Book! Book! Book!

The book moves ever closer... I'm final assembling the last of the pages. Just did this one the other night...I've still gotta get a edit/proof reading done...'cause my wordses-es and grammers sucks.

Horse for Mackenzie.

Wow....like 3 months since I posted anything...I was getting sick of looking at that crappy chick sketch I did....and I was doing some quick paintings for my daughter's room. I think this one is finished...I don't know what I was going for...I drew this from a photo and I wanted to add something to it...so I took a few liberties....

girl...I don't know why i did this

Just a sketch I did ...and I really don't know why....I guess I'd like to do more stuff like this...never get a chance to experiment with people....or how to draw them in a lose and fast way and after seeing some gorgeous work on a couple blogs I guess I found myself doing this...it hardly compares...but it's a start.

Focke-Wulf 190 sketch

Alrighty. This was fun. Started out as a quick doodle of this FW 190 in the foreground...and of course nothing was right...that's what happens when you draw planes from memory ( and your memory sucks)...but I enjoyed it just the same and I liked the feel of the sketch...I guess the twin engine in the distance is a B25....and the fighter above and behind it...? let's pretend it's a Mustang :)

Anyway, despite the fact the B25's Port engine is burning, I'm not normally a big fan of WWII aviation art that depicts battles...seems stupid maybe...seeing as that's pretty much what WWII was all about.

For me, these planes should be painted in a way that shows their power and grace without focusing on the fact that they were designed to blow the crap outta stuff. I'd rather try to capture a split second that conveys what it might have been like to be near these beautiful machines as they were flown to their limits.....Just about the coolest thing ever.

another plane..What the heck.

Just playing around last night. Sometimes, after a day of drawing silly stuff...I've gotta try something for myself...bit of pencil line with some oil paint...I don't know if I love it...but I'm trying to find my style here....so ....it's a process...ya know?

Another colour sketch...maybe my next painting attempt....

So maybe this could be my next painting...provided I finish the first one. Whatever the case, I'm gonna stay away from any blending. This whole painting was done with brush and knife only and the result, in my opinion is a more lively and appealing. I should point out that the planes are P51's.....and if you know anything about them you're probably thinking...man, do P51's look like this...and my answer would be...I dunno...I kinda painted these from memory. So yes, I'll be checking reference once I go for the final.

NIght time plane sketch.

Just trying out some washy techniques for some quick plane studies. This is an OS2U on it's beaching gear.. FUN! AND COOL

some morning doodles

Hey there. Like the title says....some morning
doodles to get loosened up a smidge.

Airplane Paintings!!! in progress anyway.

Okay...so I'm getting into this new painting here..
It's a couple of bearcats over a super cool skyscape....super cool if I get it right. This image is the first rough colour sketch....It's funny I haven't looked at this for a while...since I've been working on the later stages.....and man, I think I like the original tilt on the planes...plus...I like the rougher feel of the paint.....I might try this with another painting in the future. More impressionistic feel




So I guess I would call this the middle stages.
I've started to smooth out the clouds ...which is in keeping with the cloud reference I'm using...it's a wispy kind of cumulus and stratus mix...the sun's position seems to rob the clouds of volume but creates a kind of layered feeling...The black perspective looking lines were something I added to help me when I'm later adding any "God rays that are punching through parts of the clouds...you can also see that I've moved the planes.....A mistake in retrospect.....so.......see below.


A couple things have changed here...I've widened the canvas a touch....Things felt a little tight on the left of the painting....like the planes needed room to fly... I've also restored some tilt to the planes....I like that.... Funny: Though I like this result...it's clear to me that I've lost the punch of initial rough....crap. I think I need to add some tilt to the clouds themselves...theres definitely a sense of horizon in my first rough....I'll try to get that back.........AAAAAAHHHH!!!!...................more changes on the way.....but once I get this sky worked out it's on to the planes. The fun and painful part.

Cool dude with angry squirrel

Well....this is pretty stupid....but I'm trying some experiments with photoshop elements....I've just seen some really cool stuff on other peoples blogs...and it's wicked!!!! So I guess I'm giving it a shot......Fun to do anyway....but it's my first kick......so I'm hoping to get better.....or worse......or become indifferent.......

Look out Cat guy....there's a mean looking, angry robot type guy over there!!!!

Man...Blogger doesn't seem to like these pictures....they keep getting messed up...anyone else have any trouble posting PNG's?...anyway...attempt #3....This is a little pastel sketch I did...the one above is pretty close to the original....I think I pushed the saturation a smidge...and maybe added some magenta....But check it out! the one below is the second version where I pushed the yellows way up. Plus I hit the contrast a bit....the lesson to be learned here..? if you suck at makin' pictures the first time....Photoshop can make your pictures more coolester and less suckester.

Farmyard Automation

Alright...I'm definitely just puttin' something up for the heck of it...I've kinda been toying with doing little illustrations on the subject of farmyard automation........soooooooo here's a chicken driving a robot, metal thing...I've never been so proud.

I guess this is sorta day...

Well...I don't really know what time it is...it's just some more pastel stuff I'm experimenting with...I'm pretty messy when I draw..or paint .......or clean my house. So I'm trying to find a style that works for my...."strengths".

Rough Night in Chicken Town

Alright...so I'm really starting to notice the "Night theme" here....okay...so the next thing I put up here has to be a daytime shot. Just playing around with some pastel and pencil....plus I'm trying to loosen myself up a smidge....while exploring some new styles...new for me anyway.........Man I love stupid pictures like this....oh yeah, right....I've still got a book to finish.....Crud.

STRESS IS FUN!

I kinda just wanted to throw this up here....it's a sketch that's from my "Stupid sketches file". The other day a friend and I were chattin' about stuff and we touched on the fact that we both tend to dig drawing characters that are somewhat stressed...and this one came to mind....I don't know why....but crap like this makes me laugh.......

Orrrr......... maybe it's because it's really a visual metaphor representing the way I feel about life...I'm the duck....treading in the dark waters of existence.......and just below the surface lurks all the obstacles..... bills... taxes......relationships......career ...oh and my neighbours.....

(by the by...if any neighbours happen to read this; I wasn't talking about you.:)

Getting closer!!!

Okay...so it's been basically forever since I've added
anything to this blog....but I swear....I'M WORKIN'
ON IT!!!! Anyway...here's another page from the book... I'm actually getting close here...at this point I'm pretty much going through all the artwork and doing touch-ups and repairs....(We're talking about 30+ pretty pictures....this takes a while)..which reminds me...remember to fix the shadow on the Car...originally the car was on the left side of the page....crap.

Besides the Cover...this is really the last "new" piece of art I had to create.....For whatever reason, I really wanna try to give a "real" impression of the earth...it's such a cool image to see in photos...All alone...so important...and insignificant all at the same time...(man I'm deep) .....overall..I'm pretty happy..oh, Thank-you, Photoshop, sunflair :)

Found an old sketch.!!!

This is just a little sketch I did a long while ago....it was just a quick location rough for an idea I had about a Girl who is given special powers when she puts on an old forest ranger's hat. Just the other day, I was playing with some new computer paint/ sketch programs and I did a little colour sketch below. As you can see...I changed the rocks to another tree....I think it's a bit of an obvious framing on the cabin...and maybe looks a bit forced...but the rocks alone ended up leaving the painting feeling unbalanced...






I'm gonna take this colour sketch a bit further.....I've never been much of a painter so this is a neat little experiment for me.....we'll see what happens!

Hey ...Just wanted to post one of the double page spreads to the book....I kinda liked the way it turned out...though I think I wasn't entirely successful with the smoke trail...had to wrestle with the idea of keeping the trail highly visible on the blue yellow background but still have it feel in harmony with the rest of the page........would have loved to have a warm yellow tinge to the smoke...but that always seemed to be lost in the sky....and Don't worry...the squirrel makes it :)

Phew! Day two of the Roundcat Blogging experience! It's been a long haul....I figured I'd post a couple visuals from my upcoming Children's book....It's a work in progress that started really as a quick story for my daughter..................................... Well, 3 years later...here it is......almost. Anyway, here's a few of the pages that are close to completion. I'm semi happy with the outcome....it's one of those things that I jumped into with a lose story and the idea that I'd do some quick illustrations to go with it....but the story was a bit confusing and the illustrations were....well....lame.







So I tried to , "improve them" but still tried to keep the original design of The girl and the cat....This was because I'd done a fair amount of the visuals already and the thought of a total redo made me cry.

Roundcat Babble

Hey! Welcome to the Roundcat Productions Blog!

My Name's Ted. I'm the guy at the helm of this MASSIVE Corporation and from time to time I'll be posting some of the artwork and ideas in development at Roundcat.

I'm hoping this blog will serve as a window into what's happening at Roundcat Studios. As well as an online portfolio of my personal work. You can expect to see a variety of stuff. From Animated television concepts and Aviation art, to Children's books, children's art, and squirrel wrestling.....okay, kidding about that last one....

It's just that at Roundcat, we like to say:

"We're always doing as much as we can...Largely because we don't know what the heck we're doing.....or something like that"