Illustration: Panda Roux for my grand-nephew

 My nephew's sons wanted me to make drawings for them for Christmas this year. They requested dinosaurs (and they will get them for their birthdays next year) but I decided to surprise them with something unexpected. After a trip to the zoo, the oldest was obsessed with Red Pandas and the youngest is obsessed with bugs so I'll give them prints of those things instead. 

I haven't done a procreate drawing all year! I had been doing at least one drawing a month but I just don't have the time and constant interuptions have made it impossible. Hopefully I can get back on track. I am not really happy with how I do hair and fur in colour artwork so far. This is better than my normal but I think I am missing something I can't put a finger on. 

illustration: Delphine 02

 

I recently made a portrait of this same cat but this one is meant for print to be given as gift. I thought a full scene would be interesting this time around as I caught her on her way to one of her many "excusions" via the front window. 

Illustration: L’Écomusée du fier monde

 

Another in my MTL buildings series. I tried to do this in Sketchbook to try out the mirror drawing feature as the building is symmetrical and was partially hidden by a tree I thought it would be a test of feature I have never used. I was on the iPad and it was just a mess, I got pretty far along and the file disappeared! SoI went back to procreate and made it like the past three.It was a lot of bricks and details so I nice challenge. I was not going to draw the banners on each side then thought they broke up the bricks and gave it a little more dimension,

Illustration: gardien du temps_033

 

Another drawing of the same acrobat as my recent post but from behind. This one is a little better I think and has more depth to it. When doing the greyscale drawing before adding colour, I will usually blend between shades with the blur brush, but that isn't working on the iPad version of Affinity Photo for me. I did some of that by transferring it to the desktop for a couple hours then went back to the iPad. I hope to get some more drawings from this show, but not all of this one guy! 3 so far! 

Illustration: gardien du temp 14

 

A second illustration of the same acrobat, this time in colour. I decided to go back to my original technique of doing colour illustrations, only not in photoshop but in Affinity Photo and on the iPad. I have to admit I have problems with the iPad when drawing. I keep hitting the screen in ways that change the toolI am using or accidentally undo something. In Photo every time I come a brush and clicked on a different layer the brush switched to the eraser which was super frustrating. I have to stop drawing on the couch and move back to my drawing table in the studio. Other than that this went really well. I broke the image into sections and drew it all in greyscale then used a filter to recolour the grey into a basic skin colour, for example. then I could add addition tints with brushes to make it more varied and realistic. I also add leg/chest etc. hair on an upper layer. I might go back to this for other illustrations as it was easier to to have a higher level of detail. 

Illustration: Contort

 So this was a quickie in Procreate. Iit's actually a third try. I started a pen and ink version, didn't like it, then tried it in Affinity Designer on iPad but the palm rejection was terrible and I trashed that one too. Procreate still had issues for me blending colour but it also stopped me from going overboard with details. 

I have did a drawing of a street performed that as at least as contorted this but he was walking around in a sillier pose so I guess he still wins the awkward poses contest so far. 

Illustration: linge: Möbius Meadows

 This was done as challenge. I used Sketchbook with only 2 paint brushes and one dry brush. The paint brushes act like real ones for the most part and it felt a little like oil painting. I painted each laundry item on a separate layer to avoid confusion but i merged them together when I was I done. Not having to worry about only have 4 layers on the iPad anymore was very freeing. Despite using the app for a decade I have never tried colour in it for some reason. 

I did a sketch and took reference photos at Möbius Meadows Farmstead in the spring. The laundry was strung up in the glassed in porch which gets really hot, even in winter so they dry quickly and I thought it might be interesting to paint it. My friend who owns the farm really liked it and said I turned his laundry in art! His name is Art as well so that always sounds confusing to me. 

Click for a larger image to see more detail. 

Illustrations: Mount Royal & bird house(Vermont)

 A structure on Mont Royal got my attention a month or 2 ago and I started drawing it about 3 weeks ago. I was able to get a lot done while waiting 3 ½ hours at the bus terminal for a late bus ride to Boston Thursday and then I did the rest while staying with my dad. Used a greyscale technique with some highlights to show more depth. 

The second drawing a bird house at Mobius Meadows Farmstead in Vermont I did a quick sketch of while there and took some reference phots and got some of it finally inked in while I was sitting with my mom in hospital a few hours Friday afternoon. I then finished it waiting for the bus to take me home. This was all pen strokes except for the watercolour splash in the background. I didn't want to use any additional "tricks" like grey areas or white pencil, just line. 

Illustration: Lick

 

I came across a photo I took of a friend licking a door... yes I have friends like that, apparently. The pose without the door seemed Robert maplethorpe like, a little too much maybe but I still thought it was an interesting project to take on. It didn't take long to accomplish, only about 5 hours total. There is no hair, hands, feet or other things that can take a long time to work out so it went quickly. Ears are always a challenge but this has only one so still not too bad. I certainly never thought a goofy photo I took in a hallway wold make an interesting illustration and I oddly forgot all about taking it or WHY I took it. The foods in the hat might be a little overdone and oversaturated but I still like it overall. 

Done in Krita.