As a drawing geek, my friends and I often obsess in search of the perfect digital sketching tool, in hopes that some ipad or tablet will arrive and blow our minds. I really like the approach that wacom have taken with this- betting on the fact that for most of us paper and pen is perfect, the organic mess of a sketchbook is just right. Hope it does what it says on the tin, because this looks very special.

So I’m sat on a plane listening (semi-listening) to a Russian dude talking about housing in Florida, and he doesn’t seem to mind that I’m incessantly doodling as I listen. I’m trying to define a visual style for my project. My characters in the Mouse and Dragon project live in a lighthouse- mostly because I LOVE tall spindly things on rocks, and also because of the iconic nature of the building and the story potential of the place. I’ll share more bits and pieces of the story setup as I go, but in the meantime, here’s some visual development doodles:

Here’s some exploratory sketches, searching for pleasing shapes. I must be pleased by my shapes.

I tend to obsess over line quality. I don’t recommend getting too obsessed about your style, the most important thing is to take things through to completion rather than trying and retrying for the ‘perfect’ look. It just won’t come until you hit a rhythm of producing things. I’m trying to take my own advice here. This is a quick test using charcoal. I love charcoal….

I’m decided on a pencil and photoshop look. This lighthouse was doodled in a story meeting at the day job, and colored at home.  Pretty happy with that.

I’m hoping one day to be able to channel some of the gorgeous lines of Quentin Blake-

and maybe mix it up with a bit of the textures and tone of Raymond Briggs (both big childhood influences)… and I’ll be getting there.

Here’s a quicky after effects test:

More soon!