Happy New Year Drawaholics!

I am very proud to say that we are about to jump into our fourth year of Drawaholics! Of course there have been ups and downs, but life gets busy and eventually we all find time to draw and share what we have been working on. It's been incredibly inspiring seeing what you all draw and the improvements with each post!

Looking back on the last three years our first year had the most participants. The difference with that year and others, was the subjects. That year we focused on animals and each month had a different category and each week an animal within that category. We are going to do that again for 2013! Something else I am changing for this year is I have every challenge for the whole year in the '2013 Challenges' tab. This way you can look ahead and plan better and also for those of you who only have time for one drawing once in a while, you can look ahead and choose which one you would like to do! Please send me your thoughts in a comment or through email. I would love to hear what you think and if you feel this way will get you more excited about drawing!

As always, feel free to spread the word about Drawaholics and send anyone my way who might want to join! Also, I have heard more times than not that some of you are doing the challenges, but are too shy to post them. Please don't be! And don't feel intimidated by the artists here that you feel are better than you, you should be inspired by these and only compare your art to your own art. As long as you feel your current piece is better than your last you are headed in the right direction! So please post!

I hope 2013 is a good year for you all! Happy drawing!

Merry Christmas

Hi guys, it is Alessandro and Tania here wishing you Merry Christmas! We both use to post here, but we have been away for a while and this seems a good way to start to post again :D.

We would like to share it with you, even though you read Squash and Sketch, it is still us!

Happy Holidays!!

Happy Holidays 2012!

Happy Holidays!

CHALLENGE! December: Holiday Card

This is the time of the year where we all get extra busy and its hard to keep up with drawing, especially drawing blogs such as this one. So for our last challenge of the year, just share your holiday card. I know most of you do them anyways! And we'll start the new year strong as we always do. Happy holidays to you all!

CHALLENGE! November, Week 3: Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving week everyone! Lets see your Turkey drawings!

Friday Inspiration! Painting in Sketchbook Pro with Bobby Chiu

CHALLENGE! October, Week 5: Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos)

Jess Morris: Trick or...

I fleshed out one of my post-it note sketches.

Jess Morris, October Week 4: Trick or Treat

More quick sketches at work...

Jess Morris: October Monsters

I haven't had much time to draw lately. This time of the year seems to be this way... but keep it up guys, though this is the busiest time of the year, it also is full of inspiration! I did some quick post-it note sketches at work while waiting for shots to playblast. I am hoping to flesh some of these out this week.

CHALLENGE! October, week 4: Trick or Treat

Inspiration! Free Highlights & Scales Tutorial by Bobby Chiu

CHALLENGE! October, week 3: Ghost Story

Zombie October Week 2

while play blasting at work, using copic pens

CHALLENGE! October, week 2: Monster/Witch/Zombie/etc

Label: Monster, Your Name

Friday Inpspiration!

It's been a while since I have done one of these... but this got passed on to me this morning by a friend and it is worth sharing!

John Cleese did this lecture on Creativity back in 1991, so it might be old news to some, but I just watched it for the first time this morning. And I found it incredibly inspiring!  
   

A couple points that that stuck with me...

"It's easier to do trivial things that are urgent than it is to do important things that are not urgent, like thinking. And it's also easier to do little things we know we can do than to start on big things we are not so sure about."

"Nothing will stop you from being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake."

And the list goes on! Great stuff, check it out!

CHALLENGE! October

October is here and it is filled with so many inspirational challenges! I am going to do things a little differently and give you the challenges for the whole month. I'll still post up the challenge every Monday as a reminder! But this way you can think ahead and/or pick and choose the ones you would like to do. (If you find you like this approach, let me know and we'll continue in this fashion.)

Week 1: Horror Movie

Week 2: Monster/Witch/Zombie/etc.

Week 3: Ghost Story

Week 4: Trick or Treat

Week 5: Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos)

Have fun!

CHALLENGE! September, Week 4: Fall

The new season is here! Welcome fall!

Cave Woman :)

Sorry this is late, I was too lazy to scan it. Finally got around to it! :)

BONUS CHALLENGE: Pirate

Today is national pirates day! ... pirate robot maybe? :P

CHALLENGE! September, Week 3: Robot

(any size, for any purpose)

Jess Morris: Favorite Adventure Movie

Raiders of the Lost Arc was in theaters around these parts last week and it was AMAZING to see it on the big screen! This was one of my favorite parts...

CHALLENGE! September, Week 2: Favorite Adventure Movie

Label: Your Name, Favorite Adventure Movie

CHALLENGE! September, Week 1: Favorite Band/Musician

Wow, September already! Feel free to do a labor day piece if you are one that likes to keep up with every holiday. Last year it didn't get many responses, so lets go with: FAVORITE BAND/MUSICIAN.

MEMORIUM: NEIL ARMSTRONG

Thank you Jess, and whoever else suggested the theme of honoring a real American.  And, in my opinion, he was a genuinely real "hero" of the best kind:  An unassuming and accomplished patriot.

This work is a departure from my normal stuff.  I'm not as accomplished in these kinds of things as most of you, and am regularly humbled by your skills.  I am eager to see your contributions.

CHALLENGE: "CAVEMEN"

Not entirely sure which critter is the would-be retriever.

You decide.

Bonus CHALLENGE! Neil Armstrong

Someone just made a good point to me this morning that Neil Armstrong would be a great challenge this week. I agree and can't believe I didn't think of it yesterday! Thanks for the idea and what a neat way to remember a man who marked an important moment in history.

CHALLENGE! August, Week 4: Worst Superhero

Adventure Time with Mr. Krabs

It's a little late, but here is my Nickelodeon drawing. Hope you like it.

CAVEMAN drawings

This blog has some great subjects for drawing, to bad I don't have to much time to tackle them all
I use many of them for my everyday sketchbook so here are some takes on subject of caveman.
Hope you like it.

Keep the good work and great ideas :)

Tigercrab... finally!

Busy summer has kept me from contributing!  I finally got to the Tigercrab challenge.... *whew*.  Thanks Jess!

CHALLENGE! August, Week 3: Cavemen

(sorry posted late this week, was out of town with no reception)

Patrick the last airbender...

Hi all,

Thanks again Jess for inviting me to contribute to this blog. So here's a little sketch for the Nickelodeon Character challenge :)

CHALLENGE! August, week 2: Nickelodeon Character

CHALLENGE! August, week 1: Worst Fashion Statement

... after the horse has bolted.

Can't believe how much Britain has got behind all the athletes. Two weeks ago it was, "Olympics, big deal." but now the whole country has gone nuts!!! Winning helps. It was mentioned on TV yesterday that we only won one gold in Atlanta, forgot that. How was that possible????? Can anyone beat Bolt later today I wonder.

Friday Inspiration!

Remember when we did the 'Disney behind the scenes' challenge? I came across Disasterland, which is an art show coming up by Rodolfo Loaiza. Check out his clever and hillarious pieces about Disney characters in adult situations!

CHALLENGE! July, week 4: Olympics

Are you watching the Olympics? See anything amazing, embarrassing or otherwise memorable? Lets see it! Might also might be a good chance to knock out some fun gestures! Go at it!

Underwater Creature

Hi people, I just wanted to share my weekly challenge as well as an old one from weeks ago. Thanks Jess for bringing me on board.

Challenge! July, week 3: Batman

Ok here it is.. my fan bit for last weeks challenge! hahah keep in mind im still learning how to really draw with my wacom and also learning a new program, Sketchbook pro 2. Well i hope you enjoy!!

Batman Images

So this is my first post here! Glad to be a drawaholic! Some of these are old, some new, just lil doodles, nothing fancy Hope you dig!

CHALLENGE! July, week 3: Favorite Underwater Creature

What is your favorite underwater creature??

May, Wk3: Baby Monsters Jared J

Im late i know...  :(

Challenge! July, week 3: Batman

The Dark Knight Rises FINALLY opens this week, so for all of you out there who always wanted to do a Batman fan piece, this is your week!

Jess Morris: 80s Movie

This is one of my favorite moments from one of my favorite 80s movies. Know which one??

Click for Answer.

Jess Morris: Owl #2

Another owl...

CHALLENGE! July, Week 1: Favorite Bird

Well I know this is a bit late but here it is. This was part of a book that i worked on. I do like Brown horned owls and also looove peacocks. But this is what i have for ya!

CHALLENGE! Jul,y week 2: 80s Movie

What an awesome week of bird! This week lets do a tribute piece to one of your favorite movies from... the 80s! SO many good ones to choose from! Have fun!

June wk1: Jared Johnson - Alines

one of many back challenges to come!

Bad Prometheus vagina worms and tentacle monsters :P

Here are some drawings from my sketchbook. Hope you like it :)
Did some variation on owls cos I love those birds :)

July wk1: Jared Johnson - Cassowary

My first thought was a Theropod Dino seeings how the evolved into birds. but that might have been cheating :P so i went with a Cassowary cus they rock, closest thing to Theropod dinosaurs we have today. 


i have a crap load of back sketches i need to post... i've been a bad Drawaholic and fell off the wagon... or is it on?  

Jess Morris - Favorite Bird: Owl

Kind of a 'sketchbook page' of playing around with proportions.

July wk1: Louie Jones - Raven

favorite bird category - that's actually a tough one, but it was either going to be a raven, or an owl..

slender man kid

I know it's not technically a baby monster, but here's kid slender man creeping into your (yes, your!) bedroom while you're asleep.

If you don't know, the slender man an Internet-spawned urban legend creature who comes after mainly children and does ... something to them. It's not really clear. He is described as a tall, thin man in a suit with no face, supernaturally-long arms, and sometimes tentacles. He is most often found in foggy areas and forests where he can blend in with the trees, but has also been seen skulking around his victims' homes.

If you want to watch an insanely eerie chronicling of one guy's experiences involving the slender man, check out the MarbleHornets YouTube channel. It's how I was introduced to the monster (though I don't think he is given an actual name in the videos), and it still is probably the most deeply unsettling fictional series I've ever seen. Just drawing this picture weirded me out pretty hard. Hahaha.

CHALLENGE! July, Week 1: Favorite Bird

So this post is kind of an inspiration AND challenge post. I got turned onto Wicked Crispy, which is Jeff Victor's blog. He's a really talented artist that posts his life drawings, 'Classics of Crap', Actors roll line-ups, fan pieces and he also does these 30 day Challenges that are really fun to follow. I recommend joining him in this if you are up for the daily challenge! If you aren't quite there yet and are like me - trying my best to get out even a weekly drawing - I'll be borrowing some of his topics now and then from his challenge. I really like how he took a topic and pushed the idea into a way that I would have never thought of. Check out his blog to see some examples!

One of the things I like most about the topics he choose is that they all will reveal something about the artist. And I really like the idea of getting to know each other! So this week's challenge is: Favorite Bird.

And of course its 4th of July on Wednesday, so the BONUS challenge is an Independence Day piece.

CHALLANGE! June, Week 4: Grab Bag (Past Challenge)

Lots of fun challenges going by with not many posts. I am definitely guilty of not participating as much as I would like! Life get's busy. I completely understand! So lets use this week to choose a past challenge that you missed, but would still like to do. Have fun!

Post up anytime this week and label with the proper tag and your name. Thanks!

patrick the orphan xeno child

I'm very late on this, but just had to do something for Alien week. Don't think this qualifies as a spoiler since you have to already have seen PROMETHEUS for this to even be a joke. :P

Challange! June, Week 3: Historical + Supernatural =

With Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter coming out this week I can't help but imagine the inspiration this blooms. I love the idea of something historical mixed with something supernatural! Apparently this is a novel, by Seth Grahame-Smith, who also wrote Pride and Prejudiced and Zombies. Two books that just got pushed to the top of my reading list... after Game of Thrones. Anyways, have fun with this one! I can't wait to see what you all do!

(Please don't post until Friday or later and label:  Historical + Supernatural, Your Name. Thanks!)

Challenge! June, Week 2: Tiger + Crab =

Thanks Ted for this idea! 

Label: Tiger+Crab, Your Name, please don't post until Friday, thanks!

Weekend Inspiration: Ted Talk, Vik Muniz on Creativity

Vik Muniz makes art from pretty much anything, be it shredded paper, wire, clouds or diamonds. Here he describes the thinking behind his work and takes us on a tour of his incredible images. 

Alien 3

Alien 2

Alien Flight

Challenge! June, week 1: Aliens

In honor of Prometheus opening this week, 'Aliens' will be the challenge this week!

 

Please don't post until Friday and label: Aliens, Your Name. Thanks!

Jess Morris: Baby Monster

(if not recognizable, Creature from the Black Lagoon)

Friday Inspiration: Painting Demo by Bobby Chiu

I am a huge fan of adventure time and Bobby Chiu did this awesome fan piece!

Here is his process which is really inspiring to watch. I love how he almost sculpts the piece to what it is and how he just splashes on color making it all somehow come together. (If you aren't up for a 'life' pep talk just mute it.)

He also has a lot of other free demos! Check them out and let us know if you find any really good ones!