February Toon Challenge on FB- Del Rubio Triplets

Toon Challenge is a fledgling group on FB looking for monthly entries on a theme, run by my friend Bob East (aka Beast)--February's theme was "Old West" so I contributed this quick doodle (quick because I cheated and drew old identical triplets---of course I only did one, and copy/pasted her!)
And okay, maybe they aren't strictly "Western" but they're wearing fringe! :-)

Another Artcast/contest tonight...

Stephen Silver's Artcast tonight on Ustream will be another informative talk and critique of character designs submitted this past week. This time it was 'make a character design of one of your parents'. So I did a no-reference digital sketch of my late dad, back when he was rotund and lottery-ticket-slap-happy (well, he remained that til he passed).
It's not the best likeness of him, but the essence is there.

Doodled her right into a character design....

One of the bystanders that I drew at this past weekend's hockey tournament doesn't know it, but she's been immortalized as a character design on the internet now!

Only the top left image was done from the subject, and it started out as just a quick gesture drawing. The next two pencil sketches were from memory. Then I took a light box and redrew them below, colored them with Prismacolor and Chartpak markers, scanned them, then inked and finished them in Photoshop. Why do all this? When I logged onto Facebook yesterday, I saw that noted character designer Stephen Silver was holdng a contest on www.sketchoholic.com, with the winner to receive a critique from him on their work during his weekly Ustream show. I'd like a shot at that! So this is my entry...one of 47. Those aren't bad odds!
Steve also has a Facebook group, Stephen Silver-Passion for Life,where he talks about artistic motivation and passion. And inspires lots of people, I'm sure, because I'm one of them!

Here's a link to the contest page, if you'd like to vote you'd have to join Sketchoholic, but it looks like an interesting prospect if you're an artist. Voting will finish right before Steve's show tomorrow night (3-16-10) at 10:30 pm EST.

Updat 3-16-10 Well, I didn't win, but I learned alot from watching Stephen's Ar cast and hearing him critique the winner's sketch. Next week's assignment is to do a character design of our dads! That'll be fun!

Toonweekly submission

This week's theme is pirates. What's a pirate without her rum?

Toonweekly submission

I haven't had time lately to enter Toonweekly's character design challenge, but this week's theme was very appealing..."Good Cop Bad Cop."
Here's my digital entry...

Character Design

The sketch of the spectator-dad from the ice rink evolved into a color character design. My original doodle was scanned into Photoshop, then completed there.
I've been a little too busy to keep up with www.Toonweekly.com (character design challenge) lately, but they should have a new subject today...

Toon Weekly submission

Last week's Toonweekly submission was not a true character design, as I got carried away with rendering my King Arthur. So for this week's design (theme is "cantina creatures" from Star Wars) I gave myself a strict 20-minute time limit, and tried to base it on organic shapes. This is what I came up with.

www.toonweekly.com

Toonweekly submission

Thie week's theme was "Medieval". I chose an existing character to draw, Graham Chapman as King Arthur from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which is one of my all-time favorite movies. My particular aim in this piece was to learn more of Photoshop's abilities.

Toon Weekly submission

This week, the theme is ZOMBIES...which was a fun one to do. My zombie is based on teenage fans of a musical group I had the misfortune to see as an opening act a few years ago, with my daughter...it seems they are becoming more popular because I heard them on the radio the other day.

This was done in Photoshop from a pencil sketch.
www.toonweekly.com

Toon Weekly submission

This week's theme was clowns...this little doodle was done only with markers.

Toon Weekly!

One of the benefits I've been able to enjoy on my travels is having my laptop and wacom pad with me. I can draw digitally almost anywhere. My detailed couple-caricature commissions, and another I haven't shown yet, have been all done in Photoshop, on the road this week--literally! However, PS is capable of myriad styles, so I decided to try a less-complicated piece.

A parallel field to caricature is character design. Many people confuse the two words when it comes to our art---they are inter-related, but not always the same thing. I'm not an authority on it, but when people say to me in live settings, "Oh, you're a character artist!" I usually explain that I'm a caricaturist, my goal is a specific likeness of a specific person. A character design CAN be a specific person, but not always. A good caricature is always someone in particular.

So, character design is an area I don't have much experience with; (except for my not-wholly-succesful attempt at the two stars of Pulp Fiction in one of last year's NCN Face-offs) but two caricaturists from England have just set up a website devoted to artists showcasing their skills in that area.

www.toonweekly.com
(also newly in my links list)

Mike Giblin and Justin Cook are responsible for a place for fellow artists to tackle weekly character design projects. This week it's rock stars, and I decided to join the fun with this glam guy!

Thanks Justin and Mike!