Trying Something a Little Different

I'm a little more savvy about blogging now so I think I will take the little section of writing and drop each piece into new blog Here:


I'm a little more comfortable now showing some more of my thought processes.

I'll start with what I'm calling "dialogues" and probably a bit of fiction, short stories and excerpts from novel length stories.

I hope you all enjoy as much as the rest of my work!

Sketchbook Einstein

This one worked better than Johnny Cash did. Not the best.

There's a few reasons for that.
1. I used a .005 pen which give much more control for me but that's probably an excuse that better artists will laugh at.

2. I've been focusing on taking care of stress factors so I was less likely to try to put all that energy into a drawing where patience is required thus ruining it.

3. I took my time over three days or so, taking breaks so stress doesn't get me frustrated so I make mistakes.


I have the characteristic vertical stretching on this drawing that a lot of people get from working on a flat surface versus working more vertically. I have a hard time working vertically. It hurts my wrists and I think I'm getting a touch of arthritis...wrist elbow and shoulder, which is great for someone who draws all the time.

Kangaroo Spec.

Okay, so this piece vexed me a little.
I got hung up on detail when I should have just worked exactly like the other animal pieces.

I spent a bunch of time in PS trying to make decent fur while keeping it loose but realized after I flogged myself for a few days that I had never intended to make fur to begin with and I should save that for an entirely different piece with different intentions in mind.

Jeez, what an ass.

Funny how something you know how to do can suck you into a vortex of shame and guilt and make you want to quit art forever!

I believe thats the same process everyone goes through. Now I have to get back into more work so I don't go into art withdrawal again.


Cheers.

More cutsie animals in the works

Here's a progress shot of the stippling part of what will be a digital illustration like the other animals on my illustration page here, on pimperneldesigns.com, my merch. site.

i mentioned all the social stuff I've been ramping up...

facebook - pimperneldesigns
instagram - hyperactive_beaver
google plus - pimperneldesigns.
redbubble.com - merch site - the pimpernel

IT's all making my head spin as I try to integrate all this stuff without repeating exactly the same things on all the sites. Please bare with me.

A few for the sketchbook

whipped this one up today. not really satisfied but my sketchbook paper has low tooth and I think I hit the limit of what it will take without paint.  "Hoggle" a Brian Froud character from "Labyrinth"

 pen and watercolor

These two are me playing with some Brian Froud Images

Social What?

I'm ramping up my social media presence because, well, it's the 21st century.
It's cool though there are bigger misanthropes than myself who can manage all those accounts and so why not me right?

Anyway I'm on...

Instagram as Hyperactive_beaver,

Google Plus as Pimpernel Designs

You all know Facebook by now, also Pimpernel Designs,

and I still maintain my portfolio site for all of you who would rather have an uncluttered and non-intrusive viewing experience.


Thanks For All Your Support!

Publishing Date is Setember 06 this year

I'm excited to announce the publishing date for the coloring book I've been blabbing about.

Yes, it's a real thing.

Yes, I accept solicitations for other work including coloring books. The styles I'm current on are on this blog or my portfolio site (links at the top)

Meanwhile you can find the book at Skyhorse Publishing , Barnes and Noble, or at Amazon for pre-order.

I promised some coloring book drawings so...

Here is the number of previews I'm authorized for the adult coloring book I recently illustrated entitled:

Remember When: Hollywood Screen Stars 

from 

Racehorse Publishing  

copyright 2016

Shirley Temple

 I had a blast working on these. There's just so much history and material to work with!





















These are roughs and the printed versions will be slightly different due to formatting.

Rita Moreno

 Above I combined Shirley with elements that made up Captain January.

I combined un-copyrighted publicity photos with elements from the films each star was in. I tried to keep the elements to one film so as not to confuse things.

Many times I outright fabricated the backdrop to create a scene or medley that represented one of the star's more famous films.

James Cagney

Ginger Rogers

There were an abundance of cowboys, pilots, and cute sailor outfits in the period I was working as well as plenty of gangsters and molls from the 30's so I got pretty familiar with the themes.



Below I dropped Errol's famous The Adventures of Robinhood character with bits made from the first sword fight scene in Princess Bride (oh, yes I did)

Errol Flynn

New Zoo Themed Work

Finally got back to some of the stuff that's been on the back burner.

 I'm still working the animals and insects as well as refining the whole "ring and line" theme from previous work.

Slightly anthro if that's what you are looking for. The teeth are more abundant than in reality as well as overall stylization.

quick sketch

quick sketch of Johnny Cash for my notebook page...

Still trying to get my head back while digging up more work.
I don't know what I was thinking with the last Editorial but it's way too line heavy.

Oh, Finally!

Finished at the end of May with the coloring book project but there isn't a firm publishing date yet. Still, a whole book of illustrations of Hollywood stars from the 30s to the 50's with my name on it isn't bad.
I'll post some examples after all the details are finalized with the publisher.

 Finally getting over the post project blues that most of us go through. I liken this period to being in withdrawal from so narcotic or other. You do get a pretty good work buzz and if there isn't another project lined up immediately, straight to the into shitter I go.


I've been working on my daily editorial speed in preparation for a 20 piece goal I can shop around. Having an outlet that gives more exposure to the range of work I can accomplish is my next step in deriving a stable income from my different work styles.

This one is about the new mayor of London Sadiq Khan, telling companies what kind of ads they can post in the Underground. He wants to spare the feelings of women whom he apparently thinks can't control themselves when confronted with pictures of fit models used in product ads.

So sad.

The man was democratically elected so I don't care that he's Muslim but I have no problem pointing it out as women's rights in Islam are nearly non existent in Muslim majority countries and areas of non majority countries where the  local  population is majority Muslim  and practitioners of Sharia.
Yeah that was one sentence.
Some excellent and brave academic work has been done narrowing most of the problems with Islam to believers/practitioners of Sharia. The problem is that even non-practitioners are being radicalized these days.

New project sucking up a lot of my brain juice

Sorry I've been away awhile. I picked up a job that's sucking up a lot of mental energy.
In a good way.

It's going to be yuuuge.

In the meantime here's a shot of a critical editorial and/or street art piece I've had on simmer since I started this contract.

"Hell Buro"

It's critical, not complimentary.


You can see I have the basic painting started but not much else.
I'm thinking about making karl into a sort of muscle-head.

There will be a text block on one side with some variation of :
"for the discerning sophomoric psychopath control freak"
or
"bringing fascism into the 21st century"

It's meant to be a kind of product ad describing marxism as a product and by implication describing the type of people who ascribe to that suite of philosophies.

It won't be kind however the text works out.

Another quick one

I think I'm picking up speed on these pieces. This particular one I didn't even have sketches done, just a few words of a concept.  I can take just about any bit of an idea and work it into something good.

This has a couple narrative threads, maybe more if you stretch it.

See what you can find.

I feel it.

So, here's a finished piece based on one of the sketches I've been throwing out there.

Incidentally the damage Sanders would do is equal to what Trump and Clinton would do to our culture. You know, that culture that has freed and lifted the prospects of probably billions of people by now, on the planet.   That would be our foundational political structure and the ensuing culture that was allowed to grow and flourish under that design.

But, butbut....many would say, and what about this or what about that others would wail.

Who cares about the imperfections? I don't. Imperfections are a fact of human life and complaining about lack of supposed perfection in one area or another does not diminish one bit the vast amount of good the American sociopolitical structure has done for the ENTIRE Planet and continues to pursue however laborious the effort seems in the current era.

Time to relax for a bit

All the damn politics in our permanent campaign country really are bad for peace and prosperity.
It all adds to societal stress and all that entails.

I took a break from trying to lampoon politicians to make a cute bunny baby in Photoshop.
I've been working my butt off to get better at PS painting and I like the way this one turned out.

Portrait, composite illustration, painted in Photoshop.

A Few More Sketches

Here's a few in a couple different drawing styles. That's 4 mostly clean drawings while executing household duties concurrently...

Political animals

Tossing around some figure skating ideas...

Quickie Editorial

I'm still polishing my editorial style. I think I have most of it dialed in but I like what I did figuratively on the Obama piece rather that the "quick" style I did here.
I also need to decide how I want my style for individual people to look like, like Michael Ramirez who has a particular "Obama", "Hillary", etc. that he always uses.

This one is not bad narratively, just the cohesive character style needs polishing.

More fun for the Web Store

I had fun with this one. Now I all I have to do is Jab a couple other Pols in a similar manner for a complete set.

Quick and Dirty

This sketch got a touch busy which can be cleaned up but it gives a good basis for an editorial piece.

I was under the influence of some cerebral interview podcasts and then some classical so my thoughts were drifting to bigger places...Which makes the hands tend to do the same.

Let's all parody some clowns everybody!

I think I'm being diplomatic with this latest series of sketches. I could really take a bite out if/when I need to.

I imagine I'll have to get to Sanders and Cruz at some point you know...just in case.

One More Today

another quick comparison sketch...

A Comp-hairison....

...so bad, I know.

A little notebook work

working on some more coloring book drawings. I'm also working these with an eye on developing a coherent voice of my own for my editorial stuff. I'm using this process to sharpen my perceptive skills regarding relationships in the political environment.


SO...

Three iterations on a theme. Not really what I was hoping for.
I used the wrong method to work up the sketches so it took too much time and I didn't get the characterization I had in my head.
The third is the closest but I will redraw to expound on the basic concept.

These two I really like as sketches and they will look great finished.

I used the correct method to work them up, don't know why I didn't do that before.
Probably stress and lack of sleep. BUT, no excuses.

These went a hell of a lot faster also so I'm happy about that.


Working on more of these from a lengthy sketchbook session.

I hope to have about 20 of the Trump/Clinton dynamic I can show off.

Coloring is a big deal right now

I've been working on my skills for coloring book drawings. Hopefully it will lead somewhere ;) Adult coloring books are a big deal right now.

I hope the trend will last awhile, it's right in my wheelhouse.

It's a lot harder than it looks to get the people looking right but this one I think turned out decent.

The image is public domain.

I can do this type of thing for animals, family portraits, or
what-have-you.


The same process applies for comic books from a movie or TV show or whatever. The character likenesses are what counts the most and we've all seen those that didn't turn out so great!



Don't forget to check out my other pages. I have tons of stuff that can be tailored to suit your needs!

Whoa! I forgot a whole lot of recently finished work!

I realized i forgot to post a number of recent pieces I have on my merch. site.
head over there to see some good finished pieces and get some cool stuff while you're there!

Also check out my new slap-dash portfolio website pimperneldesigns.com
Don't forget to like all this craziness on FB too!


Here's a couple for my caricatures page.

I'll drop this stuff on the appropriate page

Rework

I finally finished this one to my satisfaction. It read a lot better than before.

Reference follows:

They're Obie, Obie, and the Kam, Kam, Kam, KAM

I can go deeper than that folks...downright esoteric if you want...



Sue me suckers.

You can see the progression of this piece from crap to pretty decent on my caricatures page.

Dirty bugs...

Summer's coming up fast. Makes me think of sand, sun, water, and little mechanically inclined bugs.

Here is the PSA style poster I made out of the dung beetle copris nubilosus.

Hand drawn digital color, fit, and finish.

Beetle express rolls forward

Don't forget to like my facebook page and stop over at my web store where the in progress design below will be for sale of various products as well as many other great and funny designs.

I also post different things on FB so check it out!



Now that I've almost got all my tech issues sorted I have a little time to crank out some more work.

 Here's one of thousands of species of Dung Beetle.
Hand drawn and stippled. Digital color.

...to be part of a "clean your beaches" illustration i'm working on.

I like to include layers of meaning for those who are of the living and not the walking dead like so many seem to be these days.

This will be in the same style as my frog and other beetles at the web store.

Okay, Okay. We have More cool stuff!

Don't forget to like Pimpernel Designs on Facebook

Also head over to my web store for some cool t-shirts and what-not!

 redbubble.com/people/thepimpernel

You can buy sculpture and my Bird-Balls direct from the blog or coming very soon my website:
It'll be up and running in the next few days at:

pimperneldesigns.com

Check it out!




I've been working on the bird nests mentioned previously and now I have the weather proofing issue worked out.

These things are about 10" in diameter and are completely weather proof for years of outdoor critter housing.
They come with a removable back so they can be cleaned out every year.
They are also rock hard despite their appearance.

Ilove these things for bird nests but you can use them for an amazing looking lamp too!







I made one into a blazing multicolored light show.

I just really love how this one turned out, and it's just a prototype!
This lamp version of my "Bird Ball" really adds some ambiance to the room!

I promise I will work this one until I can start sending them out the door in a timely fashion.

Something's bugging me...

I've been working on these beetle illustrations lately with plans to crank out a bunch more of different insects and whatever else strikes me. The one below is hand drawn and stippled then digitally colored and finished.

The thing that's bugging me is that reference material is damn hard to find in stores these days. One can't even rely on the used book stores for cool nature books with usable photos to work from. I don't know what the deal is. The major retailers tailor their stock to what's fashionable with not really a view to expanding the horizons of their customers.
We have the same problem in men's clothing in the midwest...people only dress a certain way because that is all that's available. Availability is based on market studies of what will sell which all show, you guessed it, that people only buy certain things, those being all that is available. It's a viscous circle. (I know what I wrote)

On line is not much better because the algorithms are tailored to show what they predict you already have an interest in. Not what might be related but different. It takes sometimes months of online shopping to find something inspiring to fill that gap in your wardrobe or a specific tool or part for a project. Almost everything exists already it's just damn hard to sort through the million miles deep pile of things for sale to get your thing.

Same problem exists in reverse to those of us who make and sell things, no matter how cool they are, it's very difficult to get your stuff in front of the right people who are looking for your particular thing. Those customers all exist but you have to dig UP from the pile of things for sale to find the people who are digging down looking.

copyright Pimpernel Designs 2016 obviously since I didn't include a watermark. It's not finished either so take THAT all you stealers out there.

This one will be finished similar to the other beetle I have for sale in my WEB STORE