Can anyone remember if piranha are salt water or fresh water fish?

This is something that could use a lot more work but I have clients to deal with and hope that none of them see that I have just posted this drawing instead of working on their stuff! Eek!

Photoshop CS 3000

In the future we won't have to do all that heavy mouse stuff, we'll just say 'adjustment layer there' and 'give me a feathered selection there'. And we will have chairs that hover.

OK I got organised and made my first tutorial- go and have a look at it here and then you can report back and tell me what you think? Come on, why should I do all the work?

Frog Prince Too

I have a teenage daughter- don't think I'm laughing here!

Frog Prince

Sega mega drive

Some things have been around so long you take them for granted- but I would like to tip my proverbial hat to the person who created Sonic The Hedgehog. What a fantastic piece of character design. Once you are there it's easy to see it, but how anyone started with a hedgehog and ended up with Sonic is a mystery. I know that this was probably in the 90's but hey, I'm Not Toon Club, I can bend the rules. Besides my memory of games in the 80's was space invaders and asteroids. Paper boy, that was a great one, for years I felt like I was playing that again when I went through some bad traffic and people were stepping out in front of me and cars changing lanes unexpectedly. Anyway, I like cartoon characters who run so fast they have their own 'wheel spin'.

Imaginary Friend (Total layers 26)

I went a bit mad with this drawing- I counted it up afterwards and there were a Total of 26 layers used in Photoshop alone (not counting alpha layers or the numerous objects in Illustrator). Fortunately I was quite pleased with the result 'cause there is nothing worse than going to that much bother and then wanting to delete the finished piece.

Gladiator2

I had some fun with this one but I still don't like the crowd in the background, thankfully that's where Gaussian Blur comes in!

Gladiator

This is (hopefully- time allowing) a work in progress. It helps to post it and then decide what else is needed. I would like to add a crowd and Caeser with his thumb facing down. A bit of dust, some motion blur and perhaps a mangy lion. In the meantime this is my shadow entry for Toon Club, which is really worth checking out.

Cruella De Ville

Sometimes it's knowing when to stop and sometimes it's knowing that you need to start over. I liked the roughness of the last drawing but it was always going to bug me if I didn't do a more finsished version. I think the rough lines are enough- no need to have sloppy painting too. So this is mostly flat colours and a hotch potch of adjustment layers, alpha channels, blending modes and gradients. And just a smidgeon of burn and dodge. Sometimes, with Photoshop, it's knowing when to go aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggghhhhhhhh!

Cartoon Villain - Cruella De Ville

Was there ever a better cartoon villain? Not only does she not like cute little puppies- she wants to kill them and wear their coats as fur! Fur!! And she smokes.

I drew her here in a slightly looser way in an attempt to echo the beautiful flowing drawings of the original. And the backgrounds, wow. I still remember the chair that Mr Darling sat in when he was working. And the luscious hand drawn feel of the lines. If I get the time I'd like to paint in a bit of the background in this one, but for now I hope it helps Cruella stand out. My background is a loose copy of the original sketches for the cartoon. Cruella is more of an interpretation than a copy.

Tortoise & Hare

After the dope testing affair, Tortoise slid down in to an ever deepening depression fueled by cigarettes and alcohol- "It's my family I feel sorry for" he sobbed "I've just let everyone down".

Not Toon Club has exclusive interviews with Tortoise and a word from his erstwhile competition Hare, stay tuned!