Day 6 of 31 Day Challenge #RottyHalloween

I've challenged myself to draw something for Halloween every day in October, and The Rots' Facebook followers are holding me to it (I hope).

I drew a few pumpkins this time. I'll have to give them some color eventually, but for now, they're all graphite.

Day 5 of 31 Day Challenge #RottyHalloween

I've challenged myself to draw something for Halloween every day in October, and The Rots' Facebook followers are holding me to it (I hope).

My new version of Nosferatu. I drew it in ASKetch again, but this one turned out so much better than yesterday's. I took a little extra time before I started drawing to read through how to use the tools (duh).

Very, very easy app to learn, and I'm satisfied with the results. The only thing I would want to add is layers. I like to experiment as I go and duplicating the image to experiment on a new version doesn't really work the way adding layers does for me. I know the app is primarily for sketching an idea so, really, no complaints about the results. The charcoalish strokes are just so beautiful, you want it to be a final!

Day 4 of 31 Day Challenge #RottyHalloween

I've challenged myself to draw something for Halloween every day in October, and The Rots' Facebook followers are holding me to it (I hope).

For Day 4, I thought I would draw Nosferatu, mostly because I had never done that before. I also wanted to draw it on my iPad in ASKetch, partly to practice with the app, but also so I could work on it while I was on breaks at work.

I didn't get a whole lot of break time, and I struggled a little with the app today for some reason, so he looks very unfinished to me. I'm thinking on digging into the Help files of the app and maybe work on another version of him tomorrow. If not him, then something else in the app. I just feel like there's something I need to finish.

Day 3 of 31 Day Challenge #RottyHalloween

I've challenged myself to draw something for Halloween every day in October, and The Rots' Facebook followers are holding me to it (I hope).

Day 3 kind of made me feel a little naked. When you draw in your sketchbook, it's supposed to be just for you. A place to experiment and let your guard down, knowing nobody else is going to see it and form an opinion.

Here's what I drew in my Moleskine, and it isn't the best thing I've ever done. I drew it with a Pilot Precise V5 marker, so there was no erasing when it wasn't going the way I had planned. But I promised a sketch every day, and this is what happened.

So, yeah. A little naked.

Day 1 of 31 Day Challenge #RottyHalloween

I've challenged myself to draw something for Halloween every day in October, and The Rots' Facebook followers are holding me to it (I hope).

Here's Day 1.

Today was just a sketch but, depending on how things work out, I'm hoping other days can be something more finished.

That, and I'm hoping I can come up with 31 subjects for Halloween.

ArtBox Project for @PghCityPaper

A friend (I suppose I can still call her that) from work told me that the Pittsburgh City Paper ArtBox Project just "screamed" for me to paint some Rots.

So I sketched, and I entered.

And then they went and picked me to paint one of their boxes.

I guess now I have to paint it.

Here's the sketch I did for what might be considered the "back" of the box. It's the side opposite where you open the door to take out a paper. It's also the side that will be facing the street.

The box will be Andy Warhol themed (in case you didn't know, he was a native Pittsburgher) with his mylar cloud balloons on the top and front and the City Paper logo painted repeatedly down the sides.

Working hard on my 15 minutes...

Have a heart

Working on an image for Valentine's Day. Here's the sketch I came up with.

Find your beach

Here's my sketch for Christmas this year. Nothing fancy. Just Kris and the little ones taking a well-deserved day off. With Coronas. 

Vampire Bats

Scanned directly from my sketchbook, here's a page of bats to celebrate Halloween. I started the page with the idea that I was going to fill the whole thing with bats. I wanted to push myself to come up with as many ideas as I could because I tend to start sketching and get lazy about it way too soon. As you can see, the first ones I drew at the top of the page are nowhere near as good as the ones that showed up on the bottom. (Click the image to see it biggie-sized.)

I'm working on painting a few of these little guys on my iPad. I found a fun new app called Auryn Ink that paints like watercolor. It even has a tilt function that, if you tilt your iPad, it makes the pigment collect in the direction you're tilting. I'm playing around with it to use as the background.

The next page in my sketchbook is all about pumpkins. I've noticed in recent years that pumpkin nummies are a whole lot more numerous than when I was growing up. Pumpkin gobs. Pumpkin cake. Pumpkin muffins. Pumpkin donuts. Pumpkin Spice Latte. Pumpkin soup. Pumpkin rolls. I think all we had when I was little was pumpkin pie. It's too bad this only lasts about two months out of the year. I haven't found a pumpkin nummy yet that I didn't like.

Sketchbook Project Limited Edition #sketchbookproject

Alright. Now I did it. I went and signed up for another Sketchbook Project, this time the Limited Edition version.

I'm such a sucker.

But I have a plan: I'm planning on filling it with Square Kats that I would like to eventually paint and include in a calendar (or two). So really, it will be totally useful in the future.

For the actual Sketchbook Project sketchbook, I've decided to use some of my new Pitt Artist pens. Well, some of them are new just because I haven't used them yet (although I bought them to try out almost a year and a half ago), and the rest of them are so new I haven't received the order I placed for them in the mail yet.

If you're not familiar with the Sketchbook Project, here's a rundown:

1. I order a sketchbook from the Art House Co-op and pick a "theme" (my theme is Pictures and descriptions)
2. They send a sketchbook specifically for me, with a bar code on the back identifying me and my sketchbook
3. I draw in said sketchbook (this seems to be the part that's taking the longest)
4. I send the sketchbook back to the Art House Co-op (in Brooklyn, NY)
5. They scan all the pages of my sketchbook and include them in their digital library and post them on their site
6. The sketchbooks are cataloged as a permanent fixture of the Brooklyn Art Library, available for patrons around the world to enjoy (hopefully)
7. Every time someone "checks out" my sketchbook it will be logged through the bar code on the back, and I will receive an email that it was checked out
8. At least one full spread from my sketchbook will be included in a series of art books along with other Sketchbook Project sketchbook pages from other artists
9. That's it

They limited the number of sketchbooks for this project to 5,000, and all 5,000 sketchbooks have been grabbed up.

I'm thinking I must be crazy, for a couple of reasons (not the regular reasons this time). First, do I really think I have time for another Sketchbook Project? Not really, but the lure of getting my illustrations in a book was too much to pass up. And second, those Pitt Artist Pens aren't the cheapest things in the world. And I went and bought a crapload. But they were on sale. With free shipping if I spent enough money.

Yeah, I must be crazy.

Cupid Square Kat in the making

I decided it was about time I followed up on the holiday Square Kat thing I started last Halloween and, of course, the next holiday coming up will be Valentine's Day. So here he is, my Valentine's Day Square Cat Cupid.

I'm noticing that my Square Kats seem to be following a pattern of being a little stabby. Hopefully they'll grow out of it.

Square Kats

I started playing around with some ideas for kitty kats, and these little guys were totally ready to slink out the end of my pencil. They were easy for me to love right away, which isn't easy for me to do. I'm usually pretty critical of my initial sketches for a project.

Here's the sketch of all the kats in a row:

The first thing I could see them on was across the chest of a t-shirt. Your grandma's. Wouldn't she look cute in that? In a Rotty Kat t-shirt? I wonder if she would notice they were Rots.

I'm thinking of all kinds of katty variations: on t-shirts without a background; on note cards with a background; a single kat on the back of an iPad case. Depending on how they turn out in color, I'm thinking these kitties could be exploited for quite a long time.

They're already ticked, so why not?

Somebody else's sketchbook book

Gris Grimly (one of my favorite illustrators) decided to publish a book totally full of sketches he's made over a 13-year period. (Which 13-year period, I really don't know.) It's called Gris Grimly's Atrum Secretum: 13 Years of Hidden Truths, and will be available on Amazon October 1.

The book is beautiful, inspiring and discouraging all at once. Some of what he considers sketches I wouldn't be able to do on my best day. They make me want to do better at the same time they're punching me in the face and screaming there's really no hope.

Except for a title page, one end page explaining about the book, and copyright info just inside the end paper, the book is all about the sketches. The only text in the book was written when the sketches were drawn, so pages aren't filled with insight and analysis or whatever filler usually invades books like this.
 

I bought my copy directly from Gris, so mine is a little different than the one available on Amazon. (Mine looks like the one above.) In mine, he drew an original sketch on one of the pages before he sent it out (image to the right) and included a signed and numbered sketch coupon "certificate" to authenticate the drawing as original.

Vincent in the sketch phase

To celebrate the upcoming 100th birthday of Vincent Price, I decided to Rot him. Here's the initial sketch, final color version in the works.

Happy Birthday, Vincent. Thank you for scaring the living bejesus out of me when I was young and vulnerable.

New sketch for Afrikan Beasties series

"Camul"

Rotty Edgar Allan Poe

I sketched up a little Poe that I'm not sure yet how to finish. I could paint him in Painter for the anniversary of his death in October. Or, I have a birch board that is square and has been really hard to make a good composition on because of its squareness and, as it turns out, Edgar happens to be square...and his birthday isn't until January...Decisions, decisions.

New Rotty Orangatang sketch

Here's the sketch for my latest painting in The Rots' Afrikan Beasties series (Working title. Don't get too caught up in it.). He's "Orangatang," but that title is up for grabs, too.

Elefant sketch

Finally got one.

After many (many) attempts, here's the preliminary sketch for "Elefant." Still not totally convinced he looks Rotty enough, but he's the best I seem to be able to do. I'll be painting him on wood like Jeeraffe and Zebrah.

So there you go.