunch of ghost doodles (with a pumpkin basket thrown in.)
I used a very soft pen brush, hence the more shaky, sketchy and varying lines.

Inktober Day 19: Various Ghost and pumpkin basket doodles

Inktober 2017 • day 18 • Teen Wolf

Inktober 2017: Day18Teen Wolf
This little guy was a concept design for a Trick or Treat bag. Basically, he's rising from the bag's base. I'll need to simplify this design because TOT bags are generally very graphic and iconic in today's market.

Inktober Day #18: Teen Wolf Surprise!

Inktober 2017 • day 17 • Go Fish! (Bunnies and Monstas)

Inktober 2017: Day17
Go Fish (Bunnies and Monstas)

Those who follow my artwork will probably recognize this image. I've been working on variations of this concept for quite some time. This is part of a calendar idea I've had for the last few years.

#Inktober Day 17: Yet another version of Go Fish from my Bunnies and Monstas collection

Inktober 2017 • day 16 • Minya (aka Godzilla Jr.)

Inktober 2017: Day16
Minya (aka Baby Godzilla or Godzilla Jr.)

I always thought Minya was a strange looking monster. He had to be one of the worst creatures made in the early Godzilla movies. But with this character's introduction came so many questions about Godzilla. Was Godzilla the father or mother? Did Godzilla have a mate? Were there other children?
But the strangest thing about the character was its weapon: the smoke rings. They hardly seemed to do any damage at all. Seemed more annoying than harmful. Makes one wonder how he learned to make smoke rings, right?

#Inktober Day 16: Minya practicing how to make smoke rings

Inktober 2017 • day 15 • Were-Cow

Inktober 2017:
Day15 Were-Cow

This cow survived a werewolf attack; As soon as it was bitten, the werewolf realized he was a vegan. I'd imagine the horrible milk this cow would produce since it's diet is probably no longer vegan. It would be close to blood pudding I bet. Oh, and good luck milking this cow.

#Inktober Day 15: Scanned version of the Were-Cow ink drawing.

Side Note: After scanning, I altered the placement of the lettering from above and set it below the character instead. Better this way, IMHO.

Inktober 2017 • day 14 • Da Batman

Inktober 2017: Day14
The Batman gearing for action

Would be weird to not do at least one Batman image for Inktober. This one is based on a sketch I did while in Iceland. I gave that original drawing to a family member while there, so I thought I'd do another version of that picture for Inktober 2017. (Hope you don't mind, Victor!)

#Inktober Day 14: Batman is ready for battle with his trusty little Batarang

Inktober 2017 • day 13 • Lumpy Bumpy

Inktober 2017: Day13
The Lumpy Bumpy Monster

When pressed for time, but you still want to do a daily image for Inktober -- go with what you know. I've been drawing this character for decades now, so it is easy for me to quickly sketch one of my oldest characters, Lumpy Bumpy Monster.

Inktober Day #13: My old reliable character, the Lumpy Bumpy Monster

Inktober 2017 • day 12 • The Pumpkinhead Kid

Inktober 2017: Day12
The Pumpkinhead Kid
I've created a rough draft of a picture book story featuring this character. This is the 6th Halloween picturebook story I have written. I think I'm obsessed with Halloween!

Inked version of the Pumpkinhead Kid

I was so busy around the time I was drawing this character. I didn't have time to post it and I left it laying on the scanner. It was weeks before I realized I never finished posting the drawing.
This is the one that almost got away . . .

Original pencil sketch

Inktober 2017 • day 10 • Deadie Bear

Inktober 2017: Day10
Deadie Bear
Did a similar character last year for a Trick or Treat Bag, (no one purchased the design.)
For this image, I thought of playing around doing sketchy lines. Actually, after finishing the image, I added even more scratchy lines to make have a rougher edge.

#Inktober Day 10: Awww, Deadie Bear is coming to you for a hug . . . 

Inktober 2017 • day 9 • Vampire's First Flight

Inktober 2017: Day9
Vampire's First Flight
I wonder how vampires learn how to transform and fly as bats. Is it similar to a baby bird?

#Inktober Day 9: Do vampires take a leap of faith to learn how to fly?

Inktober 2017 • day 8 • Little Witch

Inktober 2017: Day #8
Little Witch . . . 'Nuff said!

#Inktober Day 8: Cute Little Witch

Inktober 2017 • day 7 • Helium Ghosts

Inktober 2017: Day #7
Ever wonder what would happen if ghosts played around with helium?

#Inktober Day 6: Ghosts discover helium

Found a harder tipped version of my favorite Tombow brush pen (WS-BH 150).
I find it's better for my heavy hand, allowing me to add more pressure to get the line thickness I want. This allows me to draw thinner lines than if I used the soft tipped version (WS-BS 150). Because of this, it feels more comfortable. Overall, I think it produces a cleaner image, allowing me to add more lines and detail.

Inktober 2017 • day 3 • Bat (aka Guanoloopie)

#Inktober: In 2009, Jake Parker created Inktober, where every October, artists everywhere draw one ink drawing per day for the entire month.

For this year's Inktober, I'm just doing quick doodles of characters related to Halloween.
No pencils for this guy, just going straight to doodling with ink.

#Inktober Day 3: Bat named Guanoloopie