Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Mary Jane



A little commission piece.
Polychromos and Prismacolors on Stonehenge.








How many pencils it takes ~


I always need Prisma reds and black to bump things up a bit.

I'm in the process of putting together a "Commissions" page with samples and prices and all of that. Meanwhile, if you have an idea for a piece you'd like me to do for you, please go ahead and email me. I can draw other things besides candy and crackers. :~)



Saturday, May 21, 2011

Experimenting


I finally received my order of Fabriano Hot Press paper and took it out for a spin. I like it, but its an adjustment from using more 'toothy' paper. It goes 'smooth' way faster - which is not a bad thing, but its definitely something to be aware of and plan for in a drawing.

This little crouton was done with Polychromos, and the bulk of it was done grinding the pigment into an already smooth surface.

I want to do a series of these little guys, and this is my practice one. I may have to change my technique a bit, or work in less layers - or something. I'll figure it out.

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This week was very much about practicing and experimenting. I did a bit of that with some digital drawing as well.  Last post I had a rough sketch of an illustration ~



Then I fiddled with different drawing textures and pen sizes and styles a bit with my wacom and pen.



I changed the proportions of some of the characters as well as facial expressions.


This one's a really squiggly nervous line.



I'm not sold on any of them, really, although I like the 'life' in the last one. What I do like is knowing that I can actually draw now on the computer, and have to say its pretty cool. It soooo nice to not waste umpteen sheets of tracing paper, retracing and redrawing. But now I just have to figure out a good 'finish' technique. I do know how to do my colored pencil 'look', but I think that's overkill, to be honest.

So that's where I am this week. Lots of things in the planning stages. Lots.
My first magnolia bloomed, which is awesome.
And the world didn't end today so that's a good thing.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Boys will be boys





This is what's on the board. Those three brats are soooo busted, and they don't know it yet. Enjoy your moment boys, because in about two seconds you're going to turn around and face the music!

I'm deciding how to do the finish. Digital I think. But digital line and flat color? Or digital colored pencil? Line and flat color would go waaaay faster. But I do want to develop the digital colored pencil style too. Decisions, decisions.

I scanned in my original drawing (that was done on paper with a pencil - I still start that way), then reworked it with the wacom. Funny, the hardest thing was getting the horizontal lines of the tables and benches right. I used the 'line tool' in Photoshop, but each line is a separate layer, which can't be erased, so you have to flatten them down first, which is annoying. I'm sure there's a way around that, in the "all the stuff you haven't figured out in Photoshop yet" manual. Which I will get around to reading one of these days. Maybe.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Palate cleanser


Sometimes, in between 'real' jobs, I do something like this. Its kind of like a nice lemon sorbet between the fish and meat courses. It lets the mind rest a bit from doing representational art, and is more meditative and intuitive. Its nice to still be 'coloring', but not have the pressure of having to create something specific, or be so exacting.

This is all Polychromos on Stonehenge.

I've ordered some Fabriano Artistico hot press paper which should be here any minute. I'm anxious to try it out (can't believe I never have before.) I like that it can take paint, but also seems to be a favorite for colored pencils. And it works on a light box.

And now I'm in the mood for lemon sorbet. (I doubt the ice cream truck guy has any.) Oh well.

Saturday, May 07, 2011

Mom Day, and getting all networked and stuff

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful Moms out there who let the kids eat goldfish crackers in bed while you read to them ~


My Mom has requested breaded veal cutlets for dinner, so I, with mixed feelings, bought the makings for that (I mean - veal. Who eats VEAL?) and will grudgingly / joyfully make her a special dinner (and will choke down my portion as best I can). Because I am truly grateful for her, veal requests and all.

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Other stuff - I spent most of the day doing all kinds of internet networky stuff. The kind of stuff we're all supposed to be doing these days to stay connected and get work and all of that. I always feel like I'm soooo behind on all of this (because I am), but am slowly trudging along, trying to stay in the game. (I feel like when you're running a race on a track, and you think you're in step with all the runners, until you realize that even though they're running alongside of you, they're actually a whole lap ahead.)

I followed some new people on Twitter and Facebook.
I fiddled with some stuff on LinkedIn.
I listed something for sale on a daily painters' site.
I tinkered with my CafePress shop.
THEN. I found this new (to me) place called Behance (which is sort of linked to LinkedIn?)
And I made a new profile, filled in all the info about work history, etc., and uploaded some portfolios.

This view here is the frame view. So if you set up your own profile, you too can have a link to a page like this. Its a clean way to direct potential clients to your portfolios, without all the extra 'stuff' (but of course they can still get to that easily if they want to).


I've just scratched the surface here. You can upload videos, work in progress, projects, etc., and control who can see them. You can make them totally private, or have limited access, or have them be public. You can also have links to things you have for sale (like an etsy shop), which I'm going to work on next. There are also job postings which you can hunt through, and groups, and over all, it just seems like a good actual 'work' kind of place, rather than just a chit-chat kind of place. Its worth a try, anyway.

The thing about all this networking stuff is that it takes soooo much time away from actually doing new art. Doesn't it? I'm not the only one who has noticed this, am I? Do I sound old? Hope not. I just mean, (insert creaky voice here) I remember when someone would call you on an actual phone (that had a cord and was attached to a wall) about a job, then would fax you a sketch and a contract, then you had to search through your reference file (aka morgue or scrap file) for pictures to look at to draw from (or maybe the client would have to FedEx them to you, which could take days), then you had to actually draw and paint the illustration with real paint on real paper (which some people still do, me included, but back then you didn't have a choice). And oh - no one had a computer. There was no email.  !!!!! I know. You had to call people and leave messages. At their phone at the office. Attached to the wall. If they were out to lunch or somewhere you couldn't reach them. You could not text them. Seriously. And you had to send actual samples of your work. There were no websites. NO. WEBSITES. I know, I can't believe it either. If you had told me then, that I would doing all of this, now, it would have sounded like science fiction. I would have laughed! And yet, here I am. With tired eyes from staring at a computer screen all day, uploading art and linking to who knows who all over the world. Crazy.

Anyway - what was I talking about? Oh yeah. There's no time to do the actual work anymore. Well, there is, but we have to be really good at time management. Or something has to give, somewhere. I'm just saying.

So here's to all the mothers who are masters at that (time management). The original multi-taskers, who can make dinner, clean the house, pay the bills, balance the checkbook, read a story, make a costume, clean up umpteen messes, "watch you" do that special thing 1,000 times and act impressed every time, wipe a tear, fix a boo-boo, help with homework, and about a million other things, all at once. You're awesome.

Thanks, Moms.

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Cinco de Mayo

This is something I'm working on that actually doesn't have anything at all to do with Cinco de Mayo, but its such a good fit I had to share.


Its based on my late kitty, Wendell, who loved to eat. He was black and white, and had a bobbed tail, so I'm working out how to show his pattern just right, and am also wondering if the lack of a tail (in some views) makes it hard to tell that he IS a cat. Like in this one, where his ears are hidden, I hope there's enough there to make it obvious he's a kitty. (I just realized I forgot to draw in his whiskers.)

This was my first idea sketch for this.




Something I always do is make a tight front, back and side view of a character, especially if its sort of complicated. It helps to keep proportions right when doing complicated views or perspective.


So my little Wendelito has some work to be done on him, but right now he's going to enjoy a nice plate of fish tacos and some tortillas and guacamole.

Adios!