The Candy Bar from Jimmy Neutron

I took an online course on illustrating with Posca pens taught by James Chapman. He has posted lots of his sketchbook pages to his Instagram.

I had a couple Posca pens for a few years, but I hadn’t done much with them. I saw this course and thought it would be a great way to practice with Posca pens.

The course covers how to create a pencil sketch to get the composition down. Then it explores various color schemes to determine how to color the illustration. I especially like the challenge of limiting the number of colors used.

I like the process I learned in this course. It takes me several hours to finish an illustration, but I really enjoy the time I’m spending learning and practicing.

The course encourages choosing a theme that will motivate you to keep working on sketches. I chose places in movies, TV shows, and books. First up is The Candy Bar from Jimmy Neutron.

Here’s the pencil sketch:

A pencil sketch on a notebook page depicts a modern cityscape with buildings and a storefront labeled Candy Bar, alongside a Pentel Sharp mechanical pencil placed beneath the drawing.

I chose to go with realistic colors, so I used Posca pen colors that are close to what this location looks like in the show.

Here’s a progress photo, with the larger areas of color done:

An illustration in progress with large areas of colors for the sky, buildings, and street. The Candy Bar in the foreground does not have details painted in.

And here’s the finished illustration:

A colorful, whimsical illustration depicts a candy-themed building labeled Candy Bar, surrounded by urban buildings under a blue sky with clouds.

I really enjoyed making this as my first attempt at a Posca pen illustration!

tv drawing