After reading Thom Taylor and Ed “Newt” Newton’s book “How to draw crazy cars and mad monsters” I was inspired to try a few of my own.
Author Archive for Eddy Crosby
For this self-promotion piece I went with a circus theme. My initial idea was to have a monster or creature standing behind the ringmaster with only it’s huge feet visible. That didn’t work because you couldn’t tell what you were looking at. Changing it to ape and revealing more of the leg made things clearer. I like the idea that you can only see a part of the ape and it adds to a sense of scale.
As for the style, my inspiration was mostly UPA animation and picture books from the 1950’s. I kept the drawing pretty simple with just enough rendering to show the form. Definitely tried to get away from the painterly look. You can see my development work below.
Redrew the ringmaster making him shorter and fatter and more cartoon like. The creature turned into an ape which seemed to fit the scene better.
My first attempt at the ringmaster (right) had him tall and elegant. In fact he looks more like an equestrian sportsman. I wasn’t sure what do with the creature either. I scrapped this version and started again.
The sketch on the left hand side is my initial drawing. (pencil/marker on photocopy paper). I then used detail paper to refine and tighten the drawing. (right)
These sketches were done on Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper with PITT oil based black pencil and ink. Highlights were added with a white conte pencil.
Here’s a colour sketch of 1970’s Aussie soap siren, Abigail. This is based on the photo below. As you can see I began quite realistically but then progressed to a more stylised caricature.
A rough brush and ink sketch of Modesty Blaise. This wonderful Japanese poster for the film served as reference.
These pages are from a new sketchbook. I want to keep practicing with brush and ink and chose to copy some classic Jack Kirby panels. I have always loved Kirby’s work and his dynamic drawing is ideal for letting loose with the brush.
This week I got a mention on the Illustration Pages website. Check it out here.
If you are a creative why not submit your site or Faceboook fan page.
Find all the details on Illustration Pages.
Here’s my final acrylic painting of Tiki Girl. I am quite happy how it turned out because I wanted to combine a stylised figure with some realism. The major changes I made were to the background and the wooden Tiki carving.
The yellow-orange sun burst (see my final colour rough below) overpowered the whole image so it was toned down to a more subtle sunset. I added some cool blues to further recede the background.
I also redesigned the Tiki carving to be less angular. That area was first painted with a dark tone (mix Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue) and then the form was highlighted with Burnt Sienna using a scrubbing technique with a dry brush.
Once the painting was complete it was sealed with acrylic binder medium and two coats of gloss varnish.
Tiki Girl: Acrylic on canvas. 30cm x 40cm (12″ x 16″).
My final colour rough. Here’s a more polished version of the same Tiki Girl sketch with the black line work cleaned up. Coloured and painted in Photoshop. (Above)
I am submitting a painting to a local art show next month. Have played around with various subjects but finally settled on this Tiki inspired pin-up girl. Here are some preliminary sketches and a colour rough. The final painting will be acrylics on canvas, 30cm x 40cm.
Final pencil drawing – PITT oil based pencil on Bristol paper. Size: 28cm x 36cm.
Rough sketch on detail paper Size: A4.
Col-Erase blue pencil on detail paper.
Brush and ink sketches.
