This is a recent commission I liked, and I thought I’d share it here. I had a blast drawing it in more of an illustrative cartoony, almost “MAD” style, with a few in-jokes, or “Chicken Fat” thrown in for good measure. I’d like to do more like this in the future. When I revamp my studio website, this style will be well represented there, I think. I’ve already done another piece like this since  finishing this one, that I’ll try to get around to showing here soon.

The subject of this caricature is a friend of mine, Floyd Scholz. It was commissioned by a mutual friend as a gift for Floyd. Being friends with Floyd, I know a few things about him, and I also know his personality ( he’s a really great, friendly guy ), so that made doing this caricature even easier and more fun.

Now, Floyd stays busy with this… his waiting list is a couple of years long at this point. Oh, and the price tag for something like that large Eagle above? How about A HALF MILLION DOLLARS?  Yep. You read that correctly.

I’m obviously in the wrong business.

I am determined to learn to draw on the iPad just as well as I draw with any other “tool”. So, to practice, I drew this  in the Art Studio app for this month’s Toon Challenge over on FaceBook. You haven’t joined the group yet, what are ya waiting for? Lots of talented artists, professional and beginners.

Typical of me on vacation, I can’t NOT draw. I have to, At least a little bit. But I get to draw what I WANT to, not what a client wants me to. Now that is a vacation to me! On our trip this week to West Palm Beach, in between our naps ( 😀 ) and trips to the pool and beach, I decided I would really put Sketchbook Pro on my iPad through it’s paces. In fact, my iPad was the only drawing materials i brought with me. Therefore I decided to see Exactly HOW good could I draw on the iPad, with fairly unlimited time. My goal was to produce a piece that was of similar quality to what I can do on the Cintiq. Again, this was completely in Sketchbook Pro. I like drawing in this app best, but it does bug me a bit, with how difficult it is to change the brush size and the opacity. The ArtStudio app makes those changes easier. So, that’s my next task… I am going to color this piece in that app as well, to see which I like best. Stay Tooned….

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Been out of the country for the last week, but I’m back now! Here’s another of the safety posters I drew recently. Again, a Vector illo.

-I bought the Dexter’s Lab DVD for myself for Christmas…. Oh, I mean for my DAUGHTERS… Yeah, that’s it…. And I am thoroughly enjoying watching it. There was something about this era of Cartoon Network that was and IS so inspiring . I used to watch Dexters Lab, Power Puff Girls, and Johnny Bravo on “Cartoon Cartoon Fridays” with my oldest daughter back when she was a baby. To this day I cant watch these shows without being inspired. I HAVE to grab a pencil and sketchbook. Or in this case, the iPad…..

BTW, sorry about the low-rez image here. I drew it kind of small on the iPad, I guess.

Here’s the Black and White Layer of just the Monster, from the safety poster I shared a few days ago. I like seeing the different stages of illos sometimes, so I thought you guys might as well….

Yes, I do still draw “old school”, with pen and paper, sometimes. Just drew live caricatures at a huge event at Disney last night, actually. But drawing on the iPad and then being able to post to my blog instantly with BlogPost, the app I use for blogging, is just SO easy compared to scanning in paper drawings, that you’re probably going to see more and more iPad toons from me here. I am still working on an iPad tutorial, about how I draw on it in ArtStudio, but it’s taking more time than I thought to do it correctly.

Until then, here’s another cartoon sketch from a live iPad gig a few weeks ago. I really like how I am able to “cut into” the black when I am done, to pull out white lines and highlights. I learned from Hank Ketcham’s work that black with white in it is more visually interesting than solid black.

…. Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

This illo was for a great client I did work for a few months ago. A series of safety posters that they blew up into banners. To keep the resolution good for them when they enlarged the images, I had to draw everything in Adobe Illustrator, making them Vector images. Aggh. I haven’t worked in Illustrator much , so the images took me a lot longer than expected. But the cool thing was the client basically gave me free rein on these. I used a more cartoony style than most people ask me for, but it’s the style that I really PREFER to work in. This client loved it. Hopefully more clients will let me do this in the future.

BTW… I did have 40s cartoonist Dick Briefer’s great, toony looking Frankenstein Monster in mind when I did the face here. And I don’t know if it’s evident in the final, but I was kind of thinking of parts of the outfit of Marvel’s Frankenstein comics from the 70s…..