Happy Halloween...My Little Monster

Happy Halloween - This is my little monster playing dress-up. His inner-self is showing through.

Composition: Fantasy Landscape "The Toxic Fisherman"

I use The Toxic Fisherman sketch to discuss the aspects of composition and the thought process using one's imagination to expand from a simple design.  The big thing to remember is "Don't Be Afraid To Fail"...put it down and erase what you don't like...experiment with the design and have fun.

LINK -  https://youtu.be/iUL2umnYlZY

Passing Time

 "Passing Time"
(Medium - Graphite on 60lb Paper)

Over the last year I moved my life from Connecticut to Texas and my artwork was relegated to my travel sketchbooks.  The main one was the very inexpensive ProArt 4x6 60lbs book that I almost exclusively used with a Pentel .5mil mechanical pencil.  Even though it was not finished art with numerous design attempts that fell flat, I came out with quite a few character and scenic designs that I liked.This is one that stands out for me. 

Madison and Marverick

Madison and Maverick 

It has been a long time this year between posts. I moved our family half way across the country from Connecticut to Texas.  We all heard how time consuming that moving is, well that's just the start of it.

Trees in Charcoal

I drew these for Christmas presents this year.  They co-inside with an upcoming tutorial on sketching trees.  The above where started in graphite on Canson 140lb watercolor paper.
Then I add the dark and detail with Charcoal. 

Pastel Over Pencil

 

 James Gurney the author of "Dinotopia" covered Eugene Burnand's portraits that he did of World War 1 Legionnaires. His original post can be found HERE. The portraits were drawn in carbon and then colored in pastel and that combination and the realism that Eugene captured is brilliant.

"Alien Buggy" - The Making Of

This is an overview of my workflow of a design sketch that I did recently.  I cover the design stages and the pitfalls of not having a sold composition planned out at the beginning.

-Steve

LINK: https://youtu.be/17Ah5XWPAlw

Alien Buggy

"Alien Buggy"

Alien Buggy was started as a design sketch, then later I added an environment.  I used mostly graphite pencils, sticks with blenders, Verithin for sharp edges.  Then I cropped and added the border in Photoshop.  I truly enjoy doing fantasy designs with unusal characters.

Fantasy Crow

"Fantasy Crow"

This sketch was done in graphite with the dark tones add with Prismacolor Verithin and Premier pencils on a 60lb smooth sketch pad.

Character Design - "Creature"

For lack of a better name I refer to this character as "Creature".  This was done in pencil and finished off in Painter and Photoshop.  The tutorial merely covers the basic process used in character design and is aimed less at "digital" and more towards "art".  This is far from being a finished product but the design phase is a vital set in any composition.

-Steve

LINK: https://youtu.be/n_m_OTByZCA

Puzzled Alien

"Puzzled Alien"

This is a graphite sketch on Bristol I did the other night. This is primarily done for design , though I did add the head tilt to add some personality to the little alien ...at least that is what I think he is.

Tree Study

  

Here are a few drawings of trees I did for fun recently.  They are done with a mix of graphite and charcoal on smooth Bristol paper.

-Steve