Hey guys!

It makes me happy to know that I have weekends guaranteed off at my job, but sad to know that I often waste them by watching too much TV and playing a lot of video games. I like to relax, but I'm not productive when I do it.

So today (Sunday, not Monday), I sat down and just got the itch to draw. I didn't feel the slightest bit tempted to turn on my video games or go watch TV. I just opened Photoshop CS and started sketching a few thumbnails.

And you know what? It felt really good.

I had been discussing this character, Ink the bear (named for his tattoos), with my friend , saying that I needed to draw him with a background as I had never done so before (up until this point, he's only ever been seen as a character sheet and in a group picture with other characters of mine).

I wanted to draw him as if he was on American Idol, to celebrate the season finale this week (yes, I enjoy American Idol *prepares to shield self from flying tomatoes*), but I ditched the idea and realized that I should draw him in a more neutral environment, to ensure the image's longevity and broader appeal. In the end, I'm very glad I ditched the Idol idea.

The image was sketched in Photoshop CS. After that, it's all vector, including the bloom lighting and pixel-like diagonal line pattern. In many ways, it was hell to produce. All of the blur slowed my computer down terribly.

But I have to say that I think this is some of my best work to date. I had to pull a LOT of rabbits out of my hat to make everything in this piece work, and I'm incredibly happy with the results.

In any case, I hope I didn't sit for almost 10 hours straight for nothing. Please FULL VIEW to see all of the hard work that went into this baby! ;D

Enjoy!

Adobe Photoshop CS (sketch), Adobe Illustrator CS (final image), about 10 hours total.

_{Please note that on the image it says "NO REPRODUCTION WHATSOEVER." Please respect my wishes as the artist. Thank you.}