IF: WHEEL Birds of a Feather Sail Together.

     It's Illustration Friday! Yeah!   The only thing you get to do during the week that is truly just for you, the artist: the inner kid that never wants to grow up.  You grab your crayons, pencils and paints and put together something.  This week's topic was WHEEL.  At first my original plan was to create a hamster dressed in a corporate suit, blindfolded and running on a hamster wheel whilst a smidgen of cheese would be "held out" in front of the hamster…. Needless to say I ditched the idea b/c when I sat down at the desk to draw it, I hated it… So I tossed it.

     I began to think again what I really came to mind mind immediately, because that is usually what I do for IF Fridays.  This exercise keeps the ideas and the art fresh and fun.  I don't bog it down in the conceptual phase.  I think this is why I like these works a lot.   I thought of Caveman/woman creating the first wheel. I thought of the wheel of time, a water wheel… and then it hit me, the steering helm of a pirate galleon ship.  I mean after all, most Illustrators really want to spend most of their days drawing fun things, like Pirates. :0)

    SO I decided I would Illustrate a Ship's helm as the focal point of my ship, but I wanted to draw some sea-faring birds to add to the fun of the image.   As usual, I have provided some of the development sketches in the beginning of putting this Illo together. 
Here is the thumbnail composition I made.  I try to keep all the phases of the Illustration process very brief to keep these projects fresh, fun and not so time consuming.

    Anyways, get your compass ready and set sail today because it's Friday. May the Weekend find you adventurous. :0)

Till next voyage...
Keep sketching, keep thinking, keep laughing and most important of all, keep making art. 
Cheers,
LEWIS