INKtober Day 7: Reepicheep

Reepicheep!

I decided that I should do a more lively rendition of Reepicheep from the Narnia books.

I used the same design from the image on my blog header, but added the eyepatch to make him seem a bit tougher. Hope it doesn't make him look too much like a pirate. 

What do you think?

Also, no watercolor today, I may color him digitally + watercolor later...

More tomorrow!

INKtober Day 6: Bison

Bison are magnificent animals. And they're really nice to draw.

The color was really fun on this one. I enjoyed sneaking in reds and greens into the fur, just to play around and see what type of effect it would give. I've really enjoyed experimenting with watercolor on this project. Hoping it'll start filtering through to my more serious work.

INKtober Day 5: The Stone Troll (excerpt) by J.R.R. Tolkien

"The Stone Troll" - an excerpt from the poem by J.R.R. Tolkien

I really enjoy the more obscure writings of Tolkien, and this is one of them. I'd like to do more illustrations based on these works, I think it's an overlooked opportunity for illustrators who gravitate more toward the epic tales of The Silmarillion, LOTR, and Hobbit (which are all fabulous).

No watercolors today - I want to wait and paint it when I have a bit more time. 

More tomorrow!

INKtober Day 4: Chivalry

 Chivalry isn't dead! But it might be about to get stung.

I like this one - it was a lot of fun to draw & paint.

More tomorrow!

INKtober Day 3: Phoenix

Inktober Day 3: Phoenix

Trying to experiment more with the watercolor side. This one got a little crazy. Also, all this wet on wet that I do is just deforming my paper. I need to practice more (and get less lazy) with making sure my surfaces won't buckle.

INKtober Day 2: Triceratops

 

Today's drawing is a dinosaur - triceratops, to be exact. Honestly, he looks like he would be more at home on the Barney show (although I doubt Barney would condone the smoking of tobacco). But what had at first hoped to be a rusty red, quickly turned into a mediocre pinkish-salmon color and my meager watercolor skills were exhausted beyond their capacity. That combined with the fact that Barney had appeared suddenly and had begun singing the "I Love You" song quickly put an end to my efforts at creating a worth-while piece of art.

Also, some of you may be wondering what materials I'm using for these drawings/paintings.

Here's a quick list:

Arches Hot Pressed 140-lb Watercolor Paper

Prismacolor Non-photo blue Pencil for underdrawing

Pentel Pocket brush pen (black)

Watercolors (all kinds, but Winsor-Newton, mostly)

More tomorrow!

 

 

INKtober Day 1: English Robin

Happy INKtober! To start off this month right, here's an English robin for you. Top is ink on hot pressed Arches watercolor paper, and on the bottom I added some quick watercolor washes. Hope you like!

INKtober 2013 Begins Tomorrow!

Hi Everyone! 

Just a quick late-night post to let you guys know that I'll be doing INKtober again this year!

Here's how it works: Every day in the month of October I'll do a drawing in ink and posting it here on my blog, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

This year, I'd like to try something a bit different though. In past years, I've done various things, including but not limited to, Darth Vader comics, dogs with horns, sky pirates, and myriad other crazy things! But this year, I'm taking a different approach. Each drawing is going to be simpler. I want to approach them in a looser style that would be more at home in a kid's magazine or book. And I am also going to try to add watercolor to some of the drawings! Just for fun. 

I'm excited to start drawing with inks again. Feel free to join me, and post a link to your drawings!

You can also follow me here:

 Twitter: @w_t_kelly

Facebook: Will Kelly

Instagram: @w_t_kelly

Some News! And Scottish Stereotypes!

Just taking a short break to post this silly little sketch that I did a while back in my sketchbook. I am very obsessed with all things Scotland these days, since it is only 9 months until I get to travel there IN PERSON to spend 10 wonderful days there exploring the country of my forefathers. I am sure the above picture is a crude stereotype of Elderly Scottish Gentlemen, but honestly crude stereotypes make for some really good sketches.

Also, some quick news. I am hard at work completing 5 new drawings that will hopefully be a part of my first ever PRINTED SKETCHBOOK! This will be a very small booklet that will contain 5 brand-new never seen drawings as well as various drawings and sketches from the past year or so. I don't have a hard release date set yet, but I will most certainly post it here so you all will be informed. I am aiming for having them ready to go to print at the end of this month, and hope to have them available for purchase around the first of October!

I have lots more interesting things planned for the coming months, so stay tuned for more information!

-Will

Beauty & the Beast: Watercolor

Taking a quick break from some LPG sketchwork to post my progress on the Beauty & the Beast piece that I worked on over the course of the TLC Workshop weekend before last. This is the final watercolor, with just one or two adjustment layers in Photoshop to bring life back into the scanned image.

I'm pretty pleased with the overall painting. Personally, I feel like this is one of the best "finished" watercolors I've ever done, although there is a great deal of room for improvement here. I really need to work on my application of the media - I tend to just mush the paint around with no objective for the strokes. In future paintings, I'll be trying for smoother layers of color.

The next step will be digital adjustments. Happily, I think I've gotten much more color information down in the painting than in the Winter Dragon one I did last time. Hopefully that will make the digital stage much easier!

Anyway, that's about it. What do you think? Keep at it, or go into a career in the Fast Food industry?

(JUST KIDDING)

TLC Workshop Recap: Monsters & Maidens

  

This past weekend I had the privilege of attending the TLC Workshop with Justin Gerard and Cory Godbey. It was a terrific weekend full of good friends, great artwork, and lots and lots of knowledge passed around! These are just a few photos from a very full weekend.

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(Above) Justin Gerard demonstrated some methods of picture-making that he uses frequently, including techniques blending ink and watercolor that were used by Arthur Rackham (if you're interested in this method, a detailed description of it can be found here.)

Iain McCaig, who has worked as a concept artist for Star Wars and many other feature films, stopped by on Saturday to give us an energetic and inspiring talk on telling stories with our art and character design.

The "digital room" where I worked. The Arts Umbrella where the workshop was held was a terrific space. Small, but just right for a workshop this size.

This was the state of my Beauty & the Beast piece on Saturday night. Lots of reference lying around, and I had Just got the drawing transferred to watercolor paper and refining it. I had a pretty rough time deciding on a composition that worked for me,  so by this time I was ready to commit to a drawing just so I could try out some new watercolor methods.

Justin worked on a Beauty & the Beast illustration that was absolute dynamite. It was really nice to be able to see him work in watercolor over the course of the weekend, and I learned a great deal about the actual application of it, which has been something I've been pushing to learn recently. Justin was eager to share all kinds of knowledge about illustration and his working methods.

And here's a sneak peek photo of my drawing. It has lots of issues, but I pressed on. I told myself I couldn't go home until I had gotten watercolor on the page, which I did! I still need to finish that aspect of it, and I'll post the final when it's done.

And lastly, here's Mr. Cory demoing his digital workflow in Photoshop which he uses mainly for client work. Cory is a fine fellow, and it was great to hang out with him for the weekend. His drawings are mind-blowing works of art and I enjoy his approach to character and composition.

At the end of the class on Sunday, Justin & Cory did a Q&A with us on the business of art, how they got their start in illustration, and things that we as new artists can do to gain exposure and attention for our own artwork. It was a great session, and it really answered a lot of questions that I've had in the recent months about "where do I go from here?"

After it was over, we all took a look at each other's pieces. There was some terrific art being made over the course of the weekend. That evening we attended a farewell dinner at Vivendo's Italian Restaurant in the Country Village and it was so nice to just spend time with good friends who love art. We're all in this together! 

If you ever get the chance to attend one of Tara Larsen Chang's TLC Workshops, I would highly recommend it, especially if the guest illustrator is someone who has influenced you in your art pursuits. For me, Justin and Cory's work was a huge factor in my decision to become an illustrator, so it was a great opportunity to meet with them and learn from their work and experience. I hope that you will be able to do the same if you attend.

And with that, it's back to work for me! I have a painting to finish!

Buried Treasure - Illustration Process

Here's a quick piece I did. I've been really inspired lately by children's book illustrators like Jon Klassen and Isabelle Arsenault. Their work has such amazing texture and simplicity. I love it. I'd like to explore this type of work more fully.

I took a different approach. This guy was doodled in my sketchbook. I took a piece of watercolor paper, and painted all the different pieces I knew it would take to create him. Here's that page:

I then scanned all of this into Photoshop, and put every piece on its own layer. By doing this, it allowed me to maneuver all the pieces into place, re-size them and get it how I wanted it. A few color adjustment layers, and I was done! Below is a little .gif animation that shows the process:

What do you think of this style? I'm eager to explore this technique further for use in children's books, etc. Hope you like it!