House "Portrait"

Another custom house "portrait" in the bag:

I don't always have time to get a good scan before I have to hand it over to the client, but that's okay.

Gollum: Part Two

(See: Gollum: Part One)

I love working from home for the very reason that I get to hang with my kids.

I've always had a hard time with color. Black pen is my comfort zone. But, I really felt (okay, I literally just typed out "fart" instead of "felt" just now. I should have just left it, right?) 

Anyways, I felt like this needed some eerie color emanating from the ring. I have a range of colors that I'm comfortable with, that I always seem to lean towards. Having to step away from that palette is really giving my brain some good creative exercise. 

That being said, I miss the black and white. I hate the middle stages of a painting because it always just looks muddy and unfinished. I just have to be patient, because I know in the end, adding the color is necessary for the emotion I want to create.

Gollums profile has also been a challenge. I drew him without any references, so in order to get his profile right I'm going to get out my Gollum figurine and pose him. 

[Nerd alert: Yes, you read correctly. I have a Gollum figurine. He comes with a rock you can pose him on, interchangeable heads (one for Gollum, one for Smeagol) and a fish. OH! AND...there are even audio buttons on the rock if you want Gollum or Smeagol to talk!] 

Onward:

  As an artist, all of these challenges are good. It's really pushing me out of my safety bubble and forcing me to enhance my skills. And no matter what, whenever I am drawing/painting, I am a happy camper, so the amount of time I'm spending on this piece has been so much fun.

I'm really excited to finish it and post it for you guys to see! 

Gollum

Drawing Gollum for "The Hobbit" design contest.

Here is my progress in pictures via instagram:

Getting into character...

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Just for fun

In between commissions I did a simple, fun piece based off some drawings in my sketch book.

I finally got around to windexing my scanner. No more goobers.

Beach Baby

Renee commissioned me to do an illustration of her daughter. She wanted a silhouette on the beach at sunset, with her little girl holding a surf board, and she requested some obvious diaperage and the Volcom logo on the swimming suit. I thought the idea was so cute!

Once again, let me just complain about my crappy scanner:
BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Wait..hold the phone...HOLD. THE. PHONE.  I just realized my scanner is a filthy mess. Maybe if I would just pull out some Windex once in awhile my pictures wouldn't look like I smeared boogers on them. Mystery solved, case closed, amen. I'm sorry, leetle scanner, for hurting your feelbads. You have been there for me through thick and thin. I'll give you a nice wipe down and I'll even use my good rags. *pat pat