I was recently interviewed by the good folks over at Zooppa.com for the recent work I did for Mike’s HARDER. Check out all the juicy tidbits here: http://blog.zooppa.com/zooppa-featured-member-scott-dubar/
Author: SJD
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Urban Sketching with the Galaxy Note 5
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Met up with my local Urban Sketchers group, eager to try out the S Pen on my new Samsung Note 5. I was running late that day, so didn’t really have time for more than the one sketch shown above. I used S Note, an app that comes pre-installed. Overall, I was very happy with how it came out, but I will need to look into some of the various drawing apps if I want to pursue digital sketching on a regular basis. S Note makes switching between different brushes, brush sizes, and colors a little bit cumbersome for sketching from life. It’s not terrible by any means, and I had a real blast playing with it, but the reality is what it is. There are also improvements that could be made on getting the most out of the S Pen’s pressure-sensitivity. It’s an awesome feature, but it only applies to one or two brushes. I looked at Sketchbook from Autodesk, but the free version does not seem to support pressure-sensitivity which is a deal-breaker for me.
In the end, the S Pen is amazing, convenient, and fully eliminates any excuse for not keeping up with your sketchbook drawing- even if you only use it as a backup to your actual paper sketchbook.
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Power Kids Electronic Library
Recently I had the privilege of doing some more children’s illustration for Pennsylvania’s Power Kids Electronic Library. This time around I got to illustrate a few state symbols, the white-tailed deer, model K4s 1361 locomotive, and a mountain laurel.
I also got to do a fun pair of illustrations of Ben Franklin conducting some children singing Pennsylvania’s State Song.
Special thanks to The Ivy Group, who handled the site design, for bringing me on board once again! You can visit the Power Kids website here.
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Utah Adventure Journal: Wig in a Bottle
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Editorial illustration for an article on an enthusiastic outdoorsman whose larger-than-life adventures lead to being confined to a wheelchair.
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21 Day Drawing Challenge | Day 1: Cat
Here is my first day of Von Glitschka’s 21 Day Drawing Challenge where we had to draw a cat. I liked it so much, I went ahead and finished him in Photoshop. My solution was to come up with an image that conveys my own fondness of cats and of what great companions they are (contrary to popular misconceptions!). I also took the opportunity to experiment a bit more with my approach to digital coloring, which I found very rewarding. Somewhere along the way, I got inspired by the old animated intro to My Three Sons, which helped me to go for a more elongated composition. I think it helps to convey the relationship between the cat and his owner more from the cat’s perspective, which is fitting since “cat” was the prompt for the day’s challenge.
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Tiger’s Blood
I was recently invited to participate in a contest for Mike’s HARDER, to come up with an illustration for a new, limited-edition drink called Tiger’s Blood. While I don’t normally go for contests, I really liked the brief and felt this was a nice opportunity to work outside my usual style. The result is an illustration that is very different from what I typically showcase in my portfolio, which was a lot of fun for me to do.
Here’s a shot of the initial drawing stage:
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And here’s the image alongside a mock-up of the final product:
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Really happy with how it all came out!
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Story Starters With YA Author Lamar Giles
Last weekend, I attended a local SCBWI event (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) in Richmond, Va. Among the three excellent panelists was YA author, and 2015 Edgar Award Nominee, Lamar Giles.Lamar did a super-fun Mad-Lib-style exercise with us called Story Starters, where he and the audience create a unique opening line by committee. Once the line’s created, the writers/illustrators in the audience have 15 minutes to write or sketch whatever that line inspires.The sentence we came up with was “Alice never wants to hurt anyone again, but the robots won’t end the experiment.” Here’s what I came up with in 15 minutes:
I liked the sketch so much, that I went ahead and did a more finished version at home:
The cool part was that Lamar was pretty excited to share what everyone did on his blog, so I happily sent him both the sketch and the finished piece. Much to my surprise, not only did he post my images, but wrote up a pretty great review of my work as well. You check it out here: http://www.lrgiles.com/story-starters-scott-dubar-illustrator/ And for everyone interested YA fiction, definately check out Lamar’s books Fake ID, and Endangered. -
Desert Mountain Biking, Hallucinations, and Sushi
Here’s my latest work for Utah Adventure Journal. It’s always fun to illustrate something that references hallucinating since it’s basically a license to take things a bit farther than I would otherwise. Below is a work in progress shot with my awesome Huion LED lightpad.
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Urban Sketchers Gallery Show at the VCA
I got to participate in a local Urban Sketchers gallery showing at the Virginia Center for Architecture in Richmond, which marked my first galley showing in a pretty long time. The event was organized by Jessie Chapman, who is a long-time board member of UrbanSketchers.org, an international organization that promotes sketchbook drawing.
The exhibit features our Urban Sketchers group, along with work from Andrew Moore, Don Gore, and Washington Post news illustrator Richard Johnson.
Above: Me standing next to my profound thoughts on the value of sketchbook drawing.
Oddly, none of the sketches pictured are mine. Below: A few of the panels that feature some of my work, along with Stephen Haske, Jessie Chapman, and others.
The show will be up through July 5, so anyone in the RVA area can drop by. Check out www.architectureva.org for more details.
