And they all lived...

And the final piece.

Thanks to Jeff (and here!) for helping me balance out the background (as well as some of the foreground colors) in this piece to help the characters pop. And a special thanks to Mark for giving me some morale boost. I was informed that sometimes, I'm too hard on myself when it comes to my artwork. I can't disagree with that, but I don't know how to change it either, really.

Anyway, here is the final. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and I think a lot of it has to do with the revisions I made on Snow White and the dwarves. I completely redrew the character to make her a little more appealing all around.

It's interesting, too, but Jeff pointed out a plethora of styles working in this piece. I can't fault him for that, because J. Scott Campbell, Doug Tennapel, and Joe Mad all had a hand in this whether they knew it or not. Onto the next piece!

My, what big progress you have!

Thought it might be neat to post the progress.

I started where I left off (in the last post) at about 8pm tonight...er...yesternight. It's rolling onto 4am now. But I guess that's how you know what you love.

For the coloring, I didn't know how I wanted to do it. But I knew I wanted to approach it from a more painterly/comic book style since I intended on leaving the brush lines very apparent. I haven't colored anything in that vein in a while. But I think this is turning out nicely. I still have a lot to tweak (and finish altogether), like the tortoise's hand, obviously. Once that pig-creature is complete, and a few more this-n-thats, I think it'll be ready to post, finished.

I have until 10pm tomorrow night...er...later tonight to finish it all up. Hope you like it so far!

Once Upon a Try...

I'm a struggling artist.

And when I say "struggling," I mean struggling to better myself. I struggle to "get as good as that guy" or to try and advance to the next level in whatever I'm doing. I struggle to keep my edge as an illustrator, so that my craft doesn't get old and boring...or, God forbid, redundant. I'm also broke. So...just in case there was any confusion, yes, I do fulfill that stereotype.

And with the struggle comes new challenges. Like this one. This is a piece in progress. It's another entry for sketchoholic.com. This week's interview is with Humberto Ramos. The theme is "Fairyquest." That's actually the title of Ramos' book, but with the open theme, it leaves a lot of play for interpretation. So this is what I've got. Take a shot at guessing the fairy tale creatures before you read any further.

Down front, we have the tortoise and the hare in their never ending race, of course. Snow White (who will be possessed by evil apple vapors) surrounded by some mecha-dwarves. On the other side, we have a jacked-up Pinocchio and, above him, an evil Japetto pulling the strings. And finally, in the center, is the big bad wolf and his 3-headed pig monster in the background.

I'm really happy with how it's going so far. We'll see if it ends happily ever after...

Leaps and Bounce...

When there's no doubt in your mind that you didn't do your best work on a piece, and you posted it, it just eats at the back of your head. So it was with this one. It's still not my ideal composition, really. But for what I created it for, I think it works just fine. I'm constantly bothered by artists who openly admit, "Oh this isn't the best I can do. But (insert excuse)." If it's not the best you can do, then fix it.

Yet, on the other hand, it's always refreshing to see artists make honest mistakes, or confess to shortcomings. I know that when I admit a mistake out loud, it's both liberating and humbling all at once. Not that I'm some force to be reckoned with. And maybe I'm just (insert excuse). Nevertheless, here's round 2 of "For the Love of Bunny." Yeah, I called it that.

I rehashed the entire turkey character. He just wasn't "jive" enough, I don't think. Plus there was nothing really pushing any sort of mood in the background. That wasn't imperative, but I wanted...something. Throwbacks from MC Hammer and Parliament on iTunes probably assisted in that on some level. So, despite a pressing workload, this is what I concentrated on today. Something about taking a break and doing something for myself - even if it's essentially the same thing I'm doing for others, professionally - is something I need sometimes. It keeps me grounded and reminds me that I do this because I love it. And when I can recapture that desire to create, it makes the jobs extremely more enjoyable. And when the jobs are more enjoyable, the final product is something both sides are happy with.

I decided to leave the below post up, just for the fun of seeing the process. Enjoy!

Ya dig...?

Well it's been quite a while since my last post.

I've been quite busy with things these past 2 months. Some miscellaneous projects, some freelance. So to give myself a break from work, I decided to do some more...work...

Right.

Anyway, this is my entry for an upcoming Sketchoholic contest. Francisco Herrera will be interviewed by Bobby Chiu - both incredible artists. I'm relatively new to how it all works on the Sketchoholic website (I just joined yesterday), but I thought it could be really interesting to see the interview, as well as who wins the contest (which will be announced during the interview). Anyway, this little illo ate up a whole night of mine. So tomorrow, it's back to the grind!

Well, the other grind...