Bride of Monsters Sketch Cards

Here are the last batch of the Prismacolor marker, monster sketch cards. Like the prior posts these were done using the same method of less detail more shape and tone. I found this style to be fun and fast but looking back at them a little over a week later, I kind of miss the detail work. The next batch of cards will be all watercolor and the subject is Nightmare Before Christmas. I started my next batch of cards that I'm currently working on are going to mix the watercolor with the markers.

I have also been working on oil painting these past couple of weeks. I'm really into painting right now and I just finished my first oil painting. One of my goals this year is to do a painting a week. I'm not quite up to that kind of speed but you have to start somewhere. The painting is too big for my scanner but as soon as I can take some good pictures of it I will post it.

On a side note, just finished a great book, "Inside the Business of Illustration". I heard about this book on the website http://www.escapefromillustrationisland.com (which is a most see site for any artist). Last month there was an article about most have books for illustrators and this was one of them. The book is mostly a dialogue between an art director and an illustrator. It looks at topics like style, ethics, promotion and the changing landscape of the illustration world. The book reads very quickly and offers some great insight.

Monster-A-Go-Go

Here is another round of monster sketch cards. Once again they are done in Prismacolor markers. I was trying to be very loose with these and just use the"fat" tip of the marker. I would block in the shapes of the shadows and would keep going over them to darken the shadows where needed. I think working with the markers is fun and fast, and I feel it works well for sketch cards.

With the start of the new year I decided to try some new things. First thing was to start an artist journal that should lead me to posting more often. So what should I start with? How about this first drawing here to the left, is a picture of Lon Chaney Sr from the movie London After Midnight. It is a 3.5" x 2.5" drawing done with Prismacolor markers. I used warm grays on the face and French gray for the background. I had a gift certificate from Christmas that I used to buy some markers so I thought I should put them to use.

Another thing that I did to start off the year was to set some goals: short and long term for my artwork. This was a new experience for me. After years of false starts or little artistic output, I've decided this is the year I really start ramping up my art career. The idea of being in a non creative job is draining me. So, how do I end this rut I'm in? The first step is for me to take myself and my art serious. Step two is just doing the artwork. So that is what I plan on doing.

One of my goals is to get into the sketch card buisness and that is where these three drawings came to be. All of them are mixtures of different gray Prismacolor markers. I will be trying different styles and medias on these cards in the coming weeks. So this week is bringing us some of the classic monsters. I am trying to use little line work and concentrate on value shapes.

I hope you enjoy this new direction for the blog and return for more. Along the way I will have some other stuff to talk about like books I'm reading or comics I enjoy. See you in a couple days!