“You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.“
– Franklin P. Jones (1908-1980)
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Animals Art: Drawings Art: Inking Character Designs Drawn & Quoted Random Doodles Sketchbook
Category: Animals
Just a little something from my sketchbook today. And no, it is not a self-portrait.
Welcome to the month of May!
Hopefully spring is happening all over the country by now after a prolonged winter in many places. With spring comes a renewal of life. Grass grows, flowers start blooming, and babies are born.
Well, maybe that last one isn’t true for all. But it is true for a friend of mine who is about to have her first baby. I did this little watercolor Pooh for the impending little one. Spring abounds!
Today in the United States we have a little known and even lesser celebrated holiday called Arbor Day. It usually is superseded by the more popular Earth Day that came earlier in the week this year.
Arbor Day is all about trees, and folks are encouraged to plant a tree to mark the occasion. There are so many holidays on which people celebrate with a greeting card, but never for Arbor Day. This is strange to me, because cards most often come from trees giving up their lives to become greeting cards. So it is high time that there is a greeting card celebrating the trees that cards come from!
So, this year I sent these out to close friends, family, and business contacts. While more trees probably wanted to get in on the deal, they are too late. You now get to enjoy the card digitally!
So, all that to say, a very happy Arbor Day to you and yours. I hope you get lots of great Arbor Day presents, and enjoy the many Arbor Day parties you no doubt have lots of invitations to tonight! Stay safe!
“Success is most often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.“
– Coco Chanel (1883-1971)
Sometimes when I do these Drawn & Quoted pieces, I find a quote and do a drawing based on it. This time the drawing came first (ink in my sketchbook), then the search for a matching quote came after, which is usually the tougher way to go about it. I saw this image as having possible business applications, and started looking at quotes with that in mind. I also thoroughly enjoy utter silliness, so when this quote surfaced (pun intended), it made me laugh in the context of the drawing.
Why? Because the quote probably was meant to inspire someone to greatness by having them not be afraid to try something. However, it seemed to fit perfectly the goals and achievements of these two characters as they both attempted their goals in tandem. The bear achieved success at the price of the fish’s failure. Funny, right? Pain is often funny.
I finished up a sketchbook the other day with a page full of dragons. Sure hope they are housebroken.
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Last week I went to the ABC network headquarters in Burbank, CA, to see a special industry preview of Disney Junior’s new Muppet Babies television show, and really enjoyed it! The team from Oddbot Inc. headed up by Tom Warburton did a fun job on updating the property into a computer generated (CG) show for today’s generation of toddlers.
The show debuted this past Friday on TV. I trust it was a smash and will continue growing and evolving. Tom and team hinted at other Muppet characters making appearances in future episodes, too, which can only mean the Muppet zaniness is sure to progress!
So, in my enthusiasm for all things Muppet (I actually tried to get a job at Jim Henson Productions before ever launching into a career in animation), I did this little digital painting of three of my favorite mini-Muppets.
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A number of years ago before I got into the world of animation, I was a very busy illustrator. I illustrated many books whether of my own design, or sometimes with a team of other illustrators. Much of my color work back then was created with gouache – an opaque water based paint I would apply with both regular brushes and airbrushes. I absolutely LOVED this work.
After having worked for a number of years in the world of animation, and not having illustrated much anymore, the urge to paint more came bubbling up inside of me. While some of my colleagues who spend their days with cartoons want to create fine art, I wanted to create illustrations, even if they were just for me and not part of a greater project. But, I didn’t want to use gouache anymore. The erratic, organic quality of watercolors looked mighty attractive.
So, I bought some tubes of watercolors – Winsor & Newton – the same brand as my gouache paints, and decided to take a crack at ’em. The first serious attempt at using this medium resulted in the piece down below. Watercolors make up the bulk of the piece, finished with the sketchy lines that colored pencils provided.
I was hooked, and never looked back. At least 80% of my paintings since then have been with watercolors. Gouache still creeps in now and then, as does purely digital painting in Photoshop, but I absolutely love watercolors, and try to learn more with each new piece that comes across my desk.
Even though this was my first serious attempt at the medium, it remains one of the more popular pieces with viewers, likely due to the subject matter. There’s just something about the loss of innocence when tempted by something bigger and meaner that we all can relate to. The alligator seemed like a natural tempter to the sweet, innocent rabbit who he is coaxing down to the riverboat casino with his luring words and the push of his tail. It seems like the key moment of a book, doesn’t it?
The image was inspired by a verse in the Bible found at I Corinthians 10:13 where it promises to those who have given their lives to Christ that, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”