Sketch Collages: Eddie & Talon

This time around I decided to do something like I used to: posting some of the sketches I'd done instead of a finished piece. I enjoy sketching pictures of Talon, and a lot of times they're just regular pen sketches scrawled on notebook paper. Sometimes this is a great way to come up with a new image that I finalize later in ink and sometimes color, other times it turns out to be a great little icon image and sometimes it just never gets used.

This first piece is a collage of sketches I've done. Everything from little facial expression studies to goofy sketches to things that I never got around to putting as an update. If you're a beanie baby collector you might even recognize the little stuffed eagle. I sketched these drawings of Talon with his stuffed eagle toy before I had my licensing agreement. Even though Talon is in adult plumage, he still acts like a child sometimes (sometimes? ha!) and does have a little stuffed eagle toy to keep him company... however since I have my licensing agreement.. I've decided to rename the toy to "Feathers" and perhaps change its look if I draw any others in the future as well. Chances are Feathers wouldn't show up in a print for sale but in case he did I wouldn't want him to look like Baldy. These little sketches were fun to do and I thought putting them here would be a great place for them since they'll most likely be changed later if they were used at all. (And yes that is a sketch of Talon with a little halo... no doubt trying to look innocent so he won't be blamed for something he probably did!)


The next piece is just a little drawing I'd done with the possibility of making a letterhead out of. I wasn't pleased with the layout of the letterhead and decided to go with another design instead. This piece is just a section of the actual drawing, the other side has me discovering Talon waddling through ink and my artwork/papers and screaming "Talon!!!".

A lot of times I like to show the roughs along with the finalized version of drawings I've done. I didn't do that with this one originally but came across the sketch while looking for pieces to include here. As you can see it was scrawled quickly in pencil on a piece of notebook paper. A lot of times what I'll do is take the rough and tape it behind a piece of bristol paper (if it's the size I like - if not I will use the printer and enlarge/shrink to what size I want). Then I take my lightbox and bluepencil the image using the rough below as a vague guideline after which I ink with a brush. The lightbox technique was just a way I found to create clean art without having to deal with erasing a lot or having the rough image show through too much in the final piece.

Anyway, that's the update for this time... a little look into my "sketchbook" although I really don't have a sketchbook so much as a pile of papers that I try to keep neatly put away. Hope you enjoyed and I'm sure I'll do this again sometime.



Return to Belfour Art Page