Recent Illustrations... (part one)

Some recent illustrations for Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine...

As Seen Through My Eyes...

I've decided to post some of my favourite recent twitter sketches to this blog too. From now on, I will post new sketches to both twitter and Meanderink, with the exception of the urban sketches (which always appear on my Flickr blog). Click for larger image.

Being Creative (SketchTime on iPad)

Writing (SketchTime on iPad)

Table (SketchTime on iPad)

Sleeping (Procreate on iPad)

Tweet Tweet!

These days I'm posting more and more sketches on Twitter that I make on my iPad using my favourite sketching apps (Procreate, Sketchtime and Art Set). Don't forget to check my Twitter feed for lots of new drawings!

Grow and Be Creative! More Twitter Sketches :)

Some more sketch tweets up on my Twitter sketchbook. Trying to stick to one every day...

Twitter Sketches, Sketch Time, and my Burgeoning Twitter Sketchbook...

In recent weeks, I've started using my Twitter account as my a personal digital sketchbook. What a great way to quickly spread the simple beauty of sketches in a way that echoes, in visual art, what Twitter itself does with words! Short and sweet... the sketch tweet! At the same time, I coincidentally stumbled upon SketchTime, an iPhone and iPad app by Hansol Huh. I had to get in touch with Hansol and thank him personally for finally creating an app that can keep up with how fast I draw, even on my iPhone 3GS! Since then, I've been posting sketches made on my iPhone using SketchTime directly to my Twitter account at the rate of about one a day... it's been great fun and I've met quite a few new people along the way! Personally, I can't tell you how happy I am that I can finally use my iPhone as a portable sketchbook, and tweet the results directly using iOS's native Twitter integration. Talk about not losing the moment! 

The potential is huge for sketchers using SketchTime. So far, I don't own an iPad so can't comment on the iPad version of SketchTime (however, today's rumoured iPad 3 announcement is less than half an hour away ... what a boon a retina display iPad with a suitably powerful processor would be to digital artists! Perhaps there's an iPad in my future yet ha ha :). I've also been updating my SketchZebra portrait site every Monday (as promised). This week's portrait is of a woman filmmaker I greatly admire, whose latest documentary won this year's Academy Award - check it out! 

And keep sketching :)

Dreaming

More fun with the Cintiq 21 UX and Painter. This is a quick drawing I made using my favourite brush of all for drawing in Painter: the "Dry Ink" brush in the "Calligraphy" brush category. This brush is my new best friend :) When I found it I started smiling right away (hint: when starting out with Painter just go crazy trying out all the different brushes - it's a blast!). These are EXACTLY the types of scraggly lines that I love to do. So much character in these types of lines... Also, this brush is relatively close in look and feel to the Pentel brush pen, which I use for all my urban sketches, which you can see on my twitter page. The variability of width is there, just like with a real brush pen, although the dry ink brush in Painter is a lot rougher and scragglier. I love this brush. And as you can see, you aren't limited to just using black either. All the colour in this drawing is laid down using various sizes of dry ink brush.

After it was done I threw on a thick canvas-like texture using the "Add Grain" brush in Painter's "Photo" brush category. This just lays the grain straight over whatever you've done. Neat effect.

In the Park...

A couple of days ago I spent a few hours in the local park observing the kids, the waiting parents, and nature... These are some sketches from that day. Enjoy!

I like this one because a) it's a rare instance when I use scratch-like dots and dashes around the figure... which I think works in this case to accentuate the crustiness of this ol' man, and b) the word balloon is literally crowding into his face. I like that too - works with the awkward physicality of this old man... who is kinda frail yet also tough, like a dry old tree trunk rising out of the black mess of ink that is the ground...

Hi - welcome to my blog! One of the main functions of this blog is to showcase my new sketches. I will post new sketches and drawings as often as I can, so please check back often...

Lately, I've been reading the excellent book Masters of American Comics (Yale University Press, 2005). It's the catalogue to an exhibit of the same name put on by the Hammer Museum and The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 2005... I remember reading about the exhibit in a magazine a few years ago, but somehow never got around to looking through the book itself (I live too far to see the actual exhibit!). It's a great blend of art and essays about art - John Carlin's comprehensive "Art History of Twentieth-Century American Comic Strips and Books" is particularly impressive. Anyway, I've been newly inspired by this dip into Winsor McCay, George Herriman, Will Eisner, Art Spiegelman and others to sketch a few comic-y stuff myself... enjoy!