What? More?....

I know what some of you must be thinking, "Lael, what are you doing this crapp for?" "These look like you paint them with your foot!" Well, all I can say is, I know...it's true, BUT...even though I'd rather not paint in this style, I don't mind it. For me this is a known comodity...I know this stuff will sell. Believe it or not. My goal is to get "my collection" to about double the size of what it is now. That is a lot of painting, but it can easily be done it time. Since my studio phone isn't ringing off the hook, I'll market myself with my painter stuff and in the down time...paint as many of these little suckers as I can! Here is what I've finished this week...better results and much faster....this is good!

What the...?

this is probably the last thing you expected to see when you came to visit my blog, but for those who don't know, I used to be a "conceptual illustrator" This is actually what I did before I got into games. This week I decieded to see if I could still paint in that old style...not so much. These actually look better in person than they do scanned, but it's plain to see I need to work a few issues out.

Anyway, this is how far I got this week...and I'm just hoping Mel is right when he says, "it's all about the numbers"...you'll have to ask him to explain his theory.

If ya like this style at all...you can see more that I did way back in the day by clicking here

I'm a full-time freelancer once agian

my illustration has been deleted by me...
It was brought to my attention that it could be taken the wrong way.
It was meant to be funny and get out some of the emotion and frustration that came with loosing a dream job. So if anyone got upset seeing Mickey portrayed in that way, please except my apologies.
Again, meant to be funny not offensive. Thanks for opening my eyes to the posiblilty that not everyone would think it a great illustration.

That's right, Mikey gave me the ol "corporate axe" yesterday, so as of today...I'm going to start freelancing full time. This illustration is a little dark for me...but yesterday's experience wasn't so fun. Anyway, I've got time on my hands....should be more frequent posts!! One art director already promised a job is on it's way, so a little progress.

another bug project??

I'm not sure why I started this...I really don't have the time. But I ran across this poor old bug a while back and it was only $450, so I thought I'd bring it back to life. It is a '62, and bugs that have been around that long in Utah are usually fairly rusty. This one is no exception. I've never welded before, so the first step was to buy a welder. I found a very nice used welder, and have now started it...learning as I go.

here is a shot of the poor little beast

and here is some of the rust...

this finial shot is some of the progress...still a lot of grinding left, but with a little body work this section is solid, and should look ok when I'm done!!

now hopefully you can understand why I haven't posted much art lately...been doin' "garage stuff"

A LITTLE FUN

I've been looking at a few of the blogs that I follow and it seems no one is posting anything anymore...it's been a long while for me too! I'm wondering why this is?? Is everyone just really busy? Or...maybe it's all this gloom and doom on the news that's got us all in a funk. Who knows...but one thing I'm sure of is it doesn't help surfing around for inspiration and fun, nice things to look at and finding nothing. So, in an effort to put a smile on someones face, I dug around in the pile of doodles on my desk and found a few silly little things that seem to fit together...these are not typical Lael, but I had fun with them all the same.

just more sketches

I've been making an effort to post a little more often lately...trying to mix it up between sketches and colored stuff. Can't always post as much as I'd like...life seems to get in the way of drawing and painting without much purpose. I thought I'd post a few on a Caspian theme from the pile of paper in my desk drawer. Hope ya like em.

Book Cover

I did this book cover illustration last week for a local publisher and thought it turned out pretty good.

illustration friday: Island

I did this little sketch on Monday...thinking I would paint it up and post it for I.F. It doesn't look like I'll have time, so this is all ya get this week. I've been thinking a lot about getting away to someplace warm and tropical lately. Sun and surf really goes a long way to fixing all that troubles me. Since there is no color, here are a couple more little doodles from the sketch pile.

quick color

my work started a blog for the employees...our first topic was horror. This was a quick effort so I could post something. Horror is really not my "cup of tea" so this was a little bit of a stretch

people

Since I've been working in Salt Lake, I've been riding the bus. I usually don't mind the bus, but some times it gets old. One of the good things about the bus is it's a great place to watch people. There are some real "personalities", and sometimes they come out in my doodles.

illustration friday: Detach

Here is a little doodle for illustration friday. I started painting while I was watching the olympics and ended up spending a little more time than I usually do. This one was 3-4 hours in painter. My original idea was going to be someone detaching their head...but that mitght have turned out pretty gross, so with this I left a lot more to your imagination. what do you think?...does this guy really know this trick?

Obama

one of the things I like about having a blog, is occationally you get people that stop by and comment. Lately a couple caricature artists have stopped by and left comments. Caricatre illustration is something I've always liked to look at, but never really tried myself. So I thought I'd give it a try...here is the first effort. I know there are issues with this, and I now realize there is a lot more to this than just exagerating a feature or two...maybe my next try will bring better results. Oh, don't assume that since I picked obama to paint, that I'm some kind of supporter...I'm not impressed with him at all! (wait, I take that back, I am very impressed with how easily he can get people to donate money...) So, now ya know.

Illustration friday: SAIL

Well, here is another for illustration friday, it's nice to have a topic every week... keeps me doing at least a little something. For this topic, I started thinking about sailboats, then ships with sails and pirates, always fun to sneak a pirate in...anyway, this is what I came up with. Hey, there is sails in it, so I didn't completely get off topic.

illustration friday: Poof!

when I read the topic for this week, I thought of magic and somthing disappearing...so I sketched this magician and painted it up in painter. This was a pretty quick effort and I know it could use a little more time, but I got bored with it...so there ya go.

feckle-face

remember in grade school when anyone that was different was teased. I remember a few freckle faced kids who were teased a lot. As adults, freckles sure don't get the attention they used to...I can't even remember the last time I noticed someone because of their freckles. Wierd.

more color?

Here is the sketch I posted a week or so ago...now with a quick color. This is my son Sam. He makes a pretty good character to draw because he is such a "character" in real life.

illustration friday: Canned

have you ever talked to someone who had obviously been in sales all their adult life, then, when it's time for them to close the deal they give you their "look"? The other day I was in a car dealership and saw a few of the older car salesman and wondered at what point does that canned look stop working...at some point doesn't it stop working for most of us? Anyway, here is my attempt to show an ageing sales guy flashing the canned look that always used to "work" for him.

FAST ENOUGH

Here is some color on the sketch from a few posts back...as promised. He may be slow, but he's just fast enough when it really counts.

WASATCH CLASSIC X

Yesterday was a really fun day. It was time again for our utah county vw car show. I entered my 1961 ragtop bug. This is a car I've restored over the last several years. I have entered it in the show before, but I was always up against some very nice show cars. My car is not a true show car...I restored it all myself, painted it in my garage ect. It has some flaws. So this year I entered it into the daily driver catagory...and...I won. I won two tropheys yesterday. One for best daily driver and also a people's choice award. Add in winning a nice prize in the raffle at the end of the show, overall, I'd say yesterday was a very fun day!

super soaker and more!!

I posted a little sketch of my son with his camo shorts and a squirt gun last summer...well he's a year older has another pair of camo shorts (this time blue camo) and he's moved up to much bigger squirt guns! I thought another drawing was in order. The other two doodles were just laying on my desk, so I thought I'd post them too.

Slow draw McGraw

I sure haven't had (made) much time to draw lately. I got to work early and found a little time this week so I sat down to doodle...out came this turtle. I didn't realize it when I first drew him, but I think I must have been very influenced watching Kung Fu Panda...anyway, I started to paint this up, cuz I kind of liked the way it was headed. Stay tuned for a color version.

IT'S BEEN A WHILE!

I almost forgot how to use this blog...it's been so long. You'd think I'd have a massive post, but no. I've started some projects at home that have got me pretty distracted. For now, just a little doodle. Hope to post more soon.

grumpy pirate

Nothing can cheer you up like sketching grumpy faces...there is just something fun about drawing grumpy....especially grumpy pirates! Just a couple sketches so we can stop looking at that ugly green thing down there.....should have never posted that....sorry.

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone.

Nothin' too special...just a quick doodle from this morning. I got board with it before I got too far, but decided to post it anyway....happy st. patty's everyone.

Just some more from the desk drawer

seems time goes too fast these days...is it really March '08 already? Here are some more pencil doodles from the desk drawer. No real ryme or reason for these...I was going to post the "choose" sketch for an illustration friday topic a few weeks back, but didn't really like it enough to paint up...so it never got finished.