#art

Process GIF: 8 Brass Monkeys

I finished up another page from the 10 Things project:

Toby-Gray-8-brass-monkeys-GIF Oooh, shiny monkeys!

The pages that are just a single phrase are a tad quicker than the combined pages. The next page, obviously, is going to be: 1 hen, 2 ducks, 3 squawking geese, 4 limerick oysters, 5 corpulent porpoises, 6 pairs of Don Alverso’s tweezers, 7 THOUSAND Macedonians dressed in full battle array, and 8 brass monkeys from the ancient sacred crypts of Egypt. These last pages are going to be tough. And nuts. Definitely nuts. But in a good way.

I’m holding

WIP: 10 Things

Some time last week I finally dusted off the 10 Things file and got working on it again. I’m currently working on page…well, I don’t know which number it will be, I haven’t been keeping track. But, it has 1 hen, 2 ducks, 3 squawking geese, 4 limerick oysters, 5 corpulent porpoises, 6 pairs of Don Alverso’s Tweezers, and 7 THOUSAND Macedonians dressed in full battle array on it:

Toby-Gray-10-things-1-7-WIP These last pages are getting complicated…

I have corner registration marks roughed in on a separate layer still turned on here. They just give

GALLERY UPDATE: Shadow of the Flute-The Return of the Cello Flute

Well, here we are, almost two weeks since my previous post. Here I am, still hoping to be more consistent in the studio now that the kids are back in school. Here I am, starring down several more hectic and busy weeks. *Le sigh* (that must be read as Pepe le Pew. If you didn’t know to do that already…then either I’m old or you’re uncultured).

Anywhat, I haven’t been completely not in my studio or otherwise making art (though it sure feels like it). On the second day of school, my wife took her last vacation day of the summer

Experiment…

Well, it’s the first full week of school, and with all the after school stuff going on, the start up of Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts looming, family events, and other obligations and projects, I haven’t settled into a studio schedule yet. However, I do try to take advantage of whatever un-busy moments I have to read about and learn new things, like this:

Toby-Gray-willy-mceyeballs-gif-experiment Testing, testing…is this thing on?

I watched a great Phlearn YouTube tutorial recently on how to make GIFs and videos in Photoshop. I decided I’d “quickly” try

Stuff and Things

Well, this is by far the longest I’ve gone between site updates since before I started this website (think about that a moment…). Where the heck have I been? What have I been up to? Why is the typical Monday update happening on a Thursday? Why are squids?

Please, hold all your questions until the end, but since you asked:

  1. It’s been summer vacation, which means my studio time has been sporadic to non-existent whilst the kids are home, running amok.
  2. I’ve been being the stay-at-home dad, dealing with fights, bickering, complaints, etc. But we’ve also manage to have a lot of fun,

Sketchbook: Camp Sketches

The relentlessly hectic pace of summer continues on. I spent last week at Cub Scout camp with my two youngest boys. It was a great week. We had beautiful weather and the boys were all well behaved and had a lot of fun. It was a little bitter-sweet for me, as the week drew to a close, it really started to sink in that this was my middle son’s last year of Cub Scout camp. He’s been 3 years in a row, and I’ve attended with him each time. I’ve watched my shy, introverted son who feared anything new grow

Sketchbook: I Hate the Way I Draw Heads…

It’s been a jam-packed, busy week, so I don’t have much of an update, unfortunately. I did a little sketching last week, still trying to work on the composition for that piece of concept art in my last entry.

Toby-Gray-dragon-monk-sketch-5 A bit of a combination of the previous two layouts. I’m going to have to gather some visual references to help me define the plateau these characters are standing on so it looks like they are way up in the mountains and not standing in a field with mountains in the distance.

Work In Progress: Revisiting Some Old Wilhelm Concept Art

As expected, the summer schedule is mucking with my studio schedule, which means art making is more sporadic, leading to inconsistent site updates. My apologies. I am somehow still managing to make progress towards some goals, but it is slower than I’d like.

Anywhat, this happened a few nights ago:

Toby-Gray-dragon-monk-drawing-by-the-fire Some good ol’ fireside sketching.

The boys built a fire pit last summer, and we’ve been trying to make good use of it. I hadn’t done much drawing in the previous two weeks, tied up with the normal summer “life” obligations as well as

Sketchbook: Chimera Doodle Gallery Update

Yes, I know, it’s Tuesday, not Monday. For those of you who follow me on the Books of Faces, you know why. For those of you who don’t, basically, I spent yesterday eyeball deep (my eyeballs, not Willy’s) in the lovely aromas associated with fixing a plumbing problem. Why not just call a plumber, you ask? Cuz I’m me, that’s why.

Anywhat, ever since my amazing wife gave me a Vest of Holding for Father’s Day (so I can carry all the things), I’ve taken to carrying some art supplies with me whenever I leave the house. This is

Gallery Update: Willy McEyeballs

Um, no, that’s not yet another new logo…it’s been there this whole time…why?

Anywhat, I managed to get some solid hours in the studio the last few days and “finished” the Willy McEyeballs piece. I say “finished” because I’m never really done with any of the art I make. I always see problems, things I meant to fix and forgot, things I want to improve and tighten up. But, I think I need to move on from this one. For now.

Let’s take a quick look back at where this piece started. I was going to show some more transitional stages, but

Go to Top