A Plug for My Sister's Christmas Album!

Did you remember that my talented sister, Mary Morris, has a Christmas album? She does! You can listen to &/or buy HOME FOR CHRISTMAS through marymorrischristmas.com , Amazon, Itunes, Apple Music, Google Play, Spotify & Youtube! I know you'll enjoy it. God bless you all!

Happy 90th Birthday, Mickey Mouse!

    It’s a little late, but HAPPY 90th BIRTHDAY, MICKEY MOUSE! (And Minnie Too!) ~ Digitally colored over pencil & ink drawing in my sketchbook (below.) I kind of combined the original Ub Iwerks design & Gottfredson's comic strip design together with a bit of my own choices & this version of Mickey was the result. I dig that old school Mickey look too!Just a quick post today. More various art to come! God bless, you guys!

#MonsterMySelfie Portraits: "Franken-Baby"

Franken-Baby by Philip A. Buck 5x7 inches, ink on bristol board paper.

   You’ve met the Monster & His Bride, now meet their “Franken-Baby!” The #MonsterMySelfie‬ Portraits Sale may be over, but I couldn’t let any more time pass without sharing this little guy with you all. His amazing parents, Patrick & Sarah ordered their monster portraits a few years back & wanted the newest addition to their monstrous family to have a portrait as well! Scroll through to see his parents & a bit of my process on this piece. God bless!

View of the desk while working on Franken-Baby: preliminary sketches, reference photo (censored for privacy,) and initial rough pencils on the final piece.

Franken-Baby by Philip A. Buck, (work in progress.) 5x7 inches, graphite pencil sketch on Bristol board paper.

Franken-Baby by Philip A. Buck, (work in progress.) 5x7 inches, graphite pencil sketch on Bristol board paper.

Franken-Baby by Philip A. Buck, (work in progress.) 5x7 inches, ink on Bristol board paper. 

Franken-Baby by Philip A. Buck 5x7 inches, ink on bristol board paper.

Franken-Baby by Philip A. Buck 5x7 inches, ink on bristol board paper.

Franken-Baby by Philip A. Buck 5x7 inches, ink on bristol board paper.

Monster Patrick & Sarah by Philip A. Buck. (Franken-Baby's parents.) Ink on 2 5x7 inch pieces of Bristol board paper.

#MonsterMySelfie Portraits: Monster Chris, the Triclops!

      During the #MonsterMySelfie ink portrait sale last month, it was my great pleasure to complete a portrait of Chris. I had done a portrait of his kind wife, Heather a few years back as a Medusa-like monster & was excited to give hers a mate. 

 As you can see in the process snapshots below, I changed the original photo into black & white & adjusted the levels of contrast. That makes it easier to work from.

  I then came up with a monsterized version of Chris in rough sketches. I then traced the basic shapes of the photo, (a step I don’t always do, but one I use when I am having difficulty with the likeness or just need to get it figured out faster.)

I then took a look back at the b&w photo & Monster sketch as I drew & inked the portrait.

     I had a lot of fun making this portrait of Chris & was glad Heather's would now have a companion. I hope you all had a safe & fun Halloween & Thanksgiving. I'll be posting another of this year's Monster Portraits on here next week, but if you want to sneak a look, you can visit my social media accounts listed to the side of this page. As always, thanks for stopping by & may God bless you!

Happy Thanksgiving, 2018!

    Happy Thanksgiving! Tom Turkey is trying not to be noticed, but the ol’ “cap & sunglasses” disguise doesn’t work as well for him as it does for Marvel movie superheroes. May we all have attitudes of gratitude & give thanks today for the many blessings we have received. Thank you all for following me along my artistic journey! May God bless you & yours!

Braids + Specs + Ink = Practice Portrait

‪

    Here’s a practice portrait I drew last week. It’s inspired by a Dior Stellaire 3 ad for glasses that I saw on Pinterest.  ‪

    I sadly couldn’t find any info on the original model or photographer, despite searching the web.

    I’ve changed some of the facial proportions & such. You can even see some changes between the blue pencil version to the final inks. ‬Have a great week & God bless you all! ‬

An Ink Sketch of Oscar Isaac

    Here's a quick & stylized practice drawing of actor, Oscar Isaac from the other day. God Bless & have a great weekend! 

#MonsterMySelfie Monster Portraits Are Back! Also, Monsterized Bailey & Stephen!

Bailey & Stephen - Monster Portraits.
Ink with technical pens & brush pens on  two pieces of 5x7 inch Bristol board paper.

    It's almost that spooky time of year again & the #MonsterMySelfie Monster Portrait Month sale is back just in time! That's right, you asked for it & you've got it. Back in October 2014, I began a project where  I "Monsterized" your selfies. I received one of the biggest responses I've had for an original art project & many of you have been asking for the sale to return since then. Aside from the occasional portrait I was able to squeeze in here & there (like the two above,) I haven't opened up orders for the monster portraits in four years. But that changes now!

A closer look at
Bailey - Monster Portrait.
Ink with technical pens & brush pens on 5x7 inch Bristol board paper.

    This October, you can get yourself MONSTERIZED! You send me a picture of yourself and I draw & ink an original 5x7 inch portrait of you as a monster! And it's only for $45 + shipping! As of right now, these portraits are only available until Oct 31, 2018, so you'll probably want to hurry!

A closer look at
Stephen - Monster Portrait.
Ink with technical pens & brush pens on  two pieces of 5x7 inch Bristol board paper.

    Just click HERE (or click the Shop/PABshop link at the top of the page,) and be sent to my online shop where you can place your order & get all the details & instructions for sending the photo. For more examples of past Monster Portraits, you can see more posts about them HERE on this site, my Behance Portfolio, or on Instagram. Order your original custom monster portrait today!

  Here's another look at Bailey & Stephen, the sketches I drew while trying to figure out which how to monsterize them, & another couple of Monster Portrait examples:

        

Patrick & Sarah - Monster Portraits
Ink on two separate pieces of 5x7 inch Bristol board paper. 

    Until time, God Bless!
        -Philip A. Buck

Throw Back Thursday: Max's Pterosaur Watercolor Illustration

Hey folks! Here's a "Throwback Thursday" to these watercolor & ink pterosaurs that I painted a few years ago for a friend’s baby. Give someone you care about a hug today!
God bless!

Digital Dog Painting Sneak Peak

 Hello, neighbors! I’ve been digitally painting dogs! Here’s me clicking the “painted” layer on & off in Photoshop, revealing the color silhouette & loose digital pencils that I started with. I'll probably show you more very soon!

GOD BLESS YOU ALL!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA!

    HAPPY 4th OF JULY! Here's an illustration I completed last #IndependenceDay. Have a safe & super #FourthOfJuly! God bless you all!

Fan Art For Rose

#FanArtForRose #kellymarietran #StarWars #TheLastJedi

Illustration & Character Design: The Job Treasure Hunt (MORE PIRATES!)

Illustration by Philip A. Buck 2018, Drawn in pencil, inked & colored digitally in Photoshop.

    What is a pirate to do when the ship is sunk? Look for a new job! Here are a series of playful illustrations completed for a hypothetical project. They would work for an article about job hunting or a picture book or comic about pirates looking for work. Their purpose is to demonstrate my ability to create various illustrations about a theme & design "simplified & cartoony" characters. You may remember these guys from the little "sneak peaks" & process posts I put up a little while back. You can click the images below to see them bigger.

The initial sketch.

Digitally inking & coloring
over a scan of the pencil art.

The digital art with flat colors (before I added textures.) Illustration by Philip A. Buck 2018, Drawn in pencil, inked & colored digitally in Photoshop.

Searching for a career you can treasure? You may be looking in the wrong place.
 Illustration by Philip A. Buck 2018, Drawn in pencil, inked & colored digitally in Photoshop.

Flat colors, no textures.
 Illustration by Philip A. Buck 2018, Drawn in pencil, inked & colored digitally in Photoshop.

Detail from the finished illustration.
 Illustration by Philip A. Buck 2018, Drawn in pencil, inked & colored digitally in Photoshop.

Think about what your past jobs. What parts were you passionate about? In which areas of that position were you skilled?
 Illustration by Philip A. Buck 2018, Drawn in pencil, inked & colored digitally in Photoshop.

Flat color version.
 Illustration by Philip A. Buck 2018, Drawn in pencil, inked & colored digitally in Photoshop.

Are you waiting for the right employer to randomly find your resume
or are you searching them out? Illustration by Philip A. Buck 2018, Drawn in pencil, inked & colored digitally in Photoshop.

Flat colors, no textures.
 Illustration by Philip A. Buck 2018, Drawn in pencil, inked & colored digitally in Photoshop.

Detail from the finished illustration.
 Illustration by Philip A. Buck 2018, Drawn in pencil, inked & colored digitally in Photoshop.

It can be very rewarding to find a job that combines your skills & passions, it just may not be the job you expected. Illustration by Philip A. Buck 2018, Drawn in pencil, inked & colored digitally in Photoshop.

Flat colors, no textures.
Illustration by Philip A. Buck 2018, Drawn in pencil, inked & colored digitally in Photoshop.

   

   Here's more of my character design & composition process:

I started by sketching different pirates & their pets that may need to find a new job. All of these were drawn in pencil on paper. -Philip A. Buck 2018

I continued to sketch the pirates & their possible pets (yes, there was almost a monkey!) in multiple job hunting pirate related situations. Not all of them panned out. All of these were drawn in pencil on paper. -Philip A. Buck 2018

I tightened up the designs & came up with a few more situations. I also drew different elements of the illustrations that I could piece together later in Photoshop during the inking stage. All of these were drawn in pencil on paper.
 -Philip A. Buck 2018

    Thank you so very much for taking the time to check these illustrations & sketches out. You can keep up with what I'm doing on a more regular basis by clicking the social media icons on this page & following my accounts. There, you'll even find some short little videos I made while I was working on this project. You can also find this project & more in my online portfolio. Thanks again, & God bless!