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).