30 Days done!

Here's something I did for a daily sketch challenge, the topic being "Cartoons as Sea Creatures":

My Narwhal Totoro

Here's today's entry for "Unsuccessful Monster Cereals":

Gamera Crisp Cereal-- Stays scorching hot, even in milk!

And here's a sketch I did of an old man on the bus this morning:

I was looking at my calendar and realized that today marks 30 days since I made a formal commitment to draw at least once a day for a month. My posting frequency got a bit sporadic towards the end because of a heavy workload, but I still managed to eke out stuff.

Things I learned from these 30 days:

• I should have a sketchbook on my person at all times, because opportunities to draw abound
• I missed cartooning, I plan on doing more of it
• Google Plus is a great venue for sharing art with others. Great for networking with other artists as well!
• I used to not enjoy drawing with blue pencil because I thought it was too light... Turns out not all blue pencils are the same. Col-Erase for the win!
• I need to draw and paint more (Granted, I already knew that, I just realized it's something that'll always be true)
• I'm less afraid of ditching a drawing that isn't working, and start from scratch
• I'm more open now to getting things wrong being a part of my learning process. Failure for the win!

Sketchy sketch

Some robot and character doodles:

In other unrelated news, I believe Photoshop opacity masks have earned a place on my "These are a Few of my Favorite Things" list.

Loosening up

Been too busy lately to work on anything beyond doodles, but I've been sticking to drawing at least once a day. It's funny, with all these comics and pen sketches, I feel like I'm revisiting my cartooning roots from back in high school. Not what I had planned at the outset, but I'm curious to see where it goes.  

It's all about the journey...

People and ships

 Latest sketches...

 

I've been listening to the illustrator/painter-centric podcast "Drawn Today" and one of the topics in the episode I just listened to was the use of references. It was an interesting discussion, and something I hadn't really given a lot of thought to. Beyond drawing from life in my sketchbook or painting portraits, I don't know that I've really looked to references for stuff like, say, the robots and spaceships I doodle (at least, not consciously; I've got tons of toys and models around me all the time that certainly inform a lot of what I draw, but I think I absorb that osmotically more than anything else).  Something else to add to my list of things to work on.

Bus sketches

Drew some sketches on the bus this morning, trying to loosen up a bit...

Sketch roundup

Been slammed with work, I manage to get some sketch time in on the commute and at home after the baby nods off...

Bus sketch... Started out as a study of negative space, the scale went a little wonky here and there as the drawing was done over a couple different sessions (different buses, same model... took a heck of a time to get in the identical seat position though):

 And here are some doodles of ships n' robots:

Robot Salutations

For today's drawing/painting, a robot greeting:

Yet another Ashley Wood-inspired piece, created in Colors! for DS. Painting playback can be found on the Colors! gallery here.

Bruiser DX

Fighting tournament robot BRUISER DX,  something along the lines of Real Steel, or for those of you who might remember the old Playstation game, Zero Divide.

In other news, it's been a looong day.

Walker Mech

Managed to scribble out this sketch while I was waiting for files to copy over to my machine...

Down on the corner...

... Out here in the street! Some new commuter sketches:

   

Things are ramping up at work, so I won't get to post as often as I have lately, but I will keep on drawing.

The Tissue Issue

Lights out, uh huh...

Guest Comic

I'm currently working on the layout for a new comic strip. In the meantime, here's a comic from guest artist Mira, featuring dialogue from an actual conversation she and I had this afternoon:

 

Sometimes when I talk with her, I feel like I'm in a poorly translated foreign film. Maybe a Bollywood movie, since she occasionally breaks into a spontaneous dance routine.

It's a Friday

Not much on the illustration docket today... I started doodling a ship in Colors! for DS, but I'm not sure if I'm feeling it enough to finish...

I'm gratified by the positive response to the comic strips I've done recently, and I can say with certainty that I'll make a couple more in the near future. I have at least a few more ideas I want to play with.

 

I would prefer it if they stay fairly spontaneous; the minute it starts to feel contrived, I plan on giving it up. The joy of the strips for me so far has been that they're based on stuff that really happened.

Sleep? BAAA!!!

As per suggestion, here's last night's Facebook status converted into a comic strip...

Drizzle

For today's illustration, tried for a bit of a storybook feel...

And here are some quick sketches I did on the bus this morning:

Talk Time

After a long night of not much sleep because of a certain 19-month old, I had to get this out of my system...

Elder

I got on the bus this morning and down the aisle from me sat this elderly Asian man with a cane propped over his lap. Unfortunately someone was between us along my line-of-sight, so I could only see his head, hands, and knees. At first I thought to let it go as a missed opportunity, but it was just too good to pass up-- senior citizens often make good subjects to draw; their limbs tend to fall into dynamic angles, their clothes will drape over their forms in interesting ways. So I started to draw the man, and no sooner than the moment I put pen to paper, the person between us stood up and got off the bus. Yes! It then became a race against time, before someone sat between us again, the old man reached his stop, or I reached mine. I sat there scribbling away, juking my head back and forth trying to see around seats and bus poles. I imagine it looked rather silly, like a pigeon scanning a sidewalk for discarded Cheetos. Thankfully, I had just enough time to get the fellow down on paper...

30-day Drawing Commitment

My wife gave me this cool hardcover sketchbook that she made at North Branch Projects...

 
... and I decided to capitalize on the opportunity to fill it up, by committing to doing at least one drawing and/or painting everyday for a month. It may be from the sketchbook, could be a digital painting, or even something scrawled on a Post-It... and I might not be able to upload something everyday (it depends on my access to a scanner or a camera), but I will do my best to create something new each day, for the next 30 days.

So to kick it off, here's a pen-and-brush marker sketch... I like that it seems to tell a little bit of a story: