Taekwondo sketches

 The US Taekwondo Academy (where I take classes) decided to make a new logo. Here are my sketches for updating their eagle. They went with the third one - I'll be taking that one to final!

Sketch

 Watercolor sketch to prepare for my next painting.

preliminary sketch - Negative Numbers are Dangerous

My daughter's math teacher was showing them how to use a graphing calculator, and said "Negative numbers are dangerous." She meant if you don't input them right, you get the wrong answer, but I took it this way.

Dancing Gnome

My son is going to play Liszt's "Gnomenreigen" at a piano competition this weekend. To get him into the feel of little gnomes dancing, my wife asked me if I could make a quick sketch of one to give him the idea. He liked it!

Last Art Class!

For the last art class before summer, I decided to let them make their own summer blockbuster poster - about themselves! And, of course, I had to do a sketch to show them what it could look like. And I got to get in a dig at the phrase "Based on a true story" that movies use. So all of this is sooooo true. Really.

I may have to take this to final at some point. Hard to resist helicopter sharks.

Fishing

I based this drawing on a sketch I did while camping (same camping trip that I came up with the Hobbit Day idea. Did a lot of sketching that weekend!).

One evening we went down to the lake to go fishing, me with sketchbook in tow as well as tackle. At first, my daughter tried fishing. Then, she tried skipping rocks. THEN, she decided it was more fun to just take big rocks and hurl them into the water.

Surprisingly, we caught no fish that night.

Work In Progress: Apple Tree

Another part of the larger drawing, to go with the cauldron.

Work In Progress: Cauldron

One part of what is turning out to be a much larger scene. More to come!

A New Sketchbook, and a Daughter's Request

Been off this blog for a while (although I've been keeping up with the lunch notes). The main reason is that I've been working on something, potentially for a publisher, so I can't post anything yet for copyright reasons – not a bad thing. But, in the meantime, I finally broke in the new sketchbook that Santa dropped off in my stocking this year. While I was sketching, my three-year-old asked me to do a drawing of a ghost. After I did that, she asked for a scared dog. How can you say no to a three-year-old? Well, in a case that doesn't involve running with scissors or playing with Mr. Wall Socket, that is.

After, she asked me to draw the "dog rectangles." It took me a while to figure out what she meant, but I eventually realized she was talking about the thick dashed motion lines from the Frog Prince book I did for her. So the second one is the dog running away, rectangle style.

The Things I Drew for Love

Or rather, Looooove, but that’s another story.

So. My wife decided to make stuffed cabbage to share with the neighbors, and wanted a logo to go with it. We’re artists, it’s what we do. So she asked me to do a drawing of the two of us stuffing a whole cow, that was holding a bag of rice, into a cabbage.

I love these kinds of challenges.

The top version is the final, or rather, the final quick sketch (I had one lunchtime to do it, so it’s in the sketch phase at the moment). Below is my first version. I thought it would be funnier if we tried to get the cow into a tiny cabbage. But since the cabbage was the point, and, frankly, not the udders, she asked me to make the cabbage more prominent.

The final one looks a bit “Little Shop of Horrors,” which isn’t necessarily a bad thing either.

Ew, Yucky!

I got a comment on the last post, noting that Princess Moy Moy doesn't really show much disgust at the thought of the frog sharing her cup. And, for good or bad, that's true. I toned down everything, due to the art style and the age of my audience.

Which is not to say that it wouldn't be great fun to go all-out on the grossed-out expression, if this were in a different style. So, for my own amusement, I thought I'd do a more over-the-top version of the princess from page 15. It'll never make it into the book, but it was fun to draw!

Hansel and Gretel - in process

I needed to get a new post put up – while I like my Santa image, in our house the Christmas decorations come down the day after the holiday, so it is way past time to put up something else.

While I don't have anything finished yet, I have been toying with illustrating Hansel and Gretel for a while. Not for any particular reason, it's just that the story conjures up a lot of imagery for me. And while randomly doodling (you can see it's on notebook paper) I came up with this drawing – Hansel and Gretel coming across the very stuffed and happy bird that ate up all their bread crumbs. The finished piece will be titled "Sorry, Were Those Yours?"

More on this to come, as I take it to a tight sketch and then a finished painting.

sketch: on the train

Still working on the letter I. If it takes too much longer, I may post the line drawing, to show what I'm up against. But Arianna is already learning to sing the ABC song, so I have to hurry up!

In the meantime, though, another watercolor based on a train sketch.

sketch: on the train

sketch: on the train

I wasn't able to actually paint on the train (although that might be interesting to try some time), but I did the sketch for this one while riding on it. It was a perfect trifecta for drawing – she was asleep, listening to an ipod, and seated slightly in front of me. I had so much time to render the drawing that I thought it would be worth trying to do a painting from the rough, and this is the result.

I like it better than just the plain sketches, so if I can get good enough rough drawings I plan to do more of these.

sketch: on the train

Sitting slightly behind someone is another way of getting to draw them without being beaten up, er, noticed.  Along those lines, I was noticed drawing someone on the train today, but not by the person I was sketching. The subject was a couple seats forward, asleep with his head back. But when people got off the train, someone walked past me and said, "Hey, is that the guy up there sleeping?" When I said yes, she said she'd have to watch out if she saw me on the train. Or you could pose, was my answer.

sketch: Serena

Moving beyond faces to the whole figure. Although I can't help but feel there's something wrong here – Serena's the one sitting in front of the TV, drink in one hand and remote in the other. Perhaps if I watched more sports (i.e. didn't go to art school) I'd be the one on the couch.

Along those lines, the other day I had a dream that I was being stalked by a bear. When I told Serena she asked, "Was it polar, panda, or koala?" Koala?!? Sure, I'm an artist and all, but I hardly find koalas terrifying. At least she didn't add "teddy" to that list.

sketch: woman on the train

Remember how I said it would probably be a mistake to stare at someone while scribbling in a notebook? The significant exception to that rule is a person using a Blackberry. I was a couple seats away, but I could probably have sat right next to her and she wouldn't have paid me the least bit of attention.

Suddenly, I really like Blackberries. I encourage all public transportation users to get one.

sketch: Serena

I mentioned a couple posts back that the only time Serena is still long enough to sketch is when she's asleep.

I had originally meant to sketch her mouth – I was on "The Mouth and Chin" chapter in Vanderpoel. But I enjoyed gazing upon my Beloved so much I that just kept on drawing.

Normally, I need about 20 hours a day more sleep than she does, so I'm not sure why I was still awake to even do this drawing.

sketch: more figure drawing

Another quick one while I'm working on the next page of alphabet book.

Feet fascinate me artistically. They seem to me to be just as expressive as hands are.

In contrast, my wife thinks feet are gross (or maybe it's just my feet). Although she does like pudgy baby feet. Especially ones that are so plump that they're like little balls with toes. If I can catch the kids while they're asleep, or try Gabriella's patience again, I'll try drawing some hopefully cuter feet to accompany this one.