the illustrated fish sketchbook

I had so much fun playing with that last sketch after I had it on the computer that I started thinking about different ways that I could make wallpapers for my laptop. What could be better than customizing your computer screen every time you turn it on?

I started sketching a series of just designs. They are not really supposed to be anything in particular other than neat. This is the first of my sketches. Once it is done (and if I get enough requests) I will it available to download.

If you have any other ideas, or if you are doing your own, please share a link.

Here is a sketch out of my book that I really enjoyed. I thought the sketch itself was fun and I thought it would be interesting to work with on the computer. After taking this photo, I placed it into a new Adobe Illustrator file and started playing around when I had a few minutes free here and there.

The result makes what could be an interesting wallpaper for your computer screen. What do you think:

You know things are getting bad when the robots start begging for oil.

This is one of those rare pages that work as a whole. The first few pencil marks looked like a robot that was a little depressed so I kept running with it and eventually ended up with this. I really enjoyed the process of working this up even though the final image is a little saddening.

I was reading one of my all-time favorite books again about a month ago and when I started sketching I kept remembering a part where the characters would jump to Conclusions. Of course in Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series, a jump to conclusions lands you on an island called conclusions. I can't remember exactly which book that how ordeal was in and it was not the book I was reading and I am starting to ramble a bit.


Anyways... I sketched this out in my sketchbook and got a little chuckle out of it so thought you might like a peak at it too.

The first page of a new sketchbook is always the most intimidating. The nice, clean white page calls to be turned into something wonderful but I am always afraid of messing something up. That's the beauty of sketchbooks! They are meant to be an experimental mess of art and design. These are not final pieces (normally) but will become such as the creative process works its magic on the pages.

Page one of a sketchbook also poses a problem for many because they will open their book, grab their pencil, look at the page and think, "What on earth am I going to draw?" People have asked me before how I decide what to draw in my sketchbook. I tell them I usually just start moving my pen or pencil until I can see something coming out of the scribbles. After all it is a sketchbook and not a drawbook.

On this page, I knew I wanted the word "start" since I was starting a blog with these sketches so there was a little more thought than usual on this particular page. After I outlined the text, I decided I wanted the "art" to stand out a little more and pulled out my yellow pen. The swirls at the bottom is what appeared from the scribbles that I ha placed to attempt to ground the whole page a little.

Sketchbooks are a playground for artists of all media. A place to experiment with new techniques and refine old ones. My sketchbooks are often messy and rarely organized. Even with the chaos, I often find some of my best ideas within the pages of random notes and messy doodles. Sometimes a page will be a complete sketch in itself but often I find shapes, patterns and other elements repeat in and out of various pages till the ideas are explored in what appears to be an infinite number of ways.

Illustrated Sketches is a blog I started so that I can share some of my visual ideas and a few pages of my sketchbook. Feel free to comment on any of the works to come. Tell me what you like and what you do not like but please tell me why you do or do not like it as well.

My first post here is simply to introduce you to the tools I am starting with as I open a brand new sketchbook. Personally, I like the little sketchbooks like this one because they are so much easier to carry around and I like to have mine with me everywhere I go. I also have a variety of pencils and pens, a ruler, a sharpener and an eraser. (The last three are not in the picture because I do not use them too often.) I will definitely use more than just these tools, but these are my primary sketch utensils.