Astronaut #25

Here's another astronaut.  Enjoy!

Happy New Year! Astronauts #22, #23, #24

Wow.  I've never gone this long not posting anything new, but over the summer I started posting on Instagram and kinda forgot about this place.  I've got some good stuff coming up.  A pile of school visits in the coming months, and a new book in September.

I hope you all have a great New Year.

Here's a few recent sketches/ideas for a new book.  They also get to be numbers #22, #23, and #24 in my 50 Astronauts series.

Astronaut #20 and #21

Two more space goers for my ongoing Astronaut series.  This first one is a follow up to the book idea from a few posts ago.

This second one is something that I'm working on for a new animation project.  Both pieces are 100% digital.

Astronaut #19, and more

My "50 Astronauts" continues to roll along with no end in sight. It's really just a place for me to try out new things.  I'm really happy I found this guy who was lurking in one of my sketchbooks.

Below is a drawing of a kid named "Worm" that is the star of something I've been playing with forever.  Here he is, lost many years in the future, trying to explain Rock'n'Roll to a robot, and extolling the virtues of "The Modern Lovers."

Astronaut #18

Here's the same image as yesterday, this time the lines were drawn with a brush.  I tried a very different color scheme, and I think it works well.

Astronaut #17

Here's a new astronaut piece.  I was trying to see how little line I could get away with and still allow  the image to work.  While I intended it to look very light, as if it was drawn in a few moments, the line looks a bit too stuff.  It's amazing how something as simple as line quality can make, or break a drawing.  This was a good experiment, but I have some ideas on how to improve this, and play more to my strengths.

Astronaut #16

This is from a cardboard print I made in grad school about six or seven years ago.  I used photoshop to duplicate certain parts of the print and add the wood.  Not much to say about it.  

It's done, which I guess is a good thing.

Astronaut #15

Can't believe I never posted this.  This was done last year, it's 100% digital, except for some paper textures.

It makes me think of my favorite line from Star Wars, "No blasters! No blasters!"

Astronaut #14

While cleaning my studio I found this piece of marbled paper I made with some students during grad school.  I couldn't let it go to waste.

Astronaut #13

Wow. It's been over a year since I did my last astronaut. I hadn't planned this for the series, but it fits in well. This is a sketch of an idea that I have for a picture book. When I'm at this stage in developing a story, I like to do a quick piece of art to give me a concrete idea of what I am working on. I hope to do a "finish" of this soon.

Astronaut #12

My soon-to-be-five year old son came home from daycare with these great round watercolor paintings. I thought they were beautiful, and, naturally, I thought that they looked like planets. This one was my favorite.

Astronaut #11

I haven't had the chance to get back to my astronauts for a while, but managed to squeeze this out the other night. It was done with marker and the polka-dot pattern was added digitally. Fun, but stiff.

Astronaut #10

Here's a colored pencil drawing that I couldn't call anything other than "Bird Rogers."

Astronaut #9.5

Here's a new version of the caveman. Better, but I like the face on the first one. I think I should move on.

Astronaut #9

"Now me just have to invent fire!"

Finally, another astronaut. I like the idea of a caveman going into space, but I didn't push this far enough. I'm going to do this one again.

Astronaut #8

Here's another mixed-media/digital creation. The thing I don't really like about working on the computer is that work never seems to be "done." One can keep tweaking and changing things forever.

Astronaut #7

A little change of pace here. This is a brush drawing, pencil overlay, scan of finger-painted construction paper, and topped off with digital color.

Astronaut #6

I'm not too sure what this guy's all about, but I'm happy with some of the murky, layered colors.

Astronaut #5

I've been reading books about the Royal Geographical Society lately. This guy is a David Livingstone/Percy Fawcett type. I really like the porter.

Astronaut #4

Again, this one started with a giant shape, with the concept for the details added later. I really like the texture on the suit, and the movement. He's my favorite so far.