Robot Cowboys

 This week’s Illustration Friday topic is “Robot,” so, what better (easier) way for me to break my woeful drought of non-posting than post up a few Robot cowboy sketches I have going in my “Paper” app on my iPad. Like I am sure I have posted before, I love the intuitive and spontaneous way I can draw-- with color in Paper. I also love the loose, watercolor and ink style it provides. I always challenge myself to just go for it, work quickly and directly without thinking too too much. It’s fun to see what lurks in your surface- subconscious! It’s also easy to organize my sketches by subject in individual virtual sketchbooks, so I don’t have to think too long about how to file them. Also, it’s easy to move them around to different sketchbooks, or even duplicate drawings to work in a different or experimental direction. Looks like a new competitor is in town though,
(cue the woo woo wooooo) Western movie gunfight soundtrack. It’s called “flipink” and, even though at first sight it seems to be an unabashed ripoff of “Paper,” it does offer a few things Paper does not, like opacity sliders for most every tool, including the ink pen. I have not quite put it through the full ringer of tests yet, but, look forward to trying it out further.

ReFresh it up

Wow, the importance of getting enough sleep is never more apparent than when you aren't getting enough. Sometimes I wish I was like that little battery. Just plug me in overnight and I'm juiced and ready for the next day! “Refresh” for Illustration Friday. Dang. I just realized that it's STILL Friday. It's been a while since I actually did the I.F. on F. T.G.I.F! O.M.G! P.D.Q! A.S.A.P! L.O.L! B.F.D!

Space... The final....

I haven't used Adobe Ideas on my iPad for a while, so, I thought I'd try it out with whatever came to mind. Hope it leaves alot of "frontier" for the imagination.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Faded

Ah, back in the day. The jeans could'nt get more faded. Or maybe they could.

Duuuuuude.

Vocal

“Vocal” for this week’s Illustration Friday. Don’t get me wrong, I like to yell a bit at my spectator sporting events of choice, however, some sports just don’t seem to lend themselves to loud outbursts, in my humble opinion. Take for instance golf. Now, although, I or one of my golfing buddies may scream bloody murder at a missed (or made) shot while on the local public course, I find it a bit odd that certain spectators at professional events like to yell after (and sometimes during) the swing of every player that passes thru.
(Or that they choose to “stalk” thru the round.) Note to screamers: If a professional golfer is on the PGA tour, they already KNOW they’re the “man.”
BTW. Congrats to an amazing victory at The Masters this week for regional area favorite, Bubba Watson. Hmmm. I should do a caricature of him. It's been a while since I posted one.

Return

Not sure where this idea came from. Turned out a bit more “editorial,” than intended. Matter of fact, I hadn't intended it to be editorial at all. I actually gave momma bird-of-prey a bit of a tiny smile, albeit, smirk, because she looked too off-put with the original downturn of the corner of her beak-mouth. Looked way too gloomy. Like I said, I don't know from whence this idea cometh, because I maybe eat at said represented gastro-establishment once a year, max, if that. Anyway, interpret to your hearts content! Let me know what you think. Onward and upwards, french fry eatin' birds o' prey!

Flood-ed, or, er, swamped

A little revenge for the ducks I guess. This is the first thing that came to mind for “Flood-ed, or, er, swamped” for my Illustration Friday entry this week. Not sure where it comes from as usual, but, I think that’s a good thing. The subconscious is much more interesting and possibly revealing than the expected, or obvious, first conscious, literal idea. One of my biggest motivations for keeping a blog, as a professional illustrator and designer, is that I always have an outlet for pure creative freedom. I created this fairly quickly on my iPad 2 using Adobe Ideas (the latest version with the eyedropper tool, yay! finally!) then, took into Photoshop on my mac for quick finishing.

Silent...

But deadly funny. If you haven't seen any Charlie Chaplin lately, give yourself a quiet, but, silently loud kick in the pants and give 'em a watch. Illustration Friday.

Scary

Scary is the theme for this week's Illustration Friday. Had to get this done, of course, TODAY. Deadlines are deadlines and today is Halloween, so, it had to be today! Trick or Treat!

Fuel

This week's “Illustration Friday” topic is "Fuel", suggested by Mags (http://www.oreillyink.com/). "Contentment consist not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire." ~ Thomas Fuller

Created on my iPad with “Procreate” app.

Contraption

Boy oh boy, wish I wasn't soo busy this week, but, at least I finished this the best I could under the circumstances. “Contraption” for this week’s Illustration Friday!

Mesmerizing, or should it be “Mesmer-EYE-zing...”

This week's Illustration Friday entry is “mesmerizing.” Not sure why I thought of an owl right away, but, it has to be the big, engaging eyes. Makes me think of some hypnotic soundtrack playing softly in the background. My eyelids are slowly getting heavier. Heavier.... Sleeeeppy.....Sleeeeeeeepy....
I'm falling aslllllllleeeeeeee....... Nevermind. Or it reminds me of that owl from the old “Tootsie Pop” animated tv ad. How many bites does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? One.... Two..... CRUNCH.... Tha-reeeeeee.

"The beginner lesson"

Combining two themes again! Oh well, I just didn't get this to where wanted soon enough to stand for "lesson," so, it works fine for the both. Ole' sasquatch isn't quite the ruffian brute we thought, now is he? Hope you like it. Happy Mother's Day moms!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Bar-B-Q Bike?

"Bicycle" is this week's Illustration Friday theme. And since I've wanted to contribute to the Guy Francis and Stacy Curtis' "Banjo Pig" blog for quite a while now, I decide to kill two pigs with one bicycle. I mean two birds with one... never mind. http://banjopigs.blogspot.com/

Still trying to experiment with Brushes and other painting apps on the iPad. This was almost entirely created with Brushes.
I am tending to prefer Brushes mainly for its ability to "re-create" the file on my computer at much higher resolution using their companion app "Brushes Viewer."

(Thanks to the guys at Banjo Pigs: http://banjopigs.blogspot.com for posting on their blog!)

First iPad Brushes painting

I figured out how to post this, so, here ya go.
This is my first iPad painting using the "brushes" app.
I like the progressive build animation, as a whole, better than the final still image. A cool feature of brushes. Wasn't thinking of anything or anyone specific, though, he does look Asian, then becomes Norwegian, and then perhaps Dutch, aging all the while.

Swirl

OK, so I remembered this week's Illustration Friday topic incorrectly. It was supposed to be "Stir," and I remembered it as "Swirl." Well, at least I got around to doing SOMETHING. A last gasp for Ole' Man Winter. It IS Spring after all. I HAVE already had an "Oh, good thing I went around changing all the clocks in the house yet still found a way to be late to an appointment because the ONE clock I did not set to SPRING forward was the one I ACTUALLY LOOK AT ALL DAY" moment. Oh well, tomorrow's St. Pattys. We'll ALL be swirlin' then by golly. "Once you reach the summit, you can see the land of banana splits, and chocolate parfaits."

Warning Will Rogers

Some universal signs are subtle. Some, not so subtle. Illustration Friday's theme this week is “Warning.“ Red Sky at Night, Sailor's Delight, Red Sky in Morn, Sailors Better
Watch their Backside or else they may end up in one of those Huge Whirlpools in the Middle of the Sea like you used to see in Old Movies. Or something like that...

Layers upon Layers

Nowadays, with the digital medium being fairly de-facto in an artist's toolbox, I am not surprised that the actual first thing to come to mind for this week's Illustration Friday subject was something having to do with a multi layered illustration in Photoshop or Illustrator. Thank goodness that's not the avenue I pursued. Ahh, the delicate layers of a young vegetable. Sometimes so sensitive as to shed an equally delicate tear.
(And, of course, the young fruit, Tom Ato, is first to notice.)

“Shorn” his bitter side....

Darn if we don't give enough props to all those poor sheep who give generously of their wool every Winter. I can’t imagine what it might be like during the record setting Winter our country has had this year for those poor little quadrapeds all shorn from their coats. Oh, wait, of course I can imagine what it would be like.
My sketchbook entry for this week’s Illustration Friday subject: “Sweater.”
PS. To all those Scottish readers: don’t think I don’t know that sheep are usually shorn in the Spring, after the Winter. That just didn’t fit in too well with my imagination.

Reversery

So in a hurry was I to get out this week's Illustration Friday entry, I combined my "line" layer in ps with my "sketch" layer. Ooops. I hope it's not noticeable in the final version. Don't think it tiz. Since I was almost two weeks behind (again,) I almost combined the one before (surrender) with this week's "reverse." But, somehow I cam up with a "push-me-pull-you" riding a skateboard. The second sketch
I worked on, I used the new Sharpie brand "liquid pencil." Not sure I like it that much so, far. It smeared the gunky stuff on my hands, and although, it erased even easier than a pencil from my paper, it wasn't so forgiving on my table and hand. Strange. Oh well, another in my huge pen collection.