Painting technique

Playing around in photoshop trying out a painting style technique that was inspired by Jason Seilers DVD on is own technique's.

The result is OK but I need more practice! Drawing everyday keeps the skills moving forward in the right direction.

Competition time!

A pencil/graphite sketch I drew last week as a warm up exercise. I used a face from the internet, no one in particular, just a reference and had fun playing with it!

So would you like to WIN the original sketch?

All you have to do is answer this question via email to me:

"What is the name of the company that makes the Cintiq?"

Please include your home and or snail mail address for me to be able to post it off to whoever wins it!

Any entries with no snail mail address will not qualify to be picked out of the hat!

So email at drawn_4u@yahoo.com and on April 2nd I will totally random pick the winner from the collection of entries!

Good luck to everyone!

Tom Richmond

My good friend Tom Richmond really looks after his body and health but a year ago Tom had a problem with a tear in his should that required surgery. Not too long after that he and his loverly wife Anna, visited London and I saw first hand poor old Tom with his arm in a sling while he waited for the surgery to heal.

Well today Tom is back and 100%, working to build back his muscle in his left arm and he is doing very well!

Skip on over to Tom's blog to see some recent photo's of his progress:

Click here for Tom's blog

Tom is hoping to bench press 300lbs with his arms soon.... good luck Tom, I will sit back and watch!

The only bench pressing I will be doing is lifting my marker pens...lol!

My wish list...

Many of my friends have a Wacom Cintiq and they love the product, saying it has changed the way they work with the computer when drawing.

I have wanted one for a long time now. The main reason is cost.

A Cintiq is not cheap, in fact it is expensive but worth every penny. But I like many others can't just go out and spend a huge chunk of cash that I may not have in my bank account!

Wacom have released this new model version of the Cintiq 21UX but so far I have been unable to find what the price in GBP is.

On the USA Wacom website they advertise the new 21UX as $1999, in GBP that equates to approx 1.450 pounds. So maybe that is the price that Wacom will sell the Cintiq for over here?

I shall be in the USA in August and wonder if I should purchase one while over the pond? Probably it is best that I should buy one here in the UK as warranty and power requirements will be in place should I need to ever fall back on any issues.

The Cintiq works by creating/replicating another 'screen' of your computer, so that you can draw directly onto the screen:

This gives you greater creative control when you draw or paint using any of the software programs like Photoshop, Painter etc etc. It also delivers faster productivity when working so speeding up the whole process.

So it is not if I get one but rather when do I buy one!

Photography in Sri Lanka

Click on the image to view full size

In Sri Lanka, Buddism is the main religion although it is in itself a way of life and not actually a religion.

While there the other week on holiday I managed to catch a few shots with my Nikon camera.

Above is just a few of the moments I caught on camera.

I hope you like the photographs!

Classic Car show in June!

Here in Essex we have a Classic Car & Retro show organised by Tim Bussell, raising funds for a very important charity.

It will be a fantastic day for car enthusiasts and every thing associated with cars, a great day out!

So why not pop along if your in the area?

I know you will have a great day out!

Please click on the above image to view full size

Depending on my availability, I may be there drawing caricatures and donating any money I raise to the charity but watch this space for updates!

Draw draw draw....

While in Sri Lanka we made some new friends who turned out to be not only really nice people but game for a laugh as well! We all stayed for one nigh together, different rooms of course, in the St Andrews Hotel in the mountains where the Ceylon Tea plantations are located.

In the bar of the hotel, they have white washed walls and encourage guests to write on the wall and leave messages. Well you can imagine my delight at an opportunity to draw on the wall!

So I made a very simple carton sketch on the wall of us all in the group and everyone loved it. We had had a few drinks by then so lots of laughing and frolics were filling the room and managed to keep my hand reasonably stable to make the drawing using a ball point pen.

The picture above has been improved in photoshop as the light levels in the room were very poor and the photo did not come out very well but you can see the results of what was drawn! Two of the ladies were from Wales and so I could not resist making some bad jokes about welsh people and the girls were very sweet to take it in their stride and give as good as they got!

Here we go...

NOTE: Above is a photo I shot last week from our water bungalow on the Huukura Hurra Island we stayed on in the Maldives.

Well adjusting to time zones can be weird and at times disturbing to a persons built in 'clock'. We arrived home last night after a bumpy flight where, for the first time I was air sick and it was not a nice experience. I was not alone either as a few other passengers also had the same experience. This morning I was up very early as my body clock is still running on Indian Ocean times but at least it has given me a chance to catch up on all the emails I missed while away. Having the chance to get away for a couple of weeks with my loverly wife has been great. It was a holiday we both needed and we had a mix of great fun and total relaxation. The next task is to download all my photo's I have shot and over an hours of HD video footage we shot with the Kodak Zi8, which was perfect and performed extremely well.

From elephants to sitting in the sun doing nothing I have realised that I need to say a thank you to the Coca Cola company. As much as I enjoy drinking beer, when in a very hot environment there is only one thirst quencher that really hits the spot for me. I find that either a Sprite or Coke is ideal to refresh and quench my thirst. Drinking these beverages really works for me when I am in hot weather. One day I found myself sitting on the steps of my water bungalow in the Maldives with a Sprite bottle in hand and sipping the sweet sugary  lemon flavoured drink that flowed over my tongue and slid down my throat with refreshing pleasure and I thought about the people who first invented these drinks al those years ago. I wonder if they would ever have imagined that a guy like me would one day be in the Indian Ocean enjoying their product and getting exactly what they promised, a refreshing uplight from the Coca Cola company!

Well as soon as I can get my downloads completed and organised I will of course start to share them all here with you.

For now I need to sign off and get showered ready for the day ahead!

Back in Town!

We arrive back in the UK today after a wonderful holiday in Sri Lanka and the Maldives!

I shall be posting all about our trip and sharing the photo's with you and also video that I have taken with my Kodak Zi8...

So please do make sure you stop by everyday here on the pencildreams blog!

Be sure to tell all your friends to make a visit to pencildreams.com!

Where will I be in August?

The first 2 weeks of August I shall be in Orlando, Florida with my family and my wife's Sister's family.

The eight of us are taking a summer vacation together in Orlando to visit the parks and have some wonderful fun!

I am really looking forward to the Shrek-4D show in Universal Studio's!

It will also be a great opportunity to catch up with all my friends who live there!

Orlando, here we come... well in a little over 4 months from now..!

Where will I be in November?

Seems like a long way off but I shall be in Las Vegas during the early part of November this year for the ISCA convention.

Click here to visit the website of the hotel we shall be staying and where the convention is taking place!

If your an artist you should join us there for lots of fun, drawing, painting, sculpture, networking, seminars and for a totally awesome time!

Click here for more information  on the convention

A FUN & cool youtube video

How much fun can you have with your iPhone and an app......

Google kills Bambi..!

Google vehicles are roaming around the world taking pictures of places to build their database of photo's for the Google maps app. Here the google vehicle runs over a deer whilst taking shots of this road and area... very sad!

Basildon website

Basildon is starting to push itself and be proud to let the world know its here...

Stop by the new website to see what is going on, click here

I have lived in Basildon since 1962 and enjoy the area, it has more to offer than most people realise!

Please do stop by the website and tae a look!

Where am I today..?

Now we are making our way to the Maldives islands after our tour of Sri Lanka...

We are staying on a very small and secluded island in a water bungalow, the above picture shows the island and the water bungalows!

Click here to visit the islands hotel website

We shall be relaxing and swimming for the week... perfect!

Where am I..?

Our tour of Sri Lanka is coming to an end, above is a photo of the hotel I am staying in...

Click here to visit the hotels website

We have been on tour around Sri Lanka over the past week and once we are back I shall of course been posting details on our trip and lots of photographs!

Art group in Basildon

Local artists and supporters are now gaining greater strength to get together and make our voice known and heard in our local town of Basildon!

Our local council administration have shown no regard and no respect for the arts, especially the creative sculpture and painting elements of our art. Their actions in how they have handled the Woodsman sculpture recently and lack of energy and lack of help with the Basildon Arts Trust (BAT) has finally mad us angry and completely fed up with the council.

We have formed a group where all of the arts can come together and have a united voice.

More about this as we start to make progress and get things done, watch this space!

Modern art is often a puzzle and sometimes I wonder if it is really art at all?

Above is a cartoon I did that represents this, it is a cartoon showing a guard looking after the 'invisible' painting, a modern piece that 'transcends art' on so many levels!

You see what I mean...!

Gag Cartoon

One from the archive about facebook.....

Facebook is still growing and developing and is turning out to be a social AND business network!

You can find me on there and why not add me as a friend!

Happy Children!

Children usually love to be drawn and I am often popular with the kids!

It is always great to see the kids smiling once they have their drawing!

Wedding Fairs

One way of meeting customers and talking with them about using caricatures as a form of entertainment for their wedding is to have a stand at a wedding fair.

Above you can see myself in action as I draw a young man at a recent wedding fair!

It is a great way to show what you can do and also make a booking with the customer!

Wedding fairs usually happen at the beginning of the year and also during the Autumn season.

International Society of Caricature Artists

Watch this very cool video all about the ISCA of which I am a member...

Logo design

I sometimes help people with their logo design requirements.

This is one I did recently for a friend of mine who is a wedding planner, she is working on redesigning her website and this has helped her with that work!

You can see her website by clicking here

Off on holiday, again!

Yes today we fly to Sri Lanka for a weeks vacation followed by a second week in the Maldives, which are located south west of Sri Lanka! Nice!

My wife and I are looking forward to our first visit in Sri Lanka and a chance to see the beauty of the country, meet the people and catch some time to see the Elephants there too!

GREAT Video's on drawing!

Yes, you MUST check out this YouTube video channel from Mark McDonnell:

Click here

Mark shares with us how he warms up with sketching and just watching Mark draw makes you want to pick up a pencil and sketch!

Tokyo

If you ever get the chance to visit Tokyo, then I highly recommend that you do! It is a wonderful country and very very beautiful.

The people are amazing, friendly and hold true to their culture and traditions.

Click here to visit a website that has more on the area where we have stayed a couple of times

The mix of modern life and the very old temples and traditions actually complement each other.

So treat yourself to a holiday of a lifetime and visit Japan!

Red Rock Canyon

Just outside of Las Vegas is Red Rock Canyon.

It is a place that is very worthwhile visiting.

The red rocks flow through the canyon and the geology is wonderful.

It is a national conservation area and there is a purpose built scenic route that takes you around the canyon in a one way direction. There is no problem with traffic and along the way there are stop/view off points to take in the beauty of this place!

Click here to see the website

Mort Drucker

This artist is a legend. Mort has influenced everyone I know in the world of caricature and he has played a huge part in my own development of drawing caricatures!

Mort has been drawing for MAD magazine since the dawn of time and if you pick up any copy of MAD magazine, there is every likelihood that his work will be in there!

Click here to visit the website showing his work and a video of Mort drawing!

Mort has this fantastic ability to draw in his own unique style and yet retain such a strong likeness to the subject he is drawing, so that when you first see his work, you would think it is more like a portrait, but then upon closer inspection you can appreciate the subtle flow of his line to produce caricatures and cartoons that have strong illustration aspects and are simply pure quality!

Mort is a true artistic legend

Bruce Blitz

Would you like to learn how to draw great cartoons?

Then visit Bruce Blitz's website where he will help you do just that!

Click here to visit Bruce's website

I first met Bruce back in 2002 in Las Vegas, where he was giving a presentation on cartooning. Bruce, in his presentation, showed everyone there a lot of very cool techniques to cartooning that I had never thought of before. I learned a lot that day!

Bruce is a really nice guy and always great fun to be around. Bruce used to be in a band way back in the 1970's and he is a very good piano & keyboard player to boot!

The guy is full of talent!

So make sure you visit his site and enjoy all thats there!

Save the Woodsman in Basildon

Please join the faceboook group to Save the Woodsman in Basildon.

Back in the middle to late 1990's a local artist & sculptor, Dave Chapple, created a sculpture of a woodsman out of oak and donated it to the Basildon, the town where I live. The Woodsman stood close by to the Council offices of the town and was enjoyed by thousands of people. Recently the Council removed the Woodsman from its display and relocated it over 4 miles away from the town centre, where it had been all this time.

Dave Chapple the artist very sadly passed away last November but his family are upset by what has happened and how Basildon Council have handled this matter.

The Facebook group about this in support of saving the woodsman from a terrible end, has attracted over 1600 members!

But we need more support and I would encourage you to visit the facebook site and join us in supporting our cause to have the woodsman put back into the town centre of Basildon.

Just type Save the Woodsman in the facebook search window and you will soon find the group

Please join as a member of the group and support our campaign!

Art in Basildon has been neglected by the current council's administration. We are working to change that!

We want ART to be appreciated and enjoyed by everyone in and around the areas of Basildon!

Thank you for your support!

Catch up...

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Had a nice day yesterday at the wedding fair and even though it was raining hard a good number of people turned up and I even secured a booking there on the day!

Catch up today, need to do a lot of work on this blog to get it ready for the coming few weeks as this time next week, my wife and I shall be making our way to the airport for our holiday!

I have recently updated my links list n my main website, why not take a look and see who and what I have listed there.....

www.drawn4u.com