IF: Midsummer Night

"Methought I was enamour'd of an ass."

As a huge Shakespeare fan, I couldn't read the Illustration Friday topic "Midsummer Night" and not think of the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Here is the scene where Titania wakes from the spell to discover that she has been making love to Bottom, a big oaf with a donkey head. Since the scene occurs at night, with lots of dark, I decided to try my hand at scratchboard again. It took longer than I expected, but perhaps I just need more practice with the medium. If you want to see a real master of scratchboard, go to http://sean-ashby.blogspot.com/.

Treehouse interior

For the next spread in my Sketchbook Project book, I decided to take a look at an interior room:

Click on image to view larger.

IF: Launch!

Here's a picture I did fairly recently that seems to fit this week's Illustration Friday "launch" theme as the cat is being launched out the door:

The picture is a scene I finished to accompany a dummy for a picture book I wrote. It's a story that, after discussing it with an art director, I now think might work better as part of a chapter book (for early elementary school age readers). I've been brainstorming ideas for expanding the story in my journal. This could be my next major writing project.

Another treehouse

Here's the third spread in my sketchbook project treehouse book. Click on image for a better view.

I draw these during the evening news. It makes listening to what's going on in the world a lot more fun.

Shadows rough sketch

Before I did the mixed media version of my "Shadows," I worked out the composition in the pencil sketch below:

That sketch has been in an open sketchbook on my drawing table for the past few days. It has been catching my eye everytime I pass by. I kinda like the noir look of the black and white image.

I haven't been doing much sketching (okay, not any) since Saturday. I've been trying to write a short story, but it's not coming together very well yet. Perhaps I need to goof off to get the creative juices flowing better. Time to pull out the treehouse sketchbook again and play.

Illustration Friday: Shadows

For this week's Illustration Friday picture, I went with a mixed media approach.

That means I couldn't make up my mind. I started in pen-and-ink, but then thought the shadows would be better depicted in a wash. I used watercolor for that, but only for that. In order to get my witness character to show up a bit more in the dark, I brought her out with colored pencil. I also used some warm yellow colored pencil to set off the cold shadow drama.

I may try more mixed media work in future. I kinda like it.

Treehouse Sketchbook Spread #2

I spent a fair chunk of my holiday playing with my Sketchbook Project book and exploring the treehouse theme. Here's another spread. Click on the image for a larger view.

I chose to go with a more ordinary backyard treehouse because I wanted to get in some practice drawing kids. Then I decided to add a cat. (I thought of drawing a dog, but that didn't seem quite right up in a tree.) Then I added the squirrel to amuse the cat. The bird in the nest (another form of treehouse) at the top was an afterthought.

IF: Asleep

This week's Illustration Friday theme "asleep" fits with this pen-and-ink and watercolor piece I did two and a half years ago for a now defunct blog:



The blog was a short-lived project I called "Rat Manor." It was to be a journal of my days (what was really going on) as observed by rats that live behind the walls in my house (that part was fiction -- I hope). This character's name was "Cob."

It was an ambitious project. Too ambitious. I had developed several rat and mouse characters and tensions between them. I had intended to illustrate each post. It took away time from all other creative projects. My novels were gathering dust. And, as to writing about what was really going on in my life, the rats were getting awfully close to narrating scenes of me trying to come up with the next illustrated blog post. Still, it gave me a lot of material. I suppose someday, these rodents may end up in a story of their own.

IF: Soaked

Sketchbook Project 2012 - Page 1

I have begun to fill my 2012 Sketchbook Project sketchbook. I'm taking a doodly approach with the sketchbook this year - not planning out a series of pictures ahead of time. I save it for the evening when I'm watching the news. It helps keep me happy despite what's coming out of the TV set. Here's the opening page -- sorta grew into a title page -- which I've been doodling the past two nights.

Before that I did the front and back covers:

I'm having a lot of fun with this. My theme (Treehouse) is pure play.

Do you keep a sketchbook for your own personal amusement?

Time Out with watercolor

Today I finally got around to finishing my "time out" drawing with its watercolor wash.

I can't decide how I feel about it. But I do know it's not blowing me away.

My characters need more ... something. They seem as if any anonymous artist might have drawn them. They're not clearly Jeanie Wogaman's work. They need more that sets them apart from one another too. Good thing I have more time to draw these days. I have my work cut out for me.