Category: Sketchbook

The Cookout

I’m not sure why, but next to monsters, I sure do love drawing bears. In fact, one of my favorite Disney characters is Humphrey the Bear from several Donald Duck shorts back in the ’50s, and then he even had a few of his own shorts. Bears can be interpreted in many different ways in art, and I usually go for some version of silly. As Leonardo DiCaprio can attest, though, real bears are not as pleasant. (Yes, that was a real bear, and no one can tell me otherwise, and I only saw the commercial!)

So, for your viewing pleasure, here’s a sketchbook bear for you, drawn with a rollerball pen. While he is friendly looking, I’m not sure exactly how he started that fire. Maybe he finished off some campers, took their fire, and the fish is just his dessert.

 

Clearly he is not at all worried about his blood pressure with that generous application of salt.
Clearly he is not at all worried about his blood pressure with that generous application of salt.
Categories
Animals Character Designs Random Doodles Sketchbook

Travel Sketches

When one packs for a trip, especially a trip with lots of time sitting in airports, one would be remiss to not include a sketchbook. On my latest travels, I ended up spending the most time at my own Los Angeles airport awaiting my flight. I picked out a nice comfy seat facing the airport corridor, and waited for some interesting people to pass my way. They did not disappoint. Yep, these were real people I saw rushing to and fro on whatever journeys they were about to take.

 

Beware of the guy sitting there staring at you with a black book in his lap.
Beware of the guy sitting there staring at you with a black book in his lap.

 

Categories
Life Drawings Sketchbook

In the Bleak Midwinter

I recently spent some time on the east coast of the United States, and was terribly disappointed that not a hint of snow was to be had anywhere in my travels. I returned to California this past week, and of course, the snow fell upon the ground I had tread just a few days before. Sigh.

With the hopes of snow dancing in my head, I sketched this bleak midwinter scene on the back of an envelope I sent to a friend who is situated in a very cold, white place where the winters seem endless. Perhaps that was mean of me. I should have shared some of my sunshine instead.

 

winter
Apparently the back of an envelope is the only place where snow exists for this California cartoonist.
Categories
Animals Random Doodles Sketchbook

Merry Christmas 2015

This past year all my work came as freelance. Sometimes this can be a scary thing because you don’t know when the next job will be, but God has been good in keeping me quite busy. Unfortunately, as the holidays rolled around, I found myself unable to find the time to make a Christmas card as is my usual practice. So for those of you who have come to enjoy that tradition of mine, please know that you have not been moved to my “naughty list” to use Santa’s vernacular.

So, in an attempt to have a Christmas post of some kind, I thought I would share with you a little Christmassy doodle I did on the back of an envelope for a friend.

A gift that someone could really sink their teeth into.
A gift that someone could really sink their teeth into.

 

So, a very Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Categories
Animals Art: Inking Character Designs Random Doodles Sketchbook

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is all fun and games for everyone, except for those being eaten.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

It's all fun and games until someone gets eaten.
We’d be all eating roast eagle if Ben Franklin had his way in making the turkey our national bird.
Categories
Animals Art: Photoshop Cartoons Character Designs Random Doodles Sketchbook

Sketch Challenge 5 – Nevermore

Well, here it is. The grand finale of the week long Sketch Challenge between me and my friend Andy Heckathorne. Since tomorrow is Halloween, and this being the last day of the challenge, it seemed appropriate to break out the ink in grand style with a caricature portrait of the master of the scary short story – Edgar Allan Poe.

I always found it interesting that those tales of gothic woe came flowing from the mind of a man who looked like he could be the subject of his own stories. Perhaps when he wrote in the first person, he really was the subject of his own stories. Hmm, something to ponder.

Well, here he is with the title character of his most well-known story, The Raven, in ink and white gouache on a dark gray shade of Canson paper.

 

Is there another day in this sketch challenge? Quote the raven, "Nevermore."
Is there another day in this Sketch Challenge? Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.”

 

Thanks for tap, tap, tapping on your keyboards and mobile devices to come see my sketchy efforts. I hope you have enjoyed this week of sketch posts! And thanks to Andy for putting me up to the five day challenge. I hope I met your expectations, my friend.

Categories
Animals Art: Drawings Art: Inking Caricature Character Designs Monsters Random Doodles Sketchbook

Sketch Challenge 4 – Cat Zap

Day four in this week’s Sketch Challenge brings with it the wrath and menace of a crazed cat behind the controls of a mouse zapping spaceship, enough to send a chill through the spine of Buck Rogers himself!

 

So THIS answers the question, “What does my cat do while I’m at work?”

 

Hopefully you are also following the sketch posts this week by my challenger Andy Heckathorne, a fantastic illustrator and designer. If not, pop on over to his Twitter account to see what my competition is up to!

Categories
Animals Art: Colored Pencil Art: Drawings Art: Watercolor Cartoons Character Designs Random Doodles Sketchbook

Sketch Challenge 3 – The Weinie Roast

Day three has arrived of the sketch duel between me and my good friend Andy Heckathorne. My friendship with Andy goes back to my days in college where we took many art classes together by day, and worked on the school newspaper together by night. It is because of this close friendship that I won’t claim ownership of this contest quite yet. All bets are off on Friday, though.

For those of you who have frequented my blog in years past, I usually post a monster each weekday during the month of October in what I call Monster Month. Unfortunately, real work schedules have kept me from doing those personal pieces this year, but seeing that we are still in October, there is no way I can let a week of sketches go by without adding a monster to the mix.

I present to you this orange beast master of flame, a fire breathing dragon complete with a hot dog accessory!

 

This guy would be really handy on a camping trip.
This guy would be really handy on a camping trip.

 

Another sketch comes to you tomorrow in the great 2015 Sketch Challenge!

Categories
Art: Drawings Art: Inking Art: Painting Monsters Random Doodles Sketchbook