October is here!!!

Holy Cow!! It's October already!?!?

Okay guys,

Can't say this has been easy, but I am nearing the end of the commission/requests... Since I only got 15 requests, I decided to release them every 2 days, starting on October 2nd. Here is the order of dates:

October:

2nd
4th
6th
8th
10th
12th
14th
16th
18th
20th
22nd
24th
26th
28th
30th
31st

And if that wasn't enough, I decided to not just do drawings...

but to PAINT them!..

Some would say I was crazy for doing that, some would say I was crazy to just ask for a $20 dollar donation to my school's art program (I do accept higher donations--hint hint!)... the ones finished so far have came out to work of anywhere from 2 hours to 6 hours... to give you an idea of time spent.

The style differs from piece to piece, as well as the medium used. Hope you guys enjoy it, and make sure you stop by on the dates mentioned to see what is new. I will be contacting everyone who made requests individually, to arrange delivery.

...and PLEASE! Feel free to comment, or to just follow my blog.

Cheers! Joel

Artwork: Scarecrow

Inked art (L) and finished color art (R)

I thought I would try doing a piece for the Covered Blog, and redid a cover from Marvel Comics' Wonderful Wizard of Oz...  If you have a chance and can read any of them (I think they are on the 5th series), give them a shot. Great for all ages.

The Art:

I tried to keep the rough sketchy style of art that Skottie Young does in the books. I used solely a brush and ink on the drawing (above left)... using a mix of dry brush, some linework and spattering the ink. I used my fingerprints in the ink to help make the shadows... if you look close you can see my prints. I have seen other artists do this, particularly a great piece by Chuck Close... and thought I would give it a shot. It worked with moderate success, although I think next time I will use an ink pad.

The finished work is a mix of watercolor, gouache, colored pencil and ink.

You can really get some beautiful lines with the ink. I did this one pretty big, and I think in retrospect I would have liked to do it at half the size.

Artwork: Untitled

Currently working on a character design for a book I was thinking about writing. My main experience is in picture books, but this story would be a little bigger, like a beginner/chapter book...

Ok, I finished the blue character first, before I went on to the other one. I usually don't work this way, but I usually don't work this early (9 am). I usually am up til the am's finished a piece.... So I did half in the morning, and the other half at night:

I listened to an album I used to have in college: C'mon Feel the Lemonheads by The Lemonheads... Forgot how great of an album that was... almost 20 years ago. Wow. I am old.