Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Sketch-A-Day -Day 21-



     Day 21 is a noodle-armed big headed young boy marveling at the techno-fireflies buzzing around him. It's pretty much par for the course, incorporating a cartoony character, some sci-fi bugs, and a distinct source of lighting. The grey of the background comes from the use of Copic markers, which I have only recently started to incorporate into my work. It helps to push the contrast a bit and allows me to use the original tone of the paper as a bit more of a medium light brown. Hope you all had a fun and uneventful Memorial Day weekend. Stay tuned later on this week for a glimpse at my process in relation to a new illustration created for the Spring SCBWI conference here in Portland.

-Enjoy-
Daniel DePaolo

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Sketch-A-Day -Day 20-



     Day 20 is another limited color palette piece on black paper. I'm still finding my way working on such dark paper, but it does pump the contrast of light and dark. Now, I just need to fine tune the medium tones and I'll be golden. I like the horns growing from our rolly-polly friends head and the goggles (because everything is better with goggles). He's a friendly looking guy with a genuine curiosity about change and personal growth.

-Enjoy-
Daniel DePaolo 

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Sketch-A-Day -Day 19-



     Day 19 is another in the series of portly characters toasting to your good health, happiness and prosperity. While it may not be in time to kick off your weekend, I still hope you had a good one. I envision running into this guy in some swank European night club where the techno music is blaring,  you wake up the next morning with a noticeable ringing in your ears, and you sound like Louis Armstrong from shouting all night. To you my friends, enjoy the coming week.

Daniel DePaolo

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Sketch-A-Day -Day 18-



     Day 18 is one of my favorites out of the series of sketch cards I've been creating for those who've bought copies of "Dingo and Willy's Donuts". It kinda speaks for itself. Don't we all yearn for that spacesuit we can climb into, and that jet pack we can strap on to fly away into the unknown? I know some days I do.

-Enjoy-
Daniel DePaolo

Sketch-A-Day -Day 17-



     Days 17-20 are late, I know...but I have a great reason for neglecting you diligent watchers. I've been polishing my portfolio and working on an illustration assignment for this weekends Spring SCBWI conference. The piece I prepared for one of the seminars was based around a pre-selected excerpt of text from Snow White. I plan on sharing the process with you here either later today or tomorrow. I hope you'll enjoy it. For now though...Day 17 is an exercise in drawing hats, hummingbirds and orchids. The noodle armed kid with the abnormally large head is just par for the course. More catch up posts coming later today...so for the three or four people out there watching stay tuned and enjoy your weekend.

-Take Care-
Daniel DePaolo

Monday, May 13, 2013

Sketch-A-Day -Day 16-



     Day 16 is another colored pencil original I created for Emerald City Comicon in Seattle at the beginning of March. I drew the piece with nothing more than the intent to create some wild hair . The steam tech drone, ramen, and chopsticks were added merely to make the image a little more random and engaging. This piece sold to an amazingly nice teacher living in the Seattle. She liked the piece because she thought it looked like Einstein...I'm just glad she bought it and liked it...

-Happy Monday-
Daniel DePaolo

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Sketch-A-Day -Day 15-



     Day 15 is a few days behind, but I plan on being caught up and on track for next week. This piece was one of a handful of finished works I created to sell at Emerald City Comicon. While I really like the drawing, it has not sold, yet...but you can find it for sale on my Etsy shop. Working with a limited color palette and drawing some of my favorite things, Day 15 is an homage to retro technology, space walkers, and the secret desire of every little boy to have a trusty chimp there for them throughout life. Happy Mother's Day everybody!!

-Enjoy-
Daniel DePaolo


Friday, May 10, 2013

Sketch-A-Day -Day 14-



     Day 14 is a plug-in samurai robot piece, where the buildings populating the background resemble large hair spray or shampoo bottles...As I add more bits and bobs to my robot characters, the more I realize that working at this size (about a 1/4 of a page of an 8 1/2 x 11) can become problematic when trying to emphasis the details.

-Enjoy-
Daniel DePaolo

Sketch-A-Day -Day 13-



     Day 13 is a few days late, so for those keeping count, you'll once again be seeing a triple blog post today. Hope you like it! This one was an attempt at drawing a mountain Gorilla (my first, by the way). Although I would have liked to get a little more of the body in there, I do like the drawing for its minimal palette and for the kid with a little bit more of a normal sized head.

-Enjoy-
Daniel DePaolo

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Sketch-A-Day -Day 12-



     Day 12 is a tip of the hat to James Bond and all the 'high-tech' gadgets he played with through the course of any of his many films. Of course, to look at the gadgets now we'd all be taken aback by the "retro" quality of all that high technology. It's also another fine example of anthropomorphisis of an animal. For some reason I kept saying to myself, "The missions of Super Secret Otter...because no one ever expects the otter..." Who knows, that may become a catchy tag line for a kitschy homage to both Bond and Rocket Raccoon.

-Enjoy-
Daniel DePaolo

Monday, May 6, 2013

Sketch-A-Day -Day 11-



      Day 11 is a perfect example of how heads and hands make a piece. I especially enjoy the shape of the noodle-y body and the automaton/contraption in the figure's hand.

-Enjoy-
Daniel DePaolo

Friday, May 3, 2013

Sketch-A-Day -Day 10-




     Day 10 is a tip of the hat to my Scandinavian roots, as well as a bit of a recurring character type. I enjoy playing with character design, and varieties of differing body shapes. This one is a big viking-esque guy raising a refreshing glass of grog and toasting to the weekend. Which if you live in Oregon is looking to be pretty f'ing spectacular. So "Cheers" to you my friends wherever you are. Come back Monday through Friday for more Sketch-A-Day randomness. Have a safe and enjoyable weekend.

-Cheers-
Daniel DePaolo

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Sketch-A-Day -Day 9-




     Day 9 is a bit of a random non-planned piece that took shape while out with friends at an Illustration club meeting. Illustration club is a sporadic meeting of friends/illustrators here in the Portland area. Where we: socialize, get a little work done, and generally force what is a normally reclusive home bound group of individuals into public places. It generally is just a lot of sitting, drinking and lamenting about: projects we're involved in, the state of being in a constant search for jobs/revenue, and the frustration that comes from the constant devaluation of our creative services. Ok... now I think I know why I drew a big-eyed apathetic dude throwing a molatov cocktail. 

-Enjoy-
Daniel DePaolo

Sketch-A-Day -Day 8-




     Day 8 is a nice combination of some of my favorite things. I love creating anthropomorphized animals, and drawing retro inspired space suits. So, this is a nice melding of the two. I picture this guy stepping from the shadows on a moonlit night and perhaps startling the observer...

-Enjoy-
Daniel DePaolo 

Sketch-A-Day -Day 7-




     Day 7 is two days late, I know, but that just means I'll be playing catch up today. You'll have the privilege of seeing three posts, and I'll be all caught up. This one was a piece I sent to one of my best and oldest friends, Zachary Schneider. He is an amazingly talented actor, a kick ass father, and the Drama teacher at my old high school. I also can tell you that he is single handed-ly (with the help of his dedicated students) resurrecting the Drama department there, and making it something that everyone in my home town can be proud of. I thought of him as I worked on this sketch. So, if you see any similarity it's completely intentional.

-Enjoy-
Daniel DePaolo