NOT DOODLES: A Smorgasbord of Styles

One of the things I love most about being the senior staff illustrator for In Touch Ministries is the diversity of styles and techniques I get to use in my illustrations. As opposed to what many illustrators out there have to do as a necessity (it’s easier to market your skills if you have an identifiable style), I don’t feel the pressure to have a certain “look” to my work; I get to play around with different approaches, depending on what I feel a particular article calls for.

Cases in point being the two illustrations below. This first one is for a piece entitled “When a Gift Becomes a Given”. In the article, the author speaks of a certain modern art print, and how what had at first been a piece that made him stop and ponder every time he saw it eventually became something he didn’t even notice. I wanted to pull that modern art motif into the accompanying illustration (created using ArtRage):

This next one is for a piece entitled “Bringing Bethlehem Home”. A family starts a new Christmas tradition of trekking through the snow on Christmas night to visit a tiny manger scene set up in humble surroundings. I chose a crisp, clean approach to convey the cold night air, and a close-up of the Christ-child figurine in a small, mittened hand to capture the intimacy of the setting (done in Photoshop):

All art copyright ©In Touch Ministries. Used with permission.

NOT A DOODLE:’Nother Portrait, or Perfect Imperfections

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not implying my painting is perfect. In fact, I think that part of the joy of painting is knowing you will NEVER be perfect, but pursuing perfection anyway.

No, the title of this post refers to the beauty of watercolor washes. No crisp, clean lines. No smooth, solid fields of color. There are always blemishes. Always unpredictable interactions with the paper. Always imperfections.

And that makes it perfect.

(By the way, this one is for the March-April 2017 issue of In Touch magazine.)

Illustration is copyrighted ©In Touch Ministries. Used with permission.

CONCEPT DOODLE: Grumpy Griffin

Once upon a time, I was approached about creating a kid-friendly version of the mythic griffin to be used as a school’s mascot. Although it never got beyond the early discussion stage, I couldn’t resist whipping out a quick doodle on my own time.

Don’t know that this fella quite qualifies as kid-friendly. Unless by “kid-friendly” you mean he thinks they are delicious.

DOODLES:Mallard Mayhem and a Shnozz

So busy with work these days, the only doodle time I can get in is when I’m either in a non-work related meeting or waiting in my car to pick up my kids. Oh, the humanity!

MEETING DOODLE: Well, at least the frog is happy.

I don’t know why the lady’s so snarly. And you’d think a rooster playing a banjo would be happier than a pig in mud.

Oh well… at least skydiving seems to be a giddy occasion for our little amphibian friend.

PARKING LOT DOODLE: Stumpy

This time it’s my son I’m waiting to pick up from track practice. And this guy waddles up to my car.

Okay, maybe he didn’t waddle up to my car… but he DID pace back and forth in my brain while I drew him.

 

DOODLE PROJECT: What?- Page 10

I honestly have absolutely nothing to say about this one.

DOODLE PROJECT: What?- Page 9

A raging rabbit rapidly ran down Reginald.

DOODLE: Rutabaga!!!

Waiting for my daughter to get out of ballet practice, and I found an old Waffle House receipt. So, of course, I drew a wizard yelling “rutabaga!”.

DOODLE PROJECT: What?- Page 8