Spectators

 In honor of this week's British Open, here is a piece I did last year.

The Last Trip

Here's another illustration from Steve Paul Barlow's "I'd Rather Get Blisters" (still available at Briar Hill Books). I remember trips like this when I was a kid. Four kids and two parents in an overstuffed station wagon with no air-conditioning. Fun times.

IF - Sweater

I haven't done an Illustration Friday in a while. This weeks theme is "sweater". I did another sweater oriented IF picture for the theme,"flawed" a couple of years ago. I suppose I could just link to that one again and save some work, but that would be lame. So here's a new one.

Process - part two

The next thing I do is to trace the image onto a piece of bristol board using my tracing box. My tracing box is actually a box designed to hang on a wall in a doctor's office and used to view x-rays. My wife found it at a garage sale years ago. It's lightweight so I can put it on my drawing table to use and lean it in a corner the rest of the time to save space. I don't pencil directly on the board because I want to avoid any erasing that might roughen the surface and effect my ink washes later.
I trace most of the lines in ink using a crow quill, trying to leave areas that will be completed in wash. The fisherman and the stream are traced in pencil instead of ink. I'm hoping for a sense of depth, so I don't want hard edges in the background.
Next, I go over the lines with ink using a #2 watercolor brush. You get a more expressive line inking with a brush. Some of the pen lines are left as is. I start to fill in darker areas with black and add texture with dry brush.
I then go over the drawing with a wash (ink diluted in water). Textures are added in wash. For example; the creel, Steve's hair and the background. Sometimes the wash is put down directly in one go and other times areas are built up in successive layers. I find that ink wash can result in a smoother finish than watercolor but it is not forgiving. Once it is down, it is down.

Lastly, I go over the drawing again in ink with a crow quill and brush, adding more leaves and textures. Then I only have find a place to hide my signature.

Process - part one

I have once again been given the opportunity to illustrate a book by Steven Paul Barlow. Steve's latest, "I'd Rather Get Blisters", is now available at Briar Hill Books. I will put a few of the illustrations on the blog in the near future. I thought I would use the first one to show my process for doing a pen and ink wash illustration.

This illustration was for a story where Steve relates his earlier idea for using a mountain bike to get to and from hunting and fishing spots in the wild. Unfortunately, his bicycle skills are a little shaky. I decided to show Steve out of control on his bike. I started with a lot of loose sketches.

At this point I wasn't sure how out of control I wanted him to be. I downloaded some pictures of mountain bike crashes as reference. I decided to have him be out of control but not crashing
(yet). After I came up with a pose I liked (lower right), I drew a tighter sketch. I added a fishing creel and a pole case. I selected the fly fishing equipment because the looser straps would add to the feeling of motion rather than a backpack tight to the body. Actually, I've never asked Steve if he fly fishes and this scene doesn't actually happen in the story. But that's okay, my Artistic License is still valid.

Next I trace the figure and bike in pencil on tracing paper tightening up the lines and adding stuff like the bike rack and boots. I worked on the background which I had only roughly indicated in the pencil sketch. The fisherman in the creek and the squirrel in the foreground are added because of my pet theory that a humorous picture is often funnier if there is someone in the picture reacting to the chaos.

Next: Inking

Bethany and Aaron

Here's a pair of pictures that I haven't been able to post until now. These are brush and ink drawings of my daughter and her new husband. We used them for place settings and to personalize gift bags at their wedding.

Invitation Art

Well, I haven't posted in a while. I have been working on pieces that I haven't been able to share. One of them was a pen and ink drawing for my daughter's wedding invitation. The invitations have been mailed and she has given me clearance to post it. So, here it is.

IF - Unbalanced

The topic for this week's Illustration Friday is "Unbalanced"

The Astonishing Bradley's act became somewhat less than astonishing when he became unbalanced.

He was so unbalanced that he dropped his checkbook, which was also.....unbalanced.

IF - Fast

Illustration Friday's them for this week is "Fast"
This reflects the old adage that you don't have to be faster than the bear, you just have to be faster than the other guy.

It may be that the bear has just completed a fast, so our hikers should strive to be really fast.

IF - Flying

I haven't done Illustration Friday for quite a while. The theme for this week is "Flying".

The cassowary is a nervous flier. The kiwi is excited. The penguin is unimpressed. The ostrich is having a great time. The emu is looking for Rod Hull. And who knows what the takahē is thinking.

A Pepper

This is my latest still life. I wasn't really planning on doing one, but I saw this pepper from my wife's garden sitting on the kitchen counter. Painting the transition from red to green was very interesting. I also learned that I should try to complete the painting quickly. I stopped painting before I was finished and came back the next day to a much redder pepper.

Bethany and Reginald

My daughter has been after me to post something. So here is a picture of her and her pet elephant, Reginald.
We are taking care of Reginald while Bethany is at college. So if you're in my backyard, watch where you step.

I haven't posted since June? I have been slacking!

Gargoyle

Here's a little still life. I got this gargoyle when I was a kid. It's a souvenir my Aunt Carol brought back from Paris during one of her many trips there. It sits in my studio with my other statues and dolls-um, that is, "Action Figures".

Art by Committee - Trudy L.

James Gurney at gurneyjourney.blogspot.com has issued another "Art by Committee" challenge. This time, rather than a snippet from an old science fiction manuscript, he has provided a business card he picked up in a restaurant. The challenge is to imagine the person whose card it is.
This is the card:
My first response was the obvious one; a mousy librarian type. But then, it occurred to me that the Harvard Depository must be a huge place. Trudy L's job has to be more exciting than one might think:

That's the way to do it!

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "theater". Here's a picture of two extremes of theater together.

Four Guys

Boy, I've been really lax in posting lately. Here's a sketch of four characters for comic story I'm working on. It's another bible story. Can anyone guess the story?

Rockabilly Angels

Here's my latest painting. Its been some time since I've done a piece on canvas. The image has been in my head for quite a while.

20"X30" Acrylic on canvas.

Art by Committee - Banana Tree

This is my entry to this month's Art By Committee challenge at James Gurney's blog, Gurney Journey. The text for this challenge is " I lashed out with my left arm. clutched something thin and hard. tore at it; the next second a banana tree fell across my chest. But the pain was...." I think the challenge for this one is that it describes (sort of) a sequence of events so if you're planning on doing a single image you have to pick a point within that sequence. The involvement of a banana tree naturally led me to a giant gorilla. Everyone likes a giant gorilla.

Click image to enlarge.

ABC - Keep an Eye Out

James Gurney has issued another Art by Committee challenge. He takes a random snippet from a science fiction manuscript and invites you to illustrate it. There is no context provided and the text is usually pretty wacky. He stopped doing these a few months ago but has started again on a monthly basis.

This one month's challenge was to illustrate "I should stay here and keep an eye out". I find that the simpler the quote the harder these challenges are. I was stumped until it occurred to me to make an homage to one of my all time favorite comics.

IF - Time

This week's Illustration Friday theme is "Time".