Sarah's Sketches

Did some more sketching during writing group last night, mostly random stuff, although the hick is for the next drawergeeks topic. Hope everyone has a great holiday! I plan to eat lots of food. :)

I've been very busy trying to complete my Flight 5 story before my parents arrive for Christmas, but here are some random drawings I did while waiting for the monster Flight page files to open or save on my computer. I saw The Golden Compass several weekends ago and thought it was much better than the critics made it out to be. The little girl who played Lyra did a fantastic job. It's too bad though that books somehow don't 'count' to the public unless they are made into films. I'm reading The Golden Compass now, and although the film is an admirable attempt to capture a very complex story, there are just some things better read than seen in a theater.

Two posts in one week! Hurrah! Toon Club topic this week is Elves. I think I might paint the chubby one to post. Maybe though I'll just end up posting these sketches. Click for a bigger version. Drawergeeks this week is "Star Belly," completely open for interpretation. Since I have baby bellies on the brain... er belly, I drew the girl below. But then I realized that Drawergeeks is not the place for nudity, no matter how tame and rolly-poly the nudity, so I tried to come up with something else last night. I'm not sure what I'll end up sending in, but here are the sketches. I kind of like the cat and bunny.

I was watching The Aristocats a couple mornings ago and decided I should try drawing more cats. Some of these are my attempts to draw cats without reference, others are sketches of my two cats. Click on the image for a bigger version. I've been working hard lately painting the artwork for my Flight 5 story. I'll be sure to post a sample of a finished page or panel when I'm done. Hopefully that will be in the next week or so. Also, here's a quick drawing of my sister who is in Africa. I miss you Laura. :)

When I was a younger I drew tons of princesses but had little interest in drawing unicorns. The time to remedy that was apparently tonight. Somehow a magical pegasus sneaked onto this page too.

Thanks to writing group I got some quickie sketching done while listening to other readers. The topics right now for Drawergeeks and ToonClub are Design a Sith and Mad Tea Party. Siths are, for you lucky non-nerds, Jedi folk who have turned to the dark side. This Sith, I like to imagine, is called something silly like Darth Monocle and has an ongoing feud with Ewoks and Yoda's people. I doubt his midichlorian count is very high. Regarding writing group, I've been asked to help out at their first annual three day conference . I'll be giving a talk on writing and drawing comics. It will focus on the importance of comic anthologies and how to make tackling a large project like a graphic novel less intimidating. If you are in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, definitely come check it out. The conference runs from Feb 22-24, I'm not certain which day I will be speaking as I just confirmed last night. I will probably be the only speaker focusing on art and comics, however, there w...

So the Fablewood preview listing is up on the Ape Entertainment site! Here's an image from my four-page mini story called "Fish." Happy Halloween!

Yay! I'm back after what I think has been my longest ever post hiatus. All travelling is done now and although I still have plenty of stuff like Flight and my comic to keep me busy, things should be getting back to normal here on the blog. This is for Toonclub, and I just realized I can also use it for Drawergeeks this week. Hurrah!

Traditional clowns kind of freak me out, so here's my take on the latest Drawergeeks clown theme. I think I've been on a red kick lately. The last three paintings posted here have a red base. I'm heading back to Vancouver again, but it's my last month there, so soon it'll be back to blogging as usual. :)

Just drawing Rasputin makes me feel icky. What a strange guy. Glad I got something done again for Drawergeeks though. Now I just have get rolling again on Toon Club ... Thank you so much to Ryan Wood for mentioning my blog on his blog. If you haven't checked out Ryan's work it's fantastic and crazy inspiring. I particularly love his stylized portraits. It makes me grumpy when I walk through those big art galleries and see contemporary art represented by artists who have painted a canvas entirely green or something equally silly, rather than the work of someone who can truly whip a paintbrush (or stylus) like Ryan.

Here's a little painting I did last night. I'm not entirely sure who these people are or where they are off too though. Thanks for all the nice comments about my last post. A couple people have recently asked me about prints. I do have several prints left from the Comic-Con. I've been debating setting up a little online store, or perhaps selling them through a site like Etsy . I hope to have something figured out by the fall. :)

I'm feeling so enthusiastic lately about painting. Here's one based on a quick sketch from writers group. I'm glad I'm getting another post up before I return to work in Vancouver.

Yay! Back in Texas again, so here's another post and finally a post with some color. I've actually been doing a lot of painting lately for the film I'm working on. It's amazing how you can show a sketch of a character design and no one is all that impressed, but if you paint the same design, everyone loves it. And as promised; an announcement. I have a mini story in the upcoming fairytale themed Fablewood Anthology . It is called "Fish." I posted the pencils for the first page a few months ago, you can see them here . I'll be sure to post more about Fablewood as I know it! :)

This picture is a completely inaccurate representation of what being that the con is like. Instead of an open roomy booth, image it stuffed with lots of cool Flight folk. Instead of my lone prints on the table, imagine it packed with numerous little comic books and art goodies and what-nots. Instead of no people in sight, imagine endless crowds. Instead of Stephen at my side, imagine him kindly getting me sandwiches and food to eat. And instead of me standing up, imagine me curled on the floor behind the booth doing a sketch, signing a book, rolling a poster or trying to keep track of what prints I'm selling. So yeah! It was SO much fun. I was thrilled to meet some of the wonderful people who encourage me on this blog, hang out with the wonderful wonderful Flight contributers, reunite with some Sheridan buddies, see old DNA alumni, connect with friends from my current job at Rainmaker, talk to the wonderful guys from Blue Sky who were sharing our booth, meet up with some inspiring ...

These angry bunnies were for last week's Drawergeeks topic. Since the Comic-Con in San Diego is right around the corner, here's a sampling of some of the art I'll be selling prints of. There will be seventeen different images altogether, varying in size from 4 by 6 inches, to 13 by 19. Each print has a run of only twenty copies, and as soon as I have a free moment, they will be signed and numbered. I'll be at the Flight booth (1128) most of the time, so come on by, say hi, and grab a copy of Flight 4 too. :) Since I can't post the art I've been doing at work, here's a peek at what I've been doing outside the studio... My sister and I went over to Vancouver Island a few weekends ago. Very pretty.

Flight Four is out in stores as of Tuesday! Hurray! I still have yet to find it here in Texas but I am told by both my local Barnes and Nobles and comic shop that I can snag a copy next week at the latest. Like the Flight 1, 2, and 3, I think 4 has got a great selection of different stories and will be an enjoyable read. Be sure to check it out. Also, there is a big round table discussion posted on Newsarama with many of the Flight artists here . And lastly, the drawings above are a little sneak peak at character design sketches for a story I've written that might possibly be in Flight 5. It's exciting to be thinking about next years book already. :)

I know I've drawn these guys before, but it's a Toon Club topic this time. Being without my scanner, I took a picture of this drawing with my camera out on the hotel balcony had to photoshop it a lot. Poor Hermione got cropped out too. Maybe when I get back to Texas, I'll properly scan it in. Things in Vancouver are going well. Rainmaker is keeping me pretty busy (I wish I was allowed to post all the stuff we've been doing.) In my spare time I've been reconnecting with friends and family I don't often see and exploring the city. Happy Canada Day! *Update July 10th* I'm back in Texas and have access to my scanner. Click on the image for the full drawing.

Being a Canadian who lives in the U.S. makes me rethink how I spell 'colour' every time I write it. Ha. I tend to opt for the Canadian spelling. I like 'U's in words. Anyway! I was sending off some comic stuff to my writing group for an article in their newsletter about graphic novels and I came across these colour studies I did for the opening scene and I thought they might be interesting to post here. Thanks to Nathan Lindsay's good suggestion about using my digital camera as a temporary scanner, I hope to post some new drawings now and then too. I did bring a little wacom. Vancouver is beautiful and everyone at Rainmaker is very nice. I wish Stephen and the cats could be up here with me too though. :)

Just a quick sketch/painting. I was listening to Amy Winehouse while drawing and was inspired. Her music reminds of the wonderful Ella Fitzgerald and makes me want to dance around. So in a whirlwind of hiring and packing, I'm off to Vancouver for the summer to be a character designer at Rainmaker for their first animated film. I'm not sure how this will affect the blog as I can't easily take my scanner on a plane, but I will update when possible. The graphic novel is still very much in the works (I am nearly done a complete rough of the entire story) and I am also beginning to work on a story for Flight 5. And if I don't have a chance to update again soon, I will be at the Comic-Con in San Diego, either helping out at the Flight booth or running around spending too much money on art books. I will hopefully have some art prints for sale too. If you are there, come say hello! :)

Thank you everyone very much for all the kind comments on the Dragon Girl story. I've felt so encouraged and inspired the past couple days because of them. This sketch is for drawergeeks' Cinderella topic. I was hoping to ink her, but then it got late. India ink, the nice carpet and my sleepiness seemed like a bad combination. I don't think I've ever run fast enough to loose a shoe. Although I did trip on a curb once and somehow accidentally kicked my shoe two houses away.

Hurray the end! I feel like I'm tying up lots of little project loose ends this week and it feels awesome. For those of you who would like to read the Dragon Girl story in it's entirety, go here or follow the Dragon Girl link on the right side of this page. Now all I have to do is go back and do a whole slew of finished illustrations for this. Eagh.

Silly me, I didn't remember to submit this in time. Be sure to check out drawergeeks this week though, there's some pretty awesome Indianas.