Toy Picnic in the Woods with Fairies

I started this back in 2009 and am happy to finish the inking process in less than two years (!)
I have had a struggle with maintaining good tone in this one so I won't be leaving it as a black and white piece but will be digitally colouring it.

DR Pilot Drawing Pen on A6 sized paper.
On a side not. Please Pilot (of Japan) do not stop making these drawing pens. I've used them for at least 25 years and they've served me flawlessly and whole a lot better than the more expensive, high maintenance Radiograph pens.

Bald Man Harpy

The next in a series of sketches that start off as serious anatomy studies but turn into surrealness at the first sign of observational resistance (i.e. when I fall off the anatomical-correct wagon really early on in the sketch). A bald Man Harpy (I think usually Harpies are female?)

HB mechanical pencil on A6 paper

Alien Fashion Model

She's a size zero beauty with a sideways, John Carpenter-esque, serrated mouth so approach with caution.
 With this sketch I learned that 6B pencils don't work too well on smooth cartridge paper, hence the mess in the bottom right corner. 

HB mechanical pencil with 6B standard pencil on A6 sized paper

UFO Repairs

Someone has to do some unexpected roadside repairs before they can get back to their home world.

Size is A4 3mm & 7mm HB mechanical pencils and a standard 6B pencil used

Strange Head

What started as a study of a strap of a woman's handbag, turned into something a bit more surreal.

Small Flock of Air Hounds

Just a quick little concept sketch of a creature that has evolved to float around a heavy atmosphere.
I quite like the idea of making this little beast in 3D.

Meeting In a Dusty Town

Just a quick A6-sized sketch of a robot meeting a mysterious alien astride an alien beast of burden. If you've seen a lot of my blog you'll know this isn't uncommon subject matter for me ;)

Short Skel - Early Halloween treat

Here's a quick character design which is a bit too early for Halloween. It started out as a bust but I thought I'd squeeze the whole body in there.
My scanner must be becoming sentient as I didn't ask it to give me the 'ivory paper' look but 'spookily' (geddit?) it matches the subject matter.

(paper size is A4)

Screaming Madonna and Child

A picture with a slight religious theme to it but nothing to do with the Pope's recent visit to Britain.
It actually started as an anatomy study. I was referencing a perfume advertisement on the train I was on. After three or four pencil strokes it was apparent to me that something was very wrong with my proportions so I clanged the direction of the picture back into my familiar sci-fi / fantasy / horror / surreal leanings.

A pair of robots

Ok, it got to nearly a month between posting (was busy at work) so I've got to make sure that doesn't happen again ;)

I usually do my sketching on the train but have been catching up on sleep on the train the last couple of weeks so this sketch is all that's new.

A pair of robots, one heavily inspired by the 'Iron Giant' and one that looks like something you'd find in a cross between a 'Bjork' and 'Gorrilaz' music video. All unintentional. These things are only apparent to me when I'm scanning them in :)

Startled Shotgun Snail

Just a little (A6) sketch of a startled snail... with a shotgun. (No I don't know why either? Or why he has a rope, or why he's startled... or why he has arms? ;] )

Liberating Yorick

Here is the drawing finished. I am very happy with how the image turned out. The use of 'proper' perspective has given it more 'solidity' than my usual drawings.

I'll definately be starting a colour version of this soon. The size of the drawing is A4 and I used HB and 6B pencils

W.I.P. '3' Liberating Yorick

Now I've started showing the progress of this picture it seems I'm getting to like doing it. This 'should' be the last update though - maybe.

W.I.P. '2' Liberating Yorick

Since I haven't got any new pieces finished since last week, I've decided to show my progress with this picture.

I'm happy with how the rug turned out. I feel I'm over the halfway mark which is good but this is the point I tend to get impatient to finish pictures and ruch things so I need to pace myself.

W.I.P. - Liberating Yorick

Just a quick post showing one of my pictures way before it's finished.

I usually start shading from the bottom right corner because I'm left-handed and shading from that corner minimises smudging in the rest of the image. So far, all the shading has been with HB pencils. I'll go over it all with the 6B near the end, to add contrast.

Shadow Rider

With this image I was practising using a very soft (6B) pencil to try and get better with high contrast shadows. I think it suffers a bit because I didn't include a motivation for the intense shadow. Maybe I can improve it when I get around to colouring it.

Creature sketches

Even though this was meant to be a sketch blog, a lot of my recent posts have been of finished pieces. So to redress the balance, and because I haven't had a chance this week to finish a full drawing, here's a page of rough creature sketches. There's a vague 'pig' theme running through the creatures because I was trying to get away from my usual 'reptilian' design cues.

I just wanted a puppy!

I quite like how this sketch turned out. It's a definite candidate for being coloured.

Alas Poor Yorick, colour version

Here's a colour version of my Alas Poor Yorick sketch.
Software used was Photoshop

Eight-Eyed Wide Newt

Hilltop Skirmish

Behind You!

Clown with pet dino

Yet again, I had this drawing half finished about a year ago. Found it buried in the back of my pad a couple of days ago and finished it off.

Dwarf Dino Sphinx

When I started this, it was meant to end up as a cyborg spider with a female face.
I took a wrong turn somewhere :)

Into the Wurme's Lair

This has languished, half finished, in my A6 sketch book for over a year. I got a bit weary of flipping past it so I finished it up in one forty minute sprint.

In case you're wondering, yes I said A6. I use a 3mm mechanical pencil for this tiny sketch book :)

Alas Poor Yorick

Two severely mutated (corrupted?) bunnies discover an interesting object.

Behold the Fearsome 'Octo-digitor'!

A more 'dreamscape' type of creature.

Angry Chin Monster berates Cat

I know my cat anatomy needs [a lot of] work. But I'm happy with the expression on my chin monster.

Snub Nosed Pterosaur

Just a quick doodle of a
Pterosaur type creature

Alien Pilot Inspects The Ship

I'm pretty happy with the design for this fella. I'll be using this as a basis for a digital picture.

Cookie Cutter

I don't know what it's like for other artists, but when I initially think of something to draw, once it's down on paper, it rarely looks exactly how it looked in my head. It's sometimes better, sometimes worse, it averages out over the years to I don't worry about it too much.

This sketch however, turned out exactly how I envisioned it. It's a simple composition but I tried working more on my values with this one, getting more 'dark' space in there than usual and getting some rim lighting going. This was sketched in it's entirety while travelling on a train to and from work. I find the rocking of train helps randomise the shading ;)

Tree Climber and Jockey

This sketch started life in landscape format but I found that I hadn't left myself much room for a 'head' on the critter (it was going to be some sort of 'dog shaped' beast). Turned it around to portrait format and had to tuck the beast's head behind the shoulder anyway.

Alien Heavy Artillery Loader

When I started this sketch the guy was going to be like one of those runway signallers that wave glowing sticks at aircraft to guide them in. But as I got lower down on the page, holding an artillery shell was easier to draw.

NOT a sketch but a magazine interview with me from 2001!

I was cleaning the loft out this Easter weekend and rediscovered this old magazine, the Easter 2001 edition of PSi-2 Interactive Magazine. In it is a small interview with yours truly. I'm going to post it here for posterity (and so I can recycle the magazine).
It also shows me that just a short decade ago I had hair on my head and chin. Alas my head is now a barren wasteland.

Alien Bust

Here's a recent sketch of an alien. It's got big eyes, maybe it comes from a planet with low light? Not much room for a large, developed brain though.

Toothy Fish

Another catch up post with a sketch from late last year.
As you can see this is a pen & ink sketch instead of my usual pencil work.
I tried to keep a loose, flowing technique going. It's not as tight as my usual pen & ink stuff.

Evil Clowns

I don't know why but one of my recurring motif's are mischievous / evil clowns. In my head I see an animated series featuring the little guys. Maybe one day time and resources will be mine to make it happen ;) ?

On my main portfolio site I have more finished examples of stubby evil or mischievous clowns.

Clown & Horse (this one is quite friendly)

Clown Scientist & Clown Mech

The Chase feat. 3 Clown Pilots

Mutant Child with Pet (& other doodles)

I'm still catching up and putting older stuff up. This was done about 8months ago (early 2009). It's the first page of my current A5 sketchbook (I always have one of each size from A6 to A3 going in parallel :) )

Big Mouthed Alien Head study

I found this, this morning so for the sake of completeness I'll post it as well.

Big-Mouthed, Biped, Alien

Ok, I'll start with this sketch that's about 6months old. You'll see a lot of this sort of thing from me as I can't seem to stop drawing aliens with huge mouths and erm 'barouque anatomy'

Introduction

Hello everybody. This blog is the place I am going to use, to show my sketches. My finished work will be saved for my main website www.anthonyrosbottom.com

I like sketching a lot but I don't do enough of it. This blog will hopefully encourage me to be more 'regular' with my sketches. ;)