Cartoon drawing of a blue devil/demon.

Original sketch drawn in my sketchbook, graphite on paper, then scanned into Photoshop where the sketch cleanup and color was added using a Wacom Intuos3 graphics tablet.

The head was sketched out and colored in completely on it’s own, then the body sketched out & color added, both elements were isolated in their own Layer Groups in Photoshop.

Original sketch created in my sketchbook, graphite on paper, then scanned into Photoshop where the sketch cleanup and color was added suing a Wacom Intuos3 graphics tablet.

A fun monster/creature exercise once again.

My Wacom stylus is on the fritz and I was too frustrated to go any further with this one.

Just a quick sketch of a cartoon dragon character on for this Monster Monday, falling on the Labor Day holiday.

Rough sketch done pencil on paper, scanned into Photoshop where further tweaks and color were added.

For this “Igor” type character (the trusty Mad Scientist lab assistant guy), I started out with a sketch from an evil clown character I created a few years ago. I wanted to work with some new painting styles in Adobe Photoshop, specifically staying away from the Dodge/Burn tools as they seemed to render colors with too much saturation, and in general are a poor excuse for building color, shading and highlights on your own.

I started out with the head from an existing sketch so I didn’t have to bog myself down in creating something from scratch when really I wanted to experiment with coloring and painting in Photoshop. The evil clown sketch had a nice creepy character head/face, so I thought it was a good launching point.

The base colors were laid down on a separate layer, as were the shading and highlight layers. Hair and background also on separate layers. The body was just roughly worked up to keep the head from being a floating object.

Looking at him now, I am thinking he might have been better as a graveyard keeper, with an appropriately spooky latern instead of the test tube he’s holding.

I went for high-contrast dramatic lighting, and reworked the shading and highlights many times as I was experimenting. Brush was nothing fancy, just the standard Photoshop painting brush at very low opacity and set to use the pressure sensitivity of the Wacom Intuos3 tablet.

I think I could have gone into more detail, especially on the lips and the body, but I didn’t want to overwork the sketch while I was experiementing. I think I hit a nice stopping point and decided to share as-is. Perhaps I will revisit Igor sometime in the future.

Visit George Coghill’s cartooning & humorous illustration portfolio.

Cartoon cyclops - color sketch

This sketch of a cartoon cyclops character is my first entry for Monster Monday. Sketched out and colored in entirely in Photoshop using a Wacom Intuos3 graphics tablet.

I started out rough with the body, just doodling around to see where things led. Once I had the general idea for the body, I created a new layer and started working on ideas for the head. Initially he started out as a devil/demon, but I wasn’t liking where it was going.

New layer created, started sketching rough for new ideas, got the general shape of the head that was finally working well with the body. From there, the cyclops theme just kind of presented itself.

I took all my sketch layers, grouped them into a new payer and reduced the opacity of the Layer Group to about 10%. Created a new layer for the black line art, then another new layer underneath for the color. Once the flat color was in place, I duplicated that layer and used the dodge & burn tools to add shading and highlights.

A simple background was added, then I went back and darkened up the lines and cleaned things up a bit. I wanted to keep it kind of rough and sketchy, so I didn’t go overboard on the cleanup.