Recent Sketches

Recent Sketches

Arrived for some last minute X-mas shopping a bit too early. Gave me a chance to do some drawin'.

Recent Sketches

Recent Sketches

On the Art Table

A quick pix of the piece I'm currently working on. This is part of a series for an illustrated poem. I'm loving painting with powered charcoal! I'll be uploading the finished series soon.

Recent Sketches

Discovered a new level of "tired" during a recent workout.

Recent Sketches

Recent Sketches

Idealized places I'd like to visit.

Illustration Friday: Crunchy

Recent Sketches

This is what happens in your sketchbook when you spend all weekend looking at the your new Ashley Wood book.

Various Sketches

Sat in on a kindergarten class today to do some observational drawing.
Man, I miss kindergarten. . . .

Illustration Friday: Entangled

Recent Sketches

Sometimes I try not to think too hard about why I draw what I draw.

Recent Sketches

It got a bit cooler today -- which led me to this particular subject matter.
Can't wait for it to actually start snowing!

Recent Sketches

Sketches made while watching a movie. Extra points if anyone recognizes the film (I've never been great at caricature)

Recent Sketches

This is an example sketch I created for the Background Layout class I teach at AiPD.
I love this time in the term. . . all the basic skills for the students are in place and we can focus on the concept of a drawing -- by far the most interesting part!

Illustration Friday: Music

Recent Sketches

Sat in on the Game Art Preproduction class today at AiPD. They're working on a very cool project this term! These are some demo sketches I did during the critiques.

Recent Sketches

Love going through Andrew Loomis' "Creative Illustration"

Illustration Friday: Unbalanced

New Promo Image

An image for an upcoming group promotion that I'm participating in. The subject matter was totally open, BUT . . . the image had to be black, white and red.

Here's a list of the other uber-cool illustrators that I get to show along with:

Yoko Tanaka
Catia Chien
Lee White
WIlson Swain
Jaime Zollars
Dan Santat
Mary Peterson
Karen Raz
Ken Min
Andrea Offerman
Andrew Mitchell

Definitely take a minute (or more) to check out their work!

Disney Animator Portrait

I was watching the Making-Of Disney's Pinocchio recently and saw this amazing guy talking about animating in the 1940's. He was just too cool looking not to paint. BTW if you haven't watched Pinocchio recently go check it out. Amazing!

Recent Sketches

I've been working away on a new series of promotional images -- which I'll be posting soon. In the meantime here's my most recent page of sketches. Bears are both fun and kinda' scary.

Chalk Drawing at "A Children's Place"

There's a great children's bookstore here in Portland called "A Children's Place". So they have their 35th anniversary (wow!) celebration going on this weekend. They were kind enough to ask me to participate by doing a chalk drawing from one of my books.


We had quite a variety of artists come out and join me. These are just a couple who were working away while I took a break.



And this was the finished piece. It's and elf from my first book "Finding Fairies". I have only the greatest respect for those street artists who do this everyday. It's not the easiest thing to have a go at.

9.20.09 Various Sketches

I can only imagine that some version of "Harvey" was floating around in my head as I started these.

Upcoming Event

My studio partner and I will be giving a talk about the life and process of an illustrator as part of "A Children's Place" bookstore's upcoming 35 anniversary. This is the first time I've done a ticketed event. Feels pretty high-class!

9.16.09 Various Sketches

Crawling inside the heads of some amazing Disney artists.
The best part of any Disney production is getting to see the inspiration drawings/paintings that led up to the finished film. So much to learn from these illustrators!

9.15.09 Various Sketches

I participate in an illustrator blog where the challenge is to do at least a page of sketching a day. This is oddly more challenging than it sounds but incredibly helpful. I find it easy to fall into the trap of "this is what I do -- this is how I draw". When you've got to do that every day I find that it gets old eventually. One can't help but start branching out to try other things. I've noticed that I no longer draw edges (or at least edges aren't the focus of my drawing) but rather shapes of light and dark and let the edges sort themselves out.

Painting Portland Parks

Been working on some plein-air paintings the last few weeks. Here's some examples.

Travel Sketches: Korea

Some drawings done from not-good-enough to post photos (the subjects kept moving). Playing with pen and ink mediums.

Creatures

I'm having a great time playing with old images of monsters/creatures from various manuscripts. Basically extrapolating from tiny drawings into these various different poses/interpretations.

Sketches: Animals

I can never draw too many animals. You never know when you might need the visual memory to create a new creature.

Travel Sketches: Korea

Continuing the sketches from my trip to Korea. This is part of a Buddist temple in the northern part of South Korea. Freakin' beautiful. Right on the edge of the ocean!

Travel Sketches: Korea

A quick sketch done while traveling in Korea recently. This is a view from the rooftop in a neighborhood of Seoul.