Digital art without the color

This week I had two last minute commissions for digital artwork. One was for an invite cover and the other was for t-shirts. This first one was for an accountant who was having a retirement party.

This one came in at a time when I was doing my taxes, so I was in the right mental state for it... I had originally put a calendar with April 14th on it, a bottle of "Pepto" next to him and beads of sweat coming off of his head, but the client made me take those out. So much for trying to be funny... but I guess they wanted him to look like a "cool accountant". haha




This was for the t-shirt. I really didn't get the dancing card and dice thing, but that's what the client wanted, so that's what I did. I'll try to make anything work for a client!




Bonus art! I did this one of a certain R/B artist. It's a monochrome-- I scanned a pencil drawing and then converted the gray lines to a brown color digitally, and put in a background shape to give it depth, but also to accent the shape of her face which I see as being long and pointy.





all artwork ©2009 by Steve Campbell. Reproduction without permission is prohibited... and THEFT!
.

Fun sketches

Some sketches from last week.

A couple of celeb drawings from my sketchbook (yes, I started actually drawing in a book instead of on loose leaf paper):

A few sketches from "artist's photos" found on the web:

all artwork ©2009 by Steve Campbell. Reproduction without permission is prohibited... and THEFT!

.

Celeb sketching

I've been trying to draw daily since I've noticed that I've been spending so much time with marketing, paperwork, phone calls, etc. that work is no longer fun! As part of this daily sketching, I have been drawing updated samples for my sample sheets and displays. Here are a few celebs that I've drawn recently. I don't really like to draw celebs (since they aren't paying me!), but it's a necessary evil. Can you guess who they are? (gosh... I hope so!)

(click picture for larger view)

all artwork ©2009 by Steve Campbell. Reproduction without permission is prohibited... and THEFT!
.

Last week's artwork

This watercolor caricature was done for a man who is retiring from General Electric. He's running over the names of the programs he had to deal with (and hated) at his job. On commissions such as this, the client gives me a list of things the subject enjoys (in this case golf and his motorcycle) and I incorporate the props into the theme (retirement).

Reference photo:


Pencil sketch:
Final watercolor artwork:

(click for larger view)

.

Sketching artists

Since I've just recently started blogging, I've wanted to see what other artist blogs are out there and what other people write about. In the process, I have found some interesting faces to draw to warm up my pencil for my paying work. Since I don't keep a sketchbook as well as I should, this growing pile of practice sheets serve as my unbound sketchbook. I may digitally color a few of these "funsketches" if I have the time. I'm enjoying the practice and the freedom to exaggerate a little more than usual.

(eek!)

.

More Radioheads

Three of the six radio personalities from RadioEagle.com. See these on their respective websites at:
http://www.radioeaglegaylord.com/
http://www.1003thepoint.com/
http://www.radioeaglemarquette.com/

Sketches for fun

I was up late last night and had an "artistic itch" that I had to scratch before I could sleep, so I did a couple of quick pencil sketches based on some photos I found on the web.

(click for larger views)

With these "fun sketches" I tried to do them quickly (normal speed for gigs, etc) but with a bit more exaggeration than what I would normally do for clients. My main goal was to maintain likeness while still using exaggeration-- without going overboard and making an overly-distorted, unbelievable head. I did erase a few of the sketchy first lines, and did go over a few lines with a darker pencil but they were each done in about 10 minutes or so.

.