Sketchbook - Giants and Ogres

More goofing around - how many ways can I stretch and squash a head and come up with new characters, postures, anatomy - the endless possibilities are of course endlessly fascinating and bring me back to the drawing board every day.

Sketchbook - Ogres

Some recent doodle activity. I'm on a new project at the moment and am doing a lot of drawing but I decided I wouldn't post too much of it out of respect for the publishers who generally like to keep their projects off the radar until they're ready to release them. The work here is just a little left over, yet unrelated activity at the end of a long day.

Thumbnails

Some recent sketchbook activity - ball point pen, coloured pencil, gel pen. This stuff is pure play - just having fun - morning pages - loosening up the hand.

Sketchbook - More Giants

My good pal Paul Rivoche had contacted me a while ago to possibly do some work on a comics project he was organizing. I don't really draw comics, at least not any more, but couldn't stand the idea of being left out so I suggested perhaps I might do a single page something or other for him. He thought a one page illustration with lots of little text boxes and things carrying descriptions of various parts of the picture might be a good idea. The kind of thing a kid can study and go back to. I came up with the idea of a giant who carries a village on his back. The village houses all the little workers and craftsmen who help the giant in his day to day comings and goings - leather workers, black smiths, carpenters, butchers etc. The project is up in the air at this point but I'm still thinking about this idea.

Tendrils

This is the other piece I have for Spectrum. It too is watercolour. I have many more ideas to go along with this theme but those will have to wait. In my imagination I see these little scenes as taking place in a tangled old Witch Garden. A secret place where lots of small and hidden things are happening.

Dreaming Wren

This one and it's companion piece above were done over the Christmas Holidays during a lull. I was really hoping to get something new done for my Spectrum entry this year and this is one of them.
I can feel myself on the return journey back to watercolour. I started with watercolour years ago but felt the commercial pressure to "paint" with opaque colour so I sort of compromised and started bringing gouache into my work, which definitely punched it up. Gradually the gouache began to take over, which on the one hand is what I wanted, but I always felt like a bit of a trader. I'm now feeling like I want to get back to watercolour and that original inspired feeling it brought me in the beginning and still brings now. But of course the gouache is always handy to make an adjustment when necessary.

Sketchbook - Giants and Trolls 2

Still messing with ideas for the giant or troll trundling through a landscape. I want to paint something big and round and heavy moving through the mist. Maybe with a nymph or faerie of some kind riding on his back or shoulder. Still thinking .....

Sketchbook - Giants and Trolls

Some more messing around with ideas for new pictures. I'm starting to feel like I want to do a big guy lumbering through a landscape again. I've gone this way before, but not lately. I love the idea of big round figures pushing past the trees, almost like hot air balloons only much heavier.
Anyway - still thinking.

Sketchbook - Faeries and Nymphs 4

More of the prep work for a couple of personal pieces. I had only a vague idea of where I was going so these drawings tend to wander a bit - but of course that's the fun of it. Here I was considering posing some figures on a floating island - a kind of Roger Dean inspired idea which I gave up on, for now anyway.

Sketchbook - Faeries and Nymphs 3

And yet more of the pencil work from the last month while preparing to execute a couple of personal pieces.

Sketchbook - Faeries and Nymphs 2

More recent pencil work. My plan was to try and get a couple of personal pieces completed over the holidays before everything started up again. These would be Spectrum entries. I prefer submitting personal work whenever possible because I feel the work is stronger and more in line with the way I'd like to advertise myself.

Sketchbook - Faeries and Nymphs

Some recent sketchbook activity - the resulting finished works to be posted shortly.
Happy New Year everyone.
Lets hope it's a busy one.

Larry