Tag: ink

Sketchbook Entry 5: The Penciled Horse

Posted on by J. Burrello

A good friend, Jared Norby, has been showing me some new techniques. I’m a strict ink user mostly. But every time we meet he gives me more insights and he has gotten me to experiment with pencil a wee bit.

The pencil, I must confess, does offer a bit more subtlety. I still may like the pen, but I do have a hard time getting slight shading and really capturing the mass. My inked stuff generally has a sharp, flatness to it so this is a good exercise for me.

Although still far from a pencil artist, this is definitely a direction I have mistakenly left unexplored. You can tell I am still a little uncomfortable forsaking my hard expressive lines but I must examine technique this further. I will be honest, coloring things digitally (at least, the way I do it) takes forever. Even though the pencil gradient is unfamiliar territory and it does take more time than I like to spend on my drawings, it might prove a welcome ally. Perhaps even charcoal one day.

Dust Bunnies & Such: evolution of an idea

Posted on by J. Burrello

This was a quick project I did for a friend. A little show of how I work.

I was told to design a dust bunny cartoon for a cleaning company. This is the first wave of ideas I had. (Inked illustrations)

After showing the first page and some discussion and getting a clearer idea of what they wanted I tweaked the ideas and expanded on the specific things they asked for (i.e. fake ears, no movement, etc.).

Once the desired dust bunny was chosen I set to color it.

Once initial digital coloring was finished I added a gradient for depth. In this case I actually prefer the flatter image to the gradient one, but I let the client choose.

There it is. Evolution of a logo character.