IF: instinct...in music.

When I was young my art of choice was music. I used to play the piano. I'd practice all the time - except when it was time to play, or watch tv, or do anything else. Basically I should have been practicing, but spent my time elsewhere - until it was that horrible time of the week when I had to meet with a piano teacher. Then I was furiously plinking those ivory keys.

At the beginning of college I was even contemplating going into some sort of musical field involving the piano - less so because I loved it than that it seemed dressing up in a shirt and tie and sitting in a cubical. One thing I lacked was the musical instinct. I could hit the right cords and such - and read the music sheet - but I couldn't just sit down and play. I couldn't improvise...I could only play what I saw in front of me.

At one point I was sitting there on my little upright steinway with a jazz piano book and I just couldn't do it. So I gave it up and started drawing. And realized my improvising instincts lay in this field. I could actually sit down with a sheet of paper (or a blank computer screen) and just create something.

Right now I'm obsessed with drawing things for
shutterstock
and other various stock illustration websites. So far so good! If you have illustrations (that you own the rights to...that part is important) you should start putting them up. Obviously not your personal children's book life and soul work - but if you're like me, you've got a computer chalk full of drawings (or a sketchbook or whatever) and it's nicer if they're making money than just sitting there collecting dust.
Check it out...

IF: Instinct

I've been sidetracked by this whole shutterstock and microstock and world of stock illustration/photography that I've just recently joined. I've been spending all my time creating images for them.
Click here if you wanna join shutterstock yourself!


Anyway - it's a weird line to be walking - do you draw things that, in your opinion, are going to be popular? Or do you draw what you like and hope people will also like them. It comes down to instinct. I've now put up about 130 images on Shutterstock - that's 130 different illustrations - about 80 of them were created in the last 3 weeks (I said I was obsessed). But what is purchased from my uploads is always a surprise. I did about 10 different drawings for valentines day and the one I spent the least amount of time on and just threw up on the site because I finished it turned out to be my most downloaded image so far...by a longshot. I guess it was my instinct to do the image in the first place - and I trusted my art background and composition instincts to lead me towards a successful piece...but it's unpredictable.

Last week my instinct led me to do this image:

I thought, "people like cars...this is a popular car...or at least a recognizable one" and figured it would sell. I had previously drawn an ambulance, a fire truck, and a police car (all which are doing well), but what about some real cars!?!? Turns out I should have read the fine print. This image was turned down at 5 of the 6 places I put up stock illustrations. It's a copyright issue. The image looks too much like a hummer (because it is a hummer). Sadly, there went 2 solid hours of work.

This morning I did this image -

It's more of a clipart and possibly boring illustration. But will it sell? I'm still waiting for approval (it will be approved as long as I don't use the word post-it note, which is a copyright infringement) but it's probably going to be a more popular image...or will it? Time will tell...my instincts lead me all over the place...some have been very successful, and others had answered with a hollow silence...in the meantime, it's been a lot of fun.

I've been doing more drawing now than ever before - and even the 'boring' illustrations of post-it notes have been a lot of fun to create. Anyhow - if you want to join in at all -
Submit Photos or art to Shutterstock and make money!
and vector images are the most popular type of illustration...

IF: Celebrate....flowers

I did this for shutterstock again. When I first found out about the blend tool I used it towards what I thought the stock world would want. I wanted to use the tool towards a different subject and see how far I could take it.

What's nice is that even though I'm doing art for myself, it's also selling on stock sites. One of the best that I'm currently on is the aforementioned shutterstock.

I suggest anyone reading this - especially if they do vector art should sign up and start making money on their art right away. And multiple times!

Go here - http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=325258 - if you take my referal, then you make money and I make 3 cents off of you! And I like my pennies!

IF: Celebrate

I had a 4 year old nephew (don't worry, he's not gone, he's just no longer 4) and as you know, kids that age get sick of things very quickly...we'd start a board game or a puzzle or a litebrite and he'd want to move onto something else. So I started taking all the little pieces from whatever we were playing and throw them in the air and yell, "Celebration" and then we'd just do that for the next few minutes. And it was a nice little mess for his mother to clean up. Lots of fun.

Another type of celebration was this whole Obama election thing. I have more of a wait and see attitude with it all instead of the whole crying, hopeful, glued to the tv set thing. To commemorate the celebration of change and hope and everything that our new president stands for I drew this:


Now sure it isn't your red white and blue "hope" Obama drawing, but that fella struck gold with that illustration.

Anyway - I'm edging up towards a hundred images on Shuterstock - this is one of my latest vector based illustrations. If you haven't read my previous posts (and if you care) shutterstock is one of the more popular stock photography and illustration sites on the web. I started posting vector illustrations on there about a week ago because I had all this art sitting on my computer that was going to waste. Now it's sitting online making money.

You make a quarter for every download (which sounds like nothing), but those can add up very quickly...you might wonder why I'm telling you this - well. I'll tell you. If you want to join up with Shutterstock then click on this link - http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=325258 - you'll get your quarters and I'll get a 3 cent commission for recommending you! It's a win win for us all. And they don't have to be vector based illustrations, you can put up jpgs too, but vectors seem to sell better...unless your jpg is totally awesome.

Illustration Friday: Time - for relaxation...

or is it sexy time?

I know - this is yet another bikini clad lady.  Why?!?  Why do I keep drawing these?  Well - If you read my previous post I'm pandering.  I want to upload these illustrations to clip art/stock illustration sites and make some money.

I think I have enough bikini girls - I'm going to work on some other subject matters - I see that outlines of people are quite popular...so I'm going to concentrate on doing pages of that to upload.   I won't bore you with posting them here...

These ones (the bikinis) I had to post because I just learned how to use the blend tool in Illustrator...usually to get a nice blend like in these drawings you'd have to take it to photoshop - but now you can do the entire thing in Illustrator!  What's nice too is that I did this image at a tabloid size and it was still under 3 mbs!  If you did an image like that in photoshop it'd be well over 80 mbs!  So Illustrator rules.  And this entire image is vector based!  So it can be enlarged to poster or even billboard sizes and still have crisp clean lines!  Horray!

Download unlimited stock photos! on shutterstock.  Gimme a quarter!  Get yourself a download..If you care, you can Check out My Gallery Here.
but only if you want to...

IF:Time...possibly wasted?

Am i wasting my time, or am I using it wisely? Time will tell...This is yet another image for Shutterstock - a site for clip-art, vector images, and photographs.

I just learned out about the blend tool in Illustrator. If you don't use Illustrator then you don't know how hard it is using the gradient tool. It's so incredibly unfriendly. But then my wife (who is also hard at work to create images...we gotsta make our riches one quarter at a time) told me about a new technique she just learned. Basically you take a lighter color on top of a darker color and you can use the blend tool to mesh them together...and it makes a nice perfect gradient. IN ILLUSTRATOR! I was wasting so much time doing it the other way...and I could never have ended up with an image that looked this photorealistic (obviously you can tell it's still an illustration, which is the point, but it looks a hell of a lot realer than the last two images I did.)

my drawings aren't usually this sexy...

Now obviously this isn't my normal illustration style or way ...but I'm experimenting with different techniques and styles to see what kind of vector images will sell. So far we've covered candy, art deco backgrounds, cute vector animals, a bed, palm trees, a kiddy pool, - quite a variety of images. We figure the more we have up, and the better the images, the more downloads we'll have.

Anyway - if you have images, especially vector images, you can upload them to shutterstock and start making money off of them!

And because I told you - use this link - http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=325258 - so that way you get your quarter (per download) but I get 3 cents!

Now - it sounds stupid - because what're ya gonna do with a quarter? The guy that recommended me to the site (I actually found the info on his website through illustration friday) has a couple of pieces that pull in the thousands of downloads. And he consistantly makes a few thousand each month. And that's for images that would otherwise just be sitting on your computer doing nothing. I'm making my quarters...you should too...unless you don't have vector images...then nevermind.

IF: Time...all the time in the world....

So currently I'm working on these: for shutterstock.com. If I had all the time in the world I'd do so many and earn so many quarters!

But really - how do you, as an artist, make money on art that's just sitting there. Say you had a freelance project...or were even just working on your own stuff - how do you make money when it's all said and done? One way I've just discovered is to put your work up on photography sites under the illustration section. It's making a passive art portfolio - you have art that's just sitting on your computer (vector images work the best), and it's just collecting dust...if they're good images or logos or icons, you can start making money with them...all you have to do is upload them to Shutterstock.com - I'm working on getting approved to be on other similar sites, but this is the first one. You get 25 cents a download - which may seem like nothing, but it's better than what the picture was doing for you earlier.

If you decide to try it - http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=325258

my referal number is 325258 (if you cared). Anyway - I would keep talking, but I'm going to go back to making money. One quarter at a time.

This was the first attempt

And this was a better second attempt.

IF: Time....BOMB!

So this is my second sketch for Illustration Friday...originally I had Adelia holding up a giant pocketwatch...but the more I looked at it and the more I thought about it, it seemed like it should be a bomb. Sounded more interesting.



Also there's a lot more action going on...rather than just reverence for time (which didn't make much sense)...

IF: Time

This is a sketch i did this morning for Illustration Friday's theme: Time. Here we see Adelia and her little friends holding up time



Hopefully I'll have a chance to clean it up and color it for real...but we'll see...

IF: Craving - Adelia Holds Out!

How does this image fit? Well...let's see. The lil' characters were craving them some cupcakes - but their plan had a serious flaw as none of them match up to Adelia's stature.

The final version of a sketch I did this last weekend for Illustration Friday. I had been hoping to finish it - and I finally did...with a day to spare! The word this week was climbing and I thought of the little square characters I draw and what if they were climbing all over Adelia trying to get at something...I did the sketch last Friday and cleaned it up on Monday. From there I did several revisions (trying to get the character placement right and I also had to correct a lot of the perspective)...I started the color yesterday and today it's finally done!

IF: Climbing - Adelia holds out - clean up edition

I did a sketch of this on friday for Illustration Friday - this is the cleaned up version - after 3 rounds of revisions...gotta get it right....right?  I hope to have it colored some time this week.

IF: Climbing - Adelia holds out...

It's been incredibly busy the last couple of weeks. I made the mistake of telling someone I was blogging all the time - which was probably my downfall. I did this sketch on my wacom (which is a horrible way to sketch...I'd rather use a cintiq or grab some paper and a blue pencil)...but this is what I had in front of me, so I had to use it.

I thought about climbing - and wanted to relate it to my characters...so i thought a cute drawing would be to have Adelia holding cupcakes and the little kids climbing all over her to get at them.

I hope to clean it up and color it soon, but we'll see...there's way too much on my (work) plate...besides cupcakes...

IF: Pale - Adelia: Left out...

Here is my latest piece from Adelia.

Originally Adelia (the little blue penguin character in the foreground) was mostly outside the framing. I just joined a critique group through the SCBWI and it was suggested that I push her back into the frame a bit more. It made for a piece that worked better together...Adelia became a part of the picture once she was contained (mostly) within the frame.  From there I went and colored it:

I then submitted it to the Illustration critique group and got some more feedback.  From this I did a set of revisions - adding flowers to the back hill, desaturating the road (which was getting a little too much attention), adding shadows to the wheels on Adelia's cart (which I just completely forgot about), adding shadow to the flowers themselves (to give them more dimension), shrinking the size of the hill line (as the black line was a little too thick), desaturating the skunk's cart, and finally, saturating the sky and changing the clouds to less sucky ones.  I'd say the old version PALES in comparison to the new and improved version.

I've enjoyed doing all these characters together, and when I have time, I'd like to eventually put a story together around them. As for now, they're just going to help me out as a terribly cute subject matter.

Freelance Illustration - cartoon spec

One thing people in the illustration business have to do from time to time is work spec. I usually don't participate - because a lot of the time one's portfolio should be sufficient to show one's ability to tackle a job. But on occasion, when the job seems like fun (or a great opportunity), I'll work on spec (that means you're doing art for free, with no real guarantee that you've gotten the job. Basically you do the piece or pieces, turn them in, and hope the person or business will hire you). A couple of times it's amounted to nothing - but I've had some really good jobs come out of spec work.

Spec is also something that happens in the animation industry - but they don't call it that - they refer to it as 'testing'. You have to test for storyboarding, props, characters or any other animation job that's available. The worst part is that it's actually more time consuming than working spec in the illustration world...as some tests take an enormous amount of time. I had a friend recently take a storyboard revisions test and ended up having to draw over 70 pages (!). And they gave him a week to do it. It's crazy - but worth it if you get the job.

Anyway - here's the spec I did. I turned it in just a few minutes ago and I'm waiting by the phone...



It's for a cartoon that runs in several locations locally in the southern california area. All of the characters are copyright America's Kid Times. This cartoon (above) would run in February (I was going for a valentine's day theme). I did the original sketch in photoshop, and then cleaned it up on a different layer (also in photoshop).

IF: Contained - Eaten! Vector vinyl toy design

Basically if I was to create some vinyl toys. These are (currently) my dream toys. see through blobs monsters with cute dead forest creatures inside.

Here's a close up of the cute little animal:

These sorts of illustrations are why I changed my blog name to the Heebeejeebees. And while I have to do promotional pieces that can help me book jobs, I also have 'resolved' to do drawings like this. And, who can say, maybe I'll be able to make these into toys at some point...

This is the cute little skunk contained in the belly of a tentacled blob monster.

IF: Resolve

It's my second IF: resolve post. I drew two sketches - one of Adelia and one of this little girl. Both had a 'look to the future' kind of resolve to them. That's right, even the little girl with her eyes closed was 'looking' to the future.

I did several sketches of luggage and went with the classic look.

I did the organic shape under her so I could use the wand tool to select that area. I had an idea of making it a sidewalk she was standing on...but as a vignette. I figured that just a sidewalk would be boring...and the organic shape made it interesting.

This was the longest color job I've done in Photoshop in quite a while. It's a lot harder to do human skin color than penguin or weird blobby creatures. And I tried to put a lot more texture in the clothes/hair/ground. It took a while, but I really like how it turned out.

Anyhow - I think it's a good start to the new year.

IF: Resolve - Adelia's resolve for the new year...

I can't believe it's already 2009! I did a couple of sketches that I did a couple of days ago that I really liked. The first is this one of Adelia:

It's all a mish-mash of figuring out the hands, the body and the characters. I cleaned it up in Illustrator and then had to completely redraw the body and feet because it was in the wrong perspective. I was also tinkering with the scarf because it wasn't feeling right hanging off the side like that. I did a couple of rounds of revisions and then re-cleaned it up.

This piece started off as Adelia, bags packed, steady resolve, and ready for the new year. Somewhere the bags were lost (they ended up in the other sketch I did, which I'll be working on next) but since they were unnecessary, I decided to leave them off.

Also - it seems that the second I changed my blog name to the Heebeejeebees I stopped drawing things that would fit (such as the cute animal eating blobs). I'll be bringing those back eventually - but for some reason when I put pencil to paper it always ends up with some sort of cute nonsense. Anyhow - I like how this turned out. I tried a bit of a background behind them, but liked the blank canvas (with just a shadow underneath them, so they're not just floating in space). It sort of sets the mood for this new year - a clean slate. or something...

IF - Adelia: vs. the stinky sock

Hello! First post of the new year!

clan·des·tine (kln-dstn):

"Kept or done in secret, often in order to conceal an illicit or improper purpose."

Because, you know, Adelia isn't on the way to the hamper...

I've been working on this since last year! This was a sketch I did at the bookstore a couple of days ago. I spent all day yesterday (the 31st) working on a freelance project and I needed to do something fun...so I took this out of my sketchbook and went to work on it.

I really liked how the one hand (not the one holding the sock) turned out. Just a couple of years ago I used to really struggle to draw hands (and I'm still learning) - but I'm coming along quite well...

This was the first version I painted in Photoshop (or should I say colored in photoshop? I guess it amounts to the same thing, but it sort of feels like 'painted' sounds more like what an artist would do and colored would be something a kid would do with crayons...probably doesn't matter)...

but as I cleaned up the drawing I thought about another way Adelia could be holding the sock - it would make more sense, if it really was that bad, to not make skin contact. And then it meant redrawing and recleaning up and then repainting her right arm and the sock. I think the arm and especially the sock are a little bit more dynamic.

I felt this piece fell under the clandestine Illustration Friday topic because one doesn't just waste a stinky sock. One battles it for supremacy and then uses it for secret nefarious purposes. But, with such a pungent stinky sock, those purposes aren't secret for long. Anyhow - see ya next Illustration Friday!

New character closeups....

I did this illustration of Adelia and a panda walking by a snowy winter scene. These were the characters in the background. They're based on little toy designs I had thumbnailed.

I did add small stubby arms on a couple of the characters (the panda, and the pigs) to make the scene work better. I liked the idea of the pigs skating and the little boy pig scared and trying to stay upright.

I was trying to develop the illustration so that way each of the different elements/characters could all be a self contained drawing. I think they work quite well individually, but when I look at the entire picture, it seems a little empty...

But that's why I seperated them, so individually they can be enjoyed as (hopefully) solid drawings.

IF: Clandestine - Adelia sneaks about...

The first thing one will do when looking at the Illustration Friday this week is wondering just waht is clandestine. There's a good chance you've heard of the word, you might even be leaning towards a particular direction as far as figuring it out. If you're a nerd, it kind of sounds like some sort of group that must do something (D&D style) - a clan destined for...? And you'd have to roll the dice (24 sided usually).

Maybe it's seafood related - but then that would be clamdestine...in any case something smells fishy.

And it ain't this post - I just looked it up. I could have looked at the other entries this week (which I'll do in a minute, but now that christmas is over, I have time to post something)...

clan·des·tine (kln-dstn)

ADJECTIVE:
Kept or done in secret, often in order to conceal an illicit or improper purpose. See Synonyms at secret.

So this is a piece I did. It's Adelia sneaking away from her balloon friend. It was sort of my transition piece away from my first Adelia book (still unpublished). It was about Adelia and her red balloon - but neither Adelia nor I wanted to bog her down in trying to find a way to fit the balloon into every Adelia drawing....so she's leaving the balloon behind.