illustration + design
Last blog post for 2018 it’s been fun going through my illustrations and sketches through out the year. The art book is almost done so far its around 47 double sided pages, the best part is working mostly digital this year I didn’t have to clean up paper scans. I really enjoyed just experimenting this year and hope to push myself further into the new year.
Last month I picked up the new iPad and spent sometime getting the brushes just right. Lately I have been trying to brush up on my layers before final color style. The recent collection of images have been greyscale for that reason. Besides that I am almost done with this years holiday card and after that I can start the yearly archive process for my annual sketchbook.
I haven’t been doing much daily sketches getting ready to finish up a couple of projects. I did finish up an illustration I have been putting off since October. It always feels good to revisit an earlier sketch and realize right away what needs fixing.
Nothing much it has been busy lately. I did do a couple fashion reference studies, all on iPad w/Clip Studio Paint pencil tool. It’s super comfortable the way the pencil really builds layers over time with soft pencil marks on the screen.
I had a couple more idea’s for this month’s character design challenge I might revisit them sooner than later.
Since the last post I have been doing smaller reference studies with the grease pencil in Clip Studio. I spent sometime working on grey scale values with clothing folds and soft lighting shadows. I did find a couple new fashion blogs that will come in handy for a couple of designs I have been trying to work on recently.
I started the beginning of October with allergies at this point I don’t want to burn out trying to catch up on my Inktober drawings. So this year I will take a break. I did enjoy the art meme going around with Bowsette the collective art going around is all so much fun. My final concept for last months character design challenge the creme brulee wrestler was something that came to me towards the end of completing my initial concept the chocolate bar model.
The last two weeks I have been busy and doing mostly quick at work lunchtime sketches. I did have time a day before Batman Day and drew a couple of layout sketches. I did eventually finish both during last weekend. With the model illustrations I was trying out building out grey levels before applying any color to the images. I always enjoy approaching a drawing with a possible new way to apply layers and colors.
Finished a couple pre-Labor Day blue lines sketches I had “laying around” on the iPad. Of course I took the time to design an insect warrior for August character design challenge. It’s always so much fun just seeing where the initial design ends up.
I have a couple more fashion reference illustrations I want to wrap up before moving onto the next project. I really get excited by the next drawing series even after all these posts.
The final days of summer currently I am just doing iPad sketches every couple of days. Last week I backed up my 2018 iPad sketches it’s over 120+ files with a couple months left in the year, this years sketchbook looks like it’s going to be massive.
Not doing very much drawings the last two weeks. It’s the height of summer so by the time I get home mostly small drawings. I did spend most of my time chipping away at this month’s character design challenge topic – a character from the baroque period.
I have been trying out Procreate 4.1. I really like the time-lapse feature it’s fun while messing around with Adobe Spark.
Still having way to much fun with the #drawthisinyourstyle challenge. I had a couple more since my last post. It’s so much fun to interpret someones drawing into my own. Especially the type of characters that are truly quite original.
I also had to get in on the She-Ra fanart that’s been going around on my feed. It’s awesome to see the illustration community come together to support one another always.
The last week a fun art challenge popped up called #drawthisinyourstyle. A number of my favorite illustrators posted their work with the challenge for everyone else to re-draw it in your personal style. I collected a couple of my favorite post and picked up the challenge. I am sure I will have a couple more in the next couple of weeks. It’s been fun interpreting the various character designs into my own style.
Of course I had to keep the monthly Character Design Challenge going. The topic was African Warrior.
