The Merchant

A friend of mine, Mandy Napper, did a watercolor demo at work this week and I've been wanting to mess around with it for a long time as a means to add something fresh to the ol' sketchbook. I really love the quick, washy quality it gives you. And some color as you flip through that mess of sketches is always welcome.

The last image of the plant was a painting I did over one of her drawings. Then last night I took a bit of time to quickly try my hand and doing one from scratch myself. I seriously had a blast! I can't wait to do a few more of these little guys. They're really a lot of fun to do. And after it dried I went back in with some colored pencils to really pop it in some areas.

I put this one up on in my shop for sale if anyone is interested! Click here to see the listing!

Hopefully I'll have a few more of these for the next update as well! Thanks for stopping in!

- Ryan

Be Mine

I hope you guys find yourselves snuggled up to whatever you love this Valentine's Day. Whether that be your beautiful bride, an Xbox 360, a plush Stay Puft Marshmallow Man or a box of tasty, delicious Thin Mints I don't care! Just snuggle up! :o)

This year I created a card for my wife and I thought I'd share with you guys the little illustrations I did for it. I've been toying with different methods of creation lately now that I've gotten the Cintiq. I'm trying new ways of rendering and styles I've not really worked in before. It was a fun experiment and it was tougher then I thought it was going to be. Going less is more can be more difficult then my painted, detailed approach I've found. I've really started to develop more respect for it over the last year.

Hope you and my wife like 'em! And Happy freakin' Valentine's Day!

- Ryan

Doodle, doodle, doodle...

Hey guys! I've been a doodlin' fool recently! I should of been throwing behind the last update's dwarf piece but I spent some time kicking around my sketchbook instead. It's still fun and productive! So all's not lost, right?!

The first couple sketchbook images are from a quick pose life drawing session we started at work and boy am I rusty! I haven't done this in several years and it really shows. I'm kinda ashamed of these but I like to post the bad with the good so I'm laying everything bare! Ha! It did get me in the mood to think about anatomy and posing a bit more then. And you'll see how the quick sketches affected the rest of my time doodling from my imagination through out the other images.

I spent the last year really trying to focus more on drawing and fearlessly getting ideas down on the paper. And with that goal in mind I'm quite proud of this last update because I feel I'm really starting to do that. No matter how messy and terrible things are I'm not getting myself hung up on renders and stuff as much. I'm just really trying to scrawl things out, move on to the next one and make it even better. Just use a sketchbook for what it should be! Sketching! Ha! It's been a meaningful exercise that I'm hoping will make my finished work even more stronger. 

My focus for this year? I'd like to continue on this path of sketching more and feeling more loose about my ideas up front. But this year I'd like to think more about the narrative elements in my drawings. I came across this quote recently...

"A drawing without a story can never be good, a drawing with a story can never wholly be bad." - Walt Stanchfield

...and I'm hoping to make it my mission statement of sorts. I'm hoping that I can create great designs as well as make them connect with the viewer in some way by creating a small story in each scribble. Hold me accountable to it! Then no matter how bad my drawing might be, it "can never wholly be bad." Haha!

So I hope you've enjoyed looking through my scraps! These are my favorite types of posts on other people's blogs. I'm not sure if everyone has the same fondness for this sort of mess that I do. Ha! But I hope so! See ya next time!

- Ryan

PS: The portrait of my on the 7th image was done by my lovely wife who hasn't drawn a thing in a few years! Not to shabby after all the time off, right?! Looking forward to more, Sarah! :o)

The Frozen Warrior WIP

Just wanted to drop quick update on this piece I started a while ago. I've worked on it off and on for a while now and it's finally starting to take shape. Painting is a painful process sometimes! Ha! But I'm determined to make this image as awesome as I can! I still have a few more nights to offer to the altar of this painting before it's complete. But I'm starting to like the direction it's moving now. Hope you guys are liking it as well!

Thanks for stopping in and seeing mah stuff! Sharpen your pencils, go forth and be awesome!

- Ryan