Everyone a Princess

All my sister-in-laws made the claim growing up, along with my wife, that they sounded exactly like one of the Disney princesses when they sang. My daughters make similar claims now. This is another exercise in using existing color palettes--the exact colors that help us identify each of the characters here. Finding a balance between my sisters-in-law and the actual princesses was tricky, I tried to stay much more true to the princess style hand gestures to get the Disney princess look.

Self Portraits '94-'07

Looking through other art blogs, I found an artist who put together all of the self-portraits he'd put together over the years. I searched out all of the self-portraits that I had done and realized I'd completed more than I thought. The first four portraits were drawn in pencil or pen prior to me ever touching a computer to draw. The last two are explorations with the Wacom tablet.

Children's Book Illustration

One of 10 illustrations in a children's book all about getting rid of that monster underneath the bed. I wanted to play with textures and shapes layered on top of one another here and get them all to live in the space of this little kid's bedroom. Coming up with and executing the 10 illustrations was more or less like putting together a movable story on a felt board. I had a lot of fun using two dots for eyes and moving them around or skewing them to create the right emotion.

Go Jazz!

I always got into the team character drawings as a kid. Not sure I picked the best season to characterize the Jazz, but it made for a great desktop wallpaper this year on the Jazz website. I sketched everyone in my sketchbook--sometimes multiple times--after which I scanned the sketches into the computer and tied everything together by redrawing everything with the Wacom tablet. I wanted to leave this looking as if it were drawn with a ballpoint pen, maybe by some fan drawing this all on the inside of his personal pan pizza while sitting on the sidelines watching the Jazz play.

Pretty and Puckered

Based on the traditional mountain folk song of the Southern Appalatians, "Sourwood Mountain."

I composed this drawing right after performing this song with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I drew it in pieces in the sketchbook, put the pieces together in photoshop and redrew everything with the Wacom tablet. I love how adding the flare in the background alludes to the sunrise and how the light bounces off our Blue Eyed Daisy.

My little girl's a Blue Eyed Daisy, if I don't get her I'll go crazy...

Aloha!

Been working on this one ever since I began daily figure sketching. I'm somewhat satisfied with the sketch, but as shown I'm still pushing around the color.

Recording session sketches