Three more days of sketches

I admit that I am scraping the bottom of the barrel with these, but I am still going for quantity at this point. I have two days left to get the last of the sketches scanned and posted, but I am relatively sure that I sketched each day in November, even while traveling. It has been fun and I plan to continue this good habit!

And while it is clear that I am new at character development, I have learned vast amounts of knowledge this year, as much as if I had gone to school somewhere. Self discovery, the quest for knowledge, and the passion to persist can take anyone as far as they are willing to go (and avoid student loans!).

But wait, there’s more. . .

Here’s a few more of the SkADaMo sketches I made while traveling. I know these might not be considered “sketches” but I like to add color to check out the potential for the idea. Sometimes color enhances a sketch enough to get me interested, but often I discover that no amount of color will salvage a poorly structured sketch.

However the laughing man in the top hat could tempt me into a revisit. Men in top hats are generally depicted as “proper”, so I like the idea of a gentleman who jumps around like Ray Bolger as the scarecrow in wizard of oz.

Also a contender would be the middle eastern princess. The other prince and princess are a bit too pedestrian to go further with.

As always, I appreciate your comments and suggestions!

Day 14, 15, 16, 17. . .

A little here a little there, I managed to sketch on busses, planes, and automobiles.

I mainly continued to work on the country kids theme as I was having fun with them. I used to say that if I had been given a daughter, she would have been dressed in overalls instead of tutus. But if I have a grand daughter. . . it’s tutus all the way!

I have more pages to scan so hopefully will be caught up by the time November is over! In the meantime, I hope there is some nugget in these that I might revisit later. The Western Washington Great Critique is coming up in January, and I plan to have either a book dummy, or 5 illustrations in a specific style.

Day 13 and flying out for a week.

My mother’s oldest brother passed away this morning and although he never married, he lived a full life and had several close friends that were like family to him, one like a daughter. I will be flying back to Arkansas for the funeral so will be generally off the computer for the next week.

I will be writing down picture book ideas and doing the sketch a day while gone, but most likely will not have a way to post them until arriving back home. This is what happens to people who refuse to own cell phones or laptops. :)

This is for Day 13, variations on a theme of the country boys.

SkADaMo Day 12

Following on the theme of yesterday’s farm boy I sketched this out last night after I loaded Day 11. This is a western farm boy who dreams of being a sheriff, dreams of helping people.

Drawn with pencil and paper then scanned into Photoshop to create somewhat of a watercolor look using layer blending modes.. I may come back to this one and do a more detailed version, but for now it’s a decent place holder for the idea. Now, off to Day 13!

Am I behind, caught up, or getting ahead?

I was not feeling well today, so I sat quietly and sketched, while listening to opera. Then I scanned them and applied a few digital washes in Photoshop. My plan is to only draw the males of different species this week so that my portfolio does not smell too much of sugar and spice and everything nice.

Is it midnight yet?

Tonight I sketched out my Sunday SkADaMo because I generally take one day off each week from the computer. Now that I have them scanned I plan to sit down and put some watercolor washes over them.

 

Days 9 and 10

I promise I am still scribbling away each day, playing with new character and style ideas, starting to feel more comfortable with character design in general. I was reminded yesterday that I have not been drawing men, boys, or male animals and I assure you it is not due to any other reason than never having a daughter. I loved raising my sons, wouldn’t trade that experience for the world, but I never got to play dress up with a daughter. In reality I would probably have dressed her in little overalls and cowboy boots. Girl power!

Even the odd character at the bottom is wearing a dress!

I was bad, I painted.

I can only go so many days before I have the need to paint. So I started throwing color at the bear sketch to see if I would like to fix the structural problems and give it some serious consideration. Problem areas include profile heads on 3/4 view bodies.

But I like the idea of the polar bear family inviting the nanny to join them as they go to the big industrial exhibition. I wonder what types of mechanization the animal world would create. I know I want to put them in a hot air balloon next.

The sow sisters can be seen in the background, and there will be indications of structure, i.e. street, street lamps that add to the feeling of walking towards the exhibition entrance.

Day Six and The Bears Meet the Queen

I have to admit that I did not plan this idea, but at my mother’s suggestion to add animals to my drawings, I put a rabbit in a ball gown and all of my animal friends wanted to get dressed up, too. I also confess to not looking at reference, so pardon the questionable anatomy. So does a giraffe have a cloven hoof?

And now Mr. and Mrs. Bear  have been summoned to see the Queen. I wonder what she has in mind. Perhaps they will leave Sir and Lady Bear.