A doodle with a Pilot Hi-TecpointV7 black pen, colored with my computer.

My wife brought home a Pilot Hi-TecpointV7 fine point black pen the other day and I snagged it. I really like this pen and have just been doodling with it a bit.
This a hastily drawn self portrait of sorts. All of the line work was done with the Hi-TecpointV7 pen.
I was picturing myself as a dinosaur. I just had another birthday yesterday.

I was so surprised there was so much interest in this post that I am adding the original doodle. I would not call it a sketch, just a quick scribble as so much of my stuff is. Just an idea really. :)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to all. And for me it's Merry Christmas. Good Cheer to all!

A Sketch on Aquabee Bogus Recycled Paper

The materials used for this sketch were a blue Col-Erase pencil, Pilot Hi-Techpoint pen, a Sharpie white paint pen and a white colored pencil..

I sketched it out with the blue Col-Erase pencil then went over the lines I wanted to keep with the pen. When I was finished I used Gimp to filter out the blue pencil. Most of the blue anyway.

Our cat Bella's second birthday and a new banner in her honor.

It's our cat Bella's second birthday! So, I made a banner for my blog in her honor.
It's hard to believe she's two already. Her name is Bella because she was found in a box at the Taco Bell on one cold and blustery fall evening here in Oregon.
Bella is just as sweet as can be, but still quite busy at two. She's always interested in what we are doing here, frequently getting involved. She plays with her toys and she rules over our three dogs with her sharp claws and teeth. We have to tell her to stop picking on them sometimes! Even the German Shepard is respectful of her. They've all found their order of things and get along fabulously, though.
So, happy birthday kitty. I didn't want another cat after our last one died, but I am glad Aunt Bee and Chumley talked me into it!

I have had this post up for a few days, but thought I would add how this piece was done. (I just learned.)
It started out as a blue col-erase pencil sketch. Next I went back over the lines I wanted with a soft pencil. Then I scanned, filtered out the blue lines and darkened with Photoshop. Finally colored with Photoshop. Actually an easy process and there are a lot of tutorials and links on the "net" as to how to do this.
I have been teaching myself how to draw, paint and illustrate, so I thought I would share my processes with anyone wanting to know.
Peace

A Pen and Wash Dog Portrait

Hello. I just thought I would post this to see how it looks on the computer. It is a pen and wash portrait of a dog. That is to say a watercolor and ink portrait.
The dog's owner told me it is a Catahoula Leopard Dog.
I did this for a fund raiser for Blind Ambition, a Dragon Boat paddling club here in Portland. There name is Blind Ambition because they are principally a group that are visually impaired and blind. They have been doing this for a few years and have actually been competitive.

Friday, November 19th More pencil sketches.

Here are a couple of sketches from this week. Not so good, but I thought I would share anyway. I am one of those who like doodle even if I haven't been doing as well.

This is a pencil sketch colorized with Gimp, a free program that is similar too Photoshop. I added some text, also.

I added the patches on the cheeks, thinking of an old Japanese cartoon my kids used to watch on TV.

This was a pencil sketch enhanced with Photoshop. I'm not sure where I got the reference, but to be sure it is just a sketch for practice only.

November the first.

Well I thought I would start the new month with a new cartoon. I'm actually doing a portrait of this dog, but I thought it would be fun to do a caricature of him first.
BTW, I am guessing they call it caricatures when you draw animals this way. Dunno.

A Self Portrait for Halloween

This is more of a sketch than a serious self portrait. I didn't have a mask, so I had to make one up. 

Happy Halloween, Y'all!

                                      

Frankenstein's Monkey

This was just a quick sketch with a Uniball gel pen. I colored it with my computer. Hopefully you get the idea of it, anyway.
I really like Corel Painter Essentials 3's Creepy Font. I also like the digital watercolor feature.

              

This is a pencil sketch of my son, Chumley. Just for Halloween. 

        

From the sketchbook I had Last October around Halloween

Here are a couple of sketches from one of my sketchbooks from this time last year. It's funny, I don't write much in my sketchbooks, but the stuff I draw jogs my memory enough that I can remember what was going on then. In a way, this blog is a bit like a journal, too.
Last year around Halloween we were just getting over the worst flu I ever. I say "we" because My wife Aunt Bee, my son Chumley and I all had it together. I remember how awful I felt. How cranky Aunt Bee and Chumley were.
I also remember this obsession I had with masks. I had to go to the doctors office and asked if they could provide a mask so I would not get anyone else sick. Surprisingly they told me there were none available.

Another cat cartoon done in pencil with some computer additions.

My drawing has been uninspired as of late. But our little cat is always interesting. Lately she's been staying up all night looking for bugs.
She really is a sweet cat, but she does get a little obsessed when it comes to catching bugs. :)

A portrait on Utrecht's Oatmeal paper and a caricature.

Well, not too much has been going on here. I did find a very nice sketchbook by Utrecht. It is a hardcover book with 80 pages of recycled oatmeal paper. Link, here.

I tried my new sketchbook out with a portrait sketch. I used a couple of different graphite pencils and a white charcoal pencil for highlights.
Also, I did a caricature of the same person, a friend of my wife's daughter on white paper, scanned and colored with my computer. Both drawings are posted below. :)
That's it for now. To quote Arnold, "I'll be back!"

A cartoon from a dream.

I know a few posts ago I wrote about dreaming, but really I don't make too much of my dreams.I did have this dream, though. It was the other night and I was able to remember and get it down. This dream only lasted a few seconds.

Pencil sketches, added effects with the computer.

It's been a while since I posted here, so I thought I would share some sketches from this week. These are all pencil sketches that I tied together using my computer. Just to see what they would look like. The print sizes are different because the picture sizes are different.
I guess I was just thinking about the new babies in Aunt Bee and my families. :)

Another caricature birthday card.

This was for another of my wife's co workers. It is from a photo of his daughter. Penciled, then inked and colored with the computer.
I was given a small photo and told she likes bicycles, hot air balloons and the color violet.

Cat Person Cartoon

This was a pencil sketch at the end of my last sketchbook. I inked it and colored it with my computer.
I was not thinking of posting this, but I had some interesting comments on it.

Cat Dreams, Human Dreams, Dreams of Flying

Aunt Bee and I were talking about dreams. Her favorite dreams are about flying. She has them from time to time and when she does, every time, she wakes up in a good mood. I have only had two dreams about flying myself.

In the first of the two dreams I had I flew pretty much where I wanted to go. Like Superman. The ease and power were the things that impressed me the most about that dream.
In the second dream I taught myself to fly. I just flew by hunching my shoulders and thinking a certain way.

By the end of the dream I was teaching a group of people how to fly, too. We were flying through downtown Salem for some inexplicaple reason.

The thing that I dream about the most is fishing. I dream this a lot. It's always a different trip, sometimes in the same place. Mostly in different places, though. And for different species, too. I don't know why this is, but I find these dreams most pleasant. Like Aunt Bee and her flying dreams.

A caricature card for a baby shower and a decal.

One of my nieces is expecting.... soon! Saturday was her baby shower so Aunt Bee told me to make a personal card for them. Aunt Bee said her niece was pleased with it.

This is a decal I made for a paddle that belongs to a friend. She is in a dragon boat paddling team. I am not sure how well it will last, but it looks pretty good. I printed out the decal on vinyl sign sticker paper and laminated it.

A portait in pencil and a cartoon about coffee and a shark

First up, portait in pencil from an old photo. Not too much to say about this one.
Second, a cartoon about a hangover I got. I am obviously not much of a drinker. My wife, Aunt Bee, went on a retreat for the weekend with the Guidedog Users group and I had (only) two drinks.

A Caricature of Smokey Robinson: Fan Art

So, I have been in a drawing slump lately. I haven't had any clear visions of what I should draw. And then the other day I was listening to music. I heard "Tears of a Clown" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. How inspirational. The words and music are so cleaver.
I remember listening to this song when it came out, I was I think 16 or so. I was thinking who is this Pagliacci???

Not for Sale

A couple of caricatures

Here's one of my wife Aunt Bee. It's funny, because I see her as a princess. :)

The second one is a caricature of one of my wife's co workers. She called from work and asked if I could do one of him driving a Mercedes convertible. I said ok, when do you want it done. She said tomorrow. Then she sent a picture from her phone. So it's a little rough, but they liked it where she works.

A goofy cartoon.

Just a stupid cartoon from the last week. Aunt Bee, my wife, wanted me to make a card for my son Joe's birthday.

My German Shepard, Forte. A sketch.

Done on Bogus Recycled Paper with a Uniball gel pen, Tombow brush pen and Witeout.

Garage Sale Sketches

So, this weekend we had a garage sale. My wife did the lions share of the work, being the lioness she is. I did what I could, but wound up setting and taking the money and doodling some.
People, toys, and such...... I colorized these a bit, because the scanner washer pencil out so badly.

Quick Golden Retriever Sketch

My golden retriever Blancett. Done on a paper bag with the Uniball gel pen and some Witeout for highlights. I just posted it to see how it looks on the computer.

A couple of new sketches: Self Portrait and Cutthroat Trout

The first one is a cartoon of myself. It was done with a Uniball gel pen. I love the way the ink flows onto the paper with these pens.
The second one, the Cutthroat Trout cartoon, was done with the gel pen also. Then it was colored with the computer using my Bamboo pad.

A self Portrait

An ink cartoon colored digitally

Cartoon: The She Creature of the Darkest Lagoon, How I did this.

I thought for this cartoon I would show and tell how the finished version was made. Maybe this would be of some interest. I just figure out a little bit at a time, but I am glad to share what I know with anyone that is interested.

First there was the sketch which was inked and cleaned up. Next I scanned it and worked on it with my digital pad. I don't have a fancy pad, but the one I have is pretty good. It is a 6"x9" Wacom Bamboo Pad. I am very happy with it.

With the digital pad, first I cleaned up the drawing some more using Gimp, which is a free program. Then I simply colored the drawing using Corel Painter Essentials 3 which came with my Bamboo pad.

That simple.

Just another word about Gimp. It is a great program that does a lot. For a long time this was the only image manipulation program I had. I used it mostly for resizing, rotating, cropping, colorizing and cleaning up my drawings. Oh, yeah and did I mention that it is free?

This is the sketch that was inked scanned and then cleaned up with the computer

This is the final product, but I could change something about it if I wanted to.

A doodle colored with my Wacom Bamboo Pad

I doodled this drawing with a gel pen and decided I liked it. So I scanned it and colored it with my Wacom Bamboo digital pad.
It must have got in my head because Easter is approaching.



Also, I am listening to Laura Veirs, who it turns out lives here in Portland now.





Here is a little political cartoon. I was thinking if I made a cartoon world what kind of animals would be politicians. :)

A cartoon about snails

Last summer I went to visit my brother in California. While I was there I noticed the snails. I had completely forgotten about the snails.

Sketching with a School G pen by Tachikawa

I got this pen for Christmas and it is a great one. At least for me it is. It's a School G pen by Tachikawa.
What fun! It is a fountain pen, it uses cartridges and has a flexible nib.
Here is a sketch I did the other day, just for the sake of drawing.