Furry Friday: Picnic for One

With the release of my newest tutorial drawing book Draw More Furries, I wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the talented artists who contributed illustrations. Given that so many artists these days work digital (myself included), it was a wonderful treat to have Kacey Miyagami do a traditional acrylic painting for the book. Check out the exquisite coloring on this lovely illustration of a shy raccoon enjoying apple pie. The delicate textures of fur and blades of grass are a nice touch.

Here’s what she had to say about her artistic process:

"I work primarily traditionally, my preferred medium for illustration being fluid acrylic paints. Fluid acrylics are a watered down version of full body acrylics, which behave similarly to both acrylics and watercolors. I start an illustration with one or more simple concept sketches, which I then redraw and refine into a finished pencil sketch on cold-press illustration board. Often, I will scan this pencil sketch and do a quick digital color test to determine shadow placement and overall color scheme before committing to the actual painting. Once I begin painting, I will work from the background forward, painting the characters last, to make sure they feel unified with their surroundings. A particular focus of mine with character illustrations is to create detailed environments to provide greater context and narrative for the characters." - Kacey

Draw More Furries is now available in bookstores, as well as through my online shop!

Furry Friday: Heroes of the Tall Grass

With the release of my newest tutorial drawing book Draw More Furries right around the corner, I want to take a moment to highlight some of the talented artists who contributed illustrations. Here's Heroes of the Tall Grass by Kelly Hamilton. I was so happy to when Kelly agreed to participate on the book, because she has long been an inspiration for my own work. Her characters are always so wonderfully expressive, and her style has the perfect blend of cartoony realism that I love.

For this illustration, I asked her to depict a ragtag group of adventurers out on the savanna, embarking on a journey. I gave her the hyena's character design to start with and she designed from scratch the meerkat and agama lizard to be his companions. You can really get a sense of their personalities from the body language and facial expressions.

Here’s what she had to say about her artistic process:

"My process starts with research, usually by finding photos online to inspire the characters, environments, and costumes in the image. Next, I sketch out a series of tiny thumbnail drawings, to plot out the basic composition and poses. That's followed by a larger, more refined sketch where I try to solve any remaining composition problems. I also like to add shading at this step to plan out the values in black and white. Inks and flat colors are done digitally in SAI Paint Tools, with final touches and textures created in Photoshop. Along the way I like to check my drawing by mirroring the sketch, and check values by converting the image to black and white. When the basics are solid, the final steps of inking and coloring are a breeze." - Kelly

Draw More Furries arrives in bookstores on November 23, 2012.
Signed copies are available through my online shop!

New Book – Draw More Furries!

Arriving in bookstores November 23rd! The follow-up book to Draw Furries, Draw More Furries is packed with more fantastic furries and scalies to draw!

 

This book shows readers how to create anthropomorphic characters (animals with human-like characteristics) that effectively convey various personalities, combining elements of people with those of furry (or feathered or scaled) animals, reptiles and mythical creatures.

Here’s a few sample spreads:

Signed copies of the book are available through my online shop! Go here to order your copy.

Furry Friday: Serpent Versus Saurian

With the release of my newest tutorial drawing book Draw More Furries right around the corner, I wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the talented artists who contributed illustrations. Here's Serpent Versus Saurian by Nimrais. Her ability to tell a story through excellent composition, strong figures, and vivid colors is breathtaking. I entrusted the most action-packed of the chapter openers to her care, an epic battle between a Triceratops Warrior and a Cobra Queen for Chapter 3: Scalies, and I couldn't be happier with the results:

Here’s what she had to say about her artistic process:

"I'm a female illustrator and designer from Germany. I've always been pretty creative and enjoy not only drawing but many other activities like crafting, photography and design. Now I'm a professionally trained Media Designer and I have a Bachelor's Degree in Design. For my digitally drawn pictures, I use Adobe Photoshop for both the sketches and coloration. I start with basic flat colors, then I add the shadows and highlights and continue with the details after that. At the end, I make any necessary color corrections to give the picture a balanced look." - Nimrais

Draw More Furries arrives in bookstores on November 23, 2012.
Signed copies are available through my online shop!

Furry Friday: Quiescent

With the release of my newest tutorial drawing book Draw More Furries right around the corner, I wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the talented artists who contributed illustrations. First up is Quiescent by Kristen “CentraDragon” Plescow, whose whimsical digital painting style and color palette are a joy to behold. This tranquil illustration of a kirin appreciating nature is featured as the double-page spread for Chapter 4: Mythical Creatures.

Here’s what she had to say about her artistic process:

“My process varies a bit from day to day, but overall I try to keep everything as simple as possible. For a large illustration like this, I start with lot of smaller doodles with ink and markers to get in the spirit of things, and to better envision the world around the character. Next, I make a sketch in Photoshop CS4, and move onto a quick under painting. Once I’m satisfied with the composition and color scheme, I’ll work on refining and detail from back to front. I don’t worry too much about layers, and like to merge them as I go. One thing I’ve learned—if you know there’s a part of your painting that’s going to be more difficult, always (ALWAYS) do it first. It’ll save you a lot of frustration and rage-quits later on.” -Kristen

Draw More Furries arrives in bookstores on November 23, 2012.
Signed copies are available through my online shop!