Turtle Jump

I doodled this guy in my sketchbook the other day.

And I decided to make him move.

How I Work

People ask me all the time, "How did you come up this?" when referring to my illustrations and other creative things.  It's sort of hard to explain because I don't always end up with what I started out to find.  The following is a demonstration in my stream of consciousness creative process.

The Assignment:  Tiffany needed me to make her some kind of notice board where she could post supplies she needs for her classroom this year.  Because I had done the rest of the room in monsters I figured that I should continue with the theme.  So I set out to create a "donations monster."

Here is the end result of my process:

Now let me walk you through it.  First I think, "the monster needs to hold lot's of little notes."

So, yeah, that's how I think.  I just follow ideas around until they take me somewhere.  If I work long enough I get something good.  This is how it turned out for Tiff's class:

I'm pleased with it.

Two Posts in One Day *Bonus*

Last Sunday in church we sat behind the bishop's family.  I started making faces at the kids.  The little girl started making faces back.  I made sillier faces.  She showed me how she can touch her tongue to her nose.  Then I started to sketch her (quick and messy like.)  The results:

That kid is dang cute.  (She wanted me to make sure that I drew the flower on her dress.)

Swamped

I've been crazy busy this week getting all the submissions for the Society of Illustrators 2010 Student Competition ready. It's taken a ton of time this week (and last week) but it should be worth it in the end. There should be at least a few winners from BYU this year.

I'm glad that headache is over.

Incidentally, this is about the only thing I had time to draw this week. The correlation is unintentional:

Oh, I also drew these:

Crayons at the Restaurant

So, the penguin on skis was my wife, Tiffany's idea. It came about one night when the two of us were on a date. We went to Macaroni Grill, which happens to be one of my favorite places to eat. It's not my favorite because of the food (though it is pretty good.) It's my favorite because of the crayons. Most restaurants will give you crayons if you ask and they might throw a kid's menu at you to draw on. But at Macaroni Grill they cover the entire table with white butcher paper. Woot!

So, a couple weeks back, whilst waiting for our food to be delivered to our table I asked Tiff what I should draw. She suggested a penguin. I asked what he should be doing. She suggested skiing. So I drew this:

And then, yes, when we left I tore a big chunk out of the table cloth and took it home with me to use as a rough draft. What? I bet it happens all the time.

New Semester = New Sketchbook

Actually it's my very last semester before I graduate from good ol' Brigham Young University. But fear not, it's not my last sketchbook.

I use my sketchbook for sketches (of course) and and also for taking notes. So, notes for a religion class often end up looking like this:

At least until I grow tired of taking notes altogether. Then it's just pictures of my professors. Like this:

And then my mind wanders and I end up with stuff like this:

I don't think I have a problem focussing. Do you?

Really Cheap Sketch Book

This might just be one of my favorite sketchbooks ever. It was made primarily from things I found in my home. Just corrugated cardboard, copy paper, glue, string and creative juices (sticky and yellow.)

The string wasn't found; I purchased it... and the hole punch. I found the rest.

This is the beginning.

This is the middle.

This is the end.

This is me actually holding the book in my very own hand (I'm in the print lab at school.) See the extra pieces of cardboard glued onto the cover? They are actually helping with the structural integrity of the book (and they look cool.)

Don't ask what this is about or who that guy is because I just don't know.

Moo.

A recent sketchbook page.  What, doesn't everybody draw cows with delusions of grandeur in their spare bits of time?  I can't be the only one.

This is fun.  No, seriously.  I've been doing so much boring digital color that I can't even describe to you the joy of pushing real paint around on a real piece of paper.

So.  Much.  Fun.

These are pretty small by the way.  Just a couple of inches on each side.  I glue them into my sketch book so I don't lose them.

Pig Flu Hates Me

So, Tiffany and I got very mucho sick last week.  All week.  We had an unhappy visit from this guy:

I'll spare you the gruesome details but let me say it was unpleasant.

Vandalism is Where It's At

I have some friends who have been using found objects as sketchbooks.  They will use anything from religious tracts to old journals as a drawing surface.  I was at my local secondhand shop the other day and I thought I would give it a try.  I purchased a reprint of a classic children's picture book called "MITTENS."  I took it home and quickly proceeded to vandalize the front cover.  I cut out chunks of binder's board and ended up with this.

The inside cover and endpaper.

The whole thing is full of illustrations like this little beauty here.  I can't wait to scribble all over the inside of this thing.  I'll be sure to post the results in a few weeks.

Hey, I Got the Job (see last post)

So that's pretty cool.  I think you will be seeing a lot of 1st-grade bilingual reader illustrations coming up here soon.  

In the mean time I did this.  It's a sketch of the two main characters for a picture book I'm working on.  For some reason the dinosaur is orange.  I think he needs to be orange.

100 Picture Challenge, Day 11: Memory

There is nothing quite like a game of Memory (or Candyland or Hi Ho Cherrie Oh, etc.) with an opponent under the age of 7.  They will win 95% of the time.  I think there is a hidden clause in the rules somewhere that assures the happiness of small children.

Will Terry is a Cool Dude

And he has a cool name.

So this guy named Will Terry came in to one of my classes to do a painting demo the other day. The demo was great and as it turns out Will is really cool too.

You can check out his work here.

You can see the demo that he did here.

Anyhow, I sketched Will during the demo. You can find that below.


I love making new art friends.