Friday, March 31, 2006

My Robot got an Ice cream and a Pony

Barter for Kelly Newcomer: draw a robot an softserve icecream and a horse; do a background

Well I kinda forgot to make a creative background...but i really really loved drawing the odd variety of items. Well I enjoyed it...sorry bout forgetting the fun background..but I drew it in 2 minutes...then I got bored...lol

I can redo the background if needed, but here ya go lass,

Joshua C. Lyman

Artistic Enigma

Pimpin' Sketch-it

April Fool Special


Help us spread the word about the greatness of sketch-it and get a little sumpin' sumpin' for yourself. This deal is good for the entire month of April, 2006.
  1. Grab this code::


  2. Paste it in the links section of your site.
  3. Tell your visitors to mention your site when they're filling out their request.
  4. We'll give you a free sketch-it sketch for every request that gets referred by your site.
Now get out there and get yourself some free sketches!

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Natalie Portman Drinking Tea


Dear customer, I enjoyed drawing a celebrity doing something everyday in itself...plus doing it in a brief amount of time helped me refine my style a bit. I hope you use Sketch-It in the future.

So I give you Natalie Portman drinking tea, done in 3 minutes, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Sincerely,
Joshua C. Lyman
Artistic Enigma

Diamonds are a Robot's Best Friend

"Diamond patterns (like from a rug or a sweater) with a smiling child and a kitten and a robot."



Here's another barter request from Kelly. The last time I drew this many robots I had yet to kiss my first girl. I used to be crazy about robots. I still have a book I bought with my caddy money called "Android Design". Somewhere in my archives I have a walk-cycle sketch of mechanical legs.

I loved to draw and I was really good in science. Add on top of that my tendency to take apart all things electronic and I was certain I was going to be an engineer when I grew up. I read "Megatrends" back in highschool and decided to design prosthetic hip-replacements for aging baby boomers. I was going to rake in the cash.

Instead I majored in art to the horror of my family. I make a decent living and I get to draw imaginative things like robots, smiling children and kittens.

Bedford Fellows [pdf]



Marilyn is a great, repeat customer here at sketch-it. She edits the Greenwich Village Block Association's newsletter. Being a non-profit organization they must rely on clip art (shudder) or file photos for their news stories. She requested an image of Catherine Zeta-Jones as a chef. Gothamitekight readily obliged.

That's the magic of sketch-it. If you have a non-profit newspaper or newsletter, if you are a band who has music on Magnatune, if you're writing an article for the Wikipedia and you don't have the right image, we're the ones you need to call.

Fan Art


I'm a big fan of Kelly Newcomer's art. When she asked for bartered sketches in lieu of payment for some of the sketches she's done here on sketch-it, I jumped at the chance. I never would have drawn this image if it weren't a request from Kelly.

That's part of the beauty of sketch-it. There's all kinds of things that artists are creating that are beyond their normal comfort zone. I think that's a good thing. It's like saying, "Let's see where the day takes me."

Have you ever hopped on your bicycle, with nothing extra other than a quarter? Try it. When you get to an intersection, flip the quarter. Heads, go right. Tails, go left. See where you end up.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Apologies to Mac/Safari Folk

[Update:: I seem to have fixed the problem. Blockquote + Monospace font + Safari = Yucky web page. It also messed up in IE as well. All better now.]

My apologies to the Mac crowd for the broken site. I recently viewed sketch-it on my laptop and saw the realy long sting of text and the images waaaaay over on the side. I'm not sure what happened.

Sketch-it looks fine on a Mac using Firefox. We are hunting down the source of the problem and once we find it we will take it out behind the shed and give it such a lickin' it will never show it's scrawney hide in these parts again.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Cameron's Third Lap


Third lap around the sun that is. Cameron turns three tomorrow and he loves monster trucks so I've drawn him this sketch. I won't get to see him until Friday but I think it will still be a surprise by then. He doesn't get online that much.

Dubai Dubai Dubai...We're halfway there

Walkin' to Dubailol well this would be my first submission for Sketch-it.

Dear sir,
Thank you again for choosing Sketch-it for your sketch requests. I definitely enjoyed doing this piece mainly because I got to do a LOT of research into the subject. I actually had no idea that this was going on in Dubai.
We hope that you will use Sketch-It in the future.
i have linked to the image on my deviantart page, where you can find the larger sized image [link] also my photobucket link, a smaller sized version as well as attached the image to make sure you have received the file. [link]

Sincerely yours,

Joshua C. Lyman
aka: artistic enigma

The Artistic Enigma is Revealed

Greetings and Salutations....

It is I! The Artistic Enigma, the Ominous Otter, the most Fearsome of Ferrets, Jc_pawz, the mad hatter, the mixx mastah, ....I think I'm going off on a tangent. What's up? My name is Joshua C. Lyman; most call me Josh or even Jay, and I am the one of the newest members to Sketch-it blog. So please be gentle with me, as I am the 'noob'(AAAAHH) I specialize in cartooning but do so much more. Scott found me on Drawingboard.org through a classifieds ad. I was a little reluctant at first, but think about...draw for practice in limited amount of time...boo shah

So peace out and make yourselves known!!!

you can find my stuff at deviantart

Feel free to check out my scraps
you can contact me at jclymanva@cox.net at all times.

Monday, March 27, 2006

Papillons

"She is called Papillons because she is as lovely as a butterfly."


Drawing smoke in a line art drawing is difficult. Determining what to define with a line is always the trick. What to leave out is just as important as the marks that do get laid down. For the tattoo, I used a pointilism technique and like the result.

The smoke on the other hand...I'm not so sure.

Jon 2 John

This from another recently satisfied customer:
Scott,

I recently purchased a sketch from you ('Somthing Funny?') and i was
really impressed. Loading your website this morning and seeing that picture really put a smile on my face. Feel free to pass my praise along to whichever artist did this particular sketch - they did a great job capturing the spirit of that night!

Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you for running such a great website. Most people would never consider charging only a dollar for such a unique service - it says a lot about you that you are willing to do this!

Thanks again Scott!

Sincerely,
Jon


And Thank YOU Jon. The artist who completed your sketch is the Award Winning John Mattie, a.k.a. Dudle R. Don't expect to learn any more about him from his profile because the lazy bum hasn't put anything up there. I could spin yarns about him but it will depress you all once you discover that every word of it is true.
Tags:

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Swap

At times like these when business is slow, I check out the stats logs for sketch-it and see who has been popping in to say hello. I also spend some time seeing what else is out there on related sites.

The sketch to the right is from Sketch Swap. The concept is simple and fun. Kind of like sketch-it. Using my mouse and their online sketch app I sketched something. I clicked the "submit drawing" button but got nothing in return.

I tried again. I drew a simple smiley face and got a not so nice sketch in return.

So how about it? Any sketch-it fans out there wanna swap a sketch? The first one to send me a sketch will get a bonafide sketch-it sketch free of charge. It's an incredible offer that won't last long so act now.

It's not every day that you get to save a whole dollar.

Family Line

"Can you please sketch this mountain scene? It's the view from the stoop of my anscestral home, 65 years ago."


BirchAncestralHome

A sign of modesty perhaps from 1941. There's a man and two dogs in the picture Birch submitted for this sketch request. "Yes you can take my picture," he may be saying, "but don't miss the grandeur surrounding me."

I don't know where his ancestral home is but aside from the dirt road, it looks untouched by man. There's so much landscape in the picture because, perhaps there was just so much landscape.


Friday, March 24, 2006

Don't Eat It!


This is the first post by the contributor, Little bun. He doesn't have an account for this blog so I'm posting it for him. I wasn't sure of the title he came up with for this sketch so the one above is an interpretation of his actual title.

My son drew his very first picture today. This is a big deal since he turns two in less than three days. All previous attempts at drawing resulted in a rainbow of drool streaming out of his mouth. He's past the oral stage but for some reason every time I sit him down to draw, he sticks the crayons in his mouth.

I thought I was smart by getting the special twistable crayons. They are nice and big so tiny hands have an easy time holding them. Each crayon is encased in a plastic holder making things less messy.

We were playing in the kitchen when bun looked up his previous, highly assisted, attempts hanging on the fridge. He looked at me and said "Crayon. Draw." I sat him down in his high-chair, taped some paper to his tray and gave him the "mess free" crayons.

Any time before, I did most of the work. Call them collaborative pieces. I danced, sang songs, whatever it took to engage him in sketching and distracted from the aroma of pigmented wax crayons.

This time all I had to do was repeat my mantra, "This is a crayon. You draw with it. Don't eat it." If he ventured away from the paper and opened his mouth, I'd whisk the crayons away. Near the end, after almost filling the page, I thought we'd passed a milestone. I turned around to get a drink of water. When I glanced back I saw a gaping maw, dripping with a bright orange paste.

Baby steps.

[Geek-out] Allow me to put on my Art-Geek hat right now. If you study the arcs in the above illustration you can tell that the artist is left handed. After a close examination of the strokes one can determine the order of color selection. Yellow first, then green then red. Most of the movements that layed down the color were deliberate and rythmic rather than contemplative. [/Geek-out]

One idea we've been toying with at sketch-it has been to enlist the skills of a child contributor. We are actively recruiting qualified candidates. Little bun may continue to make guest appearances but he won't be taking requests any time soon.

Aimee 2.0

"Ok. So I'm going to try for a series..."


Thank you for the inspiration Aimee. This is a sketch-it first. A series of the same image by two different artists. Care to begin a sketch-it project of your own making? Send us a request. You will be amazed by what we create.

The verticle bars at the top of Aimee's husband's head is the spiral binding of my sketch book. Sometimes I get so into my sketch, I lose all sense of space and time. I forget to eat. I sketch right off the page. Either that or it's just poor placement of the image on the page. You decide.

Things have slowed down a bit. Funny thing is, the more sketches we would post, the more requests we got. Once we caught up to the demand and could handle more requests, fewer people wanted sketches. Well, that and the fact that Blogger was having fits and starts this time last week.

It has been a good thing. We are re-tooling right now and it gives us a bit of breathing room. I've also had more time for my full-time gig, taking care of my son. There's been more time for my part-time project, producing a documentary about the struggles of urban revitalization titled, "Building at a Crossroads".

It's all good.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Pimp My Blog

"I'd like to have a cool sketch of myself for my blog."

MollieBlog


Cool 'nuff for you?

I thought about doing just her eye, like the header graphic on her blog. Her eyes are deep, clear and demand attention. After seeing the three photos she provided for us, I decided to expand the scope of my sketch.

Mollie provided us with special (we like to think just for us) pictures to sketch and posted them to our own little web page on her blog:
http://www.mollieoakleaf.com/sketch-it.htm

We take Mollie's effort seriously and have rewarded her for it.

Now I realize that I was not wrong in sketching Parker's eyes so large. He obviously gets them from his mommy.


Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Parker and Pixel

"i'd like for you to sketch a picture of my son and his kitten. you can find an image to reference at: http://www.parkeroakleaf.com/pixelpage.htm"




What do you think? A little too much Precious Moments? Parker's eyes are so big and cute, I couldn't resist. He really is, "the world's greatest boy." Both he and Little bun will have to share that title.

Kevin has the right idea. Notice the image URL in his message. If you would like us to sketch a photo, either email it to us (you'll see the email address once you pay for the sketch) or just include a link to the photo right in your message to sketch-it.

In the future, we will provide a handy little "upload" or "link" option for photos. If you forget to send us a reference, we'll usually pester you until you do. Another option is to allow us to post a sketch of our choosing.

You say you want a sketch of your "friend"? Well, without a photo we could create a sketch of who we think your "friend" is. That sounds like fun.

It Feels So Good

It feels great to be back home. Really it does. My own comfy chair. My own computer. My own scanner.

[side note: Being on vacation with one's child does not mean one actually gets a vacation.]

Kelly's right when she suggests I was suffering from on line withdrawal. One solution she had was to have internet in her head. That way she could go on about her normal life without the interruption of checking her computer every minute or every hour.

It does have its appeal but I'm not ready just yet. Have you seen the photos of the guy who embedded a security chip into his own hand? It begs the question, "Why not just build it into a ring one could wear?"

The problem with human embedded technology is the planned obsolecense of our technology. After a few months, that chip in my head would be outdated. Kind of a pain to swap it out for a new one.

Agreed that the day has not come for time saving web implants. Until then, I will make due with cobbled together solutions and we will continue to deliver sketch-it greatness.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Amanda and Daisy

"Photo of Amanda and Daisy on the sofa."
Amanda and Daisy

After far too long of a wait, here is a sketch for Marilyn. Send us your next request for that free sketch. Honest.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

You Are the Elephant

"An elephant you might see when you are drunk."
DrunkElephant
Well, since this request was rather open, I decided to make a surreal elephant out of a person. Complete with trunks for fingers and a kilt made of elephant ears. You see, when you are drunk, the elephant you see could very well be yourself.

Happy (Belated) Birthday Laura

"It was her 29th birthday on the 14th, so Iwould love it if you could commemorate that somehow... "

LauraB-Day

It's been a long time coming but I finally got this sketch on line. It's amazing to me how out of my element I become once I'm out of my normal surroundings. This image eventually was captured with a digital camera and not a scanner like I'm used to using. I edited it using the default, crappy Mirco$oft image editing utility. My father-in-law's computer for some reason doesn't like the pop-up window in Blogger to upload images so I loaded this up to my Flickr account.

Regardless of all the obstacles, it's out there for the world to see. I'm all about solutions. Not problems. Expect nothing less from sketch-it.


Friday, March 17, 2006

A Good Problem to Have

You may have noticed over the past few days that you couldn't get to sketch-it. Due to technical difficulties beyond our control...I could go on about the reasons but the important thing to know is, we are working on a better, more reliable solution.

Sketch-it began as a "what if?" and has rapidly grown into something much more.

Thank you.

The popularity of buying original art, with a relatively speedy turnaround, for someone you love has caught on and spread. We are recruiting more qualified artists to meet demand. We are determining the best software/hardware solution to take us to the next level of sketch request fulfillment.

It's been a blast so far. Stick around. You won't be disappointed.

Scott Moore
a.k.a. Awed Job

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Pixie Dust

"A sketch of my daughters at Ballet practice."


I added the wings and placed her atop a wee leaf. Sometimes I think they really are magical little creatures.

Squirrely Brilliance

"Could draw her on a squirrels body with a ciggerette and a can of beer?..cheers, i think what you're doing is brilliant.."


If you haven't guessed already, Eoghan is from the UK. I dig how Londoners say "Brilliant!" Makes me want to start a new saying. "Luminous." C'mon. It'll be grand! Start saying it instead of cool.

"Hey Tommy?"

"What Elanor?"

"I just bought a sketch for you on sketch-it."

"Luminous!"

It could happen.

Really.

Juxta-Pose-ition

"Could you make her look rabid?? drool dripping from her little face?? or whatever you see fit...."


Eoghan looks rather placid next to his doggie, Tipper. Perhaps it's because he's the one who gave her the rabies.


Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Happy Birthday Chris

"I'd like this drawing done for my friend's 31st birthday. we're the three fagateers."



Howdy sketch fans! It appears for the past two days now Blogger has been having some technical difficulties. We have experienced hang-ups and plain old "Site Down For Maintenance" warnings. Things appear to be fixed now but who knows.

Thank you for your patience. We have loads of sketches to post so get ready.

Well...Sure!


As my British husband would say, "Bloody brilliant!!" I love it – can't wait to hear his reaction.

And the crazy caterpillars he calls eyebrows? You nailed them! LOL

You are definitely getting a tip for this one!

Many thanks!!

Jackie








Thanks Jackie. We'd like to make it clear to everyone that you only have to pay us a single dollareenie to get your request sketched. You can however pay us more if you like.

Here's what came across from PayPal moments after Jackie sent the above email::

Subject: Just a tip!
Note:That was waaaaaaaaay more than a $1 sketch of "Brother Petter" -- oops, I mean Major Bubbles! Many thanks!

Black Tie One On

"This pic is from a blacktie oscar party that my girl and I rocked. We drank 23780498274 glasses of champagne."


Tiny bubbles. Good times.

Whose Got the Buttons?

"Sketch of pet cat, Buttons"


Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Puuuuurrrrrr.

Puuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.


Satisfaction

Please re-do the company name on the stationary that you did a few days ago. Add the word "Rod" and spell out "Company". Should be:

Headwaters Bamboo Rod Company

Thanks!


We aim to please here at sketch-it. If you don't like the sketch, simply submit another request and pay us another dollar. It's that easy.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Oh Deer!

"It's my roommate's bday and would love of a pic of her...she makes a great deer."



Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday deer Jessica's friend.
Happy Birthday to Youuuuuuu!

Major Bubbles

"My crazy brother "Petter" is currently stationed in Iraq. From time to time, we get crazy photos sent home. This was the latest! Sketch him, will ya?"



What you can't see is the plush character on top of that head gear he's wearing. Not really sure what it is. I really like the bubbles. The title is a play on words. I first thought of titling it "Private Bubbles" but I figured "Petter" has a higher rank than Private. I don't know what his rank is. I do know that his sister loves him.

Jennifer and Girlfriend

"Me & my love are celebrating our 5th anniversary very soon - I'de love a sketch of the two of us!"


Love
Exciting and New
Come aboard
We're expecting you...

Congratulations to Jennifer and her Girlfriend on their 5th anniversary.


Jess for Adam

"She's crafty and writes her own new blog and is a myspacer too and i love her."



This is definately becoming a theme at sketch-it. The love is spreading. Mostly its been men buying the sketches. I do believe there are some women in the pipeline. Stay tuned sketch fans.

Running Wolf

"I would like a sketch of a wolf that is to be the informal mascot for our running/motorcycle/bbq club: The Dukes of Flatbush."


Birch Shambaugh requested a sketch of this majestic animal. As a marathoner myself I open up an invitation to Birch and the rest of the DOFB folks to join me in the 2006 Twin Cities Marathon. Perhaps the most beautiful urban marathon in the country. Registration opens April 26th, 2006.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Adore

request said "gorgeous!," pic was labeled "WOW!!"... it's my girlfriend who i adore...

Scott's Girlfriend


That's truly sweet. We here at sketch-it wholly endorse the act of adoration whereby one lover requests a sketch of the other. It's better than a bouquet or a card and so much more original.

G'night folks. It's been a busy day. Along with the snow blizzard in Minneapolis, sketch-it experienced its own flurry of activity. Over 1,300 page loads and nearly 700 unique visitors came to the site today. That's ten times better than last week and a hundred times better than a month ago.

We are bringing on a few more, highly qualified artists to meet demand. You will not be disappointed. These folks are real pros, each with their own unique style.

Thanks again for your interest and patronage.

Mark Morris Dance Group for Janie

"To dear Janie: Hope you're feeling better"


dancers

I love dance. It's a wonderful feeling to put my body in motion. I'm a visual artist and am in awe of those that can make their bodies perform physical and visual magic.


Beagle Chasing Rabbit

"Beagle chasing a rabbit. If possible, something other than a profile view."

Beagle Chasing Rabbit
This is Don's second request. He does come up with the challenging images. Don is a talented illustrator himself. Check out his site here. You could also wait a day or two and see his handiwork right here on sketch-it. I have invited him to be a contributor. Let's hope he says yes.

Much Appreciated


Thank you all so much for your patronage. Since the post on Gothamist this morning we have received many, many requests.

Your patience is appreciated. We will get to everyone's sketch request in the order they were received and post it here on sketch-it.

There are some crazy, funny and touching sketch requests in the queue. Stick around. Things are really getting interesting.

Sending Photos

Hello Sketch-it Fans!

Some people have sent in requests and ponied up the buck to get their sketch but are wondering how they are supposed to send us photos. You can try one of these three methods.
  1. Include a URL for the photo in the message section of your PayPal payment. OR
  2. Send a separate email to p h o t o [ ] s k e t c h - i t * o r g. OR
  3. Post a comment with a URL to the photo
Flickr works great for this sort of thing.

Of course if you simply want to describe a sketch, then you don't need an image. I'm guessing that most will want a sketch-ified version of a picture of their friend, lover, roommate or pet iguana.

Nut Job

"Just for fun."


Celebrity

"Angelina Jolie Sitting in a club chair."

"When do you think I'll receive the sketch? Are you all booked up?"


Well, Don, there was a bit of a bottleneck for a while but it appears to have cleared up. How's a six hour turnaround for you?

Just in case you were wondering, this is about as risqué as we'll get here on sketch-it. So if you had plans for an entire Angelina series, keep it rated PG please.


Classy and Fabulous

"It's my roommate's boyfriend... have fun with it.. we mess with him all the time and even made him a website and sent it to all his friends without him knowing..."

Chad Hangin'


Yank!

"My kids, pulling my hair laughing & looking at the viewer while I laugh."


Cute little monsters aren't they?

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Thompsonist

"sketch our gothamist mascot."



Say hello to Thompson, the Gothamist mascot. I think he's a persian cat. Don't know much about him except he doesn't like to fly coach. Perhaps Jake can fill us in on his back story. For photos of Thompson, go here.

Dark Matter

"'Daring Space Heroes' - if possible, something that might still look okay when sized down."

As Count Floyd used to say, "Oooooh Scary!"

Family Time


Here's a sketch of my son. He's going to be two years old in a couple of weeks. He's one family member who I will create art for free.

Manga Happy Days

"tom bosley + ninja, in a somewhat abstract style."

Abstract art is barely distinguishable. The difficult task here was to create an abstract sketch that was still identifiable as Mr. C.

This works. Mr. Bosley in a ninja outfit. Not a far cry from Father Dowling.



Goin' to the Chapel

"Here's $2, because there are two people in the picture I'd like you to sketch. We're getting married in 2 weeks, and may want to use this somehow in the wedding."




Colin pointed me to two photos [1,2] and gave me my choice. I chose neither or both. I picked Colin from the first photo and his wife to be from the second. I can do this because I have a license. Artistic license.

Don't mess with me. I've got a sabel paint brush and I'm not afraid to use it.