Helping family out...

Hi everyone.

Well in case anyone noticed, I didn't get a sketch done yesterday. And the reason for this is because I'm helping my cousin out with a Christmas present doing some image editing and testing for her.
Her project is super cute and will look really cool when it's all done.
Can't wait to see the finished results X-mas Eve.

Depending on her feedback this evening, I will probably not have a another sketch done for today either.

Work was quite a bit busier than I thought it would be, so my lunch flew by without me realizing it. And next thing I know it's almost 5 PM.
I might try to get in a fast sketch before I leave for the night, but I wouldn't count on it.

If all else fails I may do a pencil sketch after I decompress tonight and scan it in the morning.

But we'll have to see how the night plays out.

I'll see you all soon. And please forgive my lack of updates this week.

Holiday Week = Me Missing Sketches

I doubted the weather predictions from last week.

"If, and I stress if, we see any snow this weekend it will just be a dusting," I said. Honestly believing that we weren't going to see any real accumulation of snow this winter. Especially this early into the winter.

And when it started snowing on Sunday, I wasn't really surprised. But it stuck. Then the damnedest thing happened. It kept snowing overnight, and we ended up having quite a bit of snow hang out for a few days (it's still here as of tonight as well).

Two snow days and Thanksgiving preparations pretty much sucked away my time and before I new it it was Wednesday and still no new sketch.

So to make up for it I decided to share some drawings I did at the end of last week with my daughter. She really wanted to color with daddy, so we opened her sketchbook, grabbed some crayons and went to town. I think she really improved my sketches.

What do you think?

Anyway I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and a safe weekend.

My oh my, what a weekend.

Well how's about that. I finally was able to get to my blog.

Friday kinda exploded on me. I was at work till almost 4am, and I didn't get enough time to do much of my sketch. But I was able to get down a layout.
The sketch is actually based on a character from the D&D campaign I'm running my players through. I know, I know. I said earlier last week that I was going to stop working on a sketch that was inspired by my D&D gaming session. But I just couldn't help myself with this character.

I'll spend some time tomorrow (Monday) to finish it up a little more.

On that note, I'm going to finish watching the last episode of The Next Iron Chef, then watch The Walking Dead.

Have a great evening everyone.

Last in this series

I think it's time to move on to something else, so this will be the last update to this sketch I'll be doing for a little bit.

I worked on the background with this update. I really needed to get the background darker to help make the figures pop out a little bit. But when I did so I realized that the figure lines were not as dark as I had thought so the illustration feels really unbalanced.

I guess I could just say that this was the rough outline for the sketch; working out lighting, composition and all that jazz. And from here I would take it and work on the final illustration.

If I were actually making this for a portfolio piece, or if I was back at the Art Institute, I would totally go forward with the sketch. But considering the gap in posting lately, and the fact that all week has been devoted to this sketch I think I can move on for now.

Oh yeah, I also moved the explorer's left arm to more of an angle to create a little more interest in the flow of the illustration. It's something I read about in that copy of ImagineFX I picked up and I'm trying to keep the concept in mind for the rest of the year.

Anyway, hope ya'll dig and I'll see you back here tomorrow. Which reminds me, I'm going to be at work late tomorrow so the sketch might not come until pretty late at night. Just FYI.

Sleep Happens, Then You Sketch

Well I had every intention to post my sketch last nigh. But when I put my daughter down for bed, I ended up falling asleep myself. Which made it a little hard to post a sketch.

So I put some more time into the sketch today.

Hope you all enjoy the further elaboration of the sketch started on Monday.

Way past due

Well, good evening out there in internet land.

If you happen to check this blog more than once in a while, you may have noticed that I missed a posting last week. Or rather, all of them. Yikes.

Well, I'm getting back on track after a week of half days and a day off. Today's sketch is based off of the last gaming session with my group. They found themselves in a rather trying fight in a room with lots of water and some small standing areas joined by some old iron bridges. And yes, there were some skeletal foes in and out of the water.

I didn't have a whole lot of time to devote to the sketch today, so it's not much more than an outline. if I'm feeling like it I might put some more time on it tomorrow. We'll see how my inspiration and availability looks then.

So, until tomorrow I hope you like the sketch and stay warm and dry this evening.

Later.

Tuesday's sketch along with some Wednesday progress

Well good evening everyone.

Time to show you the sketch that I missed posting yesterday. And for more bang for my blogging buck, I'm posting an update to the sketch as I worked on it today.

So when I sat down to work on a sketch yesterday, I found myself thinking about the manga of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past that was published in issues of Nintendo Power back in the early 90s. The game is among my all time favorites. Everything about it was spectacular. The story, the gameplay, the visual improvements and the music were truly amazing. But what the manga did better than the game was really develop the romance between Zelda and Link.

And that was what I was thinking of when I put my bamboo stylus down onto the tablet. I wanted to show that side of Link and his Princess. So I started by sketching out Zelda and, didn't really get much father than that.

Today though, I went back and started refining her form and then placed Link and worked on the environment a little more by putting his shield and sword.


Other than trying to convey their relationship, I also want to do more of a background with this piece that I have done in the past. We'll see how it all comes together, but at least I have something in mind as I work on it.

So until my next posting tomorrow, have a great evening everyone.

Belated Halloween and the Monday Sketch

Hi again. Welcome to November.

Halloween has come and gone. And I ended up missing my posting on Friday. What can I say, it was a crazy busy weekend. And I have a feeling that it won't be letting up until 2010 is over and we've entered 2012.

But either way, I give you my last entry in the Halloween series. I refined the linework on the faces. I wanted to really bring out the eyes of the Vampire mainly. And I realized that his rendering was really light, so I went back and added in more darks.







I also sat down today with the ol' Bamboo tablet and I had a case of artist block. Even my trusty 'use a wallpaper to inspire you' trick kinda backfired on me. I have a Yoshitaka Amano illustration set to my background, but I couldn't bring myself to do another Vampire Hunter D sketch. But I decided to keep the sketch loose, like his sketches. His use of lines is absolutely stunning. All of my illustration instructors at the Art Institute all said to make each line on the page have a purpose, and to avoid 'pencil masturbation' (a habit I haven't really been able to kick) and I honestly can't think of many other artists that have mastered this as well as he has.


Anyway, I hope you all have a great evening and I'll see you back here tomorrow.