I drew this Victorian lady in my sketchbook in pencil, then brought it into Photoshop to color it and add prints to the fabric. Original no-name character.
Tag Archives: pencil
Pickett’s Trail! new book out!
Last year I was working on a set of 13 illustrations for a Western novel called Pickett’s Trail. The author is named Jon Lantz, but sadly the book was published posthumously by his uncle, Ron Lantz, who is a delight to work with. Ron and I are collaborating on some other projects as well.
The book is now available on his publisher’s website as well as Amazon.com.
Here’s a peek at some of the illustrations:
All images © Jon R. Lantz.
some more character sketches
I think I was watching Lord of the Rings and I started drawings since I’ve seen the movies a hundred times. So I did a quick sketch of a cartoony Eowyn. She looks kinda steely – not showing much emotion. I like the way the sketch came out regardless but it reminds me to always show more emotion and action when I do work for my clients.
I was drawing a background for her while working on this image, but I didn't like the end results so it's been wiped off the page.
Improving on that thought, here is post of a better action shot. This was done for a screen printing project I did. This is the original sketch that eventually was given more contrast in Photoshop and then applied to a magnetic sheet via screen print to make refrigerator magnets.
The reason her hands are up in those positions is because there were other magnets that went with her as a set...they were of different exotic weapons and fit into her hands.
And again, one of my favorites to draw: the harem girl. I really like the costuming involved.
This is done with a mixture of pencil and colored pencil. Though I like to work in reverse often - with the color pencil used to create the sketch and the regular pencil used to lay in detail.
Here is a pencil sketch of a fantasy imagining of Queen Elizabeth I of Britain. I wanted to make her much prettier than in her portraits.
As you might have noticed this is the original of the same image used in my banner!
Another pencil sketch. This is one of my favorites!
The drawing below is a re-imagining of a cartoon character from the 80’s, Rose Petal. In the show she was probably around preteen age, so I wanted to create what she’d look like grown up a bit more.
Colored pencil, pencil, marker and ballpoint pen were all used here.
creature sketches
Creatures are always fun to work on. I really like doing fantasy art, which is hard to get a chance to work with in real life! So it’s always fun to work on during my spare time. These are a couple from around 4 years ago, which evolved into a screen printing project based on a book by Peter S. Beagle and favorite 80’s cartoon, The Last Unicorn. The prints are first, followed by some original sketches (some of which never made it to printing, but I liked none-the-less). The prints are a two-color screen print onto Canson paper.
According to the story, all the creatures on display in the midnight carnivale were actually regular animals with an enchantment on them.
The boa print got smudged because my screen was still wet, but I kinda like it anyway.
So in the story, the captive unicorn observes that the dragon is actually just a simple crocodile.
In one of my favorite parts of the story, a visitor interjects with a question wondering how could the Midgard serpent fit into a cage if his body encircled the world? Ruhk, the guide through the midnight carnivale, quickly ad libs that a loop of the serpert popped through a different dimension or something, and conveniently into the cage it is displayed in. Nice save! DEFINITELY ironclad. Lucky for him, he was talking to a bunch of peasants.
This is a first-pass, unfinished sketch of Cerberus, the dog that guarded the Underworld in Greek mythology. He never made it into the project, but I still kinda like him.
The midnight carnival was owned by a witch named Mommy Fortuna...and she always had a crow flapping around her or sitting on the tree trunk she wore on her head (at least in the cartoon she did). This was a sketch for the first of the prints, which displayed the carnival's motto: Creatures of night brought to light!
character sketches in pencil
I always love working in pencil. I have a lot of works in progress, some of which I do intend to add color to. I love that so much about working digitally – that I can save the work in different steps or color them in a digital painting program or Photoshop and really retain the original style of my linework in pencil.
Another of my favorites is character designing. It really allows me to hone in on my love of drawing people and the costume or clothing they wear, without worrying about the background. Of course this leads to the problem of having a million quick sketches of people that don’t look finished, but I gather most artists have exactly the same problem. Better too many, than too few! Here are some of my favorites.
This is from several years ago but I still love her! Another thing I love about digital work: her arm unfortunately went up to the end of the page. I could complete her arm on another piece of paper and reattach it via digital surgery!
This is from the same time as the previous image. I was doing a lot of character sketches then, hence they are background-less.
Ladies of the harem has always been a favorite drawing subject of mine.
One of my favorite historical figures is the infamous Henry VIII...perhaps I had been watching a lot of The Tudors at this time. Here I've depicted a fantasy illustration of Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and Jane Seymour, the first three of Henry's six wives.
This is a bit more modern, and almost minimal except for the top of her pants!
This character involves quite a crazy melange of styles - she evolved from a world I imagined in order to create a cohesive set of characters. As the story goes, Queen Melaina was supposed to be from the "dark" side of the world, though neither side was good or evil. Really, she was just a complete hedonist hence her indecisive mash-up style. I need to finish putting the dot texture on her stockings.
Also done several years ago...he's rather girly looking hmm?
This was a pirate inspired character sketch for a different made-up scenario, which a friend came up with.
I designed her to never be fully showing her face. Instead it's obscured by her constant cigarette smoking - much like the aptly named male version in The X Files.
Again, we conclude with the message that all the work here is my property, but if you are interested in using it for something you need only email and ask – courtneytrowbridge@gmail.com. I’d like to hear about what it will be used for, and most likely will be okay with it. Your motive there is I have much higher resolution files of the work. I also do commission work. Thanks!
Courtney Trowbridge 