Happy Holidays

Linoleum block print card for the holidays. 3 colors, 3 blocks, hours of fun ;-)

Sorry neglected sketch blog. Its been all work or sculpture lately. Have a granny sketch to hold you over...design sketch for an illustration I'm 'working on'. Working on means started and set aside to do a whole lot of other stuff. Ah well.

Some watercolor pieces I did a few weeks ago for a Steampunk event in Seattle. The originals for the top and bottom pieces are still available for sale if anyone's interested ;-) I'm really very pleased with the octopus jar table...and I think I want it in my living room.

Finished last week for APE and then...I forgot to post it here. Oops! The fight for robot equality continues.

Now I have stacks and stacks of letterpressed cards that need to be paired with envelopes and shoved into clear sealable bags. ;-)

Weekly Robot #11 - or is it?

I spent all my free time last week getting these all set. They're being letterpressed next week for high end greeting cards that I will be shopping around to gallery shops and the like. They'll also be available in my Etsy shop of course. Forcing myself to use only 3 colors is hard!

I'm not incredibly happy with either sketch, but the point was more to make myself do something with markers that was more then just a doodle of a persons head. I never used to sketch with markers - I blame Mike D who is the sharpie-Master. He's right I think, its a good exercise for making you consider and plan your lines.

Weekly Robot #10 - cheating

Its a robot...it counts! Still learning to paint with Photoshop, even included a little row of 'progress' images to give myself an idea of how to work on my process. This was a short painting for a little 'flash collaboration' experiment, in which I did an image, and a writer did a vignette about it all in one weekend. It and other related things are up at the LJ community 2xCreative.

My mom was sad that I hadn't updated my blog recently. Here you go mom! Its...that guy...from a few posts back - in a different style.

Seems like I've become occupied with lots of larger scale projects in my spare time lately, less sketching and personal illustration. So I imagine the long spaces of silence may continue.

To cheer up a friend who was down today.
Some people have expressed their disappointment that the page in my second book that has Him and Her is not followed by the inevitable next step...well here you go!

Self portrait for photoshop practice and sort of 'art detox' heh.

The Not-so-Weekly Robot #11

Background fail. And also, its been what, 2 months? Apparently its no longer even kind of weekly. And now that I think about it, #11 is really just #9 in color...

So here's a bonus set of color thumbnails for red coat girl stuff. Mostly because I like them, even if they are just little thumbnails.

A bunch of sketches done on the same page of yellowy-brown color in Painter. It was just, the last canvas color I used apparently. Started just trying to remind myself of more realistic facial structure - I am still really bad at eyes.

And a thumbnail that was original for a Red Coat girl picture for a theme 'hidden garden'. But its clearly gone somewhere else instead.
Then I just went and fooled around with clear simple shapes of flat color, which is something I've always been not that good at. I rely very heavily on outlines most of the time, so you know, practice.

The robots will be back next time. And someday maybe I'll finish something beyond the level of 'sketch'...someday...

Because I have nothing new finished, and am still a bit exhausted from the whirlwind that became of last month here's a bit of process. Color studies, thumbnails, sketches and bits. I usually do a fair number of such things before I do something complicated. These are prep for some more 'red coat girl' images. The top study is pretty close to the feel I want with the colors and light I think.

Look its NOT ROBOTS!

Weekly Robot.... #10?

Join the Revolution.

Weekly Robot # 9... sort of

Actually this is musing for a potential series for some letterpress cards. Sort of some kind of cross between robots, those victorian adverts for useless household items, and Norman Rockwell...

Robot redux

Updated - I don't think I made it better, just...more rendered. But I think it might be time to let it go...

Previously...

I was trying to approach color from some other more interesting direction...but I just made mess. I'll fix it at some point. Suggestions are welcome. The point was to try and generate a more complete color palette. I tend to approach things from a "this will be green and this will be red and this will be..." stand point, and I tend to use simple palettes and flat shading - probably animation being so firmly entrenched in my brain. Anyway, its all mud now. Oops. At least its a robot in color.

Weekly Robot #9

Gardening spider-robots. What ever happened to nice color pictures of robots, you want to know? They'll be back, as usualy I got distracted by a few million other projects. Apparently I am only capable of weekly consistency for about a month and a half.

Weekly Robot #8

In an attempt to catch up, this is sort of a cheap two for one try. I like pot bellied stoves, we had one in the basement when I was a kid and I remember at least once having mac and cheese cooked on it (although I don't remember why anyone was cooking on the pot bellied stove, and I can't remember when it was removed either, ah well).

Weekly Robot #7

Did you notice I was some 3 weeks behind? Well my mom did anyway ;-) I will try and make it up with some extra robots this week. Here's a navigator beetle, widely used by sea captains to set direction and lead the way :-)

Weekly Robot #6

A robot that catches octopi. I couldn't quite decide how it should work, so I did two possibilities then copped out and colored something simple.

Weekly Robot #5

Happy Valentines day (unrelated to robot). So...I set out to try and figure out photoshop painting. Now its more like painting with a smallish stick with a chewed up end...or something. Spent far far to long messing about with this.

And just for fun (and for my sister) here is Robot #3 in color.

Weekly Robot #4

Trying something different. I still think painting in Photoshop is like trying to sculpt from really far away with a stick.

Back of the cardboard cup holder on my tea. Sad part is, I had my sketchbook was right there - drawing on the cup holder seemed more exciting.

I too a nice relaxing trip down to Los Angeles this weekend to chill with friends, so last weeks robot was unscanable until now. Here he is, with his little doodle planning sketches (as if the red one is more finished somehow? Just pretend with me).

And while we're on the topic of my weekend, here's something so far removed from the robots I almost made two separate posts just to keep them divided. Then I realized it was more work then it was worth, and a bit silly - so here's a little watercolor sketch from the Huntington Library Gardens (a place I love).

Birthday card for my Dad! Apparently he's like a grey owl surrounded by squishy round birds? hehehe

Weekly Robot #2

Crochet-bot, this weeks robot. Its sort of what I've wished I had time to do all this week and haven't had time for.
I've discovered I'm really awfully bad at designing robots. But that's fine I suppose, there's not point in making easily attainable goals for yourself anyway. Some 30 robots from now and I should be pretty decent at it, right?

Sketches from cafe sketch night. I wasn't in a life drawing mood so I did other things. Like robots. Other folk have done daily/weekly animals and pin up girls...I might do a weekly robot. Hmmm.

Five of the Red Coat illustrations are up in a little group gallery show at...well the salon where I get my hair done. They're hanging in a cheerful little group with some of Steph Laberis' fabulous pieces. I'm really very pleased with how they look at the 13"X17" size all framed and hung.

And yes, that is my name, misspelled. Its an exciting new misspelling - I'm sort of fond of it actually. It feels significantly more medieval and important - like a place one goes to market. Dunghan.

The opening will be Saturday Jan. 17th, at 7pm - although I'm afraid I won't be there, in favor of going to see Jonathan Coulton in concert that same day and time. You might go anyway though, there will be, among other things, free food and beverages!


If you're around the SF East Bay and looking to do something, say before lunch in the Gourmet Ghetto, stop by Blow Salon on Berkeley Way just off Shattuck and check it out. The show will be up until the end of March.