Teeth, Tusks and Trunk

Here's another Little Beastie for my growing menagerie. I'm collecting beastie drawings with the idea of an upcoming book of Little Beasties and how to draw them. Elementary kids love to draw, and since I visit schools, a Beastie book would be a good fit for what I do. I could also spin off Little Beastie stories.

Beaked Beastie

This nasty little beastie emerged from my sketchbook and pecked a hole in my desk before I could corral him and herd him into my blog where he can do no harm, except to entertain the viewers, though he doesn't look to be in a very entertaining mood at the moment. 


Look at his eyes. He seems to be rather wary of you. You may not want to leave this image on your screen and exit the room for any length of time. You wouldn't want him to peck his way out of your computer screen and get loose in your office.

Book Illustration

This is an illustration that I did for a book called Explorers of the New World Timeline. I've illustrated so many books for this publisher that I've lost count...maybe 40 books. I illustrate 2 or 3 titles for them most every year, some realistic illustration like the above, but most in my zany humorous style.

Swamp Vagabonds

Here's another pair of little beasties to add to the growing menagerie. My drawing materials are simple: an HB or 2B pencil, a section of newspaper, a q-tip, and a kneaded eraser. The most important aspect of creating a tight pencil rendering is how the pencil is held. That makes a huge difference.

My greatest pencil rendering influence is Midge Quenell, the graphite rendering instructor at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, where I attended art school.

Many of you have never seen my syndicated comic panel, Health Capsules. It's syndicated by Universal UClick syndicate. I thought I would show you a sample of the artwork that I create for the panels. I just drew these this past weekend. I recently passed the 3000 mark...3000 Health Capsule panels that I have written and illustrated for the daily feature, over the past nine years.

This is the process that I go through every weekend, year in, year out. First I write six day's worth of panels. Then I create the artwork (above) that goes into the panels. These six drawings will be placed in the panels that contain the text that I have written, one for each day of the week, Monday through Saturday.

 I try to write Health Caps on Friday and draw them on Saturday. If we have plans and go out of town for the weekend, I bring Health Caps with me and work on them in a coffee shop during the course of the weekend. It seems that when you're self-employed, you're always on duty.

It was my childhood dream to have my own syndicated comic strip someday, so I never take this privilege of having my own syndicated feature for granted. I never dread working on my Health Caps...I always look forward to it. My syndicate once told me that they receive up to 7000 submissions per year from people who want to have their own comic strip...and they sign one or two individuals. I'm so happy that I kept trying for many years to break in, and finally beat those long odds.

To see my feature in its finished form, click here.

Airborne Beasties

Yet another little beastie crawled out of my sketchbook this morning and quickly took flight. It's more than a bit unnerving to try to concentrate on my work while a little pterocroctyle creature and his bug-eyed, bulb-nosed hairy companion are darting about my studio. I tried opening a window, but they don't seem to want to leave. Perhaps I'll just have to learn to live with them.

Eye to Eye

Here's another little beastie that appeared on my sketchpad yesterday. He goes by the name Hornball. He calls his little friend Eyefly. I do all my sketches with a regular Micron mechanical pencil. 

What's for lunch?

Here's another Little Monster sketch in what might become a series of drawings that could turn into a book...we'll see where it goes.

Little Sea Monster

The is a sketch of a sea creature for an online game I was working on a couple years ago. It's obvious that he needs some orthodontic correction for that severe under-bite.

The Toad, The Bad, and The Ugly Movie Poster

The Toad assumes the role of Clint Eastwood in this soon-to-be-released remake of Sergio Leone's classic "spaghetti western" movie, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Depicted in the painting is the memorable final scene with Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach, wearing the noose.

I watched this scene in the film many times in order to capture all of the details to insure authenticity.

Buy the poster and t-shirt: www.zazzle.com/bron_smith

Toad Warrior Movie Poster

The Toad is captured on canvas in between takes of his soon-to-be-released movie, Toad Warrior. The epic-scale film is being shot on location in the scorching sand dunes of Dalanzadgad, in Outer Mongola. Skagway stars as the legendary toad samarai who roamed 11th Century Mongolia armed only with a sword, spear and throwing stars.

The real Toad Warrior of Mongolian legend was a Mongolia Sand Toad (Bufo roddei). The Toad is a Western Toad (Bufo boreas). In order to portray the character with authenticity, he endured three hours of makeup each day during filming. He also did his own stunts. No stunt doubles were used in the battle sequences.

The Toad stated in a recent interview that he also found the title role to be exhausting because of the burden he had to bear during long days of shooting with his heavy armored costume, weighing in at a hefty one quarter ounce.

It was an honor to be chosen to illustrate the movie poster. I can't wait to see the movie. A release date hasn't been set.

Buy the poster and t-shirt.

Sunday Sermon Sketch

Like many illustrators, I carry some paper in my back pocket in case I find someone sketchable during the Sunday sermon. This is our friend, Tracy, who sat still, absorbed in the sermon, unaware that her image was being captured for all the world to see.

Tracy is a talented artist. Check out her children's book titles, Kaila's Garden, I Wish I Was an Animal, I Wish I Were a Princess, and Exploring Careers in Art, at Lulu. com  http://www.lulu.com/browse/search.php?fListingClass=0&fSearch=Tracy+Fortune

We've had a lot of good times, especially Mexican lunches, with Tracy and her husband, my buddy, Darrell Fortune. Darrell is the founder and host of Northwest Convergence Zone, a podcast that features Pacific Northwest as well as nationally known musicians and comedians.

Niche Market: Humorous Aviation Art

Up until now I haven't been able to post my own artwork because my Trowbridge Chronicles blog was reserved for the work of my favorite shrew, Mrs. Violet Trowbridge.

Several years ago I took a brief foray into humorous aviation art with this piece. My foray was short-lived. I did about three humorous aviation paintings similar to this one, then decided that I didn't want to go that direction. I wasn't excited about the idea of peddling my art from flea markets to county fairs. Not my gig. But it was fun while it lasted.

I also tried "car"toon art, drawing caricatures of cars. I did one car show...not a single person stopped at my booth. So I bailed at noon...that was my first and last car show.

I painted this with real watercolor. The background was sprayed with a real Badger airbrush, not a Photoshop airbrush. It would be several years before I would discover the magic of Photoshop.

If you happen to be a humorous aviation art collector, contact me and I'll sell you a signed print of the above image, and you can look at my other two aviation paintings.