Ben Hatke's Sketchbook (A Great Variety of Things)

[House Hatke]

Going strong with the daily updates.

[House Hatke]

These two kids went to visit the Mouse King. I hope things turn out okay for them.

[Dreamworker]

First of all Welcome on CA SB section ! I found your works very nice, I like the style and the atmosphere that you gave at your stuff.
Post some sketches and unfinished works, I'm curios to see how did you work.
Ciao

[House Hatke]

And here are a few recent sketchbook bits -I have plenty more to post, but I'm trying to pace myself...

[House Hatke]

First of all Welcome on CA SB section ! I found your works very nice, I like the style and the atmosphere that you gave at your stuff.
Post some sketches and unfinished works, I'm curios to see how did you work.
Ciao

Thanks Dreamworker. The process for the top pieces was pretty simple -a fairly detailed underdrawing with a 4h pencil (so it's pretty light), inked with micron pens of a couple different widths, then watercolors. And just a bit of black crayola colored pencil in spots to deepen shadows.

[FactorZero]

awesome fairytale book style!

[House Hatke]

Here are a few more conceptual pieces -from the folktale "Cap O Rushes"

[House Hatke]

Here's a larger version of that last page, as well as an earlier aborted attempt.

[funfetus]

Charming stuff. Solid drawing skills, too. Keep posting, I wanna see more.

[House Hatke]

Charming stuff. Solid drawing skills, too. Keep posting, I wanna see more.

Thanks DoubleF. I spend much of last year trying to sharpen my drawing skills, including a stint painting at the Cecil Studio in Florence. (I'll post some of that down the line)

...I can't believe you have the domain name funfetus.com.

Anyway, Here are a couple very recent odds n' ends:

[House Hatke]

Small bits

[Retronym]

The Cap O Rushes pieces are charming, the character design is just so pleasing.

[House Hatke]

Thanks. One more for tonight and then bed:

[House Hatke]

Here are some life drawing bits -I can hardly believe how helpful life drawing has been:

[House Hatke]

Saturday and Sunday Sketchbook pages (more to come). I've noticed that a lot of people fill pack more into the pages than I do -maybe I should try to squeeze more into these pages.

The eagles were drawn from David Attenborough's "Life of Birds", a really fantastic series.

I'd love to live near a zoo.

[House Hatke]

Recently the American Chesterton Society had one of my cover illustrations (below) turned into a 3-D christmas ornament. The sculptor did a fantastic job with my goofy little drawing and it was really exciting to get this in the mail...

[Darktwin]

your life drawings are very nice!, and congrats with the christmas ornament looking good. I like ability to tell a story, keep it coming please, and thanks for sharing. Welcome to CA,

[House Hatke]

Thanks DarkTwin! I just checked out your SB and you've got some great figurative stuff yourself! It looks like what you were doing up in NY was similar to what I was doing in Florence last year -I've haven't yet done a cast drawing, but I did do a lot of this type of work (oils and charcoal):

[House Hatke]

This first page is getting to be a huge DL...

I thought I'd show a WIP of an ink&watercolor piece. I worked out a couple thumbnails for this one before plunging in and it helped to rethink the composition a couple times. Here's a not-so-decent photo of the inks -though I still have a ways to go on the eagle. Pretty fussy stuff starting with a .005 micron pen.

(I'm also adding in one of my old Monday Monsters for kicks. Got lot of these)

[Darktwin]

Very nice oils? How long were you in Florence? you must have learned a lot. What would you say you learned the most from that workshop? I really like the top 3 oil paintings in the post before last. How much time did you spend on each one. The far right one is wonderful. Keep us updated, looking forward to the update of the latest whip.

[DIMAGYAN]

very nice works. i like the books drawing.

keep the good work

[Sirio_Brozzi]

Nice works and start to this sb. Like the book illustrations you did, really nice feel to them. And the oils and figure drawings are very good too. Keep up the good work!

[Andy P]

Hey, wonderful book illustrations, you've got a real style developing here. I like the quick stuff like this and this, and your life drawings are comin along, let's see more of them! Try and get a lot of quick life drawing in, it'll inform your book stuff tremendously.
Keep postin!

[House Hatke]

Thank for the replies! I keep hoping that this will roll over to page two so the first page here won't be such a big DL.

DarkTwin: I stayed in Italy for close to 9 months last year. Part of it was self-study -reading and sharpening my drawing and studying the old masters- but the studio work helped me tremendously. Lots of life drawing, and really, my first experience with oils. I learned SO MUCH that it's hard to say what the biggest lesson was. Aside from that I'm mostly self-taught, so just having some seasoned artists look at my work from time to time and say "try this instead" was a major deal. It was great.

I'm planning to go back for another, longer stint this spring. I've got one more big oil painting I'll post soon.

Andy P: Talk about style, I just checked out your sketchbook. I'll go through the whole thing this evening I think. Great figurative work and I like how you line the pages with your tiny script -sort of a mix of journal and SB. I'll post some of my quick studies for you. Mostly they are of kids because you can't take a lot of time with kids -they move to fast.

[House Hatke]

And the eagle picture is coming along. i set up a WIP thread for it, but this is where it is at the moment...

[House Hatke]

Just a couple sketches of my daughter on a snowy day

..and an old collection of sketches pasted together.

I think I need to post more babes or something. It's quiet around here.

[AmontilladoAg]

Oh, I love your work!

The sketches, the paintings, the ornament!... fantastic.

Stars from me, sir. Cheers

[House Hatke]

Woo! thanks.

[House Hatke]

Woo! thanks. I wish this thing would roll over to page two. It's taking forever to load!

[House Hatke]

Just a couple more sketchbook pages today. A zani form the commedia and some short sword designs.