Daily Quick Sketch: B'Gok

Been cleaning up my hard drives for the new year. I found many sketches and images that I had the best intentions to post here, but never found the time. Many are now out of season, (quite a lot of Santa sketches.)

This character was made shortly after I did the image of the monster character Margarrr for Illustration Friday back on Oct 24th, 2014.  I actually sketched 4 characters but only colored two. Here is the giant monster B'Gok!

One of four giant monster characters made in Oct 2014.

These giant monsters were inspired by the old video game Rampage and Godzilla movies. The failure here is that I didn't create a city background to help scale the size of the monsters. Without that scale, this creature could be two foot tall. 

The original pencil sketch - seen here facing left. Later the image was flipped when being colored.

Inked version before it was cleaned up and colored.

Character Re-Design: Card Goblin

Okay . . . a new year.

Time to get back into the swing of things. This past holiday season has been a complete mental and physical drain both with work and life in general. I'm looking forward to a better year.
So let's begin with this project I did recently for Geoff Smith who hails from the UK . . .

In late October, Geoff had contacted me on Facebook. He had seen my work and was interested in a custom design, especially one that would be similar to the Goblin I created for Steve Radabaugh's Dungeon Marauders game last year.

At first I was against doing the project, especially being in the middle of a highly stressful deadline holiday season. But we agreed on a one&done deal, where I would do a pencil sketch based on what he wanted, then ink/color in my spare time . . . no deadline, no revisions/changes.

Final colored version, inked & colored in ArtRage Pro

Whenever I had the spare time, I'd doodle a few ideas out for composition and character in my sketchbook. The first character image was too happy and pleasant . . . almost too elf-like. But I did like aspects of the character. Geoff did say he wanted a bright eyed goblin, but this was going away for goblin territory and more into a Archie comics territory.

Pencil doodle in my sketchbook that started looking more like an elfish version of Jughead. 

I decided to use more of the character I made for Dungeon Marauders, creating a more grittier and gruesome look. But this time I went too far in the other direction . . .

Rough sketch. It was here that I knew that the legs would have to be omitted to keep it close-up and truly see the cards in his hands. Though the cards are blank, their positioning and general focus is just as important as the character.

The Goblin became too evil looking and creepy. He definitely didn't seem of sound mind. Since Geoff wanted to used this character for his website/small business (trading cards & games) this character needed to be a little more friendlier and look less like a zombie. The entire composition balance was off too; too much space behind his head and the shoulder dagger just wasn't working for me. Still . . . he needed a weapon. A sword would be the answer to both composition issues.

The plan then was to go somewhere in the middle of the two sketches. It would be quite some time later that the 1st official sketch was done over the Thanksgiving break. On Dec 2nd, I sent the below pencil sketch to Geoff. The rope was a last minute decision to create a nice border for this image to be used as a spot illustration.

Second pencil sketch: tighter details and the composition was now balanced thanks to the addition of a long sword.

It wasn't until New Year's weekend that I finally inked and colored the image, creating several variations for Goeff to play with. With the final touches finished, I sent several files off into a DropBox folder and shared the contents with Goeff.

A color variant, giving the character a very unique look from the normal Goblin traditional colors.

Funny how we take today's technology for granted . . . sending something instantly overseas in a matter of seconds. Geoff seemed very please by the work. Glad I could help. I wish him the best luck in his business ventures.

Now onto another little project for my friend Steve and his new game Fae Ball.

Daily Quick Sketch: Heppy Santa

Been quite awhile since I posted anything here.

My job has me running in circles, fried and exhausted. But things are starting to slow down and there is the holiday break soon approaching. So I thought I'd throw in some Holiday images in the next week.

First up . . . It's Heppy Santa, Kids!

Heppy Santa was create using ArtRage Pro 4.5 with the ink pen for outlines and charcoal settings for coloring

I've been sketching many different Santas lately, mostly for work. Trying to find different ways to draw him and alter his appearance.

The original pencil sketch, one of many various Santas I have been designing these past few weeks 

Creative Process:
This one I simply wanted a big, grinning, funny Santa.
Once I drew the grin, it inspired me to make a huge and wide mustache to cover the lips. Then once I curled the mustache -- I had to do the same for his hair. Small hat + huge body; always one of my favorite character trait combos. Of course giving him tiny hands really helps make the image look even more weird. I just always love making big bulky characters with thin arms and legs . . . it's very pleasing to me for some reason.

To help soften the image, the outlines were toned down to a bluish hue. A nice, snowy, cool-toned background was thrown in to counter the warm Santa suit and create a proper environment for the character.

I liked this Santa so much -- I created a new cover image for my Facebook page using him (in a kinda creepy way though)

Daily Quick Sketch: Frankenstein's Monster

Today's daily sketch is one based on the current design work I am doing for next year's Halloween products. I was looking for a way to make a more simplistic and iconic version of Frankenstein's Monster for a bag design. So I simply started by sketching a cartoon version of what I already visualized the character to be -- with one major difference: greatly elongating his forehead.

Quick daily sketch: digitally colored with thick brush settings in Photoshop

After sketching I laid in quick thick brush strokes of muted colors, trying to downplay the color saturation, making the image dark and gritty.

The final product design is based on this sketch -- but looks completely different and far more graphic and colorful. (Sorry, I can not show the actual artwork since the design is exclusively for the client.)

Hopefully if the buyer likes the design, we will see the bag in the stores next Halloween.

The original pencil sketch of my visual cartoon conception of Frankenstein's Monster

Illustration Friday: Puppet

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: PUPPET

Scanned pencils and digital coloring of Shark Puppet

This was an image I did while trying to think of new toy concepts for Springtime. One of the most popular themes for Spring (after Easter of course) is Sealife. But when I did this image, I was just goofing around and liked how silly the sketch was looking. As a finishing touch, adding the hairy arm in the bottom corner made this even funnier to me.

Currently, I now use this image as my gaming avatar for several online games.

Illustration Friday: Trouble

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: TROUBLE

I'm throwing this on to Illustration Friday on the last day before a new word is selected tomorrow morning. It's basically a sketch from one of my pads that I've had for awhile.

Penciled and digitally colored sketch of the creature who goes by the name, Margarrr!

I figure, if anyone was to bumped into this creature . . . it would probably mean trouble.

Original penciling from one of my sketch pads

Daily Quick Sketch: Pumpkin

Today's sketch was another test of getting loose with my designs and looking for different styles than my usual clean ink clean approach.

Loose digital sketch of a traditional Halloween Pumpkin.

It was also sketched because I've been doing Halloween designs for 2015. So I'm always hoping I can discover a new way to draw the traditional icons we see every year.

Daily Quick Sketch: Spooky Spectre

Today's quick sketch was done while I was thinking of new designs for Halloween Trick or Treat bags. This character was mostly influenced by the many macabre and goth graphic designs I saw during this year's New York Comic Con.

Spooky little specter character, rough sketched and colored with markers. Glow effect was added using Photoshop.

It's nothing new, cute goth items have been selling for well over 20 years now. It seems the big thing lately though is that the cuter and darker the subject matter, the more people like it. (Of course, there's still a fine line to how dark one can go -- but much more darker topics and images are accepted today then say ten years ago.)

Daily Quick Sketch: 3 Little Pigs

This was a quick exercise trying to get very loose with my digital drawing/coloring. This is part of a new picture book story I wrote recently, which borrows heavily from classic fairy tales.

Quick digital sketching and coloring of the pencil sketch seen below.

I wanted to create a very sketchy style, but I still feel this isn't what I'm looking for. The also wanted the colors to be very subtle, but there isn't the balance that I want between the holding lines and color.

Original pencil sketch of the three pigs.

Daily Sketch: Halloween Sacko

Today's daily sketch is a burlap bag character I simply call, Sacko.
Not sure where the idea came from, I'm guessing this was strongly inspired by Tim Burton's "Nightmare Before Christmas" Boogeyman character.

Digitally colored with limited Fall colors, simply called Halloween Sacko

Sketching
I remember trying to develop a large, bulky character; but it still had to have some grace . . . not just be a lumbering creature. So I drew a more flowing dance/sweeping pose. Once I decided not to add any limb extremities, it looked more and more like a sack.  So I just went with it . . . and got this.

Original pencil sketch of Sacko from sketchbook

I was looking to practice a woodcut/stamp style of inking with brush pens.
This drawing was sitting in my sketchbook for quite some time. Flipping through the sketchbook, I immediately thought this sack character could be better, with more detail and expression.

Inking
I used a Faber-Castell B brush pen to ink the character. First, I'd draw a heavy outline, making sure it the entire silhouette was completed and adding more pressure to the marker brush then usual.
Then, I started working on the inner lines and cross hatching more details.

I felt the sketch lacked some interaction, so I had added the Halloween Pumpkin for Sacko to toss around.

Testing out a new woodcut style of inking, adding many short lines for shading and textures.
A Faber-Castell B brush markers was used for more natural pen lines.
A white Gelly Roll (8) pen was used for adding white lines, cleaning and correcting errors.

Coloring
Once I finished inking, I scanned the sketch into Photoshop, where I used a limited palette of Fall colors and a radial blend for the background. I decided to keep the colors flatter than I usually do, giving the final image a more "colored stamp" look.

Daily Sketch: The Lion and The Mouse

Here's another pencil sketch from one of my sketch books. This one is a nod to the classic fable, The Lion and the Mouse. Of course, I made it more silly . . . usually illustrators do a very realistic image of a real looking lion and mouse. Realistic just ain't my thing . . . while I highly admire those who can create beautiful realistic imagery, I really have not desire to do such images.

Pencil sketch of The Lion and The Mouse from my sketchbook.
I realize now that this lion reminds my a lot of the character Tigger, from Winnie the Pooh;
mostly because of the large snout, beady eyes, rounded ears and gaping mouth.
The resemblance was not intentional, just turned out that way.

To be honest, I was just sketching the lion's head at first. Then I added his body in a silly fetal like position - so he looked like he was floating. The lion's body pose made me think of the Aesop's fable, so I added the thorn in his paw which made the lion now looked more startled than . . .floating.
The mouse was squeezed into the page towards the end of the sketch.

The sketching process is always a surprise. I never draw exactly what I first imagine because the creative process is ALWAYS changing as the pencil moves on the paper. There's a constant trial and error that competes with new ideas and experimentation as the sketch is being made.

Hopefully when finished, the sketch resembles the basis of the original idea.
Hopefully that idea was improved upon from it's original conception.
And hopefully it all translates well to others who see it.

(Hmm, I seem to get too philosophical when I drink Chia Tea at night. . . )

Sunny the Snowman sketch

This was an old pencil sketch I had found recently. This was the front cover of a two fold hangtag for several plush Christmas toys selling at H.E. Butt grocery stores back in the early 90's. The plush toys came out great - made of mostly fleece materials.

Pencil sketch of a Christmas line I created for H.E. Butt stores

I know I have a sample of the finished printed tag somewhere; If I find it - I'll upload it into this post.