Ipswich Girl, 1898

 Pen and ink drawing of a young girl from Ipswich, MA. Based on a print made from a glass-plate negative taken by Edward Darling (1874 – 1962), one of the earliest Ipswich photographers.

Edwardian Couple

Another quick sketch done in gouache on paper. An Edwardian-era couple frolicking in the surf.

Summer Work: Adventure Squad

Some sketches for a story idea I am kicking around.  Another in a series of "images for stories that haven't been written yet". Would probably be a Y/A fantasy story tentatively titled "Adventure Squad Ltd.. A mixed group of outcasts and misfits from different cultures meet, and although initially suspicious of and antagonistic towards each other, band together and become a kind of family. 

Aiden, an inexperienced human farm boy on a quest to find his father, Bren, a jovial but very-dangerous were-bear seeking to undo his curse and return to his family, Erisandra, a shrewd halfling girl seeking treasure to save her village, and Denarial, an elf princess seeking revenge against the creature who killed her father. Taking some well known elements and retooling them into something that is hopefully interesting, not for the fantasy trappings, but for the relationships between the characters.

Some studies of the main characters.

Sketches of their equipment.

 
Denarial the elf, tells her story.

 

Fighting together.

Animals and Adjectives Challenge: Week 3

If you have been following my posts for the last couple of weeks, you know my wife Amy came up with a fun challenge  to keep me drawing each day. She wrote a list of about 30 adjectives on a piece of paper, and a list of animals on another; she put all the adjective slips in one cup, and all the animal slips in another. I pick an adjective slip and an animal slip at random from the cups each day and then draw whatever came up.
Here are my sketches for this week, 3 of the challenge.

The first one was "Hungry  Platypus". It's y very cartoon-ey rendition of a platypus with a cheeseburger. Who knew they were carnivores?


















Next was "Flexible Bear". I really like bears, so I did several versions of this one.

 Then came "Frustrated Field Mouse".

A"Grasping Dragon".

 

A"Proud Anteater".

 A"Nervous Fox".

 And finally, a "Jealous Duck".

 I still have more to go, but I am going to take a week off. I will post more when I return.

Animals and Adjectives Challenge: Week 2

If you read my post from last week, you know my wife Amy came up with a task to keep me drawing each day. She wrote a list of about 30 adjectives on a piece of paper, and a list of animals on another. then she cut up the paper so each of the adjectives and each of the animals names were on a separate slip of paper. Then she put all the adjective slips in one big coffee cup, and all the animal slips in another. I was to pick an adjective slip and an animal slip at random from the cups each day and then draw whatever came up.
Here are my sketches for this week, week 2 of the challenge.

The first one was "Excited Shark".

I liked this one so much I did several alternate versions.  

   Then "Creative Unicorn".

 
















"Tense Hummingbird."

"Timid Aardvark".

 "Loyal Elephant".

 

















"Infatuated Chicken".

 





















An "Infatuated Chicken" alternate version.

And finally "Ecstatic Sheep".

I still have a cup full to go, So I will post more over the next few weeks.

Character Sketches

Here are some character sketches for a children's book I have been working on, "Piewacket, Ship's Cat of Salem". My wife Amy wrote the story, and she has been trying to get me to illustrate it for months. The story is about a ship's cat on board the Friendship, an early 19th century merchant ship that sailed from Salem, to Sumatra and other ports of call in southeast Asia, to trade for pepper and other spices. It was not uncommon for ships to have a ship's cat, in order to keep the rats and mice from eating or destroying the cargo. The cat in the story is based on our own cat Piewacket, who is a very large Russian Gray. The story is finished, but the artwork is definitely a work-in-progress. The top sketch is of the two main characters, Piwacket the cat, and Thomas, the cabin boy. Below are sketches for the Captain, a ship's rat, the Farmer, who brings the cat to the Friendship, and the First Mate.