March 2, 2019 - Mo' Sketchbook/Art Schtuffz

Howdy,

Hope you're doing well today. I've had a great couple of days myself and am happy to be able to post some more new artwork.

Most of the images you'll find below are from my sketchbook—but one is a digital-piece I created for my Awesome-Stuff Blog.

Anywho—let's get to it.

: )

'Any Old Cats Down There?' - Copyright 2019 - Jephyr - All Rights Reserved

^ ^ ^ I'm kinda tired of all the "dark" artwork that people are doing these days and admit that I'm as guilty as anyone of following that trend.

So I'm trying to change that in my own efforts recently and have been doing more cartoony character designs—along with more complete figures and backgrounds.

As I wrote in my last post—recently I've been praying again too as I start some of my new drawings—asking God to help me create some light-hearted images that reflect His Light—and did just that before beginning this one.

In the end—while it took some time to get to the final look of this timid little guy exploring a scary cave—once I did the background elements practically drew themselves.

: )

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BTW—the title of this sketch is based on a fantastic painting by professional illustrator Jeff Preston of Excalibur Studio, in Nashville, Tennessee.

His painting called—'Any Old Tramps Down There?'—caricatures Don Knotts from the movie, The Ghost And Mr Chicken, and I was more than a little inspired by his awesome piece as I drew this one.

: )

Painting: Jeff Preston - 'Any Old Tramps Down There?' (left) — with scenes from the movie  'The Ghost And Mr Chicken'

Also it turns out that in addition to being a celebrated illustrator and award winning artist—he does Christian themed paintings as well.

Here's a video I found about Preston:



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'Chef Pierre' - Copyright 2019 - Jephyr - All Rights Reserved

^ ^ ^ It took me a while to get this drawing happening too.

I'd prayed about it just before beginning this as well—but sat and sketched and scribble and erased ideas for a LONG while.

So, I took a break and when I came back to it with a clear head—I began to "see" our chef friend in my scribbles and became more happy with this sketch as I went along.

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BTW—while I worked on this one—I was sitting in a restaurant after a meal and it sparked several conversations with my waitress and people around me.

One woman asked, "Which Chef is that?"

I tapped my forehead and said, "The one up here," and she and her companions laughed.

: )

'Baddy' - Copyright 2019 - Jephyr - All Rights Reserved

^ ^ ^ In the last few days I went looking for a copyright free image to use as an illustration for a post about some stupid criminals for my AwesomeStuff blog:

 Two Tales About Bungling Criminals

I found a cool looking cartoon criminal dood I wanted to use—and went snooping around the site to find the usage rights info.

I looked around for a bit—and began to feel frustrated that I couldn't find it.

Suddenly I thought—wait a dern second, Betsy—I'm a dang artiste' and can make my own!

: )

Quicker than you can say 'Bob's yer uncle'—I had digitally painted the baddy above.

This image also makes the first time I used "color flatting" for the greyscale values—and extensively "locking transparent pixels" on those layers—and I'm looking forward to doing a lot more of that with future digital paintings.

It really speeds up the process, for sure.

'TWEET' - Copyright 2019 - Jephyr - All Rights Reserved

^ ^ ^ Just a silly cartoony boid I enjoyed creating after another quick prayer.

The late Disney "story-board" artist and children's book author and illustrator Bill Peet is one of my influences—and I looked to his illustrations from his charming auto-biography for inspiration for some of the background elements in this one.

'The One That Got Away' - Copyright 2019 - Jephyr - All Rights Reserved

^ ^ ^ This one was a lot of fun to create—but a royal pain too—because it took a long time to work everything out in it.

Also it may seem a little "dark"—but once you spot the little guy in the fishing boat to the left—you may see some of the humor in it as well.

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That'll do it for t'day.

Thanks as always for schtoppin' by.

See you again soon.