Scribble Clouds

This is an interesting little drawing/imagination game you can play with the kids, to pass the time, or to warm up your creative juices. Start with a piece of paper and a pencil, (or light coloured marker or pencil crayon). Scribble randomly all over your paper so that you have something vaguely like this:

Now look at it. View it from different angles. Your mind will begin to find familiar shapes, just like cloud gazing. You might see an eye, a fish, martians, etc...

Using a pen (or dark marker or pencil crayon) trace the lines that form whatever you see. Maybe add some extra detail. Just relax and have some fun with it.

This can work well if you are having a creative mental block. the image below is one that came about entirely through this process. I needed to draw a little devil character for a t-shirt design but was having difficulty coming up with anything original. I played the scribble game and without trying to or expecting it suddenly saw what I had been looking for.

10 Assorted Illustrations

	This image was commissioned for an ad campaign for a sports radio station. After preparing the ink illustration you see here the image was then scanned and colour, shading and highlights were added using Adobe Photoshop. It appeared on printed materials, billboards and television. This was done as a subcontract job, and as is often the case, I never got to see any of the completed materials.
	These guys were for a t-shirt design for a team called "Bowling Buddies".
	This rough pen drawing of a crazy mailman was originally created for a popular gaming website. The client really liked the look of the rough drawing, so we used it as-is. Colour, shading and highlights were added later.
	This was completed as part of a project when I was in college. I originally started trying to draw this in my angsty teen years but had not yet developed the skill to do a satisfactory job of it.
	This is from a series of t-shirts I illustrated for a client. There were about 6 different designs, each with the same beaver getting angry or in some sort of peril.
	The happy lumberjack is from a little novelty project I never completed. "Logger Lager... the beer in the wood-grained can!"
	There was a highschool ski team in a town where I worked in a screen printing shop. They wore yellow ski suits and called themselves, "The Skiing Bananas". This was created for some team shirts.
	This was drawn for a local sign company to fit on the side of their van. The back foot/leg/tail goes over the back tire and the front tire is in front of the dragon's jaw.
	The paddling bean was originally drawn to be used in a logo design for an outdoorsy coffee shop. The client never completed the project and the illustration was never used.
	Sharks on bikes!!! This one was just for fun.
	This was the result of a miscommunication with a client. They asked for a cartoon boxer whose name was going to be "Spuds". What I didn't realize was they wanted a boxing potato. (Spuds the Grade A Finghtin' Potato).

Lookit my doodle! (No.1)

Thanks to all who commented on my previous (and first!) post. Your compliments and enthusiasm are inspiring! The whole point of this blog is to share what I am doing with others and obtain feedback, constructive or otherwise. I have an ongoing list of creative projects, currently numbering over 40, that I am hoping to bring to fruition. As time permits I hope to present you with such things as; Pickled Pirates, Plumpsy Daisy, Lint Farmer (a type style), Brain Book and many others.

As a regular feature on this blog I will be sharing with you a doodle from my collection of rough sketches and drawings. I've always found it encouraging to see the rough sketches of my favorite artists. To see what they started with, knowing what they become in the finished product, helps me to realize my own potential.

And for now, here is my doodle...





This one is heavily influenced by the work of one of my all-time favorite artists, Greg "Crayola" Simkins. His work is bizarre and breathtaking, but not necessarily for everybody. This doodle was done with a black ball-point pen on 1/4" grid paper. I highly recommend the ball-point pen for doodling. It is excellent for quick shading and can be gradually built up for strong, dark line work.

The Pinheads are Coming!

I was looking for something to doodle on while watching a movie. My kids had these old-style wooden clothes pins laying around so I grabbed one and started to draw. Pleased with the initial results I went to work with some pigment pens and acrylic paint. Sinister Mr. Pin was born, followed shortly by 3 others; The Aluminum Rabbit, Yellow Fury and The Amazing Mister Tooth.

Growing up I had a neighbor who would occasionally hand down her grandson's toys to my brother and me. Always the boxes she gave us held a treasure trove of assorted small toys; plastic farm animals, cars and the most interesting and bizarre little rubber and plastic creatures that I would never see anywhere else. These strange little monsters captured my imagination in a way that has been an influence on my creative compulsions throughout my entire life, inspiring a hunger for the small thrills of creating new and unusual things. This, combined with being a regular visitor to designer toy sites like Vinyl Pulse and others, had lead to a strong interest in developing some work the custom art toy genre.

So, I went on to create some simple packaging reminiscent of action figure packaging I remember from being a kid in the 70's. Each package has a unique logo corresponding to the character it contains. Production was fairly simple. I work in a print shop so the cardboard backing was no problem to print professionally. And with the use of a homemade vacuum forming box, some recycled plastic and some experimenting, the clear bubbles to hold the Pinheads came about quite quickly.

Soon you will have the opportunity to be the first kid on your block to own one! Check back. I will announce their availability pending the opening of my new Etsy shop.