Throwback Thursday: L.B. Monster sketch found

REPOST DUE TO CORRUPT AND/OR LOST IMAGE FILE:
Many posts labelled with Throwback Thursday suddenly missing or corrupt images.
Why is this happening Blogger (aka Google?)
Originally posted on 6/24/16

UPDATE: Color

Marker comp: Coloring LB slightly different than usual . . . testing the waters

UPDATE: Inked version

Brush pen inked version of the found Lumpy Bumpy Monster pencil sketch 

Originally Posted on 1-7-2016 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
It's a strange feeling to find some of my work from the past. There's this sense of seeing it with new eyes again as if looking at someone else's work. This one in particular really surprised me. It was hidden on an old hard drive I was cleaning out to scrap.This image was sketched sometime back around 2003.

An old pencil sketch of my series's main character called The Lumpy Bumpy Monster ( aka L.B.)

L.B. (short for Lumpy Bumpy) is one of my oldest and favorite characters to draw. It took me nearly a decade to mold him into the character he is today. Yet, while I have 100s of sketches and drawings, I've yet to ever really do anything with him (and his supporting characters.) L.B. was originally intended to be part of a series of books for children. I felt I needed to be established in the publishing world before I could ever do the tales I wanted with L.B. and Timmons.

I'm sure I will be finding more hidden works on old sketch pads, hard drives, floppy disks and CDs. If I ever get the time, I'd like to clean up and ink this image ...

UPDATE Daily Quick Sketch: Piggin' and Grinnin'

UPDATE: I never liked the framing I did in this image, so I eliminated the background coloring.

Originally posted on 3/11/15:
Today's quick sketch was inspired by the blog: Dueling Banjo Pigs, a blog run by illustrators, Guy Francis and Stacy Curtis.

I seem to have jumped on the bandwagon long after this blog first started, but when viewing the blog and it's many banjo-playing pig images . . . I felt like tossing one on top of the already impressive 700+ picture collection pile.

Fully colored digital image of Piggin' and Grinnin' for the "Dueling Bango Pigs" blog site

Doing this image was a lot of fun. It's nice to just jump into doing a fun sketch with nothing but a suggested topic (a pig and a banjo.)

Inked version of the pencil lines created in ArtRage Pro

NOTE: Anyone can submit to the blog, professional or beginning artist. The blog is purely for fun. Even if you don't want to submit an image, it's worth seeing all the variations people have sent over the years. Visit the site here: http://banjopigs.blogspot.com/

Original pencil sketch from one of my sketchbooks

Daily Quick Sketch: Happy Baby New Year 2017

Whoa, it's been some time since I posted here. I still have the last week of Inktober 2016 images to post here. (Now where did I put those images? . . . )

Anyway, one of my popular images for this time of year are the Baby New Year images. So this year, I thought I revise the image to fit the times . . .

Yep, gonna be one of those years . . .

The Original Pencil Sketch

Inktober 2016: Squeeze (#20 of 31)

This one's showing my age. Day20 for Inktober and the word is SQUEEZE.

My generation grew up on Looney Tunes cartoons, by far the funniest and best quality cartoons on television at that time. Today, I have no idea if children watch any of these classic cartoons anymore, especially when most of them have been edited, censored or banned.

Inktober Day20 "Squeeze", using a Tombow brush pen and Copic markers

"Squeeze" reminded me of one of my favorite cartoon characters as a kid, Hugo the Abominable Snowman. Hugo was only in a few cartoons, but he was such a great goofy character; (basically a tribute to the novel "Of Mice and Men.) Anyone who remembers Hugo, remembers his phrases . . . that's what inspired this cartoon.

Original pencil sketch of "Squeeze"

Inktober 2016: Flight (#19 of 31)

Ever notice how Hollywood usually portrays an angel as a neatly dressed, well-mannered, good looking and nearly perfect person with wings? Hollywood, cartoons and historical painters have really helped to distort what real angels are from the bible.

Angels in the bible are not good humans who get their wings when they arrive at heaven's gate. Angels are powerful spiritual beings who do the bidding of God. When angels show up, it's usually not a good time at all.

So I was thinking . . . for the people who believe they get wings when they go to heaven - what would they really look like? Basically, they would still look and be themselves, right? And if that said person loved smoking and drinking beer . . . well he/she would get to do that while in heaven too, right? (Otherwise, it just wouldn't be heaven.)

Realistic angel inked and shaded using a black brush pen and Copic gray markers

Inktober 2016: Rock (#08 of 31)

For the 8th day of Inktober, the word of the day is Rock. That reminded me of my rock people characters . . . And my favorite is King Mudsok.

Blue pencil and inked character design of King Mudsok, the beloved leader of the Molten People.

Mudsok is one of the many characters I have been developing for a humorous story that takes place underground. His name is King Mudsok. Not sure where I got the name, but it popped into my head as soon as I finished drawing him. He is the king of the Molten People, a tribe that is at war with the Mucklugs, (a tribe of underground plant people.)

I see his character as being one who intimidates those who meet him. His voice is deep and rough, and his size is pretty impressive. He speaks with a loud, aggressive tone that vibrates the surrounding area. But underneath all that tough persona lies a very passionate, loving and caring soul. He really is a softie -- made of stone.

King Mudsok is a part of one of my many children's book stories for my "Timmons and the Lumpy Bumpy Monster" series. I'll try to find the Mucklug leader, Zoobi-Dang and post it when I can.

Illustration Friday: Weapon

Illustration Friday: Every Friday a word is given on the website, IllustrationFriday.com. Artists and illustrators then submit an image that represents that word all during the week.

This week's word: Weapon

For this week's submission, I simply took from an old image I did of my character Hairy. The page had Hairy getting ready to battle a monster in the closet, using the best toy weapons he could find.

Hairy loaded and ready for battle. Image taken from one of my oldest picture book stories.

Below is the original full image from which this image was taken from. This page is  #14 from the story, "Timmons and the Lumpy Bumpy Monster" back in the early 90's.

Original full colored dummy book page from "Timmons and the Lumpy Bumpy Monster"

Daily Quick Sketch: Roller Bot

Playing around with an old Wacom stylus that I connected to my backup computer, I quickly rough sketched this robotic character. I used the default pencil setting in Photoshop, which has a nice feel to it - makes it feel it a real pencil on the stylus.

Robot character created on an old Cintiq 1200W using Photoshop

Daily Quick Sketch: Octopi Emojis

Here's an idea I played with about a year ago, simply a grouping of several cute octopus emojis doodles.

Sampling of several octopi emojis made with a brush pen

I'm not a fan of emojis. I rarely use them. But there seems to be a huge Internet following for emoji. If I find time, I'll update this image with a color version.

Daily Quick Sketch: Witch Nazel

UPDATE: B+W Image Colorized

Digitally colored in Photoshop

Quick note on the information below. I mention publishing an eBook version of the story, but after reading up on the market, eBooks aren't really catching fire . . . especially with children's books. Parents still want higher quality printed books and are willing to pay for that quality.

The major problem with eBooks is that everyone can make one - and it seems like they do. This creates a huge glut of poorly edited, poorly drawn and unprofessional picture books, which in turn makes any worthy eBook harder to find among all the clutter.

Bottomline: I'm no longer considering eBook publishing . . . going to try the old fashion way of submitting and waiting. We'll see if I can break into the business the proper way.

Originally Posted on Friday, December 20, 2013

I just purchased a new set of Copic Cool Gray markers and wanted to test them out.

I already had Warm and Neutral Grays . . . so I thought it would be best to try to create a wintry image with the cool grays. This was also a good opportunity for me to develop one of my supporting characters, Witch Nazel.

This version of Witch Nazel is more feminine, friendly and less freakish looking.
Marketing wise, this would be a better choice for her design since she would be accepted by more people. But the wacky side of me prefers a weirder looking Witch Nazel, (or at least not as clean cut as she appears in this image.) So, this may not be the version of Witch Nazel once the eBook is published. (. . . or . . . maybe it is . . . too early to tell.)

Gray toned image of Witch Nazel made with a cool gray set of Copic markers

This image of Witch Nazel is taken from one of the pages in my eBook, Worm Wire Glasses. I altered the background to make it more of a winter scene. Below is the original pencil sketch. You can slightly see a hint of the monster, Bladimir, flailing about in the lower right corner -- kicking a garbage can. This is from the scene where Witch Nazel floats over the ruckus that Bladimir is causing below on Halloween.   

Original pencil sketch of Witch Nazel flying on her broom during a Halloween night

Daily Quick Sketch: Zookeeper Earl and The Burpy Bear

UPDATE: Color version

Updated the post with a color version of the image below

These characters are a part of a silly little poem/story I have about a burping bear in a city zoo. The story needs to be longer and several other characters will need to be developed. That'll take time which I never seem to have anymore.

Zookeeper Earl and Burpy Bear inked with a pen brush and gray toned with markers

I tried to alter my usual style a little here, especially with Earl who is very inspired by The Far Side cartoonist, Gary Larson. I think the Burpy Bear needs some work. He needs to be more comical and likable (and the big tooth just isn't doing it for me.)

The inked version of Burpy Bear

Inked version of Zookeeper Earl

Old Sketch found: Bladimir Blarfarg Trick or Treating (from the story Worm-Wire Glasses)

Found this image on a memory stick. It's a scan of my character Bladimir Blarfarg from my Halloween picture book story, "Worm-Wire Glasses". This was done with pencil, brush pen and finished with markers.

Marker sketch of the star character from "Worm-Wire Glasses", Bladimir Blarfarg trick or treating

Daily Quick Sketch: Doggie Doodle

Found this doodle among pages in a lined paper pad. I don't remember doing this image, so it's a true doodle. A typical dog doodle with many features I usually draw. It's really just a smaller and more compact version of my character, Woger (from Bobby's Biggest Bubble.)

Sketchy ink pen doodle of a dog on lined notebook paper

The loose and angular line strokes make this image look different enough for me to archive and possibly use for future work one day.

Daily Quick Sketch: Farmer Pig

Here's a sneak peek at something I've been working on the weekends for quite some time now. This is one of many characters I need to develop for the next book I plan to publish. Of course, that's wishful thinking since it takes years to get anything published, (other than self-publishing which is a quick way to get publish, but a major task to sell books.)

Brush Ink sketch with marker coloring

This sketch is one of about 22 characters I need for the story to work. I'm not quite sold on if this is the style I want the book's characters to look like. I'm moving more towards a thinner line or pencil sketch approach. Still, I like the look of this character, so I think he'll work -- only with a style alteration.

Grayscale version of the sketch

Due to the nature of the story, I don't want to give away too much online. The story I think works on so many levels -- for children and adults. Also, I'm looking to boost the humor level of the characters so that the story doesn't just read funny -- it looks funny too.

Original blue line sketch, created while attending the NYC SCBWI conference in February 2016

Wait - What? #4: Big Hand

This sketch is screwed up because it wasn't fully sketched out before inking. The hand was drawn separately before finishing the character. It's only through sheer laziness that the hand was connected to his body without an arm - which makes a very strange looking image.

Inking before properly correcting a sketch = a very strange large hand

The blue line bunny head sketch seen in this image was not intentional. The page this image was scanned from had many doodles and sketches on it. The cropping of this image makes it look like the bunny is peeking in . . .

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.

Daily Quick Sketch: Dinosaur + Caveman

Here's another sketch that I had drawn on the back of a checking account printout. Again, I don't really remember doing these characters, just a random drawing. These characters are good enough to keep in my archives, but they still need some work to make them a little more interesting.

Prehistoric characters draw with pencil, ink with brush pen and colored with markers

Daily Quick Sketch: Lil' Turtle

Found this little doodle in the back of one of my sketch pads. I don't like this image. It's a great example of what can go wrong with using markers without planning.

The major reason I don't like my sketch is the color. The tone is too dark and muddy. That is a major problem with using markers, you must work light to dark colors. Once that color is down on the paper, that's it. In this case, I was just doodling and experimenting with several new marker colors. Usually, creating a quick color comp or studying a color chart would help prepare for which colors to use.

Quick little marker and brush pen doodle found inside a sketch pad

You can try to paint over and correct a marker color, but my experience is that usually makes a huge mess and ruins the entire image. You could also correct the work in Photoshop or similar programs, But the amount of time it takes for me to clean up an image like this is usually wasted - since re-drawing the image from scratch often improves the overall look and design of the work.

Example of a self-made color chart, one of many I create for each set of markers I own
This chart is a small sample grouping of Premiere alcohol markers

Even the line work bothers me. It's too busy or the head is too angled to be truly cute. The most this doodle will ever be used (if ever) for is for some subtle background, 

One word of advise: If you are considering to try/use markers, especially alcohol based markers, be aware that is it very costly and hard to maintain a good grouping of colors. A typical marker is said to have a 2-year shelf life. And of course, the colors you use the most for backgrounds or characters will need to be refilled often.

Daily Quick Sketch: Smilin' Lion

Today's quick sketch is a smiling lion. If you want kids to laugh at your character, simply add a big toothy grin -- it seems to work every time. I was looking for a new style of lion's mane for this design, inspired by palm tree leaves . . .

A brush pen and marker drawing of a lion with a big smile

I drew a sketch of this lion several weeks ago when submitting an image for Illustration Friday. I decided to use another lion cartoon that was more comical and standing upright. The pencil sketch was on my desk, so I decided to ink and color the image using a new set of markers I just purchased.

I inked and colored over the pencil line this time, so there is no pencil sketch image this time around.

Wait - What? #1: The Office Monster?

Every once in awhile, I sketch something that I have no idea what it is or why I drew it. Can't explain why this happens. Probably a result of playing around or just looking to create something different. So this is a new category for the blog that I'll label as "Wait - What?"

A pencil marker image of whatever this is . . . 

This guy was in an old sketch book, I do remember drawing it . . . but I can't explain why. A robot head, tentacles and it seems to be wearing some office attire. Maybe an alien disguised as an accountant? Maybe it's a coffee robot? Or some traveling volcano simulator?
I don't know . . . your guess is good as mine.