Illustration Friday: Parade

Illustration Friday: Parade, originally uploaded by speartoons.

This is my entry for Illustration Friday. This week's word is "parade."

The word reminds me of my high school marching band days. We would march in unbearably, hot uniforms in the July 4th, Independence Day parade.

It would have been nice to have someone waving at us. Most times, it seems the band would be stuck behind horses. That made for some fancy footwork.

I drew the finished file in Adobe Photoshop.

Spear-Cartoon_3487

Spear-Cartoon_3487, originally uploaded by speartoons.

Cartoon of boy to Easter Rabbit, "Do you count all your chickens before they hatch?"

Someone at work commented how strange it is that the Easter Bunny hops around with Easter eggs. They said, "Why not an Easter chicken?" Why indeed.

This led me to think about what the Easter Bunny does with all those eggs. Does he count them? Does he keep track of all of his loot? and what if he counts inaccurately or too soon? If it can happen to Wall Street, it can happen to Peter Cottontail.

I've always thought it creepy to see a six foot tall rabbit in shopping malls. Bizarre sights deserve a bizarre question. The public demands to know, Easter Bunny!

I drew this in Adobe Photoshop CS2

Illustration Friday: Rambunctious

Illustration Friday: Rambunctious, originally uploaded by speartoons.

I did this portrait for a Christmas present. I thought of this when the word for Illustration Friday was "rambunctious," because a family if four boys has to be a rambunctious family.

I drew the base art in Adobe Illustrator, then took it into Photoshop for the final touches.

Illustration Friday: Santa's Balloon

Santa's Balloon, originally uploaded by speartoons.

Santa takes a trip around the North Pole. He can't use his reindeer all the time, can he? This is what he does for free time. The big guy has to get away once in a while.

I drew the line art with Pitt Artist Pens. The color is in Photoshop.

Spear_090817a

Spear_090817a, originally uploaded by speartoons.

Sketch from sketchbook 0808. A coy boy looks at a running girl. There may be a crush going on, no?

Illustration Friday: clutter

Man shows clutter on the brain. I was thinking how cluttered the mind can get when there are so many things to do. The sketch was rendered in Adobe Photoshop.

Cartoon 3468 / Drawing a Day #25

Cartoon of boy to baby: "Ah, the memories!"

This is also my entry for Illustration Friday. This week's theme is "memories."

Drawing a day #24

Girl on beach to boy: “You’re leaving because there is a hurricane warning? I’ve hear that line before.”

I drew the line art with a crow quill pen and rendered the color in Adobe Photoshop.

Drawing a Day 8

Be careful when you put those sheets in the laundry.

Photoshop Happy Accident pattern

Photoshop Happy Accident Funky Pattern

Here is a little surprise I thought was so cool I needed to share it (and therefore, file it away for future reference).

I was designing and illustrating a children's place mat. There was an area I wanted to knockout with soft white. I took this art from Illustrator to Photoshop because I needed to apply some random texture to the blue. I wanted the white edge to be extremely soft, but I was getting a strange pattern.

While the pattern looked fun, it wasn't what I wanted for this instance. I wanted it to be soft. I used the smudge tool, but the pattern kept moving with the cursor instead of softening like I expected.

Finally, I looked at the layer. I discovered I must have put the layer blending mode on "Vivid Light."

When I set the blending mode to normal, voila! i got the soft borders back.

I'd encourage you to try all sorts of combinations with blending modes in Photoshop. You just never know what effect it will produce.

By the way, here is what the place mat looks at this point. This is a project for Warner Press and they own the copyright.