Sketchbook Update: First Time Skiing

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I was noodling around with a drawing prompt from the Pose Drawing Sparkbook that reads, “Skiing for the first time.” I liked how the initial doodle turned out, so I decided to tweak it, clean it up, and add color.

In hindsight I maybe should have chosen different colors for the gloves and hat to make them pop more. I also think I over-rendered the tree a bit and could have made the branches a bit looser and bouncier. But that’s what sketches are for: playing around and making mistakes so that next time you can do better.

Sketchbook Update: Learned Elephant

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The League of Cartoonists group on Facebook posts a new drawing prompt every other day. A recent one was “Learned Elephant”. I liked how my initial sketch turned out so I decided to polish it up and experiment a bit with some color and texture effects in Photoshop.

Sketchbook Update: Bluegrass Banjo Pig

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Bluegrass Banjo Pig

Illustrator Stacy Curtis, the co-creator of Dueling Banjo Pigs, is recovering from a stroke. Artists from all over the internet have been posting banjo pig sketches to his Facebook page along with well wishes. This was my contribution. Get well soon Stacy!

Sketchbook Update: Old Mafia Hit Man

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I decided to join in on the Character Design Challenge over on Facebook. This month’s theme is “Gangster”. I thought it would be fun to imagine an old hit man who still wears out of fashion turn-of-the-century clothes. The costume was inspired by this photo: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/390405861423365659/

You can join the Character Design Challenge here: http://www.facebook.com/groups/CharacterDesignChallenge/

Sketchbook Throwback: St. Patrick’s Day

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Here’s a re-post from 2014. Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!…

St Patrick's Day illustration by Cedric Hohnstadt

Today’s sketch is a combination of three things:

First, I’ve been having a blast following @sketch_dailies on Twitter. At the moment it’s a very popular feed with over 15,000 followers. Each day a new character is suggested and hundreds of artists from all over the web draw their version. The best ones are retweeted and they are amazing! Today’s theme, naturally, was “leprechaun”.

Second, I’ve been trying to add a sense of story to my practice sketches. I wanted to try something original with the end-of-the-rainbow idea. It seems to me that if there really was a pot of gold out there on a hill somewhere it would be foolish to leave it out in the open with only a small, unarmed man guarding it.

Third, I like to try and tie each sketch into the Pose Drawing Sparkbook somehow. At the back of the book is a bonus list of 100 Moods and Emotions to draw. This might be a good fit for “Dumbfounded”.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!