What I've been up to lately

What have I been up to? Not much, at least insofar as drawing is concerned. Pretty busy at work, gearing up for the big industry show coming up next month, so not a lot of free time. At best, I'm able to scrawl the occasional doodle on some scratch paper I keep by my keyboard:

 

I've also been reading through some old workbooks from the Famous Artists Course (the ones I have are dated 1954) on the side, brushing up on my illustration/painting knowledge. Some good stuff.

I've been so busy that I've regretfully had to miss out on a the last couple of G+ Artist Sketch Challenges. Hopefully once I free up some time, I can go back and do some of the ones I missed, 'cause there were some really fun ones. Here are entries from the last few I participated in:

LUCHADORES DOING CHORES

EMULATE A FAVORITE ARTIST

YOUR DREAM JOB VISUALIZED WITH MICE

 Okay, back to work!

Sketch Challenge Batch

Here are the last couple G+ Artist Sketch Challenges I participated in:

 

08/30/2011: STUNT CHEFS

08/31/2011: YOUR CHINESE ZODIAC SIGN AND ELEMENT = CHARACTER DESIGN

09/01/2011: ANNE'S AWESOME ADVENTURES

09/02/2011: LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF HIT SONGS

The Sketch Challenges continue

 Here are my G+ Artist Sketch Challenge entries for the topic "Ways Penguins Fly":

The Frostfoot Flyer

Totoro & Pen Pen taking the top for a spin

I can't emphasize enough how much I'm enjoying these sketch challenges (big kudos to Carsten Bradley!), and networking via Google + in general has been, well, a plus. Being able to interact with all these great artists on there has been incredibly invigorating, and definitely gives my creativity a big ol' punch in the arm.

Matador

The model at last night's Figurative Illustration Workshop wore a matador's costume:

Drawn with blue pencil, brush marker, and Sharpie pen

Drawn with blue pencil, brush marker, and Sharpie pen

Painted with Colors! for DS on the Nintendo DS Lite

For the next session, our host Aaron Miller said he'd try to get a big poofy Renaissance costume for the model to wear. Fantastic!

New sketch challenge art

The G+ Artist Sketch Challenge has been responsible for most of my personal illustration output this past week, and it's been a lot of fun.

For the fantastically absurd challenge Gargoyles in Evening Wear Dancing with Famous People born on August 25th, I submitted this comic strip:

And for today's topic 80's Movies That Should Have Happened I submitted this drawing:

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.