Friday night saw me very restless, unwilling to do much other than just lie around. Jessica was fast asleep in bed and Chantelle was hard at work (as per usual) in the kitchen. Seeing as I wasn’t in the mood to game, work on the computer or watch television, I finally gave in and grabbed a pencil and eraser.
I was trying for a cartoony style character, which unfortunately as you can see for yourself, didn’t quite pan out.
Oh well, this is the result of only messing with a pencil and eraser pretty much once a year! :)
And a couple of in progress shots just because technology makes this so easy to do these days (i.e. hide layers):
Royal Black Guard Sketches, Paint & Photoshop 15 AUG 2012
Back in January 2011 (well actually it was more like the evening of the 31st December, 2010) I whipped up a quick ballpoint sketch based on one of the McFarlane figurines that I own.
Well over a year and a half later, and finally making the time to install and test drive Adobe Photoshop CS6 this evening, I now present the fully coloured version of “Royal Black Guard”.
(And yes, it did feel good to take a break from the usual evening activities for a change…)
Logo Design: Chantelle’s Cookies & Cakes Sketches, Paint & Photoshop 16 DEC 2011
Seeing as Chantelle got me roped into her little side-project idea of baking the best tasting treats you’ll ever receive as a gift, the website I whipped up for her needed an appropriate logo.
Despite the fact that I am of course rusty as hell, I managed to churn this out over the course of an hour, the end result of which isn’t all that bad if I say so myself. (In any event, it was a great excuse to pick up the old pencil and eraser once again!)
Related Link: https://www.facebook.com/TheHelderbergCakeCompany/
Gordon’s Beach Lodge Winter Special Brochure Sketches, Paint & Photoshop 19 JUL 2011
Just to prove that I’ve still got it if needed, I quickly whipped up this delightful green and white wordy little brochure for Chantelle for use in a post box drop in order to promote Gordon Beach Lodge’s (GBL) Winter Special that is currently on the go.
I thought it came out pretty nice, and fits the current Winter Wonderland that Gordon’s Bay’s tourist committee are currently chasing (hint, their strategy involves putting fairy lights on the milkwood beach walk).
Rugged Rock Logo Design Sketches, Paint & Photoshop 18 MAY 2011
I finally got around to designing a usable logo for my collective group of work that has always gone under the banner of Rugged Rock Studio for as long as I can remember (that or CodeUnit when it comes to my programming work).
Anyway, wanting to emphasise the strength and durability of the name, I opted for a rocky fist (think the Thing from Fantastic Four if that helps) and adopted a brown palette as the main color scheme for the studio logo. And after a bit of pencils, fineliner, scanning and a quick dab of Photoshop wizardry, out popped the following three web elements which will now adorn and serve to tie together my various web presences as I make an effort over the next while to give everything a much needed lick of fresh paint.
First, the official Rugged Rock Studio logo:
Next, the Rugged Rock tab which will hang above all my sites:
And finally the official Rugged Rock Studio icon, which will become the favicon for the majority of my sites:
Nifty.
Royal Black Guard Sketches, Paint & Photoshop 02 JAN 2011
Seeing as our little Jessica had finally joined us after her nearly two month long stay at the hospital neonatal intensive care unit, New Year’s Eve 2011 promised nothing more than a night in with Chantelle and my baby girl, meaning of course as the manly provider I needed to organise supper. So out came the wood, charcoal and meat and on went the last braai of 2010.
However, seeing as Chantelle was preoccupied with Jessica, I needed to entertain myself, and for no reason other than I can, I whipped up the following black ballpoint pen sketch based on one of my McFarlane figurines.
I think I’ll name him as being part of the Royal Black Guard. Sounds fitting enough!
Free Action Hand Icon Sketches, Paint & Photoshop 03 JUL 2010
I needed to come up with a small 16×16 web icon to denote adding or taking an action to/against an audit and so came up with the idea that a hand being stuck up in the air might just work pretty well in this particular instance.
So out came the Genius tablet and before you knew it, there was a nice 48×48 waving hand in a simplified (but rough) black outline with a minor flesh tone shading on a transparent background.
Resized down to its intended 16×16 dimensions and voila – the perfect little take action hand icon, which I’ve slipped up here as a .png image file together with its Photoshop .psd source in case it is of any use to you.
Enjoy! :)
Sketches: The Enabler Sketches, Paint & Photoshop 04 MAY 2010
So another quick black pen on normal printer paper, hastily scribbled down in front of my work keyboard while my mind happily drifted into problem solving mode to deal with some issues raised on one of our important projects.
As you can see from the subject matter, no doubt my brain was craving some good wholesome coffee, but considering that one now has to walk all the way downstairs just to make a cup, it might not exactly be getting all that much in the near future.
Certainly nowhere near the levels it has grown used to! :P
The small black and white drawing has been scanned in and blown up using my nifty little Canon LiDE 100 Scanner and then moved over into Photoshop where my Genius tablet and I happily coloured it in, before uploading it here.
Smooth.
The Enabler – 3 May 2010. Black Pen on Paper. Digital Colouring.
Sketches: Despair Sketches, Paint & Photoshop 22 APR 2010
Okay. So now I have my scanner. Which means I can put a black pen on paper and make a quick scribble in say ten to fifteen minutes. Then I take that sketch home with me, pop it into the scanner and bring the black and white digital copy into Photoshop, where I get to play brush master and bring the black and white to life.
The result?
Not bad for my first effort back behind the pen if I say so myself. Juices of creativity, flow damn it flow! ;)
Despair — 21 April 2010. Black Pen on Paper. Digital Colouring.