4 years in the making

Enrico has set a date for the 20th Sketchcrawl extraveganza. October 25th!!! Here's a link to the forum to find out if a sketch group will meet up in your neck of the woods. If not, start one in your own town/city. This will be a huge one! Feel free to contact me with any question about Sketchcrawl.

(image created by enrico casarosa)

(Click here for painting process)

What planned to be a 1-hour speed painting exercise turned into a 3-hour exercise. It was truly a pain in the butt...especially the cactus stem in the middle foreground. So why didn't I just drop it and move on? It ended up becoming a huge challenge and I think that's really what drove me to finish. After the first hour, it was all about exploring layers of colors...wait, what colors? It's just black, green and yellow? Hahahaha. Somewhere in there are browns, 3 shades of green, orange and maroon. It's the 2nd hour that I started to enjoy the process. Then the it was the last hour that I just wanted to finish the darn thing. Great lighting exercise overall, I look forward to the next one.

Boxer

Awhile back, Olivia attended a dog & cat photo shoot for work out in Contra Costa. I tagged along for the trip, but unfortunately did not get a chance to sit in on the photo shoot. I did drive around Concord and checked out a couple comic shops and got stuck in traffic, but at least Olivia made a new friend. Her name is Gretta...the friendliest Boxer in the world. Hopefully we'll play with Gretta again at future photo shoots :)

(Click here for painting process)

Here's a 1-hour digital speed painting of Gretta. This was a fun exercise!

I had an opportunity to sell an illustration back in May and I wanted to share a few details in the process. I did a ton of thumbnails and kept hitting a wall when it came to adding brush pens. Here's a simplified Seattle Space Needle that didn't make the cut.

Next, is one of the many failed attempts at the Coit Tower. I made so many version of this famous San Francisco landmark that I ran out of ink in both my brush pens with just 24 hours left from my deadline. I stepped away from the drawing board and took another stab at it the next day.

After a trip to the art store for ink refills and two Red Bulls later, I decided to create a night scene instead. So this is the illustration that I was able to sell (wiping sweat from forehead).

It was truly a great exprerience and I look forward to sharing more stories of current/future commissions.

Tuk Tuk

Quick doodle just before eating Thai food in Vallejo, Ca. It's a Thai tricycle, also known as a "Tuk Tuk".