It Be Father's Day. Yar!

Happy Father's Day to all those in the UK. I hope you're all enjoying your various rock compilation albums - there are a glut of them this year, all of which the adverts attest are, "The perfect gift for every Dad."

It really is a sad day when Guns 'n' Roses are considered Dad-fodder.

No gift for me this year - but only because the new Weezer album isn't out until Monday. Tomorrow - yay!

So, in the meantime my wife very kindly gave me fifteen minutes off to have a cup of tea in the garden, in the sunshine, before my own parents came over. Turned out to be a brilliant little present because with a few moments to myself I was able jot down a few written ideas, as well as this:

Pirate Monster

Definitely something worth working on further.

Summer Fanfare

In celebration of the sunny weather across the south coast of England these past few days, another from the musical monsters series.

Toot, Toot!

This one traced, masked and textured in Photoshop with little divergence from the original drawing.

A quick job, but nice all the same.

Use Your Loaf

This blog was originally intended to showcase the very large, very detailed work I produce for my limited edition prints. However, across the first few posts I've repeatedly found myself drawn to sketches like the one below.

BreadHead

Seeing the work together like this, I'm beginning to realise how important the energy and ideas that come from these initial scribbles are. Perhaps that comes from letting go and allowing the brain to connect straight to the fingers.

It's easy to lose touch when you're being very conscious in what you do. Thinking and working hard to produce the best work you can is an admirable trait, but sometimes your skills are at their best when your brain is left to its own devices.

Sleeping Bear

Here's a piece that seems to be quite popular. Originally produced to accompany a story in Baby Hampshire (a magazine for new parents in the Hampshire region of the UK), it's surprisingly effective given the time constraints I faced.

My colouring technique is normally pretty time consuming. It involves tracing every component of the picture using paths and then filling each with layers of textures and colour. It can take an age to get anywhere with a really complex picture, especially as I don't use a graphics tablet or pen.

Does a bear sleep in the woods?

So sometimes its more effective to dedicate extra time to producing really detailed pencils to work from, that way you can speed up the modelling and shading phases by letting the tones of the drawing show through.

Another way, of course, is to build a stockpile of components that you can duplicate and re-use. In this case the long grass and the flowers are variations on two or three assets. After so much hard work though, it can sometimes feel like cheating.

But really I think its the colours that make it. I rarely think to use pinks and purples, but here they work really well with the abundance of green - and I particularly like the spatters of vivid yellow and blue in the canopy.

The bear's cute, too.

Apple Pro Article

I thought it was about time I pointed any interested parties to this link - a profile Apple did of my working practice during what I refer to as 'The First Big Push'. This was when I first started going freelance and started to market some of my work as limited and open edition prints and cards.

There are a few tidbits here on my approach and technique, which is after all what this blog is about.

'Chasing Dreams Digitally' Apple Pro Article.

A Scanner Blue-ly

Here's a piece I produced in non-repro pencil. This started out as a rough sketch that I had every intention of scanning and working over in full colour. I still might (such are the wonders of multiple, digital, loss-less versions), but for now I like this just as it is. Scanned and displayed in all its cyan glory.

Crankadillo in non-repro pencil

To me this look is better than biscuits - a collecion of fuzzy-woven shades with all the obvious exploration of the object's structure that you're happy to put in a sketch you imagine will probably never be seen.

Beastly Beats and Creaky Chops

Sometimes you can spend hours trying to improve on a first sketch to little or no avail. Take the ones below, for example - a collection of musical monsters I came up with as a concept for a friend's website a while back.


Try as I might, every attempt to capture the 'squidginess' of the originals got lost in a mess of layers that rendered them all far too processed for their own good.

At times like these its often smarter to ignore all those mystical photoshop skills you've acquired in the wee hours meeting deadlines. Far better to make a few clicks of the polygonal lasso (never mind paths - the pencils will hide the jagged edges!), a couple of flat fills and a dabble with the much maligned Brightness/ Contrast slider (Levels, surely!).

Here are the results. My own very simple, very squidgy power-trio* all set for a monster jam. And finished just in time to beat the dog to my side of the bed.

Monsters of Rock

You'd think by now I'd have some inkling as to when to stop. Maybe I'm trying a bit too hard to 'show my chops' in my old age. That or I'm too decrepit to get out of my chair at the end of the day.

*The other two had left by then to form top creature-delic folk duo 'Finns and Tootles' - currently touring Working Monster Clubs across the UK.