The Art of Nathan Bottcher

And then there's this guy

2012-01-27T16:03:00.000-07:00

Connecting Flight

2012-01-19T19:58:00.000-07:00

Be prepared to wait...

Rats!

2012-01-13T13:07:00.000-07:00

A few months back, my uncle asked me if I would create a rat design to be painted on his new rat rod (it's a style of hot rod/custom car). I said sure! We threw around ideas and I sent him some sketches. I've been wanting to do a process post for a while, so I thought this would be a great time. I love to see how different artists work. This is how I start most illustrations, whether for a client or personal.

I started out by looking at all kinds of rat pictures on Google image search. At this point I was just trying to get a feel for what an actual rat looks like. After looking at those for a while, I sat down with my sketchbook and did some quick, very rough sketches from memory. My main focus was just to play with some "rat-like" shapes. Most of these were drawn in pen. A couple of them were done on my iPad.

Here are a few of the initial sketches:

After doing some more of this sort of thing, I moved on to the sketches I would send my uncle. He wasn't entirely sure what kind of rat he wanted. Would he look friendly? Or would he have a rougher appearance? I worked through some different drawings and picked four sketches to send to my uncle and aunt.

Drawn on my Cintiq. Trying to get a feel for the direction they wanted to go with the design:

Once they picked out a sketch they liked, I took it into Sketchbook Pro. I created a new layer above the sketch (I also put it off to the side so I could reference it) and started to draw over it, trying to define shapes and strengthen the design:

After getting the drawing close to where I wanted it, I put a new layer on top and cleaned up the linework. Even at this point, I'm making changes and adjusting the drawing:

Here's the final linework:

And with color:

Of course, there were other little steps in between all these, but hopefully it gives you some idea of the process.

Hello 2012

2012-01-07T10:44:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year!

To start the blog off right, here are some Muppet sketches I did. These were so fun to draw! Anyone who knows me knows what a big fan I am. I'll have to show you my studio sometime...

In 2011, I had fun joining in some Illustration Friday topics, took on some great client projects, gained some new Twitter followers and made a bunch of new friends.

In November, I was fortunate enough to fly out and attend the 2011 Creative Talent Network expo in Burbank. I met so many amazing folks from Twitter, Blogger and beyond. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves art/animation and wants to be inspired, attend some great workshops and meet some of the nicest people around. I hope to go again next year!

And.... In no particular order, a few of my favorite thingies from 2011:

Music:
Bon Iver, Bon Iver
The King is Dead, The Decemberists
Young Love, Mat Kearney
Helplessness Blues, Fleet Foxes
Ad Astra Per Aspera, Abandon Kansas
Towards the Sun, Alexi Murdoch

Video Games:
Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception
Batman: Arkham City
Portal 2
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Movies:
The Muppet Movie
Super 8

Books: (Some of them didn't come out in 2011, I just got the chance to read them.)
Ready Player One by Ernest Kline
The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

Mr. Gator

2011-09-17T12:36:00.002-06:00

He's mesmerized by something...probably food.

Or clouds. Alligators love to watch clouds.

Another Dinosaur Head

2011-08-25T17:06:00.008-06:00

I love dinosaurs! Brontosauruses are always supposed to be chomping on slimy green stuff. I learned this from watching "The Land Before Time" (Number one, mind you. Not the 30 films that followed...) a few too many times while growing up. It had quite the influence on me apparently.
This is the kind of knowledge I tuck away in a safe place.

A Dinosauraus Rex

2011-08-21T18:14:00.000-06:00

So excited for the dinosaur Pixar movie that was recently announced! Two of my favorite things!

Finally another post!

2011-08-18T11:05:00.009-06:00

Finally a new post!
It's been a busy few months, but I was getting tired of looking at that rabbit...
I sketched this guy last night on my iPad using the app Procreate. It's become my go to app for painting. It has some really great tools, blend modes, etc. I would highly recommend it!

Watch what you eat

2011-06-07T16:51:00.001-06:00

The topic for this weeks Illustration Friday is "Shadows". I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to meet a menacing, giant vegetable in an alleyway...

Soaked

2011-05-26T21:04:00.004-06:00

For this weeks Illustration Friday. Hope you like him :)

Rhino designs

2011-05-19T17:26:00.006-06:00

Here are some various rhino designs I sketched.

Playing with shapes is one of the best things about drawing!

Grape is a little more favorite

2011-04-14T22:08:00.003-06:00

Fishy fish

2011-04-02T15:37:00.003-06:00

Some more

2011-04-01T21:09:00.002-06:00

Here are some drawings from today.

Gato y Perro

2011-03-24T13:17:00.001-06:00

Warning: Too Much Cute!

2011-03-08T15:55:00.003-07:00

Tiny unicorns are made of rainbows and cuteness. Or so I've heard.

Hello Sir!

2011-03-04T15:41:00.002-07:00

Fox

2011-02-22T18:35:00.008-07:00

A fox design I've been messing around with.

One of the my sketches for this project.

Just something

2011-02-15T16:46:00.007-07:00

Blogger really saturated this sketch. Not sure what to do about that...

Mr.T Rex 2.0

2011-02-09T17:01:00.000-07:00

I revisited this guy from earlier this week and spent some time refining him.

I like the look of it for the most part, but might mess with it a little more in the future.

More sketches

2011-02-08T13:03:00.006-07:00

I liked this little guy.

A page from my sketchbook. Lots more sketching this year.

Kid

2011-02-07T15:33:00.005-07:00

Giraffe

2011-02-05T17:06:00.002-07:00

Sketched on my iPad.

Just a scribble

2011-02-03T16:24:00.000-07:00

A rough doodle for a project

Mr. T... Rex

2011-01-31T17:30:00.002-07:00

Drew this while the snow is coming down outside. It's getting cold!

Meep Meep!

2011-01-30T18:26:00.002-07:00

Late night

2011-01-26T00:20:00.003-07:00

A late night alien in Photoshop

Early Birdie

2011-01-20T16:34:00.002-07:00

Color sketch on my iPad.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-09T23:01:00.001-07:00

Just a quick little guy to get things started. Hope everyone is having a great 2011 so far!

Scoundrels

2010-12-16T16:56:00.002-07:00

Just a bunch of no good scoundrels

Whale of a tale

2010-12-14T15:13:00.004-07:00

Illustration Friday - Savour

2010-12-02T17:17:00.002-07:00

Carrots are savory, right?

Anyone who knows me is well aware I'm a big fan of Jim Henson and the Muppets... and I've always like the talking/singing fruits and vegetables! As a child, I always felt bad that at some point one of these guys might be eaten.

So please, don't eat him... as savory as he might be.

Tangled

2010-11-30T15:44:00.004-07:00

Disney's "Tangled" was fantastic! If you haven't seen it yet, check it out.

Great designs and animation. I look forward to seeing it again!

Here's a quick drawing I did for fun.

Monstober Day 23

2010-10-23T22:36:00.002-06:00

Might as well have been "Dragontober"!

Monstober Day 22

2010-10-22T00:38:00.001-06:00

Dragons are my favorite to draw... so fun!

Monstober Day 21

2010-10-21T21:43:00.003-06:00

Monstober Day 20

2010-10-20T06:49:00.001-06:00

Monstober Day 19

2010-10-19T21:59:00.001-06:00

Monstober Day 18

2010-10-18T20:55:00.001-06:00

Monstober Day 17

2010-10-17T16:56:00.000-06:00

Monstober Day 16

2010-10-16T21:24:00.001-06:00

Monstober Day 15

2010-10-15T17:20:00.001-06:00

Monstober Day 14

2010-10-14T12:51:00.001-06:00

Monstober Day 13

2010-10-13T22:03:00.000-06:00

Monstober Day 12

2010-10-12T20:43:00.001-06:00

Monstober Day 11

2010-10-11T22:17:00.001-06:00

Monstober Day 10

2010-10-10T20:08:00.001-06:00

Monstober Day 9

2010-10-09T21:33:00.000-06:00

Monstober Day 8

2010-10-08T16:07:00.001-06:00

Monstober Day 7

2010-10-07T09:57:00.001-06:00

Monstober Day 6

2010-10-06T22:24:00.001-06:00

Monstober Day 5

2010-10-05T20:41:00.000-06:00

Monstober Day 4

2010-10-04T22:11:00.000-06:00

Monstober Day 3

2010-10-03T20:58:00.001-06:00

Monstober Day 2

2010-10-02T20:49:00.000-06:00

Monstober Day 1

2010-10-01T21:51:00.000-06:00

Happy Monstober 1st!

It's that time again...

2010-10-01T17:33:00.000-06:00

It's been a while! I'm back and I'm going to update more regularly.

In the "great artist blog tradition" of posting a drawing a day, I plan on doing a monster drawing for the entire month of October... hence the name Monstober! I did this last year on another blog and it was a lot of fun! They will be sketches, doodles, and sometimes more finished work if I have the time...

Let MONSTOBER begin!

Star gazing...

2010-08-17T18:07:00.000-06:00

There's nothing quite like sitting out under the stars with a

good friend on a warm summer night.

Caged

2010-08-12T17:33:00.000-06:00

Illustration Friday - Artificial

2010-08-03T22:58:00.000-06:00

There's nothing more artificial than a garden gnome on your lawn.

He must get tired standing in the same pose all day long...

Illustration Friday - Double

2010-07-28T16:55:00.001-06:00

"Double Trouble", these two...

Scribbles and scrabbles

2010-07-20T16:28:00.000-06:00

This is Gorton. Gorton likes snowflakes.

He looks friendly enough...

2010-07-17T15:39:00.000-06:00

A warm up before starting on some other things.

I might throw some color on him later and see what that might look like.

Sketching on my iPad

2010-06-29T21:59:00.000-06:00

A sketch of our entertainment area.

I did this in Sketchbook Pro on my iPad while I was waiting for the PS3 firmware update to download. I really enjoyed using the iPad for this... it was a pretty easy way to sketch and lay down some quick color. I used the Pogo sketch stylus. It seems to work better for me than just using my fingers.

Doodle

2010-06-25T13:53:00.000-06:00

There are times when I sit down to sketch without any plan/concept in mind. This is one of those times. He looks like some sort of elf to me. I

I really need to post more often. Time to work on that!

What a DRAG

2010-05-18T13:46:00.000-06:00

Illustration Friday - Subterranean

2010-03-18T23:16:00.000-06:00

Blueberry

2010-02-20T20:11:00.001-07:00

This guy prefers blueberries to apples. After I painted him, I realized his colors remind me of Slimey from Sesame Street. Ah well. I always liked that guy. Such good natured worm for putting up with that Grouch...

A Forest Dragon

2010-02-18T23:03:00.000-07:00

He may have been eating some winter berries. I'm not sure.

My Little Pony?

2010-01-17T21:43:00.000-07:00

A random Saturday doodle. I just liked some of the shapes.

Finally a post!

2010-01-09T10:37:00.000-07:00

Coming Soon!

2010-01-07T09:54:00.001-07:00

Working on getting this blog up and running...