book project part 1-sketches

I have started working on a little educational book. This means I get to eat for another month. Peanut butter doesn't grow on trees, you know. So in celebration, I thought I would do some blog posts along the way to share my process.

(click to enlarge photos)
The first step is always setting down with the print out of the book pages, and making quick, little thumbnails of each page. This mostly gets me acquainted with what will appear on each page, and I take a rough stab at where things might go. This book has a tadpole as the main character and several other types of fish he meets along the way. Oh, that circled 21 on the page is when I counted up how many pages I was illustrating inside the book... it's NOT my IQ.

I now take another run at going through the book and making larger sketches. This time I work more on the composition and character designs as I go through it. I have found that I do a better job working small for some reason. When I try to draw full size, I get bogged down in the drawing and placement of things. It's much easier for me when I work small, so I made a template of pages that are about 1/2 actual size and made some copies of it to draw on.

This is the end of day two. I hope to have all pages drawn full size by the end of the week.

Isn't this exciting?

(yawn)... more TK.

Confined

If you don't want folks messing with your stuff, then you had better keep it CONFINED to a safe place.

This is an illustration I completed recently. I tried to loosen up a bit by drawing with a pencil (a REAL pencil) and then coloring it with a brush in Photoshop. I usually dump in color with the paint bucket, but on this one I used the old Wacom tablet and painted it in. I think it worked out OK.

hardware/softwear conflict

and after a brief struggle... BVDs win!

renewal

Jan 1, the first day of the new year! A day for renewal. Of course I resolve to do the same thing I resolved to do last year, which was draw more fun things and post them on this blog. No promises, but that is my hope for the new year.

This is my first drawing of 2010. I have thought that the Progressive girl, Flo would be a great character to draw. That retro look. That hair band. The eye liner. The lipstick. The tricked out name tag. So I drew up this Flo in my sketchbook... added a bit of white pencil, and here you go! My first post

Boxers or Briefs?

The next time you fly, be a pioneer! Be the first to board your plane wearing my patented Cargo Undies®. Cargo Undies® come with my break through pocket technology that allows you to take along bomb making materials AND a pocket full of tater tots, for those long international flights. No more fooling around with that pesky Duct Tape! And Cargo Undies® come in both Boxers and Briefs.

Call now, operators are standing by...

4th day of Christmas

four (4) calling birds... using iPhones, of course...

UNDONE

Christmas was almost UNDONE this year by the swine flu. But not to worry... all is OK.

A Merry Christmas to all!

3rd day of Christmas

and the third little french fry cried "Oui, Oui, Oui" all the way home...

two turtledoves

Ahhh... and just who wouldn't want a pair of turtledoves? They are the perfect Christmas gift! They crawl around on the ground, and then try to fly away only to find they can't fly very far and fall back to earth. It's hours of entertainment for all!

A partridge in a pear tree

OK... this is a stand in. The partridge went to Argentina for the holidays, and the pear tree was chopped down for firewood.

And so it goes...

HATCH

I HATCHed some dinos recently. I got a request to make five (5) little images of ANYTHING I wanted for the PackRat game played on Facebook. It is a game of finding and collecting images. The incubation period of hatching these dinos turned out to be a rather long one. The challenge was to make an image that is 64 pixels square. That is pretty small. My first idea was to do some dinosaurs. I have liked dinos ever since I was a little kid. So, while watching some bad TV shows in the evenings, I would sketch dinos and see if I could cram them into a tiny little squares.

Then... I started thinking that maybe birds would be easier to fit in a square. So I started drawing birds. I liked the birds, but on another day I started thinking about marine animals. That would be fun. This is what happens when anything goes. I had a three way tag team wrestling match going for a few days between all of these things. Finally, I came back to my original dinos idea. Dinos rule!

Here is my drawing board with some of the many pages of sketches I did while working on this project. Click on it to see it DINO sized.

Unbalanced

Some people think you have to be UNBALANCED to wear your hair like this guy.

Last week I ate in a trendy, happenin' restaurant in Nashville. I know it was a cool place by the look of the young people working there. One dude had a very thin, razor sharp mohawk. It was not this color, but it was very impressive. We were wondering what he would do if he had to wear a hairnet. With a hairstyle like that, he couldn't be an up and coming country music star. He couldn't wear the obligatory cowboy hat. I guess he will be stuck behind that counter for a bit longer.

Fast... NOT!

You don't have to be FAST to outrun zombies... just faster than the guy running with you.

Creature from the Black Lagoon

Click to enlarge either image

It's October? Already? Where has this year gone?

October makes me think of Halloween, and Halloween makes me think of costumes and monsters. When I was about Junior High age I was fascinated by the classic monsters from old movies. Such as Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolfman, the Mummy... and the Creature from the black Lagoon. I thought this being the month of Halloween and all, I would draw up some of my favorite monsters. First up is the Creature from the Black Lagoon... out walking his pet FLYING fish, Seymour.

Walk Like Groucho Day!

It's a GERM of an idea. Let's see if we can spread it around like Swine Flu... or H1N1 as they call it. Which really looks like Hiney flu, doesn't it? But I digress. This is Groucho's birthday and Richard Thompson is trying to make it the official "Walk Like Groucho" day. I suggest you go to Walmart and walk like Groucho down the tube sock aisle. No one will even notice you there. They are all busy wearing their Three Wolf Moon Shirts and combing their mullets.

(P.S. For a good time, read the reviews on Amazon for the Three Wolf Moon shirt.)

PATTERN

Not much has been happening here on JONESAPALOOZA lately, has it? It's high time to slap up some thing new! ...Let's DO IT!

I was drawing a chameleon the other day, and had the thought that I could work him into an Illustration Friday image. So... here you go. Meet Rufus, a chameleon who is having trouble finding the right PATTERN to use for blending into his surroundings.

This is pencil and Photoshop... click on the image to enlarge. I dare you.

Thanks for looking!

WELCOME

(click to enlarge)

I watched the amazing BOBBY CHIU paint a monster (actually several monsters) on his blog... and then just HAD to draw one myself. I grabbed a pencil and started drawing. Something fuzzy... with wings... and ears... and a tail. I haven't drawn with a pencil like this in a long time. It was fun. I usually use a mechanical pencil to sketch with. It is handy to just click to get more lead without a pencil sharpener... but I picked up a "Thoro Black" drawing pencil and it made such NICE lines! Sometimes just a simple change of tools or materials can cause you to have a different experience when you draw.

After I drew the monster, I thought I would add a WELCOME sign on the cloud. Since WELCOME is the IF word of the week. You just wouldn't believe how many clouds don't welcome flying monsters. It's a pity. : )

I scanned in the drawing and then had some fun playing around with layers and colors in Photoshop. I have a lot to learn there, but it is becoming more familiar to me all the time. So that's it. Go watch Bobby, grab a pencil, and draw a monster.

STRONG

Are you STRONG enough to hold up a door?

Kids... don't try this at home! This should only be attempted by a highly trained, professional door holding monster with a good insurance plan.

Caution

One should exercise CAUTION when attempting to belch the alphabet underwater! Kids... don't try this at home...

Wrapped

If you go out walking your pet, make sure the leash is WRAPPED around your hand, or the critter might run off!

This picture was inspired by the Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty blog. The idea is to find a drawing by one of the kids and then do it in your own style. The drawing that grabbed my attention first was great! There really wasn't much I had to do but draw it and WRAP my style around it. Cool monsters!

Here is what I worked from.

There is still time to participate in this fun challenge... if you are really FAST!

SHARKweek day5

pencil and Photoshop

Sometimes I see a flock of birds in a yard pecking around. They look like a little herd of cows out to pasture. And I wonder... what if birds were the size of cows?

Imagine walking along and having a cow sized bird land right in front of you. From out of nowhere. That sharp beak, those talons, the IMPATIENCE and jerky movements... I'd be scared. Really scared! The only thing worse than that would be flying sharks!

This is the last episode of SHARKweek for this year. Hope it was fun for all 12 of you who followed along for the week. I'm gonna take a nap now...keep an eye out for large birds or flying sharks for me, will you?...

SHARKweek day4

pencil and Photoshop (click to enlarge)

It's a struggle to keep SHARKweek going sometimes. Last night around 9 PM I was doodling up some ideas. Some were pretty good, but I just lacked the energy to do them. I was out of steam. (I am a steam-powered, steampunk artist) So I called it quits for the day.

This morning after a cup of java, I selected the easiest idea I had, and knocked this one out. Again, I am experimenting with Photoshop. I found a texture box to click on the brushes and also wet edges. I don't think any of that will actually show up on the screen, but I think it might if it was being printed.

Well, enough of this rambling. Only one more day of SHARKweek to go!

SHARKweek day3

pencil and Photoshop (click to enlarge)

SpongeBob Squarepants meets SpongeShark Mickeypants.

Around 8:30 last night I remembered that I needed another image for my ongoing SHARKweek here. So I started thinking about the name SpongeBob and playing around with it. I wanted to make it fit a shark somehow. I came up with SpongeShark and then tried to think of some other kind of pants to add to the name... and came up with Mickey pants. At 9:00 any idea is a good idea. : )

After I had drawn my shark, I thought the picture needed a little something else. Why not toss in SquareBob himself? I added him floating upside down and that was it. I had just started coloring it when a big thunderstorm blew into town and I had to shut down and unplug the computer.

This morning I finished it up and here you go! Dang... now I need another idea...

SHARKweek day2

Who I would MOST like to see eaten by a shark.

SHARKweek day1

Yes, once again it is SHARKweek here on Jonesapalooza! Taking my cue from the Discovery channel, I will try to bring you new and exciting sharky things each day this week.

Sometimes if you want to avoid being seen, you have to MODIFY your appearance. Like say, putting on a "happy face" mask. Then when your victim gets close enough, you say, "Have a nice day!" and gobble them up! Yes, nature is so cruel...

IDLE

an IDLE bunny? I think NOT!

Actually, there are NO idle little bunnies in my neighborhood. We have very LARGE rabbits that are not afraid of anything. They keep circling our garden looking at the buffet inside. They staged a break in by digging under the fence one day, so I had to place a few deterrent bricks to block their door. I may need to hire some border patrol police. Where ARE those garden gnomes when you need them? They are supposed to be watching the place.... goodgollybum...

Micron on Post-It note with Photoshop color.

HOLLOW

A floating cow? Sure, cows can float if they are HOLLOW... and full of methane gas. Or if they happen to be a Holy cow like this one.

This is a 24"x30" oil painting I did recently. It was a lot of fun to do. Now I'm wondering what do do with it. : )

Michael Jackson loves propane

I was going to title this post "Propane" but then thought that if I could tie it into the Michael Jackson mania, I might lure some unsuspecting Googlers to my blog. Anybody fall for it? ...Anybody?

I am easily entertained.

The propane tank on my grill was empty so I went to Home Depot to swap it out for a full one. I usually go inside, hunt down a helpful worker, pay for it, and then we go outside and do the exchange. This time as I was lugging my tank to the door I noticed that there was now a sign that said PROPANE SELF SERVE CENTER by the tanks. I touched the screen to begin, swiped my card, and indicated that I wanted to exchange my tank.

After a short pause... one of the doors on a long bank of bins popped open. I walked down to the empty bin, put my tank into it and shut the door. Then I walked back to the screen and waited a few seconds. I was just starting to think that with my luck, nothing will happen and I will have to go get an employee and try to convince them that I actually DID put in a tank, and didn't get one in return (being the optimist that I am) when all of a sudden another door popped open down the line. I walked down to it, pulled out the full tank, and closed the door. COOL!

I walked back to the screen, took my receipt and was off! It was so much fun I wanted to do it again! The only suggestion I would have is that it would be great to have Vanna White there to walk back and forth in front of the wall of bins and open up the right door for you. I can't wait till my tank is empty again and I can go back!

I am easily entertained.

SHAKY

I am drawing lots of monsters for a project right now. This morning I thought I would make a quick SHAKY coffee monster. This would fit in with the Illustration Friday word of the week and let me warm up drawing a monster. I was just going to add a bit of quick tone to my pencil sketch with Photoshop... but then I added a touch of color. I had to hold myself back... I wanted to keep on adding color! It's so much fun! But alas, I had to restrain myself (duct tape works well for this) so I can get on with making more monsters.

Thanks for stopping by!

WORN

SocMo has not WORN his orange "Back to the Future" vest in a long time.

I am about WORN out from drawing stuff this week. Why is it that you are seldom asked to draw the things that are fun for you... but you are always asked to draw the things that you struggle with? Oh, well... :0)

cat sketch

I got lots of encouraging comments on the cat painting I posted yesterday... SOooooo I thought I would post the doodle in my sketchbook that I made the painting from.

(un)FOLD

If you want to levitate, first you have to FOLD your legs. Then sit peacefully and meditate on something really fantastic... like say, Blue Bell Banana Pudding ice cream. You will notice that all your cares and worries just melt away, and you will be hovering gently above the ground. OMmmm.....

This is a little 9"X12" oil painting that I just finished. I like reducing animals to basic shapes and making a painting of them. This is the latest... wonder if something like this would sell somewhere?

(edit)
OOPS! I just noticed that the Illustration Friday word is UNfold... well that is what you have to do after you come back down. Unfold your legs... and go scoop out a bowl of ice cream.

CRAVING

I watched the CBS Sunday Morning program and saw a report about Tim Hortons. I had never heard of Tim Hortons. It seems he was an all star Toronto Maple Leaf hockey player that started making donuts in 1964, and now 45 years later has over 3,000 stores in Canada. They are thinking about expanding to the states now. As I watched the report, I had a CRAVING flung on me! Those donuts looked SO good!

If you are curious, you can see the website here. Feel free to send me a dozen if you want, I won't complain... and a cup of Tim Hortons coffee would be nice too... thanks! : )

SocMo likes to juggle donuts and eat them as they go by. Such a wackadoodle!

ADAPT

Sometimes you have to adapt something for a new purpose. For example, I made this little 8"x16" painting last week, and decided I wanted to share it with my Illustration Friday friends. All I had to do was adapt it to this weeks IF word, by writing something clever to go along with it. ...and Presto, here you go!

I had fun painting this. My original thought was to keep it mostly in the blue hues to make the orange dog pop out. But now I am thinking that the checkerboard ground area might be better in red and yellow... something bright to give it a little more pizazz. Too bad this is a painting and not a Photoshop piece were I could make the change with the click of a button.

Any thoughts about the colors, out there?

Hierarchy

In the HIERARCHY of things that prevent the Swine Flu, eating a pound of bacon each day is at the top of the list.

Impossibility

For most people, putting a square peg in a round hole is an IMPOSSIBILITY... but not for SocMo!

Once again, I am experimenting with Photoshop color while doing something for Illustration Friday. This time I scanned a pencil sketch and colored it with my old Wacom tablet. My first attempt at color didn't turn out very good, so I made another layer and tried again. No attempt was made to make this a finished, slick piece. It's pretty rough, but I got to mess around with some settings on brushes and tried a texture or two... which didn't make the cut. I think I kinda miss my usual heavy black line...

FLEETING

My patience is FLEETING when trying to learn a new trick on Photoshop. I was doing some character sketches to submit for approval and decided to try out a looser style in both line work and color. I found a tutorial online that showed how to add texture to the image. This is supposed to have a watercolor paper texture in it. I don't know that it will show up here. And not sure how it would show up in printing. I also experimented with brushes a bit, making the color less opaque so it builds up like watercolor. Anyway... it's all an experiment and kind of fun and different while it lasted... but time is FLEETING and I gotta run...

Subtract

SUBTRACT the ears and what have you got? A llama named Van Gogh...

I thought of this last night. I was watching the news and there was a story about a llama that has been running loose around here for a couple of years. Llama rhymes with Obama! Sounded like a good title for a children's book. So here you go... or Gogh.

Legendary

Well, I didn't think I would get an entry in to Illustration Friday this time... but today I woke up to find that it is St. Patrick's Day. I decided that leprechauns were LEGENDARY, the word of the week, so I dashed off this little fellow.

When I was a freshman in college, I lived in a dorm at an engineering school. Would you believe I was going to be an electrical engineer at that time in my life? What was I thinking?! Anyway, St. Patrick's Day was a big deal there. As a freshman, I was required (by my dorm association) to grow a beard and carry around a shillalah for a week or so, can't really remember how long we had to carry them now. They defined a shillalah as part of a tree that included some sort of root system. You saw guys hauling around everything from sticks to pretty big logs... all with some kind of root part on them. Some were painted, others were natural. I don't think they could go into the classrooms, had to park them outside. It's all pretty fuzzy now in my memory... since I went to school back in the Transistor Age. :0)

OOPS... didn't mean to get carried away strolling down memory lane here, I had forgotten all about these things until I started typing... gotta get back to work...

Top 'o the mornin' to ya!

Dancing G'pa

I have just wrapped up the illos for a little educational book. I worked through many spring-like days to meet the deadline. Now that it's done, it has turned cold and rainy... funny how that works...

INTRICATE

Doug Jones is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma... on a sesame seed bun... with a pickle.

How INTRICATE is that? :0)

BREEZY

SocMo likes to wear his beanie on BREEZY days!

***************************
SocMo has not been around lately. I thought I would dash out this quick idea for Illustration Friday before the week gets by me again.

INSTINCT

"My wife told me to pick up some milk... and I got a little something for me too!"

Several months ago, I entered a Costco cartoon contest. The rules were simple. Do something funny that is obviously taking place in a Costco store. I go to Costco all the time... and I draw cartoons... so I thought I would take a shot at it. My wife has a true story about seeing a friend of ours walking out of Costco one day with a gallon of milk and a huge flat screen TV. We thought this was a funny contrast, so I turned it into this cartoon. As is my habit, I put this off till the night before the contest ended. But I whipped this out and I think I sent it to the proper email address. I hope I did anyway. My INSTINCT told me that I was going to be the winner of a cool Costco gift card. But my instinct was wrong... very wrong... sigh...

So... what do you think? Is this cartoon funny? Is my Funny-O-Meter out of whack? Tell me what you think. One lucky comment, selected at random, will win a free Snugglie, a set of Ginsu steak knives and one of the failing US automakers (your choice)

TIME

So... did you hear about the TIME the preacher went to visit a man in the hospital? At one point the man scribbled a note and handed it to the preacher, who folded it up and stuck it in his pocket without reading it. Later at the man's funeral, the preacher thought it would be dramatic to read the man's last words he had written on the note. He pulled the note out of his pocket and read... "GET OFF MY OXYGEN HOSE!"