A collection of sketches, scribbles and random scrawlings by Ashley Mackenzie
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A little sketch I did based on a dream I had where I was a small homeless kid with a giant black dog. We had to sneak into houses at night to find a place to sleep and I stole a giant loaf of bread with blue sprinkles on it and it was the best bread ever, though I don’t remember much else.
More schoolwork, we had to do a cover for a future issue of American Illustration and I chose 88. I’ll post the finished version when the semester is over!
Finally I have something to post! This was a small assignment, we had to depict something that conveyed aggression. I’ve been trying to experiment lately with exaggeration and different mediums, so hopefully this doesn’t look too strange.
Brush ink and red paper on bristol.
larissaclause asked: Hi, this is probably a super stupid question. What scale do you work at before scanning? Do you work at a larger scale than the piece's required dimensions and then scale down? Or do you work at the exact size?
That’s not a stupid question at all! I tend to work quite small so most of the sketches on this blog are pretty much the same size on paper as they are here. I do try and work a bit larger than the intended size for full illustrations, just because it helps to tighten things up when the piece is reduced, but even then I usually sketch them out at a smaller size and then blow them up digitally and transfer them to whatever I’m working on for the final. Hope that answers your question!
@1 year ago with 8 notes
Sketch commission of a gorgon. After so much line-work with tattoos and sketch commissions over the past few weeks I’ve been dying to do more with tone and this was the perfect outlet.
Sketch commission of a couple as some cozy-looking frogmouths for Christmas.
Sketch commission of a sphinx, following the Greek mythology more than the Egyptian mythology.
sveltemark asked: hey! awesome work. do you use photo references at all when you are illustrating?
Thanks! And yes, all the time! Never directly from any single reference though, usually I gather a whole bunch of images related to whatever I’m working on so I can take it all in as a whole and figure out the best way to use that visual information to make my own piece more believable, if that makes any sense at all.
@1 year ago with 12 notes
A belated sketch commission of the tiger-like Dagre, for Der-shing Helmer, the creator of the fantastic webcomic The Meek. As it’s one of my favourite webcomics I was really excited to work on this one, and I can only hope I managed to do justice to Dagre’s design.
Ink work for a dvd cover assignment, I was doing The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
I completely forgot about this painting, I did it last year for class and the photo isn’t especially good but I still like the piece. The creature is a headless mule from Brazilian folklore.
A sketch commission for Kaysha Siemens of the prince with feather-hair from the short story “The Wisdom of the King” by W. B. Yeats. I hadn’t heard of the story before she sent it to me but I really enjoyed it and can only hope I managed to do it justice.
Anonymous asked: How/What do you edit your sketches in PS? :o
Usually I just desaturate them, since my scanner adds weird colour hues, and then play with the levels and/or curves until I get the right balance, then quickly clean up any leftover spots of dust.
@1 year ago with 8 notes
I was going to try and draw actual clothes but of course they turned into feathers. Highlights added in Photoshop.
Sketch commission for Caitlyn Harris of her two characters, Almos and Kingston. Such interesting designs, I had a great time working with them!
