Catching up on the pro side of things…

Lest you think all I ever do is doodle (and, granted, I do that A LOT), here are a few samples of my more recent illustration jobs. Sorry for the necessity of a watermark, but you know how dishonest and sneaky people out there in Webland can get.

Not YOU, of course, dear blog visitor… buuuut… other people.

It’s always other people.

Darn them.

 

Brain Flushing Doodle

 

Sometimes there is no meeting.

Sometimes, you just gotta flush your brain of random doodles before you can get to the real work of the day.

lunch bag lion

 

I know I’m a little late to the “lunch bag art” party, but for the past eight years my kids have used lunch boxes. Kind of hard to draw on those. But, last night, I finally got my chance. My daughter is going on a field trip to the zoo today, and they requested that the kids bring there lunches in bags that could be thrown away. So- voila!– lunch bag lion!

Red Astronauts, and Givin’ ’em what fer!

 

 

 

More meeting doodles! I would say I don’t find meetings productive, but that would be a lie. I find them VERY productive… just maybe not in the way the person who called the meeting intended.

Doodlized Sweetness

 

It is indeed a sad day when even a sweet gesture from a friend is not impervious to doodles. This envelope contained some details for a freelance job I did for my friend Anne, and it fell victim to doodlification during my son’s basketball practice.

FRAGMENT: Gyyyyyrrooooshcope!

Early on in this blog (almost five years ago, actually), I mentioned my love for the tantalizing fragments of comic books I sometimes encountered as a child. Since that post, and due to the blessing of having a full-time job that keeps me too busy to do more than fragments, I have often found it entertaining to create individual panels or pages that are intentionally teasing but nebulous in their nature and direction, just for the fun little rabbit trails they lead me down.

The above panel being a case in point.

Who is this mysterious “he” who donated the piece of technology?  And what is the problem plaguing our heroes? And why will a gyroscopic device help? And do we really want to put our trust in a pig-like being who has no idea what a gyroscope even is???

Your guess is as good as mine.

Just me and my geetar!

 

My latest for In Touch magazine. It will appear in the February 2013 issue.

Pen-and-ink with watercolor washes. I’m really enjoying this technique, and keep looking for other ways to use it.

Image is © In Touch Ministries.

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!

Open the floodgates!

Aaaggghhh!!! Doodle eruption!

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, seeing as how I haven’t posted in almost three months.

So here are some random samples from my latest harvest of id scrawls. Enjoy!

Oh, the lovely creatures that inhabit my cranial terrarium…

There’s a LOT of people in there….and some ain’t too happy.