Sketches

Here are some random sketches I did. I've seen a lot of artist use these black fine markers for drawing so I decided to give it a shot.

My Cubemate

Here is a caricature of my cubemate at my job. She asked me to draw her so I decided to do it as a gift for the holidays. I tried a different style of caricature. More of a cartoon style with line art. Very challenging and I can't say I'm satisfied with the outcome. Nonetheless, I keep challenging myself and keep learning. One of these days it will all come together.

Magazine Cover

My wife started a monthly magazine for our church (Temple of Deliverance Christian Church in Akron, OH) and this is the cover that I created for it. This was my first full digital illustration. I started with a couple reference pictures and some sketches on paper. By the time I completed I had about 20 reference pictures and more layers than I could keep track of. I decided to flatten the entire image and just paint freely until I felt it was finished.

The cover is really about asking ourselves what the true meaning of Christmas is. "America" has led most young, and old, folk to believe it's all about gifts and santa clause. While I believe that's just a distraction to keep the focus off of the true and only meaning, which is Jesus. Without his birth there is no Christmas. The funny thing is that its become so much of a tradition that even people who don't believe in the Christ will exchange gifts out of habit. So this cover is pretty much depicting the fact that Santa Claus (or tradition) doesn't want the real reason of Christmas to be celebrated. Thus, he shushes the birth of the Christ so that people won't take the focus off of him and his wonderful gifts. This is just an illustration of what most people do every year for themselves and their loved ones has they go hunting like crazy people to find all the gifts to make everyone happy. But yet studies have shown that the Christmas season is the most stressful season of all. I wonder why?

So this year take some time out between opening gifts and give thanks to the one and only true reason for the season. Lets focus on the true source of happiness and joy. He died so that we can live, and live an abundant life.

Merry Christmas!!!

Bron Bron WIP

Here's a painting of Lebron James I'm working on over the holiday break. It's coming along nicely but got a LONG way to go before this one is finished. This will actually be my first full color painting. We'll see how it turns out.

BRoy Value Study

Here's a black and white value study of my earlier sketch of Brandon Roy. Still need to fine tune it a bit but it's looking pretty decent so far.

Given my day job and family at home I don't always have a lot of time to sketch. Therefore, I do a lot of my sketching when I have some down time at work on regular Post-It pads. Actually some of my best drawings have resulted in these types of thumbnail sketches. Here's a couple:

Here's one of my favorite basketball players DWade.

Greg Oden. Not a big fan of his game (yet) but his face is something else.

Brandon Roy

Here is a sketch I did of basketball player Brandon Roy. He plays for the Portland Trailblazers and was Rookie of the Year a couple years ago. I really like his game and enjoyed sketching his face. I've attached a few pics to show you how I got to my final sketch


I tried to scan this into my computer but my scanner was acting crazy. This is a picture I took with my digital camera of a couple thumbnail sketches I did in my sketchbook.


Finally got my scanner to work and this is the scanned sketch. Had to play around with the "curves" in Photoshop to get it to look decent.
Here's the final sketch. I made quite a few adjustments in Photoshop. I often have problems with my drawings being lopsided so I flip the image horizontally in Photoshop to try and correct it as much as I can. Not sure how to connect the body just yet but I'm thinking of painting this one.

Here We Go!!!

Here's the kickoff to the start of my blog. Feel free to drop any pointers or helpful advice or criticism at any time (I like to think I have tough skin). Artist's blogs have been so influential to me and my art that I decided to try to give back in the same way. Hopefully my artwork can inspire someone out there as I have been inspired by other artists.

First off let me say anyone who is serious about learning the true art of caricature you need to go to schoolism.com and sign up today for Jason Seiler's caricature class. It's amazing! I learned so much from that course and it built my confidence to a level that I never could have imagined. It's A LOT of work but worth every second you put into it. It is for that reason that I decided to post some of my work I did in the class.

Here is my sketch for the first assignment in the class. It is also my first digital sketch.

I'm almost ashamed to post this picture but I have grown a lot during the course

Here is my first painting and digital painting I've ever done. Jason provided a picture and sketch and we had to do a value study, in Photoshop, and paint over the sketch. Here's mine (this was our third assignment):



Here is a caricature I sketched from scratch and painted. This was the next assignment given to us in the class.



Here's my first attempt at a full color caricature. Ran out of time on this one and definitely need to spend more time on the color. Painting in color could be a course on its own.




Here is an assignment where we had to study the skull as we sketched. Pretty interesting.



The next couple pictures are the sketch and final illustration for the class. I chose to draw Tyler Perry.

Unfortunately I didn't finish painting this final drawing and it is still a WIP.

Here are some extra sketches I did while trying to decide what to do for a final illustration