Author: Chad Frye

2016 Monster Month: Day 4 – The Eyes Have It

Would you like to see a typical page from my sketchbook? Not everything is great that goes into it because this is where you need to work out the bad drawings. So, some pages are just a real mess to try to look at, but this is one that is worth sharing. It still isn’t full of the greatest ideas, or the best draftsmanship, but it helps lead to those kind of drawings. It works out nicely that this page just happened to be full of monsters.

 

It is fun to play around with eyes. So many expressions can be conveyed just in the eyes.
It is fun to play around with eyes. So many expressions can be conveyed just in how you can draw the eyes.

 

If you love drawing, by all means, get yourself a sketchbook and keep it handy at all times. I often use my sketchbook to experiment, to practice drawing, to figure out new ways to do things, and even to work out early concepts of things I wish to illustrate. I have made it a habit to travel with a sketchbook so that it is handy to do all of the above, plus it helps kill time while on the road. These sketches were created while traveling through Israel this summer!

Categories
Character Designs Monsters Random Doodles Sketchbook

2016 Monster Month: Day 3 – Bauble Diva

What lovely lady monster doesn’t enjoy a few baubles now and then? A girl needs to look her best, and she deserves every extravagance life has to offer. What could be better than to wear every shiny and sparkly thing she can get her claws on – all at once?

 

She deserves the best.
Tiaras aren’t just for princesses anymore.

 

The story behind this piece is that my aunt was having a birthday when I was visiting the east coast of the U.S. earlier this year, and I wanted to do something nice for her. She does enjoy jewelry, and knows a lot about it having once been in the jewelry retail business. I was feeling the urge to draw a monster, so her birthday card combined my love of drawing creatures with her love of baubles, bangles and beads.

And I know what you are now thinking – NO, this is NOT a portrait of my aunt!!

Categories
Art: Inking Art: Painting Art: Watercolor Character Designs Illustrations Monsters

2016 Monster Month: Day 2 – The Red Scourge

Beware of the Red Scourge!

Oh, don’t get me wrong. He’s not mean or anything. You just don’t want him preparing any meals for you because you just know you are going to end up pulling great big long red hairs out of your dinner, and that’s just nasty.

 

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On the plus side, the hairs are long enough so that you could use them as dental floss after the meal.

 

You are probably thinking he is named the Red Scourge because I drew him with a red pencil, and you would be partially correct. The “Red” part is also is because of where I drew him. This monster was added to my sketchbook this past summer when I was on a camping trip in the heart of Russia. I know that sounds like I just made it up, but it’s true! I actually went on a six-day camping trip in Russia. I’m glad I had my sketchbook because there was LOTS of time to add things to it in between swatting mosquitoes.

Categories
Art: Colored Pencil Art: Drawings Character Designs Monsters Random Doodles Sketchbook

2016 Monster Month: Day 1 – Frankenstein

Welcome to the creepy, spooky, and altogether ooky (I may have borrowed those words from somewhere) very first post of this year’s Monster Month here on the ol’ blog.

You may have noticed that last year I did not do any Monster Month posts because scary as it may sound, I was so preoccupied with work that it had slipped my mind that October had come once again.

There has been no mental slippage this year! Get ready for a new monster to be posted each weekday during the month of October. You will see twenty-one sketches, ink drawings, paintings, and various other artistic expressions of strange things that go bump in the night.

What better way is there to start such an entourage of entwined entities than with one of the greatest classic monsters who has been fearing fire since 1818, your undead favorite and mine, Dr. Frankenstein’s monster!

 

Frankie is just waving a Monster Month welcome to you!
Frankie is just waving a Monster Month welcome to you!

 

Frankenstein’s monster has made so many appearances over the years on my blog that he has his own category on the home page. If you would like to see other iterations of him from the past, CLICK HERE! Regarding this new one, this Frankie is a traditionally drawn ink sketch from my sketchbook that was later color tinted in Photoshop.

Categories
Art: Drawings Art: Inking Art: Photoshop Character Designs Frankenstein Monsters Random Doodles Sketchbook

Monster Month 2016

It’s baaaaaaaack….

 

chadfrye_monster_month_angry_eyes_2016

Categories
Art: Inking Art: Photoshop Character Designs Monsters

Drawn & Quoted: The Old Coach

 

“If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.”

– Yogi Berra (1925 – 2015)

 

Old coaches never die, they just change teams.
Old coaches never die, they just change teams.

 

Today happens to be the one-year anniversary of the death of baseball’s beloved, Yogi Berra. I was a kid from Jersey who was a huge Yankees fan, and I seem to remember that not far from where I lived, Yogi Berra owned a fitness club with racquetball. I always loved racquetball, but by the time I got a driver’s license and could seek it out, I moved out of state. Ah well.

This drawing, however, is NOT of good ol’ Yogi. I just felt that if an old baseball coach was being posted for a Drawn & Quoted post, who better to quote than the most quotable old baseball player. Yogi was the natural choice.

I like the nostalgia of baseball. I used to play in high school, and still have a love for baseball despite not keeping up with the current status of the game. Old photos of America’s pastime, and even better, illustrations that immortalize the essence of the sport from days gone by always make me recall the smell of the glove, the buzzing of the bugs, and the wafting scent of freshly cut grass from my position in the outfield.

I was doodling in my sketchbook the other day, and as this face emerged, it just made me think of an old, grizzled baseball coach, wise beyond his years with the science, psyche, and feel of the game, so the hat and suggestion of a uniform were added.

Then, of course, the quote from Yogi.

Categories
Art: Colored Pencil Art: Drawings Character Designs Drawn & Quoted Random Doodles Sketchbook

Birthday Bunny

A dear friend of mine recently celebrated her 90th birthday. To commemorate the occasion, I made her a little card. Why not a cute little pink birthday bunny overjoyed to celebrate the milestone?

Of course, if I came across a real pink bunny tossing flowers in the air with a candle balanced on its head on my birthday, I probably would run in the other direction screaming. But that’s just me.

 

I don't see too many bunnies where I live. I do see coyotes, though. Not sure if that's significant or not.
I don’t see too many bunnies where I live. I do see coyotes, though. Not sure if that’s related or not.
Categories
Animals Art: Inking Art: Painting Art: Watercolor Character Designs

Lil’ Leopard

Once in awhile I doodle on the back of envelopes. When it comes to this, I’m certainly no Abraham Lincoln who famously scribbled The Gettysburg Address on the back of an envelope. No, instead I doodle more inspired things like this little leopard…

 

Hopefully this did not make it into the mailman's permanent collection of interesting envelopes.
Hopefully this did not make it into the mailman’s permanent collection of interesting envelopes.
Categories
Animals Art: Inking Character Designs Random Doodles Sketchbook