I recently started up a group sketchblog, Monster Monday. As the title suggests, the idea is to create artwork of a new monster every Monday.
Monster Monday was inspired by other group sketchblogs such as Illustration Friday and Sugar Frosted Goodness, which I have participated in in the past. As opposed to a weekly generated theme, I wanted to work on something that I naturally loved to draw, and also have an ongoing theme. I know I get caught up in the day-to-day work and having to work on a new weekly theme while challenging, also resulted in my not participating on those sites.
I wanted to create something that had a regular theme of something that I already liked to draw. Monsters. Monsters by their nature inspire creativity since they don’t exist. You can make whatever you want. For me, it was about making the weekly project fun and as pressure-free as possible.
Continue reading 'Monster Monday'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
This quote is in regards to software, but I think it applied to creative folks as well:
There’s only one person in the world whose needs and problems you really understand and whom you know exactly how to satisfy: that would be you. So build something that you use all the time, and, unless you’re really weird and different from everyone else, you’ve got a potential winner. ¶
I can relate to this message myself. Everything I’ve done over the years that’s worked out well—software, standards, writing—everything, without exception, was something I did for myself. I’ve done the other thing too: built things based on guesses about what people out there might want or need. Never worked, not once.
I bet if you did a survey of successful musicians, artists, writers, or any group of creatives, you’d hear the same story. Sometimes you can guess what people want, and you might get lucky. But probably not, so go ahead and build what you know for sure one person needs.
ongoing · Understand Your User
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
Sometimes (and probably most of the time) merely seeing how an effect is achieved will offer no clues as to what it’s like to create that effect for yourself. Copying or mimicking the effect can help, but those moments where it works within your own artwork should be explored the moment they happen.
When these chance moments appear, when you have that ‘a ha!’ moment, be sure to dig deeper. I’ll share with you a recent ‘eureka’ moment I had while working on a t-shirt illustration project for a client.
Continue reading 'High-Contrast Line Art Illustration Style: Self-Inspiration'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
A completely fun, pointless and very Zen website I just stumbled across: Sketch Swap. The premise is simple — make a doodle, submit it, and get a random doodle in return. There’s no eraser, only one pencil size and no color. You can’t save, link to or find your doodle once you submit it. You can’t sign up, log in, create an account, comment or vote.
In short, it’s perfect.
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
The very cool and creative Skull-A-Day blog is a year long art project where the artist creates one piece of skull art every day for a year.
There’s already some very clever and creative skulls, and more to come for sure. This is a great exercise in developing creativity, as you are forced to constantly change your perspective, and will eventually start seeing the world around you differently — “meta-programming the supercomputer” as Robert Anton Wilson liked to call it.
Continue reading 'Skull-A-Day'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
I have recently become an invited artist over the community illustration blog Sugar Frosted Goodness. If you aren’t familiar with the site, it’s a great community site for illustrators where not only do members post artwork, but also a weekly theme is put together where the contributing artists all submit their interpretation. Similar to the Illustration Friday concept as well as other community artist sites who maintain similar events.
There is lots of great artwork over at SFG, be sure to check it out. It’s a great site to see regular work as well as find some inspiration and creative community.
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
I stumbled across Design Float recently, can’t recall where. The title says it all: it’s a Digg.com type site for designers. For those of you not familiar with Digg (or Reddit), it’s a social news site, where content is submitted and then voted up or down by users. The idea is that only good content makes it to the top.
The site seems pretty new — you don’t see votes in the hundreds (or thousands) yet, as you do on Digg. I’ve already found a few cool resources on there, it’s definitely worth checking out.
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
Illustrator extraordinaire Von Glitschka has a very cool podcast out that I just started listening to, The Illustrative Designer podcast. Each podcast is basically an interview by “the Vonster” (as he calls himself) with a chosen professional illustrator, cartoonist or designer. The most recent illustrator interview was with (the unimaginably prolific) cartoon illustrator & designer Bob Staake.
The “illustrative designer” moniker comes from Von’s idea that when asked to describe his work, he says he’s not a graphic designer that can draw, but rather an illustrator who can design. Hence, “illustrative designer”.
Continue reading 'Podcast review: The Illustrative Designer'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
Creative Binge is a new online portfolio & social networking site for artists, illustrators, designers and all you other creative types. The talk of social networking for the community site sounds like a great idea.
The website has a clean and classy design and interface, and a very easy to use upload feature for adding your artwork to the free portfolio with your account.
Continue reading 'Creative Binge – New Free Portfolio & Social Networking Website for Creatives'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
Social Stuff