Row, row, row your… AAAAAGH!!! ELEPHANT IN A KAYAK!!!!

 

Got commissioned recently to do this mascot illustration for the Crimson Kayaker blog. Then I started thinking, “Dang. How big would a kayak have to be for an elephant to fit in it?” I’m thinking that sucker would have to be a converted 35-foot cabin cruiser. And the blades on the paddle would be the size of dinner tables.

But, then again, I have been known to overthink things sometimes.

First Rule of Doodle Club is: There are no rules!

Over the course of this blog, I’ve had a fairly steady stream of emails asking what my approach to doodling/sketching is, and if I had any tips. My answers have varied, depending on the specifics of the question, but my general response has always been pretty much the same. I received another such email yesterday, and figured I’d go ahead and post my response so that anybody else who might be curious could read it.

   As far as tips for sketching, I’d have to say the first thing is let yourself just relax and have fun with it. Take more of a flow of consciousness kind of approach. If you happen to hit upon an idea you want to take further, that’s great. Do that on a second piece. (I’ve actually had doodles that turned into paintings and published illustrations.) But don’t let that be the goal of sketching or doodling.

   I guess the difference, for me at least, between doodling and drawing a finished illustration is like the difference between running around in the backyard with my kids and running a marathon. They both use the same set of muscles, just with vastly different goals in mind.

   If you’re still struggling with wanting to overthink a sketch, another thing you can do is the timed sketch. Give yourself a VERY short time limit (60-90 seconds) and turn yourself loose on an idea. But- and here’s the hard part- when that time is up, THAT’S IT. No more drawing on that sketch. None. Nada. Zilch. Zippo. Don’t even go back later and tighten up or erase anything.

In addition to the points I made in this reply, I’d add one more: use different tools. Don’t always feel like you can only doodle or sketch on a certain paper using only a particular pen or pencil. Try a wide variety of surfaces and media. Use crayons on a napkin, or colored pencils on an envelope, or Sharpies on an old shoebox. Whatever. Just don’t stifle your creativity by setting any strict parameters on something that is supposed to be a fun pastime. You might be surprised at the new possibilities or favorites you discover.

Hope this was helpful. Happy doodling, everybody!

Half-done Happy Man!

Didn’t quite finish Mister Happy Hat Guy here, but it was on an envelope, and I ran out of time. Sorry for the poor quality…. it’s a photo, not a scan. Once again, ballpoint pen.

Hey, that rhymes….

Surely you jester!

 

This is an illustration for the May 2012 issue of In Touch magazine. It was done in black, blue, and red ballpoint pen in about an hour. Here’s a zoomed detail:

 

Image is copyrighted property of In Touch Ministries.

Ah, pudding…

The face came first. Then the body. And I knew, given the facial expression he was making, he had to be deep in thought about something that enthralled him. And what’s more enthralling than pudding?

Dribbling Dorsal Fins, Batman!!!!

This is my son’s fifth year of basketball, and his team this time around is the Sharks. So I whipped up a mascot logo for them, doing the rough sketch in Photoshop first…

…and then working up the tight final art in Illustrator. Voila!

Jacked-Up-Lantern

Prayerful Living

One of my most recent pieces for In Touch magazine. It’s part of a series of illustrations I did for a section about the power of prayer. I did the hand drawn elements on my Wacom ad in Photoshop, and then added like a billion or so layers of different textures and color.

In the Presence of Enemies

Here’s my latest piece for In Touch magazine. The article is about the martyrdom of Stephen. Rather than show Stephen himself, or the angry crowd that stoned him to death, we felt it would have more impact to just show a single hand clutching a rock.

The piece was done in watercolor on illustration board. Below is a detail of the piece.

Crosshatchapalooza

Got to do a pen-and-ink of Toccoa Falls for the college located there. The place is absolutely beautiful. It was fun trying to capture the feel of the falls and the spray in black and white crosshatching.