Daily Quick Sketch: Charli Bean Travel Mug

Created this concept for my wife, who loves coffee, has an Icelandic lineage and is a redhead. So I decided to make her a coffee travel mug using redbubble.com.

The original concept image I though for my wife mug

Now available to the public, if interested here's a link to find it below:

www.redbubble.com/people/arrrggghhh

What the product should look like, it should arrive next week

The original pencil sketch was done in ArtRage Pro 5

The final artwork that was sent to print the travel mug

Mermay 2018: Octo-Tail Mermaid

This is the first year I'm doing the annual #MerMay online event where artists submit daily images of mermaids. Here's this week's image, the Octo-Tail Mermaid.

Rotated the image by 90 degrees, blotted and cross-hatched the background

Original pencil sketch

Cleaned up the pencil line with digital penciling

Laying down the base colors before adding highlights, shading, and details

The original "final" image of my #MerMay2018 Octo-Tail Mermaid
I wasn't happy about her ink at that bottom - so a change was made as seen above

Daily Quick Sketch: Perry Wanna Kracker. the giant pirate parrot

Today's quick sketch in pencil, brush pen and Copic markers. It is a supporting character for a little picture book story I wrote called Pirate Dreams. Perry W. Kracker is a huge parrot, abnormally huge, and he ALWAYS wants a cracker. He is part of the ship of misfits lead by the main character.

Pirry, the Pirate Parrot from Pirate Dreams. Pirry stands about 6'2" and weighs nearly 300 lbs. 

Mermay 2018: Shark-Tail Mermaid

The second image I did for the online event MerMay2018, where artists submit their mermaid illustration during the month of May.

My final version of a Shark-Tail Mermaid with various shy neighbors

The original color background before changes to make the main character "pop" more

The original sketch in pencil

Daily Quick Sketch: Picture Book Character Mash-up

I had purchased new brushes for Photoshop last week, looking for brushes that give a more natural feel than the current brushes available in Photoshop. Grut brushes are pretty impressive because most of the brushes are not cookie cutter stamp and repeats.

Highly recommended, with over 300 brushes for just $20. The site even has a free sampler for you to try: Grut Brushes Link

Playing around with two of my picture book characters: Bladimir Blarfarg and Little Boo
And yes, Bladimir is the one going to the bathroom in the lake

YouTube's The Cozy Chair reads Bobby's Biggest Bubble

Special thanks to Rebekah of YouTube's The Cozy Couch for reading Bobby's Biggest Bubble!

She did an absolutely great job. She is also doing a bubblegum bubble contest. The best bubblegum bubble photo sent to her email (thecozychairclub@gmail.com) wins the book and gum! Wooo!

Daily Quick Sketch: RokSok, Son of Mudsok

Haven't drawn an underling in some time. These are characters to an underground world in a children's book I wrote a few years ago. The story is far from being polished. But I like to go back and add a few details here and there. I not only want the story to be fun, but also educational. Mixing non-fiction with fiction.

Roksok, the youngest son of King Mudsok. Image inked using a Kuretake brush pen.

The original pencil sketch

To see his dad, go here: LINK