Here’s another little drawing of some Wizard of Oz characters. This time it’s Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman. They were my favorite Oz characters when I was a kid. The coloring was done with watercolors, and the linework is all ink. Kudos to my wife for coming up with the caption.

Sometimes you just get bizarre ideas in your head and have to draw them!…

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I’m starting to really like working in watercolors. It’s a lot quicker than working in gouache. It’s nice not to have to worry about covering up the underlying sketch, plus mixing the colors is super quick. This piece was supposed to originally be done in gouache. These two seahorses are pot-bellied seahorses (Hippocampus abdominalis). Here are some progress shots. The first shows the original tracing paper sketch overlaid. I don’t normally do tracing paper, but…

Here is the second in my series of watercolor literary / old timey characters.

Flip from Little Nemo. Watercolor, colored pencil, and ink.

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The power went out at work last week, so I took the opportunity to go draw some fish. They were the only ones with full power because of the back up generators. My eyes hurt after drawing in the dark ambient lighting.

I’m starting to try out some animation on paper. It’s not nearly as quick as working on the computer, but the precision and line quality is phenomenally better. I’m hoping this process will work out for me. If it does I’ll do a post showing off my mobile animation rig. Flip is a character from the Winsor McCay comic strip “Little Nemo”. He’s going to be featured in my next animation after I finish episode 2…

I drew these really lightly with a 2h so sorry for the mediocre photos. The wife fell asleep on a couch, then proceeded to wake up and read more Jane Eyre. Click the images for bigger (you can see them better that way).

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Brush pen lines to digital layout and coloring. This little guy is going in an aquarium kiosk. He’s actually a vector.

One of my online friends uses crazy colors in his work and luscious line work. I’m copying him a bit with the loud colors. He says that he picks the craziest colors and then just makes them work. The lines were done with a brush pen. Again this seems a lot faster and more expressive than my normal microns.

I haven’t posted anything in awhile. I’ve been doing a lot of programming lately instead of drawing. Code examples aren’t really interesting to post. This is a 3” rough in my small sketchbook for something bigger I’ve been meaning to do. This is my first successful thing done with a brush pen. I’m also playing some with watercolors. I need to get a scanner for my house because the photos blow out some of the…

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This is an old time baseball catcher done in graphite. I have a bunch of sketches I need to post. I’ve not been good about scanning plus I’ve been on vacation.

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Graphite and digital coloring.

I figured I’d try to do an anatomy drawing with my own pose. It’s hilarious sitting at subway drawing at lunch with anatomy pages strewn across the table drawing a cow without its skin on. Ink on paper, then digitally colored.

This is my first time to use gouache. I think I’m in love. I’d read online that inking on top of gouache wasn’t a good idea, but I went ahead and did it. The pens would “gunk up” and not put ink down, but then I just used them on another piece of paper for a bit and they would start running again. I might have to experiment with it some. I’m also using my new…

This is my third inking. Micron pens on sketch paper, with digital coloring and layout. I’m really starting to like this process. I’m trying to see what all I can do with it.

I did this sketch of a tiger from some reference that I took out at the zoo. This is my second inking to do. I’m starting to like the process. It takes me 2 lunches instead of one to do a drawing but it definitely has a level of polish to it that pencils just can’t compete with. Coloring is digital.

This was my first real time to work with a pen. I’d done other smaller things and immediately felt in over my head. I think I might be able to work on this process and get it to work better for me. Definitely a study piece I want to do more pen now.

I drew a rat at lunch. I’ve been playing around with a different technique involving spreading the graphite around with a tissue early in the drawing process, spreading the midtones. Then I added in darker values and picked out highlights with an eraser.

Another drawing of Jean Sibelius.

This is my first attempt at watercolors ever! It’s a portrait of Jean Sibelius, the Finnish composer. I’ve been listening to his 6th & 7th symphonies all day long. Watercolor, chalk, and graphite on gray paper.

Xenacanthus, a freshwater shark that had an eel-like body. Stethacanthus. The dorsal fin and top of the head were full of teeth, essentially modified dermal dentacles, theorized for use in either mating or hitching ride on larger animals. Freaky either way. Helicoprion or whorl-toothed shark. This freaky animal had a spiral of teeth jutting from its jaw that was probably used for slashing through schools of fishing, or specially suited to getting through the yummy protections of…

Thumbnailed for drawn nudity. Charcoal & Chalk on Gray Paper, 20 min. Charcoal & Chalk on Gray Paper, 20 min. China Marker on Newsprint…

Another figure sketch from my imagination.

I’m going to start doing figures from my imagination. This one turned out pretty well I think. It’s kind of a silly pose but hopefully I’ll come up with some fun ones.

Some more Andrew Loomis figure exercises.

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Playing around with china markers and newsprint.