Artist's Cards

Saturday night was my "Stay at Home/Chill Out" night. I think I needed a breather after staying out late after class on Wednesday talking to almost 1am, Panera meet ups Thursday and Friday evening, and then my BASA Art Field trip to the Crocker Art Museum and Evangeline's in Old Town Sac on Friday. Lots of Arting it Up and having fun with friends but I do need those recharge days to catch up on sleep and work on some artist's cards for APE. The convention is one month away and there are still things that need to be done but, for the most part, all my irons are already in the fire and I'm just waiting on the printer. So this next month is just filing papers and working on art to sell.

Monster Cards Set 3 with Gray Tones

I'm taking a break from the Planes of Fame air museum post (I still have to Photoschlop some of my pics) and am posting some more Artist Sketch Cards. This set I posted weeks ago but finally got around to painting in some gray tones tonight.

Monster Artist Trading Cards II

Another group of Monster Artist cards in the can. I posted the inked versions a couple weeks back. Here are the finished ones with gray tones.

Monster Mash

More Monster Cards!! Pre-gray tones, of course.

American Hero

A made up Superhero. I think, with many of these cards, I'm over coloring with the watercolor and trying to turn these into mini watercolor portraits when I should thin out the color and let the inks shine through.

The Athlete

Another People card. This one reminded me of OJ Simpson or Jim Brown. Of the original group of nine that I scanned and inked, I liked this one the best. After the watercoloring job, probably the least. I really struggled with this one.

Redhead

Working on some Pin-Up cards. Let's here it for Redheads!!

The Dancer

Another People card. This one of a dancer.

"Dude!"

Moving on from the Creature cards and now into the People cards. No one specifically but just a chance to draw individual people out of my head.

Lester the Dwarf

Another creature card. This one I've dubbed "Lester the Dwarf".

Death Gripper

Final painted version of the "Death Gripper" card.

The Skull Collector

Final painted card for "The Skull Collector".

Cyclops Alien Card

Painted final version of the Cyclops Alien card.

Marvel Sketch Cards

Established comic book characters from Marvel and DC are probably the most popular since fans want a character they recognize. I love those characters but, when drawing, I tend to shy away from them and draw my own thing. Partly, I think, because when I draw them, they don't look the way I expect to see them in the funny books. But practice makes perfect so here are some pencil roughs for the Hulk and Captain America.

Inked Sketch Cards

I did these before the set posted last time. As a result, they are a little farther along in the pipeline having been inked. The theme is varied with the Monster / Creature theme on the bottom cards and some people, heroes, and pin-ups for the rest.

The bottom left two cards were the first ones and I probably over-inked them. Part of working on cards at this size is experimenting. But, by the time I put in color or ink washes, I can probably get away with less lines and detail.

Monster Sketch Cards

I've been wanted to get in on the sketch card thing for awhile but it finally took me hooking up with a group of other artists with the Krampus set to get things moving (Thanks, Tracy!). One of my goals for 2012 is to work up an inventory of different themed cards for sale. Above are the pencils for nine Creature / Monster cards before I ink them.

Chatting with another artist in December, I was able to borrow his mechanical pencil and give it a try out (Thanks, Pannel!). After all these years, I had never used one, preferring to use either my Number 2 yellow standard pencil, my assortment of HB-8B set, or, as in 2011, using a blue pencil. Tired of constantly sharpening the lead and knowing these cards would have me doing more detail, I invested in a mechanical pencil and more sketch cards last week. Shopping in art stores is always fun but staying up late, watching old movies, while sketching these out to the wee hours of the night is a blast.

Next, time to ink them. This set I'll probably stick to the gray tone ink washes.