Ewok Jedi For A Friend

I doesn't happen as often as I would like, but recently I was asked to create a special request. I was asked to come up with an Ewok Jedi character for a young girl who is a huge Star Wars fan. How could I say no? I love Star Wars, I think Jedi are awesome, I think Ewoks are the cutest creatures ever, and I love drawing and being creative. A huge winning combination in my mind!

So, I did a bit of research on Ewoks, Jedi robes, and Ewok environments and then got to work. Here is what I came up with for a rough idea.

It was kind of fun to work out the Jedi-ness of the creature and make sure I included the ears. You have to include Ewok ears when drawing an Ewok. It is a law or something...

Next, I wanted to see some cleaner lines, so I took the time to do just that on this rough on printer paper. Here is what I got.

As quickly as this was coming all together, I was pretty happy with the result.

Now, I had to switch to some good paper and create exactly what I drew on printer paper. So, I found a handy-dandy light box and traced my critter onto the good paper. Below, it is kind of hard to see the roughed-in environment behind and beneath the character, but you will see the muted details in the final drawing.

 All transferred and ready to color! And you know I love coloring. When I work on paper, my favorite go-to are colored pencils. I love mixing, blending, shading and highlighting, and I love what happens with my colored pencils. I really enjoy seeing what other artists are able to achieve with Copic markers and water colors, but I haven't ventured off in that direction...yet...to give those options a try.

Well, what do you think? Ewok Jedi should be a thing, right? I tried to have the character be the focal point in the drawing, so I put very little detail and muted colors to the elements in the environment. Personally, I'm going to have to practice that more, or just go ahead and add all of the shading and highlighting to the background as well. Lots more trees and foliage as well.

I finished it and put it in the mail! Seems to be stuck at the post office, as of yesterday, but hopefully it will arrive at its destination today.

My friend Steve Glosson, an incredibly talented and funny podcast host of several shows you can find over at geekoutpodcast.com, is who made the request. As I mentioned earlier, the request was made for a young girl. This young Star Wars fan, the daughter of one of Steve's friends, may just have to wrestle Steve to get the drawing! When you visit "The GOLiverse", you will find a variety of entertaining and fun shows to pick from for your favorite pod catcher. Shows range from Disney, to Big Time Wrestling, to Music, Football, to Movies...and just plain Geeking Out for the fun of it!

It was my pleasure to have some fun and create AN EWOK JEDI for my friend Steve. I sincerely hope the young Star Wars fan enjoys it as much as I had a great time drawing it for her. Thanks for the opportunity, Steve. And, thank you so much for mentioning me on your programs and pointing people in my direction. Very much appreciated indeed.

Newest Flash Graphics - 2016

Greetings! It has been a while since I have added to my page. My sincere apologies. I thought I might jump back in by sharing some of my most recent Flash artwork.

More to come! I've had the opportunity to create a great deal of what was labeled "Tron" style graphics and iconography. I will be sharing more soon.

Guardians of the Grimoire - Big Fan Review

I love to read. Plain and simple. If I could take an entire day, sit on a couch or a comfy chair and do nothing but read with a great motion picture soundtrack playing in the background, I would do it time and again. I absolutely love when an author is able to create an amazing world and pull me into it, develop believable characters I am immediately able to connect with and love, and grab my attention while taking me on a fantastic adventure and never let it go.

Several months ago, I began following an author named Natasha Slight on Twitter (@NatashaSlight). I'm always excited when someone I feel is successful in his or her craft follows me back. So, when Natasha did, I followed the "Twitter Rules of Proper Etiquette" by thanking her and wishing her a wonderful weekend. I saw on her bio page that she had a blog (http://natashaslight.blogspot.com/) and available for my reading pleasure was the first book in a trilogy she is currently working on Guardians of the Grimoire.

Shortly after following Natasha and learning more about her, her family and her own amazing travels, I had the pleasure of chatting with her a bit on Twitter. What a kind, friendly and encouraging person! Natasha instantly became one of my favorite Twitter friends and I promised to get my copy of Guardians of the Grimoire and begin reading right away. I followed through on my promise right away, downloading it for my Nook app on my iPad and am so glad I did.

Natasha's story has everything I look for in an adventure. She has created a wonderful world and describes each setting in such a way that easily helps you see, smell, hear and experience everything in your mind's eye. I'm certain Natasha has tapped into all of her own experiences from her travels and places she has lived to help her develop and present her settings so well. She also does a masterful job at engaging her readers with the cultures in which her characters live. There are gods, nobility, sorcerers, villagers, and awesome creatures that all exist in this world created by Natasha. I admire the amount of research, thought and work it must take to create a place so believable and real, yet unique and mysterious at the same time.

The characters in Guardians of the Grimoire are fantastic. Their backgrounds, their relationships, their emotions and their journeys as they grow and learn about themselves and their abilities are all believable, pull on the heart strings and I just couldn't help connecting and caring about each of them. Even the villains! I love to hate them and can't wait to see what they try next. Being able to connect with the characters and become eager to join them on their journeys is what I love most about really good stories. Natasha's story did not let me down.

Right from the start, Guardians of the Grimoire grabbed my attention and held onto it throughout the entire adventure. From beginning to end, I couldn't wait to have some quality reading time to get back into Natasha's story and find out what was in store for Kerani, Cesca and Tiluvia. Now that I'm finished with volume 1, I can't wait for the next book to become available so I can jump back in and continue on this exciting journey.

Natasha Slight set out to write this story for her children. In doing so,what she has accomplished is a wonderful book for all ages. I wholeheartedly enjoyed Guardians of the Grimoire and look forward to the chance to purchase and read volume 2 of this series. I wish Natasha all the best and much success as she works on the next installment in this series. I'm also thankful to have connected with her on Twitter and look forward to keeping in touch. Natasha, you're awesome!

Here are some of the locations online where you can obtain your copy of the Guardians of the Grimoire:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/guardians-of-the-grimoire-natasha-slight/1106779188

http://www.amazon.com/Guardians-Grimoire-Book-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B005UPH2MY

http://www.wattpad.com/1360252-guardians-of-the-grimoire-preview-introduction

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/86985

To learn more about Natasha Slight, please visit her homes on the Web:

http://natashaslight.blogspot.com/

https://twitter.com/natashaslight

https://www.facebook.com/NatashaSlightBooks

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5273614.Natasha_Slight

SketchCard No.5 Finished! Ready to Mail!

Another sketchcard finished and ready to get in the mail for one of my good friends on Twitter. This one was promised quite a while ago and between work and many many things going on with the family, I just couldn't get around to getting it finished until recently. I really appreciate your patience, Kate!

This card is on Bristol card stock and is drawn and colored using Prismacolor pencils.

I hope you enjoy it when it arrives Kate! Sorry it took so long to get there.

I think it might be time for another contest soon. I'll have to think of something fun again...

The T-Shirts Are In!

Hey! The t-shirts are here! The t-shirts are here!! They turned out great! I was so happy with the quality when I went to pick them up during the week. I took them to show my Mom right away and she loved them as well! She can't wait to show her friends next weekend.

Our cat even likes them! Now, I just have to get a photo of all the ladies wearing their shirts proudly at their miniature retreat in Arizona next month.

I'm so happy this all worked out well.

The Wednesday Witches: T-Shirt Design

Wow! Has it really been since November of last year since I posted about doing something creative? Makes me sad. HOWEVER, I did finish up a design I promised my Mom I would draw for her and I actually finished it on Mother's Day. My Mom is going to turn 82 this year!! She amazes me. Ever since I was in grade school, my Mom has been creating museum quality scale miniatures, was part owner of a miniature store where I grew up in Ohio, and is still working on mini's just about every day. I think she must belong to about 6 different clubs nationally and here in Arizona and travels to events, takes classes and teaches classes every now and then as well. She's quite a lady!


On Wednesday's, my Mom invites several of her friends to her house to work on whatever it is they decide to create that day. They come from all over, some even as far as Oregon and Canada (when they are staying in Arizona for the winter)! They all take turns cooking for the day and have a nice time building beautiful scale pieces of art. This has been going on for years and they have come up with a name for their little group - The Wednesday Witches.


Well, around Christmas time this past year, my Mom asked if I would come up with a t-shirt design for her group. She said that they were going to a retreat for a whole week in July and they all wanted some kind of way to represent their group and decided a custom t-shirt would be the thing to do. Of course I said I would design something for them. After a couple of reminders and inquiries on how it was coming along, I finally finished it for them and the order has been placed for the shirts to be made.


Once I did some research on the types of clothing I wanted the witches to be wearing, I had a lot of fun coming up with the look. I hope you enjoy seeing what I came up with for this incredible group of talented ladies that gather together at my Mom's on Wednesday's and create some amazing things.

Finished with Buzz Lightyear!

Finished and ready to ship to The Monkey! I put the finishing touches on the wallpaper and clouds this morning. This fun drawing was done with colored pencils and marker outlines, all freehand. It's the only way to draw!!

I thought this was going to be a fun surprise for The Monkey, but his Dad has already shown it to him. I hear he likes it a little. Success!!

I have to do a couple quick drawings, one promised sketchcard and a fun witch character for my Mom, so that she can have some t-shirts made for her group of ladies who meet every Wednesday to do miniatures. They are affectionately known as the Wednesday Witches. :)

Then, I have to work on Jesse to go along with Buzz here. Jesse is for The Mouse.

I hope you like Buzz. He was fun to work on and it makes me feel great that The Monkey is excited to have him.

SketchCard No.4 Colored! The Araknid Kid (Josh Alves)

Here he is again, The Araknid Kid! All colored and ready to mail to Josh Alves, the creator of this fantastic comic. If interested in learning more about this character, or perhaps picking up a copy of the books, you can find them here:

http://joshalves.com/araknidkid2/

To follow Josh Alves on Twitter, you can find him here: http://twitter.com/#!/joshalves

Or, just search for @joshalves on twitter.

Thanks again, Josh, for giving me something fun to draw! I had a great time today. I wish you all the best and lots of luck with your stories and illustrations.

SketchCard No.4 - The Araknid Kid (Josh Alves)

Recently, I held a contest on Twitter for achieving the 400 follower mark. I asked a trivia question regarding past work and waited for the first person to answer correctly. The prize?

The winner was able to tell me what they would like me to draw on a sketchcard (No. 4).

The lucky winner of this fabulous prize was none other than illustrator and creator of The Adventures of The Araknid Kid, Josh Alves. His request was for me to do my take on his character.

I have always loved the drawings of Spider-Man, upside down and hanging on to his webbing with one hand, so I decided to do a similar pose for The Araknid Kid. The image here is obviously black and white. I'm still wrestling with the thought of coloring it for Josh before sending it off to him. Since my job with Fox and with FatCat was all about the colors, I think I've made up my mind to go ahead and color it. Why not??

Congratulations Josh! I hope you enjoy this version and the colored version when you get it. Back down to my drawing room so I can add some colors to your fun character. I'll post the colored version when I have it finished.

Buzz Lightyear- Colors (WIP)

Here is an update on the Buzz Lightyear drawing I'm working on for my friend Kev Brett. This one is actually for his son "Monkey". As you can see, I'm working out the greens right now.