Eye Floating In A Gas Mask

All my previous digital colour pictures have been created by tinting black and white artwork (pencil or pen & ink), sometimes adding digital 'paint' over the top to augment the picture. This is my first picture that is 'painted' digitally from scratch. There is still a pen & ink drawing underneath but except for a few stray pixels around the edges (and the signature) it is completely obscured by the colour on top.

The gas mask in the image is inspired by an exhibit of a WWII era gas mask in the Winston Churchill's Britain At War Experience (Tooley St. London). The single floating eye is well.. a motif I use often.

Worried Hand Puppet

I'm not sure why I drew this image. I started with the hand puppet and it spiralled into surreal territory.
Maybe the figure is a close relative of the screaming Madonna I drew a while ago?

HB & 6B pencil on A6 paper

Happy Monster Couple

From the very first moment he met her, he was transfixed by her single, languid eye. She was attracted to his short stature and large, silky-smooth eye lens coverings. Even though he finds it tickles too much, he lets her slowly drag her wet suckers across his eye lens coverings because it relaxes her so. She puts up with the fact he wears a shirt and tie even on the weekends. In return, he doesn’t bemoan the fact that she has to go on solitary egg-laying missions every three hundred and three years.

They are the perfect happy monster couple 

Pencil on paper 11x11cm

Gas Mask 1 - W.I.P.

I'm calling this half finished so I'm going to throw a 'work in progress' onto the blog seeing as I haven't had a chance to post anything for a few weeks.
This is the first digital painting that I'm actually 'painting' as opposed to digitally 'tinting' a grey-scale drawing so I'm learning a lot with this piece.
I should [hopefully] finish it before the end of the year, the signature is already a year out of date (thinking about it, I'll paint a new signature over the top!)

Photoshop CS3 used over an A5 pen & ink drawing

River Struggle

A lone Sabre Fang Lundeldon has stumbled into the deep river and become the target for a shoal of Grey Snekels

HB & 6B pencil on A6 sized paper

Cat Goblin concept

A quick ten minute sketch of a minor upright cat goblin.

3mm mechanical HB pencil on A6 paper

Found a couple of Sketches

I was sorting through a pile of part-used pads of paper and found a couple of sketches from 2009 that I'd forgotten I did. I was pleasantly surprised and happy with the sheet of creature sketches but not so happy to be reminded about my early struggles with marker pens.
I still haven't got near to mastering the marker pens. That medium is on the back burner for now.

Cycle Of Greed

I haven't done a lot of sketching over the last month or so. So this is a warm up piece to keep the 'pencil rust' at bay.
The message isn't very subtle but isn't a comment on anyone or any area of my life in particular. It could even be my subconscious warning me about my own greedy thoughts.

5mm HB mechanical pencil on A6 paper

Wheeled Droid

Here is a bit of a return to more proper sketching, where I don't try and render the whole image.
More of a standard sci-fi theme as well. A wheeled droid having it's curiosity piqued by a ladybug.

3mm HB mechanical pencil on A6 paper

Attack On The O People

A Hex-wheeled Mechanical Attack Mouse drives through a gathering of 'O' tribe members, gathering coveted 'O' Heads as it goes.

First drawing in a new A6 sketchbook. I'm happier with the slightly rougher paper than in my last sketchbook as the pencils seem to 'bite' better.

6B & HB Pencils on A6 sized paper.

Underwater Trapeze

A clown explores the possibility of doing a trapeze act underwater.

HB & 6B pencils on A6 paper

House Invasion

A family of eye people return to their home to find that the youngest has left the front door unlocked. Gnarly Number Flies have occupied the dwelling, much to the distress of the dwelling herself.

I finished drawing the pencil stage of this picture back in 2002 or 2003 (can't remember exactly) but didn't take it further at the time because I couldn't decide whether to use ink or pencil to finish it off. Well in January (2011) I saw it in my sketchbook and thought 'I need to get closure on this drawing'. So I went for the 'pointillism with ink' technique and think I will try colouring it at a later time.
The characters and other foreground elements were inked in over three or four evenings but the vague background took about six evenings to complete, a real wrist-deadener!

Ink pen on A4 paper

Ugly Burlesque Bird

Some exploratory sketches of a picture I'm thinking of doing. I don't do enough exploratory sketches before drawing finished pieces so I need the practice of getting in the habit.

Mechanical HB pencil on three A6 pages

Random Sketches

First post of 2011! Belated Happy New Year everyone. I have a couple of pictures close to completion but I thought I'd open up 2011 by posting a small page of random thumbnail sketches.

Mechanical HB pencil on A6 paper