Trying to push my illustration style, this is an experimentation with a few things. Trying a bit of a new direction, this is what I would do for an Atlas Shrugged (one of my favorite novels) cover. The colors are inspired by some art deco posters, and since Atlas Shrugged came out in 1957 I wanted a retro feel to the design. Lastly, I played around with some subltle textures, I thought the floor needed something since it felt sparse. I'm showing the original rough sketch to see how much the piece evolves from the start.

Remembering while work on projects, to do stuff I like, and sometimes draw and illustrate just because I like to. This is a water nymph, just developed from a wee thumbnail I scribbled in my sketchbooks. I played around with some different brushes and photoshop techniques, I'd like to work on this more when I figure out what's missing.

Happy thanksgiving folks.

This weeks focus in the Schoolism class was observation, and the assignment was to go capture some life in your sketchbook. Man, if only my sketches looked half as good as Stephens!

The second sketch is a memory sketch (the other part of the assignment), an arty-farty gal chatted me up for a while. Drawing in public always inspires curiosity, and I usually get at least one or two people aproach me and peer over my shoulder. In all fairness I'm watching them.

This weeks class assignment was to design 6 emotions of the Hyde character (or the Jekyll character whatever you fancy, I preferred the Hyde design it was more fun). We also had to include two attitudes as well, this was a lot of fun. I decided to show Madame Hyde in mid frenzy, and in despair as she glimpses here transformed self in the mirror. I have new found respect for animators, keeping characters on model is no small task. Those Disney magicians you see on the DVD special features make it look way easier...

Happy drawing folks....

Ahhh turnarounds....so calming and therapeutic...

Actually quite the opposite. This was no small feat, I have new found respect (on top of the old found respect) for designers like Silver who can turn a flat drawing around in minutes. The challenge is to keep the character looking like the same character from each point of view. My first few tries looked like the characters' second cousins....twice removed. By the third go around I started to get a better grasp on it, but I still see stuff that's in need of adjusting. I laughed at myself for choosing such a complex hair shape, I think an animator would probably kill me for designing something like this.

Something I should mention is that I scrapped the design I inked, it lacked the life that my thumbnail drawing seemed to have, so I went back to that to develop a better design. I'm glad I did this, there were a lot of things that were just not right about it. (Thanks Francesco for giving me some pointers)

Random post.... I did some background design just for fun a while back, tried to see If I could draw something other than people and characters. I was drawing some western themed thumbnails when I remembered an abandoned cabin near my folks' farm in Alberta. Kind of a mix of that and the desert in Drumheller.

This weeks assignment was about finishing, and we had to traditionally ink a character of our design. This is my take on Jekyll and Hyde, I thought it would be fun to have a Dr. Jacquelyn and Madame Hyde. Maybe she finds Hyde s original formula a century or two later and becomes a vampy man eater.

Anyway, this was no small task. I did loads of versions, but never managed to get the same sense of life as my thumbnail. Even more tricky was the ink.... boy Illustrator has spoiled me all these years! It was great to do this though, I've really enjoyed stepping up my traditional skills and weening off my digital crutches.

Here she is, with just a wee bit of photoshop blue for some contrast.

This week Stephen Silvers class focused on features, eyes ears mouths and noses. This gave me a good opportunity to work on these, and to get a bit creative with them as well, which was fun. I think a lot of beginner artists avoid these things since they are difficult to draw. Difficult, yes, but also interesting...when I think of great character design often it's the small details like features that can really give a character well, um...character. Here's a small sample....