Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Brom

I'm really jammed up with work (fortunately!) so I most likely won't be posting much this week. However, I thought I'd share a quick sketch I did the other evening of from my 'Legend of Sleepy Hollow' project (LoSH).

Brom Bones. This is just an initial idea and will most likely evolve over time.  I need to throw down more variations so I can see what else might be possible.

I'm really enjoying the craft paper sketchbook and my Cotman Compact Box. The off-white paper makes it possible to add highlights with guache or pencil, giving sketches a nice added pop. 

Talk to you soon!

'We are the music makers.'

Watched 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' the other evening. I remember watching it on TV as a kid in the 70's and being mesmerized by the whole thing. And a bit freaked out by the disturbing boat trip. Thought I would do my own version of Wonka.

I've been doing so much digital drawing these last several months that I've neglected my analog skills. Need to get back in the groove again. I just bought a craft paper sketchbook and I'm loving the medium color of the paper, making it easy to add shadows and highlights without much fuss. The hand isn't one of my best.

31 Days of Pumpkins: Howard

OK. You've probably noticed that this doesn't match the work found throughout my site. I've been working on a new style of illustrating based on my old analog, pen-and-ink-andwatercolor style I worked in many years ago. But this time it's all done in Photoshop. I wanted to see if I could pul this style off on a small piece. It's still a while off before I do any major work in this style but It's definitely nice to do something like this for a change.

Digital Watercolor Experiment

When I started out as as an illustrator (wow! in 1996...), I worked in watercolor and pen-and-ink and pencil. I was getting good work from magazines and design agencies as my portfolio grew.

But one thing that was slowly becoming obvious as time went one: the time/money balance wasn't working in my favor. It was taking much too long to deliver editorial work for clients' budgeted fees. That's when I eventually made the decision to make the move to digital.

The move to digital necessitated a change in style as I was working in Adobe Illustrator. Several of my existing clients were really flexible and welcomed the change and let me use their assignments as testing grounds for what would work and what wouldn't. My clients were gems!

As I've begun the process of working on the overall ideas for my Sleepy Hollow project, I know that my usual style of work is not going to create the atmosphere I want to invoke. There needs to be more subtlety. So I've been experimenting with ways to achieve my old watercolor/pen-and-ink look in digital format. And I think it's working!

Here's an incomplete sample:

Is it perfect? Nope. But this is the closest I've ever gotten in trying to mimic my old style of work.

This is all being done in Photoshop using a few custom brushes and textures. Why not use Corel Painter? Well, I've never used the program. And while I'm sure it would accomplish what I'm looking for, I simply know Photoshop MUCH better and I want to hit the ground running, not try to run up a steep learning curve.

As I work out some of the kinks, I'll post some more experiments.