Scribbles and Scribings

This week’s Illustration Friday topic is a tricky one for me — I was stumped for something metaphorical, and I haven’t drawn atmospheric effects in a while. Then I remembered this old image which I made a while back for a school project but never really felt happy with. Just add fog: Viola! It’s not perfect, but I think it helped give the picture the depth it was lacking before. Doesn’t do anything for the figures, unfortunately!  Click the image to enlarge it.

The character is from a story rattling around in my head. She’s slipped out in bits and pieces of prose over the years, one of these days she’ll escape entirely…
The drawing itself is from several years ago, when I was still developing my current method of coloring. It’s fascinating to me sometimes to look at how I used to structure my files.  It seems like every few years I change my tactics. I guess it’s partly an evolution of my method, and partly due to the relentless march of software upgrades. (I always seem to switch the way I organize my file archives every few years too… amazing how something that made perfect sense five years ago can seem silly now! )

Last weekend I attended the Illustration Conference in NYC. The whole weekend was exhausting, but a total blast! I met so many fellow illustrators from all over — from those just starting out to those who’ve been in the business for years, and those who are transitioning out of (and into) illustration to/from related fields. There was a fair amount of business talk and shop talk, but there was so much creative energy and talent on display  it was practically crackling through the air. I had the chance to share portfolios with some amazingly talented artists.

I came back home re-energized and full of ideas! Being a compulsive note-taker I did more writing and looking than sketching at the conference, but there are a few scribbles scattered around my notes.

I didn’t have a chance to participate in the big SketchCrawl that preceeded the main conference, but I heard so much about it, it’s an idea I’m definitely going to have to explore. The man who spearheads it, Enrico Casarosa, really hit the nail on the head when he talked about carrying your sketchbook everywhere but never taking it out of your bag.

The conference itself took place in a hotel in Manhatten, but I was crashing at my brothers’ apartment in Brooklyn. I found that the fastest way to make the train show up was to settle in for a really detailed sketch of my surroundings. But I managed to snag a few informal sketches along the way.

 Of course, as is the case after every conference I’ve ever been to, I’ve come down with a nasty head cold. This one totally snuck up on me Tuesday afternoon, when I thought I was “safe,” so I’ve barely had a chance to go through everything I brought back with me, much less e-mailing all the wonderful people I met… but I will! But not right now… this is the most I’ve been upright since the cold hit me and it’s time to lie down…

This week’s Illustration Friday topic was a tricky one! I tried to remember what it felt like to taste the most sour thing I’d ever tasted… click the image to enlarge!

Our little cat used to pounce the big cat all the time. It really confused him, he wasn’t sure what to make of this little monster almost half his size. These days it’s just as likely that he deliberately sits right in front of her twitching his tail like a lure to provoke a wrestling match which he is sure to win. I get far too much entertainment in the morning watching them face off like a pair of wrestlers, paws outstretched, each waiting for the other to make the first move. (Hint, it’s usually the little one!)

This is a super-quick scribble for this week’s Illustration Friday topic. I’m not very happy with it and wish I had something better to post right now (one of those times when I totally failed to capture the pencil sketch in the inks and need to redraw it) but there’s no time: I’m getting ready to go to ICON5 tomorrow! It was very last-minute, so I couldn’t get away from work in time for today’s sketchcrawl, but I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll have some better sketches to post when I get back!

Ever since we got our second cat, it seems like she always is the one to end up with all the toys… Just another quicky for this week’s Illustration Friday topic, click to enlarge.

The original drawing is fairly small, about 3-by-4 inches. Oddly, I was doodling my sketches when I realized I was drawing a “horde” instead of a “hoard” and I had to go back and check my e-mail to see which was right. But it gave me an idea for another drawing, which is part of the purpose, right?

So, for last week’s Illustration Friday topic I ended up posting a very lame cell-phone-camera photo of a slightly lame scribble. Well, here it all is a bit cleaned up and looking more like the thing that was in my head when I was drawing it. Click image to enlarge.

Nothing can quite erase the fact that it was a hasty ball-point ink drawing on a rather crumpled piece of paper, but in this case I think it adds to the charm… and the theme.

Ah, so many possibilities for this week’s Illustration Friday topic. Too bad I’m usually terrible at telling jokes, so I went for the classic standby of slapstick.  As usual, click to enlarge.

Yes, this week not only a brand new drawing, but with a background and color too! This one was pretty quick, for me. Gotta love simple patterns sometimes.

A very quick scribble for this week’s Illustration Friday topic, drawn with ballpoint on a scrap of paper I had in my purse while I was waiting for someone. Sorry about the really bad picture quality; the scanner’s not hooked up and I’d lent my camera to a friend for the weekend so all I had was the camera on my cell phone. I’ll repost a better image when I can!

UPDATE: I’ve uploaded a better version of this, you can find it here.

A relatively quick drawing for this week’s Illustration Friday topic: a baby elephant! Samson the baby elephant, as a matter of fact. Visitors to my blog may remember a previous subject was our zoo’s pregnant elephant Felix. Well, Felix is now a mommy, and Samson had his public debut a few weeks ago. He’s a real cutie! Click the picture to enlarge.

Pardon any poor image quality; I was a bit rushed so to accommodate a looser style I used paper larger than can fit in my scanner and had to do my best with a photograph. I suspect that one of my first major business purchases will have to be a larger scanner, it’s terribly inconvenient having to outsource that part of it. Unfortunately, decent scanners that can take 11×14 and bigger paper are rather expensive so it’ll have to wait a bit longer.

So, I feel a little bit cheesy about being absent for a month and then uploading another archive piece for this week’s Illustration Friday topic… and yet, that’s what I’m doing! This is just one panel from a short, 7-page story I wrote and illustrated a few years ago titled Feline Dreams. The drawing was particularly rushed in this panel but it definitely embodies “worry” to me — when I was drawing it I was really worried about finishing in time!

Here’s the full page this scene is from, click ‘em to see ‘em larger:

This is one of the series where I really hope my source files are hidden in my CD archives, because they didn’t make the move between my old computer and my current one… As part of my much-needed website redesign I’m planning on making space for this and a couple other more narrative projects I’d done about that time.

As for my long absence, let’s just say that two out-of-state conferences PLUS my big vacation for the summer PLUS coming down with a severe case of the traveler’s plague during the little time I was home this past month pretty much made posting impossible for me. Starting this week I’m getting back into my routine - new artwork next week if it kills me!