Phil Rood Illustration

Beerbarian

2012-02-19T17:36:00.000-08:00

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Fluid"... What better fluid to use as a topic than beer? As far as that goes, I could either draw myself at my day job delivering beer, or I could scribble a warrior from the Middle Ages enjoying his happy hour...

This is a fun illustration that I had a great time drawing. The original inks are available for sale below.

the Stalk

2012-02-14T13:55:00.008-08:00

Here's a re-working of a drawing I did a couple years ago. I made the Jack and the Beanstalk image awhile back and always liked the concept a lot, but looking back I was kind of dissatisfied with some of the execution. I'm not going all George Lucas, going back and re-doing everything I did years ago. If that was the case, I'd never get anything new done. I just thought this one deserved another shot and that it might make a good portfolio piece.

Original inks for this piece(shown below) are for sale. Just click the button!

inks on 11" x 11" bristol
$40.00 (plus $2 S&H)

PROCESS: Logan

2012-02-12T07:36:00.001-08:00

In the past couple of weeks, I've been asked a couple of times about my process of making a finished piece. I made the above image of my son Logan that I'm going to use for his Valentine's Day Cards for his class party this week, so I thought it'd be a good, simple drawing to show process on.

I start with a pencil drawing... In this case, I should say "pencil" drawing, with the quotes, as I used digital pencils. I made this in a program called Sketchbook Pro. It's not quite the same as doing pencils with actual pencil and paper, but there are other advantages to it as well. I like that there are layers to the program, so I can rough out the "stick and bubble" drawing, then do the final pencils on another layer on top of that and erase the rough layer, leaving me with a lot cleaner pencil drawing to work with.

Next, I print out the pencil drawing, and tape it to my bristol. I did this on 9 x 12 Strathmore bristol, and put it on my light table. I inked with a variety of brush pens and tech pens for a variety of line weights. For those of you who only know about inking from Kevin Smith movies, it's much more than simply tracing pencils. It's where the line weight is added and the drawing is enhanced. I'm not really an inker by trade and am still working on that as part of my skill set, but I can definitely see a big difference between the pencil and ink stage... so can my son Logan, and in this case, that's important. Seen above is the finished inks as they were scanned into my computer.

And this is the finished inks after they have been cleaned up. I take the scan into PhotoShop where I adjust the levels and sharpness, then I set to cleaning up the drawing. I use the paintbrush tool to clean up any stray marks made by the scanner or my wandering pen. I also fill in any spots that are supposed to be black that may have been missed or showing as white. This stage is where I make it a true black and white drawing.

When the inks are ready to go, I start coloring. Many artists color in PhotoShop, as do I from time to time. Mostly though, I use vector based software to color my work. I know that many cartoonists dislike vector work, as it's not as intuitive as they find photoshop and it's generally tougher to use gradients, color variations, etc. I find that it not only suits my style of largely flat colors and shading, but it was a program that, for whatever reason, I took to very naturally. Programs like Adobe Illustrator just click and make sense to me, much more than coloring in Photoshop... but that's just me.

I have lately been coloring in another vector based program called Inkscape, that is open-source vector software. I tend to do colors in 2 stages. First up, I do that flat colors, seen above.

And next, I add shading. I put the shadows on their own layer, so I can edit it easier. I tend to use a gray-blue tone set on "Multiply" so it becomes a natural shade to whatever color is underneath it, and so the shadows are consistent throughout.

I hope this was interesting and useful to those of you who are interested... please feel free to ask questions and always keep in mind that this is not a definitive method. There's no one way to do anything and what works for me may not be good for you, but still I think there's a value in seeing how different artists and illustrators do things, so I like sharing my process from time to time.

Thanks for checking in and I hope you enjoyed seeing how I work

Sketch'd

2012-02-10T17:22:00.000-08:00

Not much to post this week, as I'm midway through a few projects with nothing much to show for them this week. I thought this might be a good week to show some sketches that I've done. This is stuff I've scribbled at work on random pieces of paper with whatever pen I've got on me. No big deal and nothing earth-shattering, just the stuff I scribble on a day-to-day basis.

Thanks for checking out the scribbles...

The Master of Suspense

2012-02-05T08:25:00.000-08:00

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Suspense". I thought it only fitting that I profile the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. I am a longtime fan of Hitchcock's iconic work and have always thought he earned every letter of that title.

I travelled outside my comfort zone for this one as a did a couple things I don't normally do. First of all, I drew an actual person. I'm not a big likeness artist, and I tend to struggle with making someone look "right", but this one actually came together alright and I think I've captured the essence of Hitchcock... the bird on his shoulder doesn't hurt with that either.

Secondly, I did all the shading with markers. I tend to do everything that isn't black digitally, but since this was going to be black and white anyway(it seemed fitting) I decided to make it a finished piece with a couple grayscale markers.

The finished piece is available(with free shipping) on my store page.

Thanks for checking in.

Boot Camp: Week One

2012-01-29T18:45:00.000-08:00

For this week's Illustration Friday topic of "Forward" I decided to do a comic for the first time. It spun out of the natural enough "Forward... MARCH!!" that sprung into my head when I saw the topic. That lead to memories of USMC boot camp many years ago and the realization that Marine Corps D.I.'s seem during the first few weeks to be like cartoon characters themselves... insane, nightmare-inducing cartoon characters. They are loud, in your face, monstrous beings capable of exploding in your general direction because you're unable to do things that you have not yet been taught... it takes a few weeks to see them as being multi-dimensional beings who really are molding you. This modest 3-page comic is a nod to those terrifying first few weeks.

Thanks for checking it out, and check back in later.

Semper Fi.

NEW Illustration Bundle FOR SALE!!

2012-01-23T15:27:00.001-08:00

Newly added to my store is this piece of awesomeness! It's an Illustration Bundle for my "Ninja vs. Shark" illustration. You can buy it today and get the original pencils, original inks, and an 8" x 10" color print of the final product.

Check out the listing and
BUY IT HERE

Preparation

2012-01-16T17:36:00.000-08:00

I'm jumping back into the Illustration Friday groove this week with this one for the topic of "Prepare". This guy is doing his best to make preparations for winter by storing food in his pantry... For a different perspective on this, my 8-year-old son looked at it and said "This should be called 'Defend Your Nuts'." And that's what you get from the youngest sibling who has 2 Middle School aged brothers...

Ninja vs Shark

2012-01-10T16:12:00.000-08:00

This is a battle that will determine, once and for all, who is the perfect killing machine.

Don't ask questions, just let it be fun...

Three Blind Mice

2012-01-08T17:12:00.000-08:00

I'm starting this new year off with plans to do a whole pile of new drawings of all kinds. The plan is soon I'll have a good crop of illustrations to pick new portfolio pieces from. I'm looking to put together some good samples and really start going after some freelance work this year.

The first piece for that is this one... It's pretty self explanatory in coming from the nursery rhyme, I just wanted to have a little fun with a simple concept, and I definitely accomplished that. This was good to work on and it helped that I got notes from my eight year old son along the way.

Flying Kick

2011-12-27T15:50:00.001-08:00

After a short hiatus from my blog that I took to run around town like a lunatic for a straight two weeks before Christmas, I'm back to post some new stuff on the blog. I enjoyed my Christmas weekend and had a great time with my wife and kids. This has been a year to be thankful that I have a job, that it supports a great family, and that they share a love for cool ninja drawings like this one.

Really this is a fun sketch that I (slightly) refined and turned into a full color piece, specifically for the blog. I haven't been on much of a regular schedule lately, so I wanted to make sure I posted something that would look cool up here.
This character is actually not a new one of mine. I actually have a short comic starring him drawn and inked, I just need to dig out the pages and finish up colors and get it posted. It's on my to-do list for the coming months.

Thanks for checking in and come back often. I'll be busy, but I'll be better about making a point of posting regularly.

Crazy Viking

2011-12-13T17:31:00.001-08:00

Don't know why I'm on such a kick of drawing handlebar mustaches this month, but I'm having a good time doing it. I think since it's such an outrageous feature, it adds a lot of flair to a character and makes them more fun by default. I gave one to Santa a couple weeks ago, and now this loco barbarian gets one too.
I was torn on this one as to whether or not to color it. I really do like the original inks only version. I may frame it for my studio.

Safari

2011-12-05T17:17:00.000-08:00

This week I've been drawing rhinos because... well, I guess just because they're fun, monster-like real-life animals to draw. So I was just pencil sketching rhinos, for warm-up and practice sketches and at the same time, I was trying to think of something to draw for the blog this week... yeah, I missed the obvious for a little bit.

So here's the result: A guy in over his head on safari, running for his life from a pissed off Rhino. Simple and fun, just how I like to do it.

Santa

2011-11-29T17:41:00.001-08:00

I guess what I'm doing here is acknowledging that we're officially into the Christmas season... I know that in the retail/radio station/tv commercial sense, we've been in this season since the end of summer, but I don't pay attention to that until I'm done with my leftover turkey sandwiches from Thanksgiving...

I actually find Santa to be a fairly cool character to explore from a cartooning point of view. He's fairly simple in terms of design, but you can do a lot in terms adding your own style into it when you draw him.

Below is the pencil and the ink versions of this drawing. I did the colors in some open source vector software called Inkscape... Not the most intuitive program ever, but I did get the job done, and it'll work until I can get a new copy of Illustrator. Maybe Santa'll hook me up this year...

Mom's Backyard Zoo for Kindle

2011-11-25T14:27:00.000-08:00

"Mom's Backyard Zoo", the children's book written by Susan Ferris and illustrated by me, is now available in electronic form for your Kindle. If your kids are anything like mine, they're more than capable of running a Kindle, or tablet and will be able to enjoy this book digitally as well.

Susan did some great work with this book and crafted a great story poem. It was a lot of fun for me to do drawings for this story and I think that comes across. It's a great fun story that kids will have a great time with, so download it here:

http://www.amazon.com/Moms-Backyard-Zoo-ebook/dp/B006C15TX4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1322245334&sr=8-2

or you can buy a traditional book version of this story in my store that is signed by Susan and myself and includes a one of a kind sketch by me.

Peace Offering

2011-11-23T17:57:00.000-08:00

"Peace Offering" is a drawing that I started probably a year ago and never finished. I got all the way to having it colored and shaded and went to do revisions on it... and never finished it. Something about it just didn't fit right. I think all in all, I knew I was capable of doing better work than that. So I put it away and moved on.

Early this week, I got a hair up my backside and decided to completely redraw that illustration. I changed it a little bit, all for the better I hope, and I was right. I think that, aside from the fact that I've improved overall from a year ago, this is just more of what I am capable of instead of the older version, which was me pretty much phoning it in.

Overall, I'm glad to see this piece come out well, but I'm even more encouraged that I am able to spot when I'm doing sub-par work and can call "B.S." on myself and demand that I do better work. That's good news since I'm the only one who can force improvement upon myself.

Flying Dog

2011-11-14T17:51:00.000-08:00

Why would a dog need a jetpack?

So he could chase clouds that look like cars.

Don't try and make sense out of it, just let it be fun...

Break the Silence

2011-11-14T05:40:00.000-08:00

Back to Illustration Friday this week with the theme of "Silent"... I took the theme and basically ran the other way with it with this, called "Break the Silence". Looks like there's a monk who has absolutely had it with his vow of silence. I've got a feeling that the vow to remain celebate will be the next to go once the groupies start flocking to him...

Thanks for checking in.

Officer Jack O'Lantern

2011-11-01T16:39:00.000-07:00

This old-timey Irish flatfoot is my last Halloween drawing of this year... I modelled this character after my brother(who is a cop) carved a cop pumpkin for the holiday: a giant orange head with a mustache and sunglasses carved into it. Hilarity in gourd form.

This was just a quick character piece I knocked out after seeing it, and I thought I'd share it here. Hope you enjoy.

Thanks for checking in.

the Headless Showboat

2011-10-30T10:58:00.000-07:00

Illustration Friday's topic this week is "Scary"... I'm not sure if this version of the Headless Horseman, being a bit of an obnoxious showboat, qualifies for being scary, but it's my entry nonetheless.

I went back to doing a lot of what I enjoy, being bold, flat colors and shading and I think as a straight character drawing, it turned out pretty well. I had a good time doing this and hope it adds to your Halloween in the way it should: just the spirit of fun that this season is all about.

Inked with various brush pens and tech pens. Colored in Photoshop.

Thanks for looking, and check back often.

Happy Halloween!

Fuel

2011-10-23T16:23:00.000-07:00

If you want to fly through the entire solar system and beyond, you're gonna have to have enough "Fuel", and that's what Illustration Friday is all about this week. Why wouldn't an alien gas station attendant be crazy similar to the ones we have here on Earth?

I've been working a lot in straight black and white lately and am really enjoying it. It really kind of began as a way for me to get more work turned around and posted quickly, but more and more, I'm enjoying exploring the best ways to balance the inks with the blank page... which areas get filled in with blacks, which stay open? What are the best ways to distribute weight throughout the page? It adds a necessity in having to plan your drawing a little more, than just saying: "I'll make that work with colors".

Thanks for checking in.

Fat Mummy

2011-10-19T03:20:00.000-07:00

Why is there a Fat Mummy on my blog, you ask? Because they are the kind of monster that suits me. Fat, slow, easy to outrun... Apparently this guy's been sitting around for awhile.

I drew this two nights ago, and colored it yesterday. I was about to post it to my blog when the rain came down super hard and my back porch flooded, but that's a story for another day...

"Clever Girl"

2011-10-17T12:20:00.000-07:00

"Clever Girl" is my tribute to Robert Muldoon... No, not the game warden of Jurassic Park, but my brother and sister-in-law's cat whom they named after said game warden. Yes, once I figured out that they did NOT name him after the former Prime Minister of New Zealand and that he was named after a character in a great movie/book, I jumped all over the bristol and threw some ink down.

Here are the pencils of this piece. I did these in Sketchbook Pro before printing them out to be gone over in bristol. This was a lot of fun because I got to do a fun and slightly off-center tribute to a great movie and a great scene in that film. Thanks Eric and Jenny for giving your cat an inspiring name for me to play around with.

Rabbit Hole Animation

2011-10-09T12:14:00.000-07:00

I'm not an animator by trade or even wannabe status, but I do love cartoons and enjoy messing around with basic animations like this from time to time. I spent a few minutes this afternoon sketching through a pencil test and making this short animation. Hope you enjoy it.

The video can also be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52YYlEDfnoU

Digital Inking

2011-10-06T17:43:00.000-07:00

I've recently purchased a cheap Wacom Bamboo tablet for drawing online. I've really taken to doing some pencil work in Sketchbook Pro, and I like doing that a lot. It's easy, intuitive, and great for doing thumbnail sketches and pencilled work. I've had a tougher time with digital inking though... Today I got and downloaded Manga Studio Debut and it's the best time I've had digitally inking so far. I tested it with this drawing of one of my standby characters... He's like a beta testing redneck for me.

Manga Studio has a lot of the elements I love in vector work and am still able to work intuitively with a tablet. I am still going to do inks traditionally as well, but I look forward to working this way as well.

Hibernation

2011-10-02T21:40:00.001-07:00

This week I found myself falling into a spot of dumb luck--which is how most of my luck happens. This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Hibernate" and it lends itself to a follow up on what I did last week.

This week we find the outcome of that fateful standoff, with the Norwegian barbarian helping the bear into an early hibernation. Another weak tie-in with the illustration friday topic, or pure genius? You decide...

This week, I did all of my pencil work digitally in Sketchbook Pro with my bamboo tablet. I love the software and think it's a great way to do your concept sketches and pencil work. I made it to size, then printed it out on a couple sheets of paper.

I put my pencils under a piece of bristol on my poor man's lightbox and did the ink work. This is new for me, but I really liked it because at the end of the inking, I had no need to erase, no ghosted pencil lines, no non-photo blue lead, no ink lifted off the page by an eraser, no distressed bristol from having to be tough with an eraser on a pencil line. There was nothing but pure black and white ink on bristol, and there's a real appeal to that.

Thanks for looking and check back soon.

Onstage

2011-09-25T16:12:00.000-07:00

Another sketch I kicked out this weekend... I'm playing around with this character quite a bit lately and am enjoying it a lot. Here he is living out a dream of his, shredding his banjo onstage with a stark bright light pulling him out of the darkness...

Thanks for looking, and check back often.

the Stand Off

2011-09-25T09:25:00.000-07:00

This week, we find a "Stand Off" between a Viking warrior and a bear... Why? Because they're both Ferocious... an admittedly shaky tie-in to this week's Illustration Friday topic of "Ferocious"

Who would win this contest, I wonder. The Chicago football fan in me, picks the Bear, hands down, but my Norwegian bloodline has to put my krones on the barbarian warrior...
the original inks. They were done with a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen on 11" x 14" bristol. The original inked drawing is available for sale here:

http://philrood.bigcartel.com/product/the-stand-off-original-inks

One of my original idea sketches for this... A few minor changes, like losing the Viking's helmet horns and adding the braid... other than that, it mostly stayed the same.

Vacation Sketches

2011-09-21T13:56:00.000-07:00

I've been off of the map for the past couple weeks, and that's because I've been on vacation. I've not fallen off the planet, been lost at sea, labotomized by damned dirty apes, abducted by aliens, or not drawing, I've simply taken a couple weeks off the internet and worked on some other things. I've been planning some future projects, finishing pencilling/inking other ones, thumbnailing, and sketching, sketching, sketching. Following is a short gallery of some of the sketches I made while on my trip to the midwest. Barbarians, hillbillies, wildlife and pirates populate the gallery.

All sketches are done on bristol with a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen

Mesmerized

2011-09-20T17:40:00.000-07:00

I am in the process of switching to some new equiment, trying some new software, switching to a new computer, and tweaking my process slightly to compensate for all of this... the result of all of this on this post is that my work is sans-color for the moment. No worries though, be Mesmerized by the black and white glory of this week's Illustration Friday entry.

My redneck is back this week, entrancing the creatures of the woods with his banjo genius and enticing them to follow him, like a hillbilly Pied Piper, St. Patrick, or a beer truck on a hot Florida day...

Talk Like A Pirate Day 2011

2011-09-18T16:35:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, September 19th, is International Talk Like a Pirate Day... It's only the greatest day on the high seas(...and dry land) that the world has ever known!

Seriously, it's a fun day.

In keeping with the traditional ways of this day, I created another Talk Like a Pirate Day poster this year. Again, this year's poster features(and was created for) Captain Amy, the feared lady pirate and she-booter of the high seas. New to the poster this year, is the Pirate Cat Aaarrlene.

Past year's posters are shown below.

2009

2010

So grab a mug of grog and a bottle of rum... sing "Yo Ho Ho" and bury some treasure. Make someone you hate at work walk the plank, or simply fire a cannon into their face. Whatever you do, make sure you have a Jolly Good Day.

Cool as Ice

2011-09-06T12:58:00.000-07:00

Vanilla Ice... A talentless novelty act? Yes. A shining example of how out of touch the music industry is? Absolutely. A walking punchline? Without a doubt. A human cartoon character? Look at the above picture, and you tell me.

All of this came together after one of my sisters, one of my brothers, their spouses and I sat down to watch the cinematic masterpiece "Cool as Ice" a couple days ago. What followed was 90 minutes of brutal heckling of one of the worst movies that has ever wasted the time of an entire film crew... Unintentionally hilarious, I suggest you watch this cine-turd with some friends and write your own jokes all the way through.

One thing that struck me about Vanilla Ice throughout the movie was how much he looked like a cartoon character. The ridiculous hair, the wierd clothes, his not-quite-lifelike facial expressions and his inability to be tongue-in-cheek about how bizarre and ridiculous he is... What followed was me sketching out the essence of what I saw in this one-dimensional freakshow, complete with what has to be the worst line in the entire movie...

Inks were done with a Pentel pocket brush pen and colors were done in Photoshop

Disguise

2011-08-28T13:07:00.000-07:00

I'm back on board the Illustration Friday train again this week, albeit without color. I've got a few personal projects I'm working on, plus I'm getting ready to go on vacation, but I really wanted to participate in I.F. this week, so I decided to throw down a black and white ink sketch instead of a fully colored drawing.

I never understood why a pair of glasses was able to keep everybody in Metropolis from discovering who Superman really was. Maybe it's a better disguise than I gave it credit for...

Thanks for checking in, and check back in often

KO'd

2011-08-15T14:50:00.000-07:00

This is one for Illustration Friday's topic of "Swell" for this week. I really got into a groove inking this one and ended up really happy with the final inks(below) Coloring was a challenge to this one, not because of the work of coloring, but instead for finding time to get it done. I have spent most of this weekend running around in circles getting things ready for my son's 8th birthday today. I finally managed to finish the coloring after baking and frosting the cake... which I can't wait to eat.

the original inks of this piece are available for purchase here: http://philrood.bigcartel.com/product/ko-d-original-ink

Thanks for looking, and check back often

Sarah

2011-08-07T18:29:00.001-07:00

Lately, I haven't been participating in Illustration Friday as much as I'd like because of a few projects I've had going on. Aside from my ever-present and ever-growing list of personal projects that I do for myself, I've actually had some work-for-hire jobs happening. One of them is here, a drawing of a cousin's daughter, Sarah.

The above drawing is my attempt at a caricature of her. I'm not a traditional caricature artist, and I found it to be a unique art form full of its own unique challenges... I kept trying to go for the features of a "standard" caricature, but in the end, it's simply a cartoon drawing in my style. Not bad, just a bit different than what I'm used to.

Also, because Sarah likes horses so much, I made an ink and marker sketch for her. This is something I took considerably less time on, but I had a ton of fun doing it.

More updates on work for hire and personal projects are coming soon, as well as--I hope-- a return to Illustration Friday posts.

Thanks for looking, and check back often.

Obsessed or Oblivious?

2011-08-01T06:20:00.000-07:00

After a couple weeks away from Illustration Friday, I jumped back into it this week with the topic of "Obsession". Let this odd image be a cautionary tale about being so obsessed with something that you miss it altogether when it's right there... but enough with the lesson.

In drawing out the character, I knew I wanted a "nerdy" kid as the protagonist. I've been reading a lot of '60s era Spider-Man lately and I realized that this kid is very similar to that era's Peter Parker. As a result, I thought it would be fitting to use an old school color palatte to finish this piece off.

Thanks for looking, and check back often

Baby Kahuna

2011-07-12T16:52:00.001-07:00

This is a character I created this weekend when I was in Fort Lauderdale sitting on the beach. He was inspired by me putting my sunglasses on my youngest son and looking back from the ocean at him. He was sitting on the beach with his boogie board stuck in the sand behind him and my shades, which looked huge on his little head. The rest resulted in a fun weekend of sketching and tweaking character designs and finishing the piece when I got home.

Thanks for checking it out and check back often

The Remedy

2011-07-05T17:43:00.000-07:00

"Remedy" is this week's Illustration Friday topic and this guy's got one... It's the Miracle Elixer that's the cure for whatever ails you, and he's gonna make sure you know all about it.

This one hit me yesterday afternoon, so I broke out some bristol and pencils and set about sketching it out. I gave it some weight with my brush pen(check out the inks below) and gave it a quick sepia-flavored pass in Illustrator tonight after I was home from the day-job.

Thanks for looking, and check back soon.

Prehistoric Discrimination

2011-07-03T13:03:00.000-07:00

I decided to pass on Illustration Friday this weekend and do a piece that my 10 year old son inspired. We had a conversation about what if wooly mammoths were still alive and living in the Arctic Circle. He said that I knew too much and that the mammoths would come to kill me so they could continue to live in secret, but while they were here, they would start digging the city life and go to dance clubs, etc. After enjoying the inventive mind of my offbeat and awesome son, I filtered it for awhile and came up with this: a dinosaur bar that has bigoted rules towards serving beasts from other prehistoric time periods.

I drew into the wee hours of the night last night. I woke up and jumped right back into it this morning, finishing inks and coloring it so I could post it today.

Don't ask for it to make sense, just let it be fun... and odd.

A Midsummer NIght's Stream

2011-06-26T15:08:00.001-07:00

My favorite hillbilly makes another appearance for my entry in Illustration Friday this week. The topic this time is "Midsummer Night", hence the title of my drawing. Sure it's probably the shore of a lake or pond that he's sitting on, but that just wouldn't allow me to make such a bad pun now would it?

Thanks for looking and check back in often

Launch

2011-06-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

My entry for Illustration Friday's topic of "Launch". Why a UFO in America's Heartland? Why not? The bigger question is how brave is that one cow that didn't run away from a loud and flashy takeoff like this.

I inked this one completely with a pocket brush pen that I just bought. I really liked using it and that it gave me about as much versatility as a traditional brush. I'll be using that one a lot in the future. Colors were done in Adobe Illustrator.

Thanks for looking and check back real soon.

Jedisaurus

2011-06-20T12:17:00.000-07:00

This drawing was done for my brother. It's him being chased by a dinosaur with lightsabers on Mars... Don't ask questions, just have fun with it.

One for the Books

2011-06-06T05:38:00.000-07:00

This is one of the great jobs I've ever done for somebody. This is a promotional image for a locally owned and operated bookstore called One for the Books. It's a great little store selling new and used books and music as well as stuff for kids like toys and puppets. When I talked to them about carrying "Mom's Backyard Zoo" (which they do) Don--the owner--looked through it and hired me to do this drawing for them. They were great to work for in that they kept me pointed in a direction, weren't afraid to give critiques, and basically let me run with it. It was a great, fun job creating great, fun characters that capture some of our Florida iconography in a cool way.

One for the Books is located at:
3810 Del Prado Blvd

Cape Coral, FL
Check out their website at: http://www.capecoralbooks.com/

If you find yourself in town here, please go in and check out this cool independent bookstore.

The Shadow Knows...

2011-06-05T20:27:00.000-07:00

This week's Illustration Friday topic of "Shadows" led me to do an interpretation of an old pulp character: The Shadow. This was a lot of fun trying to capture this character, keeping him dark and shadowy, but still trying to keep him in my style, which tends to be lighter and more fun. The bright red on the inside of his cape and scarf helped and I can see the appeal of it in the original character design, as it adds a lot of good contrast to the image.
original ink and pencil scan

cleaned up inks

Thanks for looking and check back soon

Asleep

2011-05-30T10:58:00.000-07:00

After batting around a hundred versions of somebody putting a sleeping person's hand in a bowl of water for this week's Illustration Friday topic("Asleep"), I thought of this and ran with it. I don't know why I had so much fun picking on Rent-a-Cops for this drawing, but I did. Again, I went with simplicity in terms of background and color palatte, and I think the illustration is better for it. I'm finding that a more monochromatic color scheme holds a lot of advantages, and draws the eye in its own way.

Thanks for looking and please check back soon

Soaked

2011-05-22T21:22:00.001-07:00

Not much to my post this week, except to say that, even though I've been pretty short of time in the past week or so, I made a point to sit down with some bristol and some tools to make this for Illustration Friday's topic of "Soaked" this week. I usually prefer to make my own characters for a topic, but I went the fan art route this week with a couple of X-Men, because it just seemed to perfect to pass up.

I kept the layout simple, and after pencils and inks, I did a rushed cleanup(which missed a lot and left the drawing still looking a bit rough around the edges) and a quick pass at colors in Illustrator. Everything I used for colors here was on a single palatte of swatches(Neutral). It is pretty rough and tumble looking, but I really do think the sketchiness(is that even a word?!) really adds to the charm of this one.

Thanks for checking in, and come back soon to see what's new.

BIONIC ED

2011-05-16T13:11:00.000-07:00

This is Bionic Ed... who is really my wife's 99 year old grandfather. He fell last week and broke his hip and shoulder and had to have surgery right away to replace them, and a robotic arm seemed about right to me... Very superheroic, and that's fitting. In real life, Ed fought the Nazis in WWII and played a role in helping to liberate France. He was wounded in battle, recovered and carried on through a long career in the US Army and settled into his role as patriarch of a huge family that carries with it a carnival-like atmosphere. He's a great man, and this is my(admittedly ridiculous) way of paying tribute to him and wishing him a fast recovery.

(side note: Ed was also a cartoonist for the school magazine when he attended West Point)
Get well soon Col. Ferris

Free Sketch With Book Order

2011-05-11T12:50:00.000-07:00

Right now, if you order "Mom's Backyard Zoo" from my etsy store, you'll recieve a one of a kind ink sketch of a character from the book for FREE. It's a bonus and a way for Susan and I to thank you for supporting our work.

Order a book from my etsy store here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/73732664/moms-backyard-zoo?ref=pr_shop

Here's just a couple of examples of sketches that are ready to ship out with book orders

Thanks for checking this out and for your support

Check back soon!

Music Lesson

2011-05-02T13:49:00.001-07:00

No, that kid's not drinking moonshine... not now anyway. He's getting a music LESSON(this week's Illustration Friday topic) from his dad. Yes, I brought back the hillbilly rock star who has become one of my favorite characters of mine in the past few weeks, and I was happy to create and introduce his boy for this drawing. I wanted to take some more time with this one, but the time seemed to slip away from me this weekend. Add in some other projects, and you get a piece that I did so quickly that I even forgot to sign it.

My original scan, shown below, also tells you that time was a factor. You can see that I had plotted in a background originally, but I opted to not ink that in and simply focus on the subjects of this drawing.

Thanks for checking in and be sure to check back soon.

Toto's Escape

2011-04-24T15:38:00.001-07:00

Don't tell me that you're not hearing that music in your head right now. That music that told you that that mean old Miss Gulch was on her bicycle coming to take Dorothy's dog away. That's how I tied into this week's Illustration Friday topic of "Bicycle". I specifically chose the moment that Toto busted out of that maximum security restraint device called a picnic basket and ran back home to Dorothy.

I had a lot of fun with this, though I did find some frustration in drawing a bicycle. Drawing any kind of vehicle seems to bring its own kind of frustration with it. Coloring this piece was pretty fun though. I felt I had to color it in the sepia tones of that part of the movie, since color played such an important symbolic part of that film.

Here are the original inks of this piece, before coloring it in Adobe Illustrator. I know a certain little girl in Illinois who will be finding this in her mail box this week.

Thanks for looking this week, and check back often for more.

Living on the Edge

2011-04-19T17:03:00.000-07:00

"Living on the Edge" is my answer to this week's Illustration Friday topic of "Journey". The dude in this drawing is definitely on a journey to the top of his mountain, it's just not clear whether or not he'll actually make it there, or if he'll be back at his base camp in just a few short seconds.

A fun piece to work on, I think my favorite thing was the mountain goat. I was very happy with the way he turned out, looking not quite sure about what the spastic guy on the edge of the cliff is doing.

Check out my original inks too, posted below.

Thanks for checking out my post, and be sure to check back soon.

Mom's Backyard Zoo

2011-04-17T17:33:00.000-07:00

This week I'm happy to have some good news to report about an illustration project that I've spent the past year working on. This weekend I got the news that a book that I illustrated is up for sale on Amazon. This book is illustrated by Susan Ferris and is a rhyming story about a boy and his brothers and the animals that they find and behave like in their own yard. It was an insanely fun story to illustrate. This is Susan and my first collaboration and publication and we're very excited to have it up for sale.

The book is available here:

http://www.amazon.com/Moms-Backyard-Zoo-Susan-Ferris/dp/1461000955/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1303062895&sr=1-1

Thanks for checking it out and please pass the link along. We're depending a lot on word of mouth to publicize this book, so we really appreciate your help with that.

Check back often

Duet

2011-04-04T12:22:00.001-07:00

This week's Illustration Friday theme was "Duet" and I couldn't think of anyone more fitting to be in my drawing for this than a character from last year who got a lot of attention on my blog. My eccentric Appalacian rock star that I created last year to showcase a rare, double-necked banjo: http://philrood.blogspot.com/2010/07/double.html

I had to give this guy a buddy, so it could fit the duet theme, so I strived to make another interesting looking character, who is apparently in need of some sleeves... and a belt.

I'm also psyched to be posting this guy again this week, because it's my brother Joe's birthday, and the original drawing this guy was in was one of Joe's favorite ones that I've done. Happy Birthday Joe, see I didn't forget your present.

Here's the original inks for the piece.

Thanks for checking everything out this week, and check back soon.

Wisdom(?)

2011-03-28T14:27:00.000-07:00

"Wisdom" is a drawing I've spent the past week or so working on for an important client that I happen to be married to. I drew an owl for a recent book I've illustrated(details coming soon), and my wife remarked how much she liked the way I drew them from various sketches and the final product. Finally she asked for a full color drawing of an owl, and I came up with this one. Sort of an "odd couple" of birds, with a crazy one, and the grumpy one. You know the types that get paired together...

I had a lot of fun putting this one together from the ground up. The inks on bristol(below) were a bit time consuming, but fun nontheless. The challenging part for me is always coloring these pieces, and finding just the right palatte. I think I got it right on this one with cool, monochromatic scheme with just enough to break it up, like the orange eyes.

Thanks for looking. Let me know what you think and check back often.

Yo Yo Monkey

2011-03-28T11:15:00.001-07:00

For Illustration Friday's "Toy" topic this week, I went with a classic: the yo yo. I also went with a face we've seen before in this blog in my acrobat monkey character. I first used this guy last fall for the "Acrobat" topic: http://philrood.blogspot.com/2010/09/acrobat.html

I don't necessarily set out to make recurring characters or anything like that, but if there's another place where something I've created would fit nicely, I don't see any reason to not use it again, and that was the case here...

The original drawing of this guy is one of my favorites and I got some good feedback, so it was good to be able to find a place for him again. Maybe I'll start looking for more places to put this guy.

Thanks for looking, and check back soon.

Cultivate

2011-03-21T06:15:00.001-07:00

This week's topic of "Cultivate" somehow got me around to the classic story of "Jack and the Beanstalk". I've never really known when and where this story is supposed to be set, but in my head, Jack seemed to naturally fit the profile of a Depression-era farmboy, so that's how I drew him. His exression was important to me to get right too. I wanted him to be amazed that his beans actually were magic, despite his being gullible enough to buy them on faith.

Here's the cleaned up inks of this drawing, and below is the original scan, which is for sale HERE

Check it out and the other posters/drawings in my store, and contact me with any questions.

Thanks for checking out this post and check back often for more.

Wolverine

2011-03-20T06:53:00.000-07:00

This drawing of Wolverine is one I did about a month ago, when I was first experimenting with blending traditional inking techniques with vector coloring for my illustration work. I found it worked well and scanned in the original Micron inks to color in Adobe Illustrator. Then, I took the inks and finished them with grayscale brush pens to make the piece of original art seen at the top of this post.

This original art is for sale here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/70410559/wolverine

Thanks for looking and checking out my art for sale. Check back often for new posts

Morning

2011-03-13T13:57:00.000-07:00

This week's blog entry is all about what I look like as I emerge from the sleep in the A.M. I'm tying it into the Illustration Friday topic of "Stir" this week. Even though I drink black coffee without sweetener like a good Norwegian, I portrayed myself as stirring my early morning life support system.

Also, as side note: Before I'm criticized for not having enough life in this drawing and making myself look flat and mostly dead, I've got to point out that this is entirely accurate to what I feel like most mornings.
This is the inked version of the piece, before I colored it in Adobe Illustrator.

Thanks everyone for checking this out and check back in soon.

WARNING! WARNING!

2011-03-07T03:56:00.000-08:00

"Danger Will Robinson! Danger!" How could I resist the Lost in Space Robot for this week's Illustration Friday topic of "Warning"?! I used to watch reruns of this show when I was a kid, and even though I recognized it as being a bit cheesy, I liked it. It had some good characters throughout the show, Robot here being second only to Dr. Smith. It's not surprising that they were also the only two good things about that horrible movie adaptation that was made a few years back.

For those of you whose first exposure to a boy finding a friend in a cold unfeeling robot was Terminator 2, you should know that Lost in Space did if first. This guy was there as a servant to the Robinson family, but he usually went off with Will Robinson, the boy genius of the show, and served as his protector and friend, all without an ounce of emotion. It was actually a well written character.

This was a great deal of fun, but I also found it to be a bit frustrating as well. Trying to get those dryer vent arms right on this guy was tough, and to some degree, they ended up a bit messier than I would have liked them to be. In the end though, I don't think this is bad and I post it as tribute to one of the great forgotten characters of all time.

Thanks for looking and check back often. I've got news on projects as well as new items coming up for sale soon.

Yes, I'm Still Here...

2011-03-06T16:11:00.000-08:00

Yes, it really HAS been that long since I've done a new blog post, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working, and this piece here is proof of that. This is a drawing I did for a friend of mine, Mr. Anton Zanker (that's him frozen in the carbonite). You can check out my fellow cartoonist's work here: http://antoonsiscool.blogspot.com/

His work is very cool and he has a definite style all his own, I highly suggest you check it out.

This piece is also pretty important to me as it publicly marks a change in my process. I have been doing most of my work completely vector, but now I'm switching the way I do my linework to working with traditional inks. Though this way is not as familiar to me, I am working hard to get better at it and am encouraged by my slow, but sure progress that I've made so far. I've been working with a nib and brush, as well as some tech pens.

I've kept to working in Illustrator to do my coloring. It seems to work well, not only because it's a program that I am very familiar with, but also because I tend to prefer working with flat colors and flat shadows. Overall, the blend of raster inks and vector colors is one that seems to work well for me.

Thanks for looking and being patient in waiting for a new post. More will follow, both with Illustration Friday and with a new project that I have been up to my neck in for the past month or so. Stay tuned and I'll keep you posted on all of that.

Doc Ock to the Rescue

2011-01-31T07:37:00.000-08:00

I've been off the grid again lately, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been working. This is one of the projects that I've been chipping away at in the past couple weeks. Sketch Magazine is holding a contest to draw a villain performing a heroic act. I drew Doctor Octopus from the Spider-Man comics rescuing a cat from a tree and entered it. While this may seem like a very minor heroic act, keep in mind that it's all relative. I wanted to make him look pretty old school, with that ridiculous haircut and costume and his obvious thickness, but I like the more contemporary arms and claws that come from the movie and the newer comics, so I worked those in as well. All in all, I think it turned out pretty well.

In other news, I've finished interior pages to a book I've been illustrating for author Susan Ferris. More to come on that later (hopefully soon) as we get closer to publishing. This has been a fun and exciting project to work on and Susan has been a great author to work for as well. She has been patient with me and given me pretty much free range creative control over the book's drawings and how it will look. It's been a really positive experience and has me looking forward to doing more along these lines.

Thanks for looking and check back soon... I'll try and update you more often.

Winter

2010-12-26T10:05:00.000-08:00

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Winter" and it's one I had to make time to do. Living in Florida, a "real" winter is something I miss from living up north, but our hero this week reflects what most Northerners seem to be feeling about winter weather: The need to run away from it. Enjoy the drawing while you hide inside your houses from the winter weather.

DISCLAIMER:
We here at Phil Rood Illustration do not endorse hitchhiking by anyone. We acknowledge that it is an illegal and highly dangerous way for anyone to travel, be they man, woman, child or snowman.

Mail

2010-12-19T07:32:00.001-08:00

As if our Postal Service workers weren't taxed enough at this time of year, they've got this guy to deal with. For Illustration Friday's theme of "Mail", along with my being a dog person(that is a person who likes dogs, not some weird kind of dog-man hybrid) I went the dog vs. mailman route. This shows the aftermath of what appears to be a legitimate hell hounds smiling and triumphantly holding his trophy after defending his territory from letter carriers.

This was a lot of fun and felt great to do a quick turnaround for IF. Check out my admittedly rougher than usual pencil version below.
Thanks for looking and have a great Holiday Season.

Prehistoric

2010-12-06T12:21:00.000-08:00

Who could stay away from Illustration Friday with a topic like this? Prehistoric: the options are so wide open I almost skipped the entry this week for the inability to settle on any one thing. Finally I just settled on an annoyed T.Rex and the pteradactyl that seems to be mocking him flying overhead.

Thanks for looking and checking out both my pencil version and the final product above. Check back often for updates to my blog.

Burning

2010-11-15T05:27:00.000-08:00

This week marks my return to Illustration Friday after a busy few weeks which have yielded no posts. I've been busy with a couple bigger projects and have drifted away from IF for the past couple weeks. This week's challenge, "Burning", along with a need to update the blog and get the Halloween posts (cool as they are) off the top of my page, brought me back to it.

Burning... it offers so many possibilities to someone who likes drawing giant robots, monsters, explosions and aliens. Naturally, I settled on drawing a hobo and his dog, huddled around the campfire. I thought it would be a cool character piece and it proved to be fun to do.

Here's my original pencil sketch that rolled into the final draft. Not much changed in between, everything just got tighter, as it should be.

Thanks for looking and please check back often.

Territorial

2010-10-25T05:55:00.001-07:00

Every canine, no matter if it starts off as a human or not, is territorial. That's the basis for the Halloween drawing for today. Makes sense doesn't it? He's out prowling and leaping around, dog-like and bloodthirsty, and then he sees a fire hydrant. Well there's other dogs in the neighborhood, right? He's gotta show them who that block belongs to, right? Add to that the frustration of having to clean up his own dog's mess when he's in human form, and yeah, you've got a Werewolf who's gotta show the dogs who's in charge. Plus, I thought it'd be funny.

Thanks for checking in and please check in again. I'm gonna try and get at least one more Halloween themed drawing posted this week.

FIRE BAD!!

2010-10-24T05:50:00.000-07:00

Is it Frankenstein's Monster against a Mob of Angry Villagers, or is it a grumpy old man screaming at no good trick-or-treaters to stay off of his lawn?

Monster drawings are one of the best things about Halloween, so I'm trying to take advantage this year and do a couple extras for the blog. I'm likely skipping Illustration Friday this week, so I can get another Halloween pictures done as well as some comic work.

I was definitely inspired by the Hulk for this one, showing Frankenstein's monster as a huge, massive creature and, more importantly, showing how feared he is. I know that the Hulk was inspired partly by Frankenstein, and I think these characters are sort of kindred spirits. Frankenstein's Monster was great for that, setting a stage for many odd looking, misunderstood characters in literatrure, movies, and comics for years to come.

Thanks for taking the time to check this one out. Please check back often for new posts.

My Productive Vacation Comes to a Close

2010-10-18T14:59:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow marks the end of my vacation and my return to my day job. For 2 weeks, I've been travelling, drawing, sleeping(still not enough) and unwinding from punching clock and driving truck to pay the bills. It's been a great bundle of time off though and, as you can see by the top of my art desk, I've gotten alot done. A bunch of Illustration Friday drawings, some watercolors pieces, a few comic pages and some pencil drawings for some soon-to-come Halloween pieces. Add in that I took some "me" time to play video games and watch the first season of Dexter, and I've had a pretty sweet vacation. Back to work now...

Spoooooky!

2010-10-15T18:32:00.001-07:00

I love this time of year, closing in on Halloween. I'm not a slasher movie fanatic (love old John Carpenter movies though), and I'm not one of those guys who dresses up every year and spends small fortunes and months building the perfect costume for parties and Trick or Treating. Instead I love this time of year for the excuse to draw some darkly fun/scary/monster-themed pictures. Illustration Friday gave me the go ahead this year with their theme this week of "Spooky".

This piece asks who will get the drop on who. Who will scare the already nonexistent life out of whom? Will it be the former nobleman/current ghost occupying the mansion, or Death himself, who's using his homemade old school Halloween (jack o')lantern to look for his buddy. That's what I got out of making this drawing, but my son looked at it and took the Grim Reaper for a trick or treater. I can see that too, so we'll call this a piece of legitimate fine art and leave it up to interpretation.

I thought a lot of what makes this drawing work is the blue tinted color pallatte that I used throughout it. I included the partial line art here to compare it to so you can see the full effect that the colors had on it.

Thanks for checking this one out. I had a great time doing it and I hope you like it as much as I do. Odds are I'll be doing some more Halloween-themed art, so follow my blog and check back in often.

the Timeless Question

2010-10-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

"Do Smoking Robots Need Iron Lungs?" Well, do they?! As philisophical questions go, it may fall short of the one about one hand clapping or that thing about trees falling over and crushing people in the forest and whether or not the people make noise while they're being crushed, but I feel it's a fair question nonetheless.

This blog post is actually a perk of having a little time off for the past couple weeks. I've been able to streamline my deviantart presence, get some overdue work done, and make myself actually seen here on my blog. I was going over a flash drive today with a fine tooth comb and found some older pieces that I didn't even have saved to a hard drive anywhere, just floating around the world imprisoned by a 2 GB Flash Drive. This is one of those drawings.
I made this drawing probably a year or so ago with the intention of making some awesome prints or posters of it. Instead I ended up moving it to the back burner, but it remained one of my favorite pieces. Not for the clever, hipster t-shirt-type of saying I tacked onto it, but I really do like the Photoshop brushwork I did on this to weather the metal of the robot and create the thick smoky haze over the whole atmosphere of this thing. I also love the character I've created here and scribble him across many sketchbook pages as warm up drawings.

The original ink and blueline drawing, seen above, hangs in my 7 year old son's room. It got an odd second look from a friend of mine over the summer who commented on how many of my characters seemed to smoke. I don't know what to make of that, it just seemed worth a mention.

thanks for looking and check back often.

Transportation

2010-10-13T17:15:00.000-07:00

Transportation is the key word for Illustration Friday, and it's fitting, seeing as I've been on the road to the great state of Illinois for the past week and a half. Great trip that I had, it's good to be back in my home studio for getting some work done. It's as simple as falling off of a bike once you get settled into the computer chair again.

I made this cop/stock car driver/relief pitcher looking guy wearing a jet pack as his preferred method of transportation simply because I've always wanted one and was led to believe that we'd have jet packs available to us by now. However, I think I've illustrated here that if we ever were lucky enough to get jet packs, the government would probably screw it all up with a bunch of sucky helmet laws.

I started by doing some character sketches just to get the jist of this guy who kinda looks like my dad and something he'd attempt to build in his garage. I was also trying to settle into some practice for perspective and foreshortening his body. It's never natural or easy for me to draw that way, so I generally need to practice and get into a sort of mind set for it, just to accept the awkwardness and unnatural feel of drawing something like that.

Next I drew this rough draft. It wasn't intended to be the rough draft, but when I got done with it, I wasn't entirely happy with the entire thing, mainly the background and the way the smoke was laid out, so I decided to do one more pencil draft before going digital with it.

This is the final pencil drawing I made of this. Same smiling Earnhart mustache, same super polluting rocket backpack, I just changed the background and made his arms visible. After that I smoothed it all out in Illustrator, colored, shaded and did some finishing details before transporting it onto my blog.

Thanks for looking and please check out the rest of my blog and other pages.

Sara's Oz

2010-10-07T12:21:00.001-07:00

Another dive into the pool full of watercolors as I'm on the road this week resulted in this piece I made for my niece, who is obviously a HUGE fan of The Wizard of Oz. I put her in this drawing, replacing Dorothy, just as I suspect she's always wanted.

While I admit that this painting is not technically as proficient as most watercolors you may have seen, I was happy with the end result in the way everything fell onto the page. I think the composition of this one is very good, with the visual weight pretty evenly distributed. I also used this to practice character and gesture. Everyone know's the Oz characters well enough to know how they should be portrayed in an image. From the goofy brainless Scarecrow to the heartless(and in this case, slightly cynical) Tin Man to the Cowardly Lion and my silly, goofy niece Sara, they're all doing what comes naturally to them here.

Being on the road and away from my work station and work computer has been a good for me in terms of these exercises. I'm stretching my legs outta my comfort zone in order to get done what I want to get done, and that includes some more traditional media like this. I'm still able to pencil some comic pages, but I want to make sure that I keep on using this opportunity to do some different kinds of work too, before I'm back at my desk with my computer giving me guilty looks to get some work done...

Thanks for looking and check back soon.

Beneath

2010-10-06T13:28:00.000-07:00

This week's blog entry is a bit different from what I'm used to putting on here. I've made this week's Illustration Friday entry, "Beneath" in ink and watercolor. I'm away from my home studio and my work computer this week so I initially decided that I wasn't going to do an entry this week. But after getting the idea to draw a troll "beneath" a bridge to illustrate the word, I decided that I could do things in a more old school way. I busted out the Microns, a brush pen and my travelling watercolor pencils and set about scribbling on some bristol. The end result became something I'm pretty satisfied with and I hope you are too.

If interested, the original watercolor piece is available for sale here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/58279980/beneath

Thanks for looking and check back often.

Acrobat

2010-09-19T20:12:00.000-07:00

It's "Acrobat" for this week's Illustration Friday and I ask, who's more of a natural acrobat than a monkey? No one, that's who. High wire acts on unicycles with top hats is something that monkeys are doing in the wild almost as soon as they're born and I'll stand by that statement as long as you promise not to fact check it.

Thanks for checking out my drawing for IF this week and check back often.

Talk Like a Pirate Day 2010

2010-09-19T05:14:00.000-07:00

Today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day, so ye best be participatin' and speakin' like a seafarin' scurvy dog...

Team Resignation

2010-09-13T13:41:00.001-07:00

It's the return of the Phil Rood Illustration Blog with the return of Tricky Dick Nixon. That's right, after a long hiatus, I've actually got a new post to put up this week. I've actually been working for all this time that I haven't been posting, but I've been busy doing projects that are longer term, like a children's book and a web comic. I've been doing less of the single illustrations that generally make up my blog. I've got a couple upcoming posts that are good and will soon make sure I budget some time to get back into the swing of Illustration Friday so I can have new content here almost every week. I also plan to post some preview art for the Jolly Hank web comic that I've been working on for the past couple months. I'm not only working on the comic itself, but have been coding and builiding the website for the comic so I can move it off blogspot onto a format that allows for it to be organized a bit more.

As for this post, this is a drawing and logo design I did for my brother and his race team for the upcoming Rod Blagojevich Never Say Die 500 in Joliet, IL. They are known as Team Resignation and have chosen Mr. Nixon as their team mascot hence the drawing or Tricky Dick in the classic Speed Racer pose.

Thanks for checking in and keep posted on the happenings with Team Resignation as their marathon race approaches by checking in with them here: http://teamresignation.blogspot.com

Double

2010-07-26T16:45:00.001-07:00

Here's my entry for Illustration Friday's "Double" topic this week. The top rock musician in the entire Smoky Mountains and his amazing double-neck banjo. That's bluegrass virtuosity right there. I don't know how I came to settle on this image for this topic, I just wanted to do something you don't see every day, and after about 20 years of going in and out of guitar shops, I've yet to see a double-neck banjo.

Also posted is my original pencil sketch that I used for my template. It's pretty close, but you can see that I originally had scribbled in a double barrelled shotgun as well to keep with the theme. In the end, my pencils for the gun weren't tight enough and I thought it might start cluttering up the whole image too much and taking away from the main focus.

Thanks for looking and check back often.

GIANT

2010-07-05T07:22:00.001-07:00

I had to make time for Illustration Friday this holiday weekend because I liked the topic of "Giant" so much. A GIANT Robot was a natural, maybe even cliche, choice for me to do, but fun is the name of the game and finding a twist on a cliche is always an interesting challenge. The lone cop who stands against impossible odds to keep order and safety in his city is the element that keeps you involved with this piece.

Pencils for this one took me quite awhile because I was pretty meticulous about the perspective. It's only 1 point perspective, so it's not to rigorous, but I still took time to draw grids and measure everything fairly tight. It's still not perfect, but that's the beauty of cartooning, is that there is a margin of error and the pieces of your world do not have to fit perfectly with their real world couterparts.

Thanks for looking, and check back often.

Support ICHS Fine Arts

2010-06-14T12:02:00.000-07:00

This is a drawing I did for a good cause. My old high school's art and music programs have fallen on hard times and are facing some major cuts, and I did this as part of a collection of stories from alumni about the positive effects of arts programs in high school to show the board how important these programs are.

Support your local art and music programs!!

Trail

2010-06-07T17:59:00.001-07:00

This week it's "Trail" for Illustration Friday. I gotta give it up to the late '70s/early '80s as a major influence for this one, not only for the late Silver Age comic book style (back when Marvel and DC weren't afraid to print fun stories about outer space and robots, etc.) but also for the Van Halen guitar inspired color scheme of the spaceship that I didn't realize until it was done. Those who went to high school with me won't be surprised.

Thanks for checking it out, and make sure you look at the line work and original pencil template below.

Thanks for looking and check back often.

Fearless

2010-05-10T11:07:00.001-07:00

After a couple weeks off from Illustration Friday, I return to it this week with me FEARLESSly fighting a giant monster. After slacking off from this for awhile, it's great to get back to this forum where I can have free reign to make something as cool and as fun as I want to. What says that more than giant monster?

I also want to use this post to promote my posters on my etsy site. This month I will be DONATING $2 of every poster sold to the American Cancer Society. Please click on the link below, buy a poster and pass it on. I'm trying to raise a good chunk of change for the ACS and you can help.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/46191988/hey-diddle-diddle-poster

Thanks for checking out my blog, my poster, and helping me spread the word. Check back soon.

Buy a Poster, Support American Cancer Society

2010-05-04T12:03:00.000-07:00

I did some sketch cards earlier this year for an auction to support the American Cancer Society. I recently got some good feedback from a family member who has fought a couple rounds with melanoma. I'm likely to do a commission in the next week or 2, half of the proceeds or which will also go to support the ACS.

It occurred to me that I have a stockpile of Hey Diddle Diddle posters in my studio and decided to make May my month to do what I do for a good cause.

So for the entire month of May, for every poster I sell, I will donate $2.00 to the American Cancer Society. So click the banner at the top of this page, buy a poster and support a good cause.

Best Foot Forward

2010-04-24T15:11:00.000-07:00

This week, in lieu of doing an Illustration Friday assignment to post, I'm putting up a little older piece. I did this one maybe a year or so ago. I'm not a surfer, but I do think surfing is incredibly cool and surf imagery is also. Go look through a surfing magazine and you'll see some very cool action shots of surfers doing amazing things. So that's kind of what inspired me to do this piece. I originally inteded to sell this as a poster print and in the not too distant future, I may still.

Thanks for looking and check back often.

the Detective

2010-04-19T16:38:00.000-07:00

This week's topic for Illustration Friday is "Detective". After taking a couple weeks off from IF, I was happy to jump back in, especially for an opportunity to draw Barb City's best cop again. I found a couple new challenges to doing this one, like the falling snow. It's important to make it present while not letting it take over the drawing.

I also saved all the steps of the process I used to make this and thought I'd lay them out in this post so anyone who's curious can see the steps I went through to make this illustration.

It all starts with a series of idea sketches. When I settle on an idea, I typically do a quick sketch like this one. Not too much detail, it's more along the lines of figuring out proportions, angles and layout of all the elements, as well as sketching in little ideas as sort of visual notes, like the snow. I wanted to make sure I didn't forget that as a finishing touch.

After I'm satisfied that I have the layout and concept pretty well mapped out, I go ahead and make a more detailed pencil drawing. I tend to do a pretty tight drawing at this phase. This is the drawing I'm going to use as a template in Adobe Illustrator, so I want to make sure everything's clear as far as which line to follow and where everything's going to be.

After this drawing is complete I scan it in and place it as a template in Illustrator.

I spend a couple good hours just doing line work. This is the equivelant of doing traditional ink work. This is where I add definition to the lines and let the communicate, and this is where a lot of the depth and detail are added to the final product. It takes a lot of tedious work, but this is kind of where I feel I make or break the drawing.

After the inking and outline step, I go ahead and do all the flat colors of the drawing. I usually do this on a few different layers, underneath the "ink" layer. This makes changes and control over the drawing easier. This is also where I figure out exactly which colors work best. I generally go into a drawing with a good idea of what colors I'm going to use, but the exact shade of each one is up in the air until this step. It can of course change after this as well, but this gives me an important stepping stone towards that.

Finally, I add shadows, highlights and any other details, like snow in this case, for the drawing. This is really what "sells" the drawing for me. I did this particular drawing over the course of this weekend. From start to finish, I'd say I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-12 hours on this one. There is the occasion where that time is spent and the end result just comes up short, but in a case like this, I'd say that it's time well spent.

Thanks for looking and check back soon.

Rescue

2010-03-29T12:44:00.000-07:00

"Rescue" is the theme for Illustration Friday this week. After scribbling out many concepts of traditional heroes swinging on ropes and vines and saving the day for various people in various ways, I decided to let my dog idiot self shine through and show a rescue dog: A tough, yet slightly confused, St Bernard.
Not quite sure where his victim is, he seems determined to find him. He didn't drag that brandy cask out there for nothing.

Thanks for looking, and check back in soon.

Expired

2010-03-22T14:12:00.001-07:00

This week's Illustration Friday topic is: "Expired". The old man here is out of time on his parking meter, among other things. I realize this may be a little bit more morbid than usual, but I did strive to keep it from being to dark or serious with flat, bold colors that add to the pop art fun that I usually have in my work. I did work with a lot of shadows here to add to the darkness, and I was able to employ the use of a solar flare on the Deathmobile. Not something I usually get into using, but I thought it would fit this piece OK, if I was subtle about it.
Thanks for looking, and check back often.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-16T14:21:00.001-07:00

Discover the ugly truth about the origins of Leprechaun Gold

Subterranean

2010-03-14T14:43:00.000-07:00

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Subterranean". Tough to spell, tougher to see in, hence, my wandering blind mole. Pretty fun cartoon to draw, but I did run into some challenges. I like to use flat colors and shading, which is why I work in Illustrator so much, but it does tend to flatten everything, so in this drawing, where I wanted to show a lot of depth in the tunnel, I had to use some other methods to do it, instead of a gradient or the detailed grayscale work you can do in PhotoShop.

You can see on my pencil sketch, that depth is a little easier to come by with pencils and a variation of grays. But the linework also works to show depth, so that's what I used in Illustrator. Not hatching, but simulated brushed ink strokes, climbing up the walls of the tunnel. Along with the different flat colors I used for different sections of the tunnel, and the flat shading, I think it came out pretty well.

Thanks for looking and check back often.

The Streets of Barb City

2010-03-11T15:48:00.000-08:00

I was working on this already and I thought it would also work well with this week's Illustration Friday topic: Brave. This is a tribute to my brother, who is a cop in Northern Illinois and also a big film noir fan.

The original pencil sketch I worked from is below. You can see some elements were changed or left out completely, like the scribbled in cop car in the background and the silhouette of the gunman in the window in the upper left corner. These were left out of the scene, partly for the sake of color.

This incarnation of this characterization of my brother started when I did some artwork for his wedding invitations. It's simple vector linework, but it adds some punch to the invitations and is a lot of fun. It's my brother Joe and his fiance Michelle.

Thanks everyone for looking, and check back soon.

Chris Q

2010-03-01T15:53:00.001-08:00

No that's not Quaker State, it's Chris Q. This is a commission I finished today for someone I work with at my day job. He wanted a cartoon version of himself and I got pretty much free reign on that job.

I'm accepting other commissions right now as well. Prices are reasonable and will vary by the job. Please hit the contact button on my profile page here to email me and put "Commission" in the subject line. Tell me what you'd like and I'll get back to you with a price.

Thanks for looking and come back often

Norwegian Extreme Sports

2010-02-23T12:00:00.000-08:00

Watching the Olympics in the past couple weeks I've been inspired to draw this piece celebrating the biathalon and the Norwegian roots that both the sport and I share. This is a portrayal of extreme sporting Scandanavian style, with giant barbarians with semi-automatic weapons tearing up the course on cross country skis.

Below is the pencil sketch I used for an Illustrator template. It's not as tight as I normally like my pencil drawings to be, but it got me where I was going. It started out a lot tighter than it ended up, but in doing the fur on the coat and boots, as well as the roughness of the Viking beard, the pencils got scribbled a lot. I think it actually benefitted the piece, as it forced some spontaneous work when doing those parts in Illustrator.
Thanks for looking, and check back often

Adrift

2010-02-18T13:30:00.000-08:00

This week's Illustration Friday topic of "Adrift" gave me an opportunity to use my characters of Captain Amy the she-booter and Aarrlene the pirate cat, so I leaped at it. It's a late post this week, being Thursday already, but I'm pretty happy with the end result.

A print of this illustration is being given as a prize this Saturday when I launch my web-comic The Jolly Hank. Check out the details here: http://jollyhank.blogspot.com/2010/02/kicking-off-jolly-hank-with-free-art.html

Along with the print, the pencil sketch I used as an Illustrator template will be awarded.

Thanks for looking, and check back often.

Focused

2010-02-01T08:14:00.000-08:00

Alien Robots have a beam FOCUSED on a building, but a kid nearby is so FOCUSED on keeping his beam of sunlight FOCUSED on an anthill that he doesn't notice. So goes this week's Illustration Friday topic. Fun concept that I had a lot of fun playing with. Brings back memories of being a crappy little kid myself... and having my city attacked by alien robots.

Thanks for looking and check back often

Clumsy

2010-01-24T06:52:00.000-08:00

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Clumsy" and this guy is all about that. He looks like he needs a wireless system, cause he's about to lose all his cool points.

It's a bit more detail than I've worked in a while, but it felt good to dive in and spend time rendering things like frets, strings and tuners in Illustrator, and I'm happy with the end result.

Thanks for looking and check back often.

Wilderness

2010-01-20T06:45:00.000-08:00

"Wilderness" is this week's Illustration Friday topic. A wolf and a bear squaring off over the last available floating piece of ice around. I used a (naturally) cool color palatte but kept it limited to only 5 or 6 colors. I'm finding that favorable over trying to incorporate every possible color under the sun for these pictures. I also limit my gradients, favoring flatter colors and shadows.

Thanks for looking and check back often.

Confined

2010-01-11T10:50:00.000-08:00

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Confined". I decided to do sort of a self portrait of me in a place I've been accused of needing to be from time to time. I really limited my color palatte with this one and I really enjoyed it. It forced me to use light and shadows more to break up the canvas a little more and make it interesting. It's fun to see how interesting you can make something that's a monochromatic color scheme.

Thanks for looking and check back often.

New Prints for the New Year

2010-01-04T15:32:00.000-08:00

I'm starting off the new year by selling some more art. Here's 2 new prints I've put up for sale on my etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/philrood. "Shaolin Monkey" is an idea I took from a recent news story about a man in China who trained monkeys to do tae kwon do as a tourist attraction. All went well until he wasn't paying attention and the monkeys turned on him.

"Tattoo Rhino" is just kind of a random drawing I did last year as something I thought looked pretty cool. It's a favorite of mine, so I thought it might go over well as a print for sale.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/philrood

Thanks for looking and check back soon.

Undone

2009-12-24T18:27:00.000-08:00

I've been off the Illustration Friday grid for a couple weeks due to some family business that's had me on the road. Add to that, the impending doom of the Christmas season, and my time's been a bit short lately.

OK, now that excuses are out of the way, here's my entry for the topic "Undone". Showing that even something as iconic as Frankenstein's monster never would've been done if video game technology had been around.

Santa v. Yeti

2009-12-09T14:49:00.000-08:00

Nothing says "Happy Holidays" like Santa Claus with nunchucks.

Thanks for looking, check back in soon and Have a great Holiday Season!

Poster For Sale

2009-12-02T14:34:00.001-08:00

It's been a long time coming, but my first poster is for sale on etsy. The image seen here is a poster measuring 18" x 24" and would make a great Christmas gift for kids or teachers of young kids. This poster is available for $12 (this includes shipping) and can be purchased at this link:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=35676237

Thank you for looking and check back soon.