Artrage experiment

Just my first cut at using the software Artrage to digitally “paint” one of my drawings. I kinda like it. It was hard adjusting to the radically different interface (I’m used to Photoshop…love CS3!) but hey, it had some features that I couldn’t get in the beloved CS3.
This was a drawing I did on the fly, from memory…thinking of Ellen Page as Juno….just a fun sketch to kill time.

So, there it is…and man, is it late at night, almost 1 a.m. and I’m wide awake scribbling on my little tablet in front of the tele (Food Network…what else is on?) So pathetic. I have to get to bed…peace out!

Originally uploaded by NewLeafCreativeWorks

Kipling’s Princess

Perhaps this might be Mowgli’s love interest in the Jungle Book. I do so love Kipling and read all of his stories as a young child. I remember feeling the terror inspired by Shere Khan, the tiger nemesis of all the jungle. I do love a good story and Mr. Kipling had a way with words.

Little Match Girl and Goldilocks

I’m currently inspired to create illustrations based on all my favorite childhood fairy tales. These are a few of the ideas I’ve been toying with . I have more! Hansel and Gretel will be posted in a bit and there’s some sort of Indian Princess that I guess is a nod toward my love of Kipling.

new ideas

I have been working on sketches for a story idea based loosely on my grandmother’s stories of her young days. She was born in 1913, so she grew up in some interesting times. I am still formulating the characterization and plot lines but I thought I’d post some of the character sketches I was working on. It’s easier for me to draw the characters in a story, first. Then I work on personality traits and unique qualities they might have. That’s very different from illustrating someone else’s story, as you are given the manuscript and have to draw the character to suit the authors description. Both paths are fun, but it’s always more fun for me to do my own stories.

pen and ink sketch

Portrait of C.J. (another meeting portrait)

Today’s unfortunate victim….staff meeting fun….

Portrait Sketch

I wanted to post this little sketch of yet another of my co-workers. Names have been excluded to protect the innocent. I think it’s funny that when I showed this particular subject my rendering of their face in my teeny little moleskine book, they were quite surprised. I try to capture the key elements of a person’s face and personality. This gentleman has very chisled features. He provided an interesting challenge in the drawing…and he was moving around a lot. That always makes for an interesting trip on the paper.

Nothing more to say. I’m off to the Mom’s house this evening. I’ve been rather busy…at work and beyond. I have filial duties to attend to.

Cupajoe…

I drink way too much coffee and not enough water. Of this bad habit, I am well aware. Akin to my efforts to get organized, I have purchased wonderful products with the promise of inspiring myself to drink more water (the very nice insulated water bottle with the built in straw, for instance) but most of the time, I’d rather have coffee or a big bottle of diet pepsi. It’s a constant battle. I read the womens’ magazines — I know water provides many benefits — clear skin, appetite control and the like, but I just can’t bring myself to drink the requisite amount I’m supposed to in a day. I have to have some sort of vice. I don’t smoke nor do I really drink with any regularity (a glass of really good wine here and there is about it for me).

So why am I beating myself up over a little diet soda? Hey, I try. I need caffeine to get me through the day’s ups and downs. I, like so many designers and illustrators, spend the majority of my time in front of a big computer screen. It’s a lonely business for the most part…and sometimes a bit tedious, believe it or not. At my day job, (which I still have due to extenuating circumstances, like the need to pay a mortgage and feed my children) I also have to attend meetings. (If you’ve read my blog before, you know how much I love these — read: sarcasm).

Truth be told, I simply must rely on external stimulants to keep me somewhat conscious during these long periods of idle time. Thank goodness my office group has gotten a new contract with a good coffee service. We have a new water cooler, too, so I might just be more inclined to drink water in that groovy insulated water bottle.(The image was drawn of my trusty coffee cup in yesterday’s weekly staff meeting.)

Another meeting portrait…

Once again I find myself drawing in one of our many weekly meetings and posting these little portraits of my coworkers on my little blog. It is suddenly becoming a special treat to find oneself the unwilling victim of my sienna Prisamacolor pencil. I drew this fellow after he bemoaned the fact that B, my other coworker had a portrait and he didn’t. Considering the fact that he’s going off-site and I won’t see him for a long, long time, I indulged his whim. Hey, no promises on making you look like Fabio, Dude. I draws ‘em likes I sees ‘em.

More meeting sketches

This little sketch came from a “Town Hall” (That’s the politically correct term for mandatory meeting - everyone is required to attend whether they want to or not!) we had a few days ago. I don’t really love drawing the backs of people, but you get what you get. I wonder if the subjects felt my eyes burning into the back of their very attentive little skulls.

I’m such a bad influence, aren’t I?

Meeting Portrait

Once again, I find myself sitting in some long, drawn out meeting. The plus side of all these meetings I have been required to attend, is that they give me the opportunity to hone my sketching and drawing skills and they are a wellspring of free life models (fully clothed, of course). This portrait happens to be of one of the finance people in my group. She was my unknowing victim, this time. I’ll save her name so she doesn’t try to hunt me down and kill me for posting an image of her online. She did like the sketch , however and asked for a copy of it. So I gave her a nice color copy of the original. I can’t imagine cutting pages out of my beloved moleskine. That little book is the best $12.00 I ever spent. Thank goodness Main Art and Supply now carries a line of Moleskines, so I don’t have to order them online.