The art and musings of Arizona artist Jeff Curtis otherwise known and loved throughout the world as JEPHYR!
Copyright Notice
All images, photos, and video excluding advertising and google generated content, or unless otherwise labeled, areCopyright Jephyr (Jeff Curtis). All Rights Reserved.
These images are not in the public domain. Contact me for licensing terms and pricing.
Unauthorized or unlicensed use for all commercial and personal applications is prohibited.
You'll also find a very inspiring video from Greg 'Craola' Simkins below—which is a time-lapse of him painting his AWESOME piece, "Let The Outside In."
'Momento Murray' - Copyright 2019 - Jephyr! - All Rights Reserved
^ ^ ^ If you've visited other recent posts here—you'll know that I had begun doing more cartoony, light-hearted images.
While today's sketches both still have a bit of a cartoonish feel—they are also a bit "darker" as well.
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Scribble Technique: I started both of today's drawings—by just doing some light scribbles on the page—and then began looking for ideas to spring from those lines.
I love utilizing this method and have been very pleased with the unusual character concepts that emerge when I use it.
It's a bit like looking at clouds and seeing shapes and animals and so-on.
If you haven't tried it yet—I highly recommend it.
'Siege' - Copyright 2019 - Jephyr! - All Rights Reserved
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Video
A time-lapse of Greg 'Craola' Simkins painting his master-work, "Let The Outside In."
It's about 50 minutes long, but well worth a look—especially if you are interested in seeing another artist's technique and approach to a piece.
If you just want an over-view I'd suggest increasing the playback speed—or just click through and watch segments that catch your eye.
Mine was pretty good. I went to a Good Friday service at a church I'm checking out—and managed to get some sketching in each day.
Today, I considered going to an Easter service—but they're always so crowded I opted for some extra sleep instead—and that felt good.
: )
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Let's get to the sketches:
'Captain Piglet' - Copyright 2019 - Jephyr! - All Rights Reserved
^ ^ ^ Started with another light scribble—Captain Piglet was a lot of fun to create.
I looked at several reference photos of pigs to help me finish this up—and that paid dividends with this next one
'Jenny's New Ribbons' - Copyright 2019 - Jephyr! - All Rights Reserved
^ ^ ^ I obviously still had images of pigs floating around my cranium—and sat in a nearby coffee house stifling my laughter as I drew this one.
: )
I started this sketch with a few sweeping scribbles on the page (of course) and quickly "saw" Jenny's head in them—and added an appropriate body and background as I went along..
Recently—a lot of the characters I've created like Jenny and Captain Piglet have happened very quickly—and then most of the time spent after that is simply refining the sketch. That's been really enjoyable—because as I've written in other posts—sometimes ideas don't come along so easily.
Last Sunday I went to a church near me for the second time and really like it a LOT. The music is pretty decent, and the pastor's sermons have been good so far—but the best part is that the people there are very friendly.
Also—I'm finishing off the last page in a sketchbook I started not long ago and worked on the first page in a new one today—and out hopped < wabbit humor) the bunny you'll find below.
I wasn't really thinking about about it when I began this drawing—but when I was putting the last touches on it this afternoon, I thought it would be a perfect sketch to post during this Easter week.
As I often do—I started this one by lightly scribbling some lines on the page and instantly "saw" the bunny's head in those and expanded the rest of this drawing out from there.
This sketch happened FAST as well. Sometimes coming up with something I'm satisfied with is a long drawn out < art humor) effort—but this draw'ring happened quick like a bunny. < yup...a'nudder wabbit joke)
As I've said before—wish they were all this easy.
: )
Anywho—enough of my hare-brained talk < umm...yeah...that was wabbit humor too : )—let's get to da derned bunny!
'Momma Says I'll Grow Into Them' - Copyright 2019 - Jephyr! - All Rights Reserved
Yesterday, I went out to a coffeehouse to sketch for a few hours and on the way there asked God to open the door to some good interactions with folks there.
A large table that I like to work at was open but two women took it right as I entered—and there was only one unoccupied table right at an entrance—so I grabbed it, got settled in, and began sketching.
The coffeehouse is near a large hospital complex and is usually pretty busy, so there were a lot of people there and most of them seemed to be in good spirits, and I nodded "hellos" and exchanged smiles with several people.
After a bit, a woman stopped on her way out the door and we visited about her grandson who is also an artist. Later an older gent stopped by and we talked a bit about my drawing process and his background as an author.
"Enrique 'Hammertoes' Johnson" - Copyright 2019 - Jephyr! - All Rights Reserved
^ ^ ^ I had a lot of fun drawing this po' creature who dropped his treat—began as a scribble (of course : ).
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Bonus Video
Kim Jung Gi, is a South Korean artist who has an amazing ability to sketch his ideas directly from his mind, using his amazing memory and recall, and is able to literally fill a large complex drawing with characters, backgrounds and props, etc—without any preliminary sketching.
The video below a live drawing demonstration Gi gave in 2013—and shows his incredible abilities.
Please be advised, however, that his drawings are not always so tame and often contain nudity and sexuality—so if you do further research about his work you will likely encounter those kinds of images.
Recently, I've stopped going out to eat at restaurants, and am limiting my coffee in-take—simply because both are too expensive and WAY too fattening (at least way I like my coffee anyway).
So I've found some coffee houses that I can hang out in without feeling like a free-loader and have been frequenting them just to sketch.
As I've written here numerous times—going out to sketch allows me to get out of the man-cave and opens the door to some very interesting and engaging interactions with peeps who venture over to see what I'm up to.
I've also felt very Blessed lately—and have been enjoying my work and creative efforts more than ever.
Anywho—let's get to some new draw'rings an' a few woids about creatin' them.
: )
'Yee-HAH! ' - Copyright 2019 - Jephyr! - All Rights Reserved
^ ^ ^ 'Yee-Hah' practically drew itself.
As I OFTEN do—I started by scribbling some light lines on the page and immediately "saw" the cow-poke doing some rope tricks "in" them.
The hardest part about completing this was just refining everything.
Wish all my creative efforts happened this easily!
'Wayfarers' - Copyright 2019 - Jephyr! - All Rights Reserved
^ ^ ^ This one happened fairly quickly/easily as well.
I'd just watched Disney's 1940 tour de force animation Pinocchio—and still had the image of Jiminey Cricket dancing around in my noodle—and that no doubt influenced the wardrobe for this guy.
Somewhere along the way it seemed appropriate (and funny) to me to add the bunny being towed on the skateboard.
BTW—I'm not sure why the dood is wearing a skull-cap—but it was an early idea—and when I tried to turn it into a hat of some other kind it wasn't working at all. So it remains without any significance or meaning intended by it for me. Although perhaps like me—he's on a sojourn for truth and still has vestiges from the old days and ways.
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Bonus: As I was putting the final touches on this sketch—a VERY attractive, smiling young lady stopped as she passed where I was sitting and said she really liked this sketch—and she asked if I was an illustrator and how long I'd been at it, etc.
Did I mention going out to sketch beats sitting at home in the man-cave?
; )
'The One Who Rides The White Horse' - Copyright 2019 - Jephyr - All Rights Reserved
^ ^ ^ The quote in this image is from an excellent and moving documentary called "Furious Love." (see a short video trailer below)
In it, film-maker Darren Wilson captures Christian missionaries going all around the world to preach the good news to various people—from LARGE out-door gatherings—to one-on-one encounters.
Many were affected and changed by the Gospel message they heard—including a young girl in Africa who was set free from demonic possession.
I was struck by some of the comments otherwise ordinary folks gave in the video about the transformation God had made or was making in their lives.
In one case—a Christian team went to a New Age Festival and set up a booth to simply offer prayer to anyone who was interested.
Some attendees were unhappy about seeing Christians there—but a number of others did stop and ask for prayer.
One young man approached them and asked who their "medium" was—and they said that they followed Jesus and that's who they were praying to.
He agreed to have them pray and as they did he clearly began having an experience with God—and he said the words quoted in the image above.
In the book of Revelation 19
it describes Jesus returning to the earth seated on a while horse with a sword coming out of his mouth—and
the Word of God is called the "sword" in many scriptures—so I believe
he was indeed experiencing the power of our risen Lord and soon returning Savior.
What he said made a deep impression on me and I incorporated it into this drawing that I drew right after watching the documentary.
Here's the trailer for it.
It's a very good documentary and I highly recommend it!
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BTW—A friend gave me three instructional books authored by Will Eisner—the creator and illustrator of "The Shadow" and other very popular graphic novels and comics from the late 1930's through the 1970's—although he continued publishing his illustrative novels and speaking until his death in 2005.
Those books succinctly encapsulate techniques, tools, and tricks of the trade involving illustration and storytelling and I thought about Eisner's advice and style while creating the last image as well.
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Well—that'll do it for today—but I'm already working on a lot of new art I plan to post soon. Thanks for stoppin' by. See you again soon..........
