A Pirate I Am | Illustration and Free Piano Sheet Music

This weeks Illustration Friday word is "Crooked".  I designed this character, and even wrote a pirate song this weekend.

Here's the first verse and chorus:

I'll pillage a village to grab all the loot,
I'll hijack a ship and I won't give a hoot.
I'll kidnap fair maidens, the fairest I meet,
Then give them a smile and tickle their feet.

A pirate I am,
I'll sail my tall ship upon the sea,
A bad egg I'll be,
So long as my mummy loves me.

Here's the free sheet music for piano if you're interested:
A Pirate I Am for Easy Piano | Free Sheet Music


One more... I wanted to design a shipmate for him, so I came up with this one too.

In the Hall of the Mountain King | Listening Map Worksheet

I created this character and additional graphics for a music listening map for my website, MakingMusicFun.net. The final worksheet, seen below, helps kids to visually understand elements within a piece of music. This one focuses on musical form, pitch, and note length.

If you're interested, you can download the worksheet here:

In the Hall of the Mountain King | Listening Map Worksheet

Evil and his Brother Skippy | Sketchbook

A little funny stuff for you. Hope you like it!

Burst O' Fun (Popcorn) | Sketchbook

Another entry for Illustration Friday's word of the week - "Burst". Popcorn is bursting ... as so is she!

Pizza Chef | Sketchbook

Here's a doodle from my sketchbook. I started with a few gestures lines and wound up with the torso, said to myself, "What is this?" A little bit more doodling and he was a pizza chef.

Maybe I can talk my wife into pizza for lunch? Yum.

Burst of Excitement | Illustration Friday

Burst is Illustration Friday's word of the week this week. It started out as a sketch with a ball point pen that was handy, and then evolved into a watercolor. I thought the addition of a frame might spruce it up, so I pulled it into Adobe Illustrator for a final tweek.

Girl Looking Up | Sketchbook

More fun with Photoshop. I finished this sketchbook doodle with pencil on paper, and then enhanced it some with a default brush. Most of the enhancements were to punch up the darks.

Imagination for Illustration Friday | Sketchbook

Imagination is Illustration Friday's word of the week this week. It started out as a pencil sketch, and then received a few tweeks in Photoshop.

African Drummer | Watercolor

This one is a bit outside my typical subject interests, but it seemed like a fun project. I love the look of wet in wet, and a loose, painterly style. This one took me about an hour from drawing to final image.

At the Movies | Sketchbook

Here's a pencil sketch from my sketchbook. I started with a doddle of the girl on the screen, and it evolved into an old movie theater.

The Big Roar (Lion) | Watercolor

I'm working on an art project for the Arizona State Fair. I created a version of this lion awhile back, and just recently doodled the toddler. They seemed like a good match for this project.

Here's the pencil sketch/value study for the watercolor.

Monster Vase Face (Optical Illusion) | Illustration Friday

I decided to include a second entry for Illustration Friday's word of the week - Identical. I created this image a few years back for a drawing lesson on my art website MakingArtFun.com. Women's Day later included the image in an article on optical illusions in their online magazine.