Art Inspiration: The Scottish Crew

For the past few months I have been posting my adventures in Scotland. The biggest reason I had such a wonderful time was due to the amazing people I went with.  They help make the Scotland Adventure a time to remember. They encouraged me to test my limits and seek out new adventures and experiences.  They in short inspired me.  Therefore it is not surprising that I was inspired to draw and creature some art based around what I have affectionately called The Scottish Crew.  

I therefore took on the task to create Steampunk caricatures of the Scottish Crew.  I have already created two caricatures out of the group of four on previous occasions. One being myself, The Captain and the other as a Steampunk Scott’s woman. Below are all four in a final picture entitled “The Scottish Crew”.  Each caricature is similar and inspired by the same symbols I created for the Scotland Adventure logo.  

The person to the far left has been called Viking and he quite looks the part. Therefore I drew him as a Viking with the helmet I drew for the logo.  The next person I drew as a Steampunk Scott’s woman.  She rather fits the part and she loved the caricature. The third person is tall and of French background, so I drew her as a Femme Fatale. The dress and two pistols seemed to fit her personality.  And the final person is my caricature as a Steampunk Captain. I then placed everyone in front of a famous landmark in Scotland, Eilean Donan Castle.   

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There you have it; The Scottish Crew. I hope you enjoy this inspiring piece as much as I enjoyed drawing it for the people who inspired me to create it.   

Art Inspiration: Thank You Stan Lee

RIP Stan Lee and Thank you.

  With the world getting so crazy all I see on the news channels is nothing but negative news, therefore I have been making it a point not to watch the news reports. Yet with all the news I almost missed the sad news of a legend passing early last week, Stan Lee. Most people know who he was and I will not go into details about his life or the contributions he made to the comic and entertainment world, but for me his contribution helped and inspired me in so many ways.

  Growing up I hated to read. Yes me, a teacher hating to read. I was more comfortable with math, science, shop class and the arts including music, but reading was a chore for me. I never took to reading and the only thing that I did enjoy was comic books or graphic novels today. I would reading different stories including X-Men, GI Joe, Superman to only name a few. I loved reading them because when I did, it did not feel like a chore. Eventually I did move on to novels and other reading material but these stories gave flight to my imagination and inspired me to create.  

  Today I enjoy drawing comic characters and I also created my own comic books. But most import is that I love to pass on my passion for drawing and reading comics to the students. I think that is my greatest joy and the one thing I have to say thank you to Stan Lee for. Without his inspiration I couldn’t inspire others.

  I drew a few characters inspired by Stan Lee’s stories and I hope they will in turn inspire others.

Thank you Stan Lee.

Thor

Venom

Ironman created in Illustrator

Art Inspiration: Words That Inspire The Soul Of Creation

 

The other day I was looking through a few things and noticed some quotes from some notable people in history. Reading these quotes inspired me to draw a few cartoon caricatures and in doing so they lifted my spirit to heights of imagination.

I wonder if you can figure out who they are without looking at the caption.

William Shakespeare – Cartoon Caricature

‘How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.’ William Shakespeare

 

Albert Einstein – Cartoon Caricature

‘The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.’ Albert Einstein

 

Leonardo da Vinci – Cartoon Caricature

 

‘The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.’ Leonardo da Vinci

 

Art Inspiration: Imagine The Impossible: Final Portrait 02

 

‘The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.’ Aristotle

‘Imagination is more important than knowledge.’ Albert Einstein

 

Inspiration and Imagination, something every artist needs and is elusive as an island of tranquility in a sea of chaos. Many people have told me that I inspire the children and people in general with what I do. Whether creating art, playing baseball or trying to improve my life, people say that I have inspired others to try new things and look inside themselves. I have always found this interesting because I get my inspiration from these very people.

A prime example is when I drew the staff at my school as cartoon characters or caricatures for their Christmas Cards. It took quit a while to create the caricatures but once the staff received them they loved the cards and caricatures. In the next few weeks I will be posting a few of the characters from the cards because these people inspired me to create these characters. Hopefully they can spur imagination and inspire others.

 

Final Portrait 02

In the Final Portrait 01, I gathered all the caricatures for a staff portrait. Those were people whom I worked with in the after school program. In this second portrait I collected all the staff I worked with during school hours. I created two of the caricatures around Christmas at the same time as I created the other caricatures, yet the three others standing closest to my caricature; I decided to create as part of their graduation celebration. They were the teachers of the graduating class and I thought a nice gesture to create a Steampunk caricature to commemorate the occasion.

Instead of creating a new background I thought it was fitting to use the original I used for the other portrait. I found a great scene of some buildings along the River Seine and I drew a metal platform with stairs that you would use to get onto a ship. I have always loved ships and I was thinking that this group might be going a voyage. I am the Captain after all and what is a captain without a ship to command. Yet I did not want to use any ship, no. In the Steampunk style I imagined us waiting to board a dirigible. An airship with a massive balloon carrying an old sailing Man-o-War, like the HMS Victory. If you look in the upper left hand corner of the image you can see one flying into view.

I added the caricatures standing on the platform waiting for the ship to arrive to start our adventure. I placed my caricature at the front of the group to show that I was leading the way to board my ship. I added the soft-feathered frame and then I placed my personal logo ‘Paul G” to the lower right, but I was not sure what to call the portrait. I then thought of the graduation and came up with another name, yet with this second creation I went back to the original portrait’s name.   I wanted the portrait to inspire imagination, to believe that the impossible is possible. Therefore the title came out to be “Imagine the Impossible.”

With these people I did give them a portrait but not with all six of us in it. There were two different portraits but I decided to combine these caricatures into one portrait. They all loved their final portraits and I hope will enjoy this Final Portrait 02 of “Imagine the Impossible”.

Imagine the Impossible – Final Portrait 02

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Art Inspiration: Imagine The Impossible: Final Portrait 01

‘The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.’ Aristotle

‘Imagination is more important than knowledge.’ Albert Einstein

 

Inspiration and Imagination, something every artist needs and is elusive as an island of tranquility in a sea of chaos. Many people have told me that I inspire the children and people in general with what I do. Whether creating art, playing baseball or trying to improve my life, people say that I have inspired others to try new things and look inside themselves. I have always found this interesting because I get my inspiration from these very people.

A prime example is when I drew the staff at my school as cartoon characters or caricatures for their Christmas Cards. It took quit a while to create the caricatures but once the staff received them they loved the cards and caricatures. In the next few weeks I will be posting a few of the characters from the cards because these people inspired me to create these characters. Hopefully they can spur imagination and inspire others.

Final Portrait 01

In the final image I gathered all the caricatures for a staff portrait. This is set in a   Steampunk style therefore I needed a Victorian Era background. I went through a few ideas, a garden scene, a drawing-room similar to something from Pride and Prejudice, a steamship (I do like ships) or a busy street in London. I thought long and hard and I wanted something that would inspire some imagination something fanciful but still had a sense of reality. Then I thought of the time I dressed up as a musketeer and the scene came to me.

Why should my setting be in London, why not in Paris? Therefore I found a great scene of some buildings along the River Seine and I drew a metal platform with stairs that you would use to get onto a ship. I have always loved ships and I was thinking that this group might be going a voyage. I am the Captain after all and what is a captain without a ship to command. Yet I did not want to use any ship, no. In the Steampunk style I imagined us waiting to board a dirigible. An airship with a massive balloon carrying an old sailing Man-o-War, like the HMS Victory. If you look in the upper left hand corner of the image you can see on flying into view.

I added the caricatures standing on the platform waiting for the ship to arrive to start our adventure. I am on the top platform with my falcon waiting for my ship. I added the soft-feathered frame and then I added my personal logo ‘Paul G” to the lower right but I was not sure what to call the portrait. Then the idea came to me. I wanted the portrait to inspire imagination, to believe that the impossible is possible. Therefore the title came out to be “Imagine the Impossible.”

This is the first group of educators I made the portrait and caricatures for. We went out for Christmas dinner and after I gave the staff their individual cards with their caricatures, I presented this final portrait to them all. They were all signed and dated and to say that they liked it would be an understatement. They all loved the final portrait and I hope you too will enjoy the final portrait of “Imagine the Impossible”.

Art Inspiration: Imagine The Impossible: Steampunk Man 01 (The Captain)

‘The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.’ Aristotle

‘Imagination is more important than knowledge.’ Albert Einstein

Inspiration and Imagination, something every artist needs and is elusive as an island of tranquility in a sea of chaos. Many people have told me that I inspire the children and people in general with what I do. Whether creating art, playing baseball or trying to improve my life, people say that I have inspired others to try new things and look inside themselves. I have always found this interesting because I get my inspiration from these very people.

A prime example is when I drew the staff at my school as cartoon characters or caricatures for their Christmas Cards. It took quit a while to create the caricatures but once the staff received them they loved the cards and caricatures. In the next few weeks I will be posting a few of the characters from the cards because these people inspired me to create these characters. Hopefully they can spur imagination and inspire others.

 

Steampunk Man 01 (The Captain)

The last caricature of “Imagine the Impossible” is, me. After creating all the staff caricatures I also had to create mine. Yet I had already created one and I could not improve on what I had already created. I had created it as character in a story I had started about a year earlier, “The Captain and the Baroness”.

This is a story I created for someone special as a birthday present, but I decided to continue the story line. I was going through some difficult issues at the time and indulging in my creative side helped me through it. The story was loosely reflecting the issues in my own life and when I wrote chapter three I was going through a lot of changes in my life. Therefore I decided to change the look of the ‘The Captain’ character in the story. The original character was my caricature of myself dressed as a pirate, aka Jack Sparrow. So I changed the look of the character and my new caricature was created.

I began by basing his outfit with that of a naval officer during the Victorian Era. He is a captain after all so it made sense. I drew him with grey pants and vest, a royal blue jacket overcoat with gold trim and a white pouf shirt. I added a royal blue Ascot tie and black riding boots. This caricature is in the Steampunk style; therefore I drew two holsters with side arms.   I added a small dagger to his right and a sabre on the left with a couple of belts. If you look closely, the sabre guard has an inverted engraved image on it, a falcon. I am Maltese and adding a falcon created the idea that my caricature is the Maltese Falcon. The last touch on the outfit was a pocket watch hanging from his belt. It makes sense; a captain needs a watch to help navigate. The hair, beard and mustache (Van Dyke), were very similar to my hair beard and mustache I had grown at the time. The only thing I added from the previous images of ‘The Captain’ is the out stretched arm with the caricature holding a falcon. Along the same lines as the idea of my caricature being the Maltese Falcon.

The staff did not see this caricature until the final group portrait and they all loved it. Yet I did tell them that I did create this caricature as a character in a story I wrote. If you want to see and read the chapters I posted you can click on the link below.

 

“The Captain and the Baroness”

In the next few weeks I will post the final group portraits with all the caricatures in it. I hope you too will enjoy the nineteenth and final Steampunk caricature from “Imagine the Impossible.”

Steampunk Man – a.k.a. The Captain

 

Art Inspiration: Imagine The Impossible: Steampunk Woman 18

‘The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.’ Aristotle

‘Imagination is more important than knowledge.’ Albert Einstein

 

Inspiration and Imagination, something every artist needs and is elusive as an island of tranquility in a sea of chaos. Many people have told me that I inspire the children and people in general with what I do. Whether creating art, playing baseball or trying to improve my life, people say that I have inspired others to try new things and look inside themselves. I have always found this interesting because I get my inspiration from these very people.

A prime example is when I drew the staff at my school as cartoon characters or caricatures for their Christmas Cards. It took quit a while to create the caricatures but once the staff received them they loved the cards and caricatures. In the next few weeks I will be posting a few of the characters from the cards because these people inspired me to create these characters. Hopefully they can spur imagination and inspire others.

Steampunk Woman 18

The eighteenth caricature is a wonderful teacher whom I have worked with on many occasions. She was working with the grade fives at the time and I wanted to create a Steampunk caricature for her as I drew caricatures of a few of the students in the graduating class. She always a straight arrow and speaks her mine on a number of topics. With this in mind I thought to draw her as a Steampunk archer. I never drew an archer before and I wanted something different for this caricature.

I used the Lord of the Rings Elvin archers as inspiration and began there. I began with the corset and instead of a skirt or dress I drew her wearing skin-tight pants and riding boots. I added a feminine blouse with lace along the edge but because she is an archer she has short sleeves and a shooting gloves/greaves. Going with the Elvin archer look I drew her wearing a cape and hood. Her weapon of course is compound bow with a blade and a similar looking quiver.   I then drew her hair with a large braid to finish the look.

She loved her caricature, as did the many others. I hope you too enjoy the eighteenth steampunk caricature from “Imagine the Impossible.”

Steampunk Woman 18

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Art Inspiration: Imagine The Impossible: Steampunk Woman 17

‘The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.’ Aristotle

‘Imagination is more important than knowledge.’ Albert Einstein

Inspiration and Imagination, something every artist needs and is elusive as an island of tranquility in a sea of chaos. Many people have told me that I inspire the children and people in general with what I do. Whether creating art, playing baseball or trying to improve my life, people say that I have inspired others to try new things and look inside themselves. I have always found this interesting because I get my inspiration from these very people.

A prime example is when I drew the staff at my school as cartoon characters or caricatures for their Christmas Cards. It took quit a while to create the caricatures but once the staff received them they loved the cards and caricatures. In the next few weeks I will be posting a few of the characters from the cards because these people inspired me to create these characters. Hopefully they can spur imagination and inspire others.

 

Steampunk Woman 17

The seventeenth caricature is a wonderful teacher whom I have worked with on many occasions. She is a wonderful person to work with and has a … quirky personality on top of everything else, which is a good thing. This person has one place she loves to visit and she always talks about, Scotland. Therefore this is where I began when making her caricature. I began with a kilt and a tartan that I created. I then drew in the corset and large shirt that would show a bit of cleavage. I then added the belt, sporran, and black boots. I drew her hair a bit wild because that goes with her personality and then topped it off with a top hat and goggles. Then what Scottish outfit would be complete without a Scottish Claymore. Therefore I drew her holding one and stepping on top of a crate of TNT. If you look closely I added another claymore as a pin on her kilt.

She loved her caricature, as did the many others. I hope you too enjoy the seventeenth steampunk caricature from “Imagine the Impossible.”

Steampunk Woman 17

Art Inspiration: Imagine The Impossible: Steampunk Woman 16

‘The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.’ Aristotle

‘Imagination is more important than knowledge.’ Albert Einstein

Inspiration and Imagination, something every artist needs and is elusive as an island of tranquility in a sea of chaos. Many people have told me that I inspire the children and people in general with what I do. Whether creating art, playing baseball or trying to improve my life, people say that I have inspired others to try new things and look inside themselves. I have always found this interesting because I get my inspiration from these very people.

A prime example is when I drew the staff at my school as cartoon characters or caricatures for their Christmas Cards. It took quit a while to create the caricatures but once the staff received them they loved the cards and caricatures. In the next few weeks I will be posting a few of the characters from the cards because these people inspired me to create these characters. Hopefully they can spur imagination and inspire others.

Steampunk Woman 16

The sixteenth caricature is a wonderful teacher whom I have worked with on many occasions. She is a force to be reckoned with, and I wanted to show this with her caricature. I began with a corset and I drew it with extra leather straps/belts on it. But I wanted it to be part of a vest combo so I drew in the top part of the vest with collars. I then added an over sized white shirt similar to a pirate shirt. I wanted to show that she was a rebel therefore I drew her wearing pants and a large shotgun style rifle on a leg holster held there with a bullet belt. I then added a smaller side arm on the other side, leather boots and goggles in her hair.

She loved her caricature, as did the others. I hope you enjoy the sixteenth steampunk caricature from “Imagine the Impossible.”

Steampunk Woman 16

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Art Inspiration: Imagine The Impossible: Steampunk Woman 15

 

‘The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.’ Aristotle

‘Imagination is more important than knowledge.’ Albert Einstein

Inspiration and Imagination, something every artist needs and is elusive as an island of tranquility in a sea of chaos. Many people have told me that I inspire the children and people in general with what I do. Whether creating art, playing baseball or trying to improve my life, people say that I have inspired others to try new things and look inside themselves. I have always found this interesting because I get my inspiration from these very people.

A prime example is when I drew the staff at my school as cartoon characters or caricatures for their Christmas Cards. It took quit a while to create the caricatures but once the staff received them they loved the cards and caricatures. In the next few weeks I will be posting a few of the characters from the cards because these people inspired me to create these characters. Hopefully they can spur imagination and inspire others.

 

Steampunk Woman 15

The fifteenth caricature is a wonderful teacher who loves the children and has a personal favourite activity that I too enjoy, baseball. Her outfit is not really in the steampunk style but I did try to draw her caricature close to her personality and to the time period of steampunk. I began with her stance as if she is about to go up to bat or take down someone. I drew her uniform very close to the style of the women’s baseball league you may have seen in the movie A League Of Their Own, based the true woman’s league. Also I remember her wearing one very similar this one for Halloween. I then added thigh high stockings; a baseball cap and a baseball bat to give her that “I’m sweet but don’t mess with me” look.  

She truly enjoyed her caricature. She loved the uniform and mentioned that she has one like the one I drew. I told her I do remember but also that sometimes my caricatures come from the person’s own style too. I hope you enjoy the fifteenth steampunk caricature from “Imagine the Impossible.”

Steampunk Woman 15