The illustrated world of Steve Harpster

Mr. Big Stuff

2012-02-08T00:01:00.001-05:00

Look at this big bad monster picking on this little kid. What a jerk!

Drawing With Gary the Guppy- Episode 3

2012-02-07T10:10:00.004-05:00

I don't post my Harptoons work here too much. I have another blog at Harptoons.blog that hosts that info and I also have a website at http://www.harptoons.com that hosts all my animated videos. I used Toon Boom Animate and Adobe Premier to create this video.
Enjoy!

Ummm....yeah.

2012-02-03T21:21:00.001-05:00

Monsters looking at you

2012-01-29T13:15:00.002-05:00

I did this last night and then photoshop froze up and I lost the work. I hd to go back and redo it again this morning. Uuuug!

Monster Bear??

2012-01-28T21:48:00.000-05:00

monster WIP

2012-01-16T09:13:00.001-05:00

I have this new style that I am trying to achieve...this is close, but still not what I am looking for.

mo monsters

2012-01-16T07:23:00.001-05:00

monster

2012-01-15T20:17:00.001-05:00

Think big.

2012-01-12T14:05:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday!

2012-01-06T13:33:00.003-05:00

Sorry for a lack of posts lately, but I have been reworking my new website for kids www.harptoons.com. Hope to start posting artwork regularly here soon.
-Steve

Blog Blab- New Years Resolutions

2011-12-20T21:56:00.003-05:00

In this video I talk about getting those ideas that are sitting in your brain on paper and starting to share them with other. Make your dreams come true in 2012!

Inkling

2011-12-04T12:21:00.007-05:00

I finally got my Wacom Inkling last Monday. I haven't had a great deal of time to play with it because I was out of town on school visits. It's a pretty neat device for recording ideas on the go. If you hate drawing with an ink pen this will not be good for you. It plugs into your USB port and then easily transfers files right into Photoshop at 600 DPI. It can also send the files to Illustrator as vector art, but I haven't played with that option yet.

Here is an image I created with the Inkling and then what it looked like after I went over that image with ink in Photoshop. I was just roughing out a storyboard on paper wit the Inkling and as you can see, it not only captures drawing but writing too. The pen is also rechargeable and has a 3 hour life. Also you can create layers to your artwork with just the push of a button.

30 Character in 30 days-character #11

2011-11-22T22:45:00.002-05:00

30 Character in 30 days-character #10

2011-11-16T22:39:00.001-05:00

30 Character in 30 days- rough ink

2011-11-16T09:21:00.001-05:00

30 Character in 30 days-character #9

2011-11-15T23:04:00.002-05:00

30 Character in 30 days-character #8

2011-11-15T11:02:00.000-05:00

doodle

2011-11-13T21:34:00.000-05:00

30 Character in 30 days-character #7

2011-11-12T18:41:00.002-05:00

30 Character in 30 days-character #6

2011-11-07T22:15:00.000-05:00

30 Character in 30 days-character #5

2011-11-06T20:38:00.002-05:00

30 Character in 30 days-character #4

2011-11-06T18:54:00.002-05:00

30 Character in 30 days-character #3

2011-11-02T23:31:00.002-04:00

30 Character in 30 days-character #2

2011-11-02T09:01:00.001-04:00

30 Character in 30 days-character #1

2011-11-01T19:47:00.004-04:00

Drawing Halloween

2011-10-27T13:55:00.002-04:00

I have been working on a series of videos called Drawing Halloween With Letters.
You can see all four videos on my Harptoons blog. More videos to follow.

Harptoons.com (it's for kids)

2011-10-07T09:43:00.001-04:00

Here's the opening video to the Harptoons.com website. The Harptoons.com website has all my drawing videos and many more. Plus you can learn about school visits and online school visits...well soon you will, still working on the videos for those.

HARPTOONS.COM

How bad do you want it?

2011-10-05T12:02:00.003-04:00

I'm always talking to people that have ideas for books or want to draw for a living...they say "I want to do what you do." "I want to draw for a living like you." "I want to get a book published like you did."

The thing is I'm looking at people in my field and I want what they have! I want the movie, I want the famous character, I want he hit book on the NY Times best seller list. It takes work...and here is the inspiration.

Just for Fun!

2011-10-04T11:10:00.000-04:00

My latest video

2011-09-19T16:23:00.004-04:00

Trying hard to keep my Harptoons work separate from my illustration site, but I have been working on these "how to draw" videos for kids and having so much fun doing it. I have more of these videos on my Harptoons bloghttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Wizard of Oz sketches

2011-09-14T16:40:00.006-04:00

When you can't think of something to draw try re-imagining characters from a classic book or movie. Here are some more ideas for the wizard of Oz.

Sea Monkey King

2011-09-12T22:40:00.002-04:00

Here is an image of the Sea Monkey King. He rules over a tiny world of brine shrimp.

Sea Monkey

2011-09-12T22:37:00.004-04:00

Did anyone out there own "Sea Monkeys?" Well, I did. They actually are living little creatures that look nothing like the happy cartoon characters on the container.

Fish

2011-09-12T22:37:00.001-04:00

Ummmm...I have no idea

2011-09-12T22:35:00.001-04:00

Yes, one of the joys of drawing is creating things that even I have no idea what the drawing is.

"Critters" Drawing

2011-09-12T22:32:00.002-04:00

Remember that terrible horror movie "Critters?" Just and awful movie. Well here is a sketch that turned out looking like one of the creatures from the movie.

Ice Scream Monster

2011-08-24T10:51:00.002-04:00

This is a piece that you can see progression on over time if you have been checking this site from time to time. I have been working on and off on this piece for over the past year and half. Not non stop...just opening it up and working on it for a while and then coming back to it a month later and working a little more.

Oz- The Tin Man

2011-08-24T08:47:00.002-04:00

Here is my take on The Tin Man re-imagined.

My little sketchbook sketches

2011-08-22T16:14:00.005-04:00

These are the little sketches I did over the weekend.
More to come.

Bought a new sketchbook.

2011-08-22T16:02:00.003-04:00

I bought a new sketchbook this weekend. I decided to get the little one, which was odd for me since I like to draw big in my sketchbooks, but I am really digging the smaller size.

On the count of three Draw....

2011-08-18T11:21:00.002-04:00

Polar Bear with Coke Zero

2011-08-01T09:12:00.002-04:00

Here is the finished piece. The famous Coca-Cola polar bear enjoying a nice cold Coke Zero.

More to come...

2011-07-31T22:23:00.003-04:00

Here's a sample of the finished polar bear piece.

another sketch dedicated to Coke Zero

2011-07-28T14:30:00.002-04:00

Coca-Cola is known for the polar bears. The animated bears love Coke almost as much as i love Coke Zero. Here it the rough sketch...finished piece to come.

Ahhh, Coke Zero...

2011-07-27T22:41:00.003-04:00

Stay cool this summer with a nice refreshing Coke Zero.

Yes, I am pandering for sponsorship and I actually do love Coke Zero. My drawing desk is littered with empty Coke cans at the end of the day. So why not promote them and hope to get paid for it too?

Busy Busy Busy

2011-07-20T20:35:00.003-04:00

Gee whiz, this summer is just crazy busy. I have no time for personal projects at all right now, but I was able to turn this out one night with what little spare time I have.

This is a more finished monster from my drawing book "Drawing Monsters With Letter. This Monster is Arrgor and you use the letter A to draw it's face...hard to see it in this advanced version, but if you have the book you'll know.

Sidewalk Chalk

2011-07-12T21:45:00.004-04:00

Just got back from the family vacation. Here is a photo of a chalk drawing I did while I was waiting for all the kids to ready to go to the beach. As you can see by the drawing it takes a long time to get the kids ready for the beach. My son and niece loved the drawings and ran around in circles yelling "The shark is going to eat us!"

How I sketch a Comic Page in Photoshop

2011-06-28T15:32:00.000-04:00

A tour of my art studio

2011-06-23T22:03:00.002-04:00

I thought it would be cool to have a short video tour of my art studio, especially since I will be moving soon and I sort of wanted to remember what it looks like as I move on to bigger and better things.

Comic Pages

2011-06-22T22:41:00.003-04:00

My next You Tube video will be about how I create my pencil roughs for comic pages. How I set up the files in photoshop and go from thumbnail to rough to final pencils for approvals.

Billy Bob Finished

2011-06-22T22:36:00.003-04:00

Here is my finished illustration and my homage to Billy Bob. Its not an exact copy of him because I wanted to use my memory of him as much as possible and use photo reference as sparingly as possible. My love of the Showbiz Pizza as a kid was recently sparked again when I stumbled upon the You Tube videos.

How I color a pirate

2011-06-21T13:23:00.002-04:00

This is a short demo of how i do my coloring in photoshop. My basic goal in this video is to show how I use the opacity and flow settings on my brushes and some info on how I use layers. Hope this helps.

Rockafire Explosion DVD

2011-06-17T10:21:00.003-04:00

I own this movie on iTunes and for anyone that was lucky enough to grow up in the 80's and have a Show Biz Pizza in your town you will love to watch this video and relive your childhood again. The DVD is about a dream being realized, and then turning into this amazing franchise and then falling apart rather quickly. But the beauty of the story is how it inspired so many others.

Billy Bob (in progress)

2011-06-17T10:12:00.004-04:00

Just for fun I am working on this illustration of Billy Bob from the Rockafire Express band. I was fortunate as a kid to have a Show Biz Pizza in my city. There were only 200 of them built and then they had financial troubles and were taken over by Chucky Cheese. The Rockafire Explosion was a robot or animatronic band that would play music, tell jokes, and preform skits. It was really an amazing performance and outside of Disney World I never saw anything else like it to this day. I will post the You Tube Videos so you can experience the band for yourself.

Another homage to Pete's Dragon

2011-06-16T19:24:00.001-04:00

Just another sketch dedicated to one of my favorite Disney characters, Elliot.

Tattoo Pirate

2011-06-16T17:59:00.002-04:00

So this is the tattoo pirate. His life adventures are recorded on his skin. I'm not a fan of tattoos personally and don't have any. If I were to get a tattoo I know that in a year I would probably hate it and want it removed.

A new pirate

2011-06-14T08:32:00.003-04:00

Well the birthday is this weekend and I only have three pirates. Hope to get more done, but with the amount of work I need to get done this week its not looking good. Notice the pirate's green teeth.

New Project

2011-06-12T07:22:00.002-04:00

This is a sneak peek at a new project that I am working on. I will leave this up for a couple a days and then take it down. More details on this project to come.

My studio

2011-06-04T09:44:00.001-04:00

Here it is, my studio. It's not super fancy and I don't have a lot of action figures or toys. I have some of my ideas posted on the walls and some of my kids artwork. It's a mess right now and I was just getting ready to clean it up, but I thought you might want to see the dirty version...maybe I will do a before and after.

Never Smile at a Crocodile

2011-06-02T16:25:00.002-04:00

Pirate Captain

2011-06-02T15:35:00.002-04:00

Just a few small changes to the pirate.

Birthday Pirates

2011-05-26T19:58:00.003-04:00

Doing a pirate themed birthday for my son. He's going to be the 2 years old and loves pirates right now. So I am going to make some pirate art and then print it really large to hang all over the house. More pirate art to come.

More inspiration!

2011-05-15T12:55:00.001-04:00

Make it happen!
You can do it. Don't let that voice in your head get you down.

Inspiration, Motivation, Dedication

2011-05-15T12:49:00.002-04:00

So many excuses out there not to do what you want, not to try, not to do the hard things. I talk to lots of artists and I hear dreams and excuses.
Not enough time.
Too much work.
I don't have the money.
I don't know where to start.

I say get over it. Take those excuses and throw them away or better yet listen to the words of Rocky Balboa

Monster Scribbles

2011-05-10T11:30:00.001-04:00

Weekend sketches

2011-05-09T08:30:00.001-04:00

Monster I'm working on.

2011-05-04T15:24:00.002-04:00

Here's another monster I am working on. Have a good way to go on this. Just a little break between projects.

Dino Sketch

2011-05-03T19:25:00.002-04:00

Look,a dinosaur sketch.

Horace

2011-04-29T14:33:00.001-04:00

A little character design based off of one of my characters in the book Drawing Monsters With Letters.

sneak peek

2011-04-16T20:34:00.001-04:00

This is an illustration I have been working on for a while now. Here is a sneak peek, more to come.

Finished Monster

2011-04-16T09:25:00.002-04:00

2011-04-15T19:35:00.000-04:00

2011-04-15T18:16:00.000-04:00

2011-04-15T18:14:00.000-04:00

just a monster

2011-04-14T11:04:00.001-04:00

Pig Dude

2011-04-13T22:23:00.002-04:00

Have you heard?

2011-04-13T16:11:00.003-04:00

Ok, so I am excited! My new book comes out this Friday. Drawing Animals With Sea Numbers will be my third book published by the very publishing company that I own, Harptoons Publishing. In one year I have printed 3 titles and over 17,000 books! Me, just me, all by myself. I do the marketing, the sales, the books, the art, the text...it's been crazy, but I have loved just about every minute of it.
You can order your copy today and I will sign it and draw a picture in the book for you.
Thanks,
Steve

Pete's Dragon Sketch

2011-04-12T14:33:00.003-04:00

My son and I are watching Pete's Dragon at lunch and breakfast on my iPad. My kid calls it Pizza Dragon. He doen't understand the kids name is Pete and the Dragon's name is Elliot. I loved this movie as a kid so it is fun to share this movie with my son. I just wanted to see if I could even draw the dragon. As a kid I was always trying to draw Elliot, but it never looked good.

My new book comes out next week!

2011-04-08T17:00:00.001-04:00

Commercial for Drawing Animals With Numbers

2011-03-30T16:00:00.006-04:00

Watch out Pixar! My animation is going to just blow you away. So I'm not an animator, but I did create a really cool book teaching kids how to draw sea animals using numbers. This book was really fun to create. Each page has facts about the animals, a rating system to give the reader an idea of difficulty and in the back of the book are the rough sketches that didn't make the drawing steps.

The book comes out APRIL 16th, but you can pre-order your copy today!

Animated commercial

2011-03-24T11:15:00.003-04:00

I am working on an animated commercial for my brand new book Drawing Sea Animals With Numbers(coming out on April 16th.) You can see the rough animation now on my new blog
Harptoons Publishing. I hope to have the commercial done this weekend.

Star Wars Comic

2011-03-23T09:57:00.002-04:00

Star Wars Comic Strip

2011-03-22T21:10:00.002-04:00

2011-03-21T21:50:00.000-04:00

Happy St. Patricks Day

2011-03-17T20:46:00.001-04:00

The Harptoons Blog

2011-03-17T11:50:00.004-04:00

I have my new blog up and running now. Well, it's not really a new blog but a merging of two other blogs. I took my school visits blog and smashed it with my Drawing Animals With Numbers blog. Now I have the Harptoons Publishing blog!

The Harptoons Publishing blog will have drawing videos, info about my new books and photos and info about my school visits. So feel free to pop on over and take a look.
-Steve

Battle: Los Angelas

2011-03-13T18:26:00.003-04:00

I saw Battle: Los Angeles this weekend and I thought it was great. I know some might say it lacked plot, but that was the best part. The story line was simple and to the point. Aliens attack America, American Marines fight back and kick their butts.

All other invader movies make the military seem useless to stop them. Instead some regular citizen (usually the nerdy weakling scientist) has the plan to defeat the aliens. The only problem is the nerd can't convince the head strong military leaders that his plan will work. The nerdy scientist somehow get's behind the scenes convinces some low ranking military guy that his plan will work. The nerd saves the day, the low ranking military guy looks smart for refusing to listen to orders and military leadership gets egg on it's face.

Not this movie. Battle: Los Angeles gets you involved in the ordinary lives of the Marines you will follow into battle. Some have seen some really bad action in Iraq and other places around the world. When they arrive on the scene of the alien invasion you can see in their faces this is worst than any war they have ever been involved in.

If I have one gripe about the movie (and this is a really small one) I would have liked to see more of the aliens coming ashore and taking out the city. Instead the director makes us wait awhile before we actually see an alien. I'm sure this was intentional and keeps you impatiently waiting for that very moment.

I liked how the aliens didn't have laser weapons or force fields. They seemed to use similar ballistic weapons as here on Earth and they are terrible shots. My guess is that adjusting to the gravity of a new planet had something to do with that. Now the design of the aliens isn't all that interesting, especially when compared to the aliens in District 9. These dudes look like jelly fish with metal stuck all over them. This movie is just like Black Hawk down only the enemies are aliens and the setting is LA.

Battle: Los Angeles really worked for me. They kept it serious and stayed away from the corny jokes, one liners or campy interaction with the aliens. Also they didn't try to wedge in some moral issue or drive home some point. It's real simple a Marine never quits and aliens better not try to come here and take our water.

The proofs for Drawing Sea Animals With Numbers

2011-03-11T11:04:00.002-05:00

Here are the proofs for my new book Drawing Sea Animals With Numbers. These look good to me so I will sign off on them, pay the remaining balance I owe and then it's time to print 7,000 copies of my brand new book.

Things have been moving so fast with my new books that I recently had to rent storage space to house my three book titles. I am also happy to announce that I am almost out of my first book Drawing Animals With Numbers. to sell 5,000 books in less than a year by yourself is not easy, but it was fun. Don't worry I will be printing more Drawing Animals With Numbers books soon.

Harptoons.com (NEW)

2011-03-06T11:37:00.003-05:00

Here is my brand new website where you can watch "How to draw videos." The videos are all based on my two new books Drawing Animals With Numbers and Drawing MOnsters With Letters. Now The site is still a work in progress, but feel free to visit and see what I have so far.

www.harptoons.com

invited to the Buckeye Book Fair!

2011-03-06T11:21:00.002-05:00

Yeah, I was invited to the Buckeye Book Fair. Save the date, Saturday November 5th 2011 in Wooster Ohio. This is the 24th Buckeye Book Fair and I have always wanted to be apart of this event and was honored to get an invite. Their website is www.buckeyebookfair.com. I will see you there.

Drawing Sea Animals With Numbers

2011-03-06T11:20:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I have been crazy busy. First, I have my new book that I just sent to the printer Drawing Sea Animals With Numbers. I am really excited about this book. Not only does it teach how to draw the animals in easy to follow steps, but it also has facts about each animal in the book. I have also been visiting schools all over Ohio. Luckily not one of my events has been canceled due to weather, but it's been close. The kids and teachers are really enjoying my drawing books and having a great time drawing with me. Then I have my freelance illustration work that has been really busy. I have six books I am working on right now, 5 puzzles and a bunch of other projects. The last thing I am working on is my new website www.harptoons.com. A work in progress to say the least. This website is going to have how to draw videos for kids, online school visits, activities to download and much more. This is a work in progress so feel free to take a look at it, just keep in mind that it is still not finished. I will make sure to post updates for pre sales of Drawing Sea Animals With Numbers as well as some sneak peaks of the book.

Thanks,
Steve

Coming Soon!

2011-03-06T10:48:00.004-05:00

Here is the first glimpse of my newest book Drawing Sea Animals With Numbers!
After the success of Drawing Animals With Numbers and Drawing Monsters With Letters comes the latest and greatest book. After a school visit this fall I was inspired to do another drawing book using numbers, but I also wanted to have some animals facts in the book. I thought how cool would it be to learn a few facts about each animal while learning how to draw them.

I just sent the book to the printer so I don't have a solid release date, but I will be sure to let everyone know when I find out.

Have a coke on me

2011-02-18T17:34:00.001-05:00

Ooooh

2011-02-18T16:49:00.001-05:00

Just had ot post something

2011-02-05T22:36:00.003-05:00

Crazy busy lately and have had little time to work on my own stuff. This is color doodle I did for a video that I will be posting a a new website I am working on.

Reworking an old monster

2011-01-21T21:59:00.002-05:00

I am repainting an old monster drawing that I had colored once before but I hated it. Here is a glimpse at the new one I am working on. Time permitting I hope to have it finished next week.

Monster Wall Sickers

2011-01-21T10:20:00.004-05:00

I have large monster wall stickers for sale now in the studio store. These stickers stick to almost any wall and can also be easily removed from walls too. They all vary in sizes but are approximately 13.5"x 14.5". For $16.00 (not including S&H) you get three different monster stickers. You can order your stickers by going to this [LINK].

Shy girl (vampire)

2011-01-18T20:25:00.002-05:00

So I was doing a school visit today. I was getting my lunch from the cafeteria when I noticed this shy little girl staring at me. I gave her a wave and a smile and she in turn hissed at me like a vampire.

New comic strip

2011-01-15T12:47:00.002-05:00

I love comic strips and for years I tried to get a syndicated strip going, but it never happened. I keep getting the comic bug so here is a new strip that I am going to start working on about my two dogs. This is really rough and I wanted to post it to see the quality of how it will look online and see how much time it takes to make one. All just preliminary stuff as I move forward with the strip.

Face Study

2011-01-09T22:19:00.002-05:00

Kid's faces are challenging to draw, so here are some practice sketches I worked on tonight.