Life Drawing

Went to life drawing last night. I thought it was going to be 3 hours of short poses (because that's what it says on the schedule) but apparently their idea of a short pose night is 1 hour of 5s and 7s and then a 2 hour pose. I guess they have a limited need for short poses. Most everyone in there likes to paint in oils. I did some crappy short poses, not being able to decide if I should draw with soft and hard edges or if I should draw just with line. Then for the 2 hour pose I started doing a full body but after the first 25 minute session decided her face was just too cool to draw 2 inches high. I brought only plain 11x15 paper. This is graphite-a 9b but still basically no real darks. I should have used charcoal. About 90 minutes.

Sketches

These are from old diving and ballet photos I had cut out and put in a photo book years ago. The kind of photo book with the clear cover and the slightly sticky cardstock pages. The big sketch I did with a blue pencil but the other blue ones are with an erasable blue pen. Not likeing it much though, it seems like it goes on thicker when you draw lightly and it skips when you press hard.

Game Pads

I've been using game pads in Photoshop for a while and thought I was a weirdo so I never told anyone. But I see a post on Paul Richards blog about using the Belkin Nostromo so I'm posting all my configurations. Maybe someone has better layouts. I'm using the Fang atm because it has more buttons but I still end up going to the regular keyboard so maybe I'll simplify and go back to the Belkin because it's more ergonomic. I did these charts for myself so I can remember the layout for the first couple days. But I remember most of the keys right away so it's not a huge hassle and it speeds up my process right away.

It's also for comfort and to avoid stress building up in my arm(s). I don't have carpel tunnel syndrome but hovering my arm over a regular keyboard will cramp up my left trap real quick. Because I'm so buff I guess. Actually I was having serious pain in my right elbow and thought I had tennis elbow which is basically overworking the tendons. Treating it like tennis elbow didn't help and I eventually discovered a post on trigger points and a great book ( http://www.amazon.com/Trigger-Point-Therapy-Workbook-Self-Treatment/dp/1572243759 ). I was holding lots of stress in my right tricep which referred pain to my elbow. And not just a little annoying pain, I couldn't lift a full cup of coffee without getting a zap that made me want to drop it. The pain was mostly in my brachioradialis and ECRL but also deep down in the front where the biceps attaches to the ulna or the radius.

5 minutes rubbing my tricep against a tennis ball on a table relieved about half the pain. So now I'm trying to learn to not hold stress in my body while I work. The game pads help my left arm but my drawing arm and hand are still a problem. I never realized how tense I was just drawing until the pain gave me a wakeup call. I knew I squeezed the marker too hard when I draw caricatures because I'm killing the fingernail on one side of my middle finger but now that I'm working on a tablet in front of the computer I need to make sure I'm not creating more bad habits that will cause problems in the future.

That trigger point book has an interesting section where it talks about the scalene muscles in your neck causing carpel tunnel in your wrist. The scalenes are right behind your sternocleidomastoid and when they get tense they pull your first rib up against your clavicle pinching a nerve which runs down to your hand and causes problems there. Anyone who works with their arms in front of them like artists, hairdressers, etc can run into trouble. Rest your arms on something if possible when you work. Or try to compensate with stretching and exercises.

Art rant

I saw a Digg article about this http://www.wonderbros.com/art/artwork-so-awesome-it-will-melt-your-face-off/ --the Picasso Superheroes thing is at a gallery in Texas somewhere. I had to write a response to someones comment that this was real art but the 'crap that sells for millions" isn't.

So here is my rant about art:
No, actually I think this is another example of an artist doing crappy art because they don't have the skills to do better art. Too many artists take the "fine art" route while skipping all the study and training that would allow them to communicate their ideas better. Michelangelo, John Singer Sargent, Leonardo, Caravaggio, all the old masters had the skills to paint whatever they imagined. They could realize their vision. And they were all 'commercial artists' actually, not 'fine artists'. I should include Norman Rockwell in with the old masters. Most of the so called "fine art" these days is by people with limitations. So how much of their creativity and unique 'artist vision' are you really seeing? You're only seeing the stuff their limited skills can pull off. They are short-changing themselves and you by not working on eliminating their weaknesses or at least trying harder and taking the time to do better art. Picasso could paint realism or portraits or whatever he wanted, he made the choice to paint otherwise. Big difference. These pieces don't show good use of color, composition or design and they don't bring anything else of interest to the table beyond the initial "superheroes/Picasso" idea. No skill in use here, no knowledge shown. No vision realized. Or no vision worth notice (f-u Marcel Duchamp). 99% of the population could do this art if they took a beginner class and someone put a paint brush in their hands. Maybe the artist can do better then this but they didn't try very hard. Actually checking out their other stuff I see they really need to take some classes or at least study art on their own, it looks like they're trying to skip all the thinking and cash in by copying others and just painting real big. And it's the same big poorly executed faces dozens of other artists have done. Absolutely nothing special or artistic about doing more Andy Warhol images or copies of Picasso.

I guess if someone wants a Picasso-style image of Batman someone has to do it but -please! This is not half as worthy of notice as any book cover in the children's section at Borders. No art here, no ideas communicated, no story being told, just someone trying to make a buck. And that's fine, just don't be fooled into thinking it's more then that and spend a ton of money on it like it's going to be worth more then the blank canvas cost. If you like the idea or it satisfies some decorative need then fine buy it but it doesn't deserve more notice then being in a mall gallery store.

sketch

environment

another D3 type environment, kinda cartoony

Speedies

I did these 2 this morning as samples for an agent to show a client. They sent me nice bright and colorful environment samples as what they were looking for and I don't have many of those. The forest one took 90 minutes and the mountain one 60.

Details

Details for below. This image isn't done. Still a bit rough or completely unfinished in spots. If you manage to look past her breasts you can see I never got around to drawing fingers on her. Yeah I didn't notice for quite a while myself...

Ideas

This is what artists do, spew out silly ideas. The jungle woman is Frazetta's "Huntress" from a new angle But I think I got the hair band from some other Frazetta pic. The other stuff is just random things I wanted to paint.

Comic Stuff

I talked to someone who is looking for artists for a comic project and it made me want to look through my old stuff. I haven't done any comic pages in probably 5 years. I'm going to get some old stories out and practice a few pages. Hopefully there is some improvement.

More old Comics

The Hulk image is oil on linen paper. I used to like to paint oil on paper because it dried real fast but still stayed workable for a bit. The full page is a scan of a photocopy so it's a bit contrasty.

More old stuff

More Comic stuff. Old again-OLD! Really old! It's hard for me to post images I'm not happy with but this is kind of a way to own up to my past and to get beyond it.
I don't even remember doing the page with the woman behind the bar. I remember losing the color version of Warrior Nun at some point and being really pissed. But I had printed it out at 8x10 already. Crazy seeing all the influences I had in all these random drawings. Jim Lee, Bridgman, Buscema...I think the Spiderman panels were from when I liked "Skroce" or something like that. He did storyboards for the Matrix.

More Thor "Sometime in 1962"

This is in reference to how Marvel made Thor have blond hair. See the box of "Ultra Blond" on the table...

Old Thor Story

Very old, like 12 years ago. I have a whole story plotted out but then the tough part shut me down: the drawings. Or the tough part is trying to be happy with your crappy failed attempt at telling your great story. I got about 6 or 8 pages drawn but they are pretty terrible.

Droooooring night

I'm going to this uninstructed workshop again this thursday. Posting this because I'm planning on going quite often and I can point ppl here for the link. Come out and draw. Or just go work your crappy job and leave the good opportunities for me.

only $10 tuesday and thursday 6:30-9:30
Sat $12 for 1-6pm (Not held on the 1st Sat of the month)

http://artcircleus.com/workshops.htm

figure drawing

3 hour drawing from thursday. 3+ hours I guess-- I added the background later because I forgot my large charcoal brick and didn't want to fill in that area with a little pencil. But the model takes breaks...so maybe 3 hours total...whatever. The head looks a little big now but she did have a big one. I should have toned it down maybe. She had purple hair, I wish I was painting.

Environment

I don't do many environments, preferring the figure but they have to stand somewhere...

Another failed speedy

4 or 5 hours-not so speedy but it was too much fun to leave

Color comp

Was a speedy but 4 hours of noodling later.....

February hate crime

I was born in Feb. Thanks.

I'll post some art soon.

ELLIE FRAZETTA (1935-2009)

Ellie Frazetta died July 17 of brain cancer. She did much to further and support her legend of a husband and in doing so helped all artists and illustrators. Her fighting and pushing for her husbands rights as an artist has had an impact on all of us that draw for dollars. Much respect.



http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2364495&posted=1#post2364495

http://www.spectrumfantasticart.com/full_content.php?article_id=1008&full=yes&pbr=1

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/07/24/ellie-frazetta-rip.html

http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2009/07/17/rip-ellie-frazetta/

http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com/2009/07/ellie-frazetta-we-just-learned-of.html

John Buscema copies

I'm not trying to copy every line and I take liberties anywhere I feel like but still Very Humbling. Try to capture the gesture and power a master like JB can deliver. I'd highly recommend any aspiring comic artists copy artists like JB, Neal Adams, Mike Mignola, Rick Leonardi, Gil Kane, Walt Simonson, Jose Gonzalez, Alex Nino, lots of others I can't think of. Anyone who gives life to the art with the gesture and underlying forms, not with the flashy caligraphy and inking. I'm a big fan of good line work but it doesn't help as much to study that as it does to study composition, gesture and structure. You'll do cool line work naturally as your 'style' developes. I still do copies of John Byrne's comics because he draws a perfect manniquin without much interesting or distracting line work.

Photoshop Brush

This is one way of making a rough random textured brush in Photoshop. edit: blogger seems to be shrinking the image, maybe there is a pixel length limit...

Sketch from a photo

shameless promo

Just need to link this for my own evil purposes

Painter Pencil

Using the Painter 11 trial and liking the 6b pencil. It has Tilt to size but the best feature of the new brushes is a tip shape that is offset so you can get a value across the stroke. Like the Photoshop brush in my last post but a little better because you can get a real small point also. This is a little spotty but I didn't bother changing brush tracking, which might have helped.

PS brushes

I'm posting these brushes on this thread if anyone's interested:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=82641&page=3

more realistic

Gorilla

someting new!

Painter Sketch Pad

Trying another demo. I'm liking the pencil tool again but still no customization. The pencil uses tilt for size which is awesome. Brush sensitivity is still horrible just like Painter. They can keep saying "our brush engine is so much more versatile then Photoshops" all they want, it still sucks. Some brushes you have to go below 10% opacity to have any opacity control. And the "Oil Brush" is terrible, more like an oil-textured blender.
Still, nice and fast and the limits are probably more of a boon then a negative for an idiot that can't stop tinkering like me. I should install one art program on my laptop and leave the house for a day and see what I get done with no distractions.

sketchbook pro

I downloaded the trial and I'm trying to like the program but it's so limited compared to PS or Painter. I do like the speed and accuracy of the brush engine. It feels silky smooth compared to PS. But the stupid pencil only goes up to 4 pixels wide and making your own brush in a bigger size I don't see any texture at all to make the 'pencil' any different from any other brush.

Anyone know of any info about the program online?

Done

Made some changes, breath, R arm, thicker legs, less fake-looking boob...

Annoying

I'm clicking on links in other artists sites to find new artists I might like and I'm constantly running into what I call "click-offs". I think I heard the term used referring to TV and things that make viewers change the channel. It can be anything like a big pretentious "The Art of...." loading screen or the brilliant designer who wants every one of their images to open in a separate window. What I despise most though is the tiny little thumbnails that show a tiny little cropped portion of the image that you have to click on to see the image. If I even click on one thumbnail the art better be awesome or I'm done with the site and the stupid artist who thinks it's a good idea to make the viewer work to see his art.

Can't believe I forgot this

A favorite line from the movie

The DVD is now on sale on Amazon

Jim Carrey

Fairly quick, about 30 minutes. And I never erased until the last 5. Both because I was working on my caricature easel. I tend to draw fast and never think about erasing when drawing at my caricature easel. A good thing in my opinion although some would disagree. Likeness is a bit lacking.

Jade Raymond

The most attractive woman in games. Smart, beautiful, can swear in french, produced a kick-@$$ game...

More art

I'm trying to get some new art ready to update my portfolio with and thought I'd throw it up here as well.

Kinda WIP, possibly done

This is another piece of fan art done because I'm geeking out about Diablo III. I got to play it at Blizzcon and it was awesome. I'm sick of working on it although it needs lots of edge refinement and other tweaks, so I'm posting it before I forget.

Gouache

Too many vowels in that word. This is in my sketchbook on crappy paper. I have to stop and wait for it to dry several times so I can close the book and flatten the warped paper. It's real frustrating when the brush hits the raised paper where you don't want it to. Also this is a bit small for me to get a good likeness, the heads are about an inch high. I wanted to do a picture of both of them together with him in his red outfit and since---SPOILER!!!!!--DON'T READ IF YOU'RE GOING TO WATCH THE MOVIE!!!----- since she died, I had to bring her back as undead. And I call her "Bad Penny" now because she's switched her ways and helps the Dr. He's not too sure he likes her anymore being dead and all.

The world is a mess and I just need to rule it.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog

New version of an old pic

Sketch

Another old sketch

messing around

Trying to do caricatures digitally. Not as quick or good as marker and paper but more colorful.

Sketchbook stuff

This is some watercolor practice from an old sketchbook. I'm not getting much new art done at the moment...


Chopped half a fingernail off with a kitchen knife. That saying "You're more likely to hurt yourself with a dull knife then with a sharp one." is bullshit

Very nice sketch by Eric Canete

Eric did this in his auction catalog I bought from him at the SD Con. I bought the book and was gonna walk away but Eric was nice enough to remind me he promised his blog readers a sketch in it. Super nice guy and a kick ass artist.

Finally some art

Just caricatures, but oh well...

Female barbarian grayscale

found my original scan before any computer work

Diablo 3

They finally announced D3. Here is a repost of some D3 inspired art I did a while ago.

The female barbarian I had trouble with because I did the figure separate from the background. The figure was just a graphite drawing and the stone work in the background I did in watercolor, dabbing with a rough sponge for the texture. Unfortunately the sponge technique turned out to be nearly photographic looking and so the figure looked cartoony and unrealistic in front of it. So when finishing them in the computer I had to basically ruin all the detail on the stone and make it look like it fit with the figure, because I didn't want to spend 30 hours more on the figure trying to make it look photographic.

Albert Einstein Quotes

Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.

If you read "The Power of Now" by Echart Tolle this one will sound familiar:
We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.

Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.

Imagination is more important than knowledge...

Hulk doesn't smash!

EDIT:fixed the image

Cartoony pic of the Hulk. SPOILER--Don't read this if you're going to see the movie!! This image is about as good as the movie, not that good. The acting was well done but the Hulk was not. If the name of the movie was "Bruce Banner" then fine...But the hulk battles all left me feeling the Hulk was a wimp. There was none of that "more angry=more powerful" stuff. He yelled a lot but never really went nuts. And the CG was still lacking, closeups of his face pulled you right out of the movie and the body didn't look like muscles moving under skin at all.

I read a couple less then stellar reviews of the Indiana Jones movie then went to see it. I was way too influenced by the reviews and didn't get much enjoyment from the movie. When it was over I thought "it wasn't that bad, I wish I hadn't read those reviews..." I really don't like the Shia Leboff guy, one of those actors I just can't forget is an actor. Like Nicholas Cage (who chose his last name because of the "Luke Cage" comic book)-he's a good actor I think, but he's always just Nicholas Cage, not the character he's playing. For me anyway. Still haven't watched Ghost Rider...

So my movie reviews:
Hulk ***
Indiana Jones ****
Kung-fu Panda *****
Love Guru ***
Ironman *****
Forbidden Kingdom ****

Age of Conan

So I'm playing the Age of Conan game and it's a "mature" rated game. There's topless women and blood splattering all over and whores hanging out around town. I start a conversation with this Madame to get a quest from her and the name of her whore house is "The Bearded Clam". Now that's mature. Says something about the geeks making the game.

It's a pretty good game because it's based on R.E.H.'s world of Conan, and that it's different from other MMO's, with the mature theme and all. It really has it's issues though. Buggy and the graphics , while real high rez, are real boring and uninteresting. Of course it's hard not to compare any MMO to WoW, and that game has had 3 years to iron out the bugs.

2 in one day!

This is an unfinished image but I don't have any desire to keep working on it. I'll post it again if I ever finish it.

Not Jet Lee

This is from reference. Trying to move quicker digitally and not render the heck out of everything.

Ancient Chinese medicine

or torture. Ever had a coin rub? "Rub" is not the right word, scrape or gouge maybe. It's used to 'cure' all kinds of things like the common cold and anything else they don't have a better treatment for. I think it's used to inspire you to heal yourself. "If you don't feel better tomorrow, we'll do it again." I get pinched nerves in my neck and after three days of listening to me bitch about a headache, my girlfriend will suggest I submit. She claims to hate doing it but I'm not so sure. It does help knock about half the tension out of my neck and the massive hickys go away after a few days.

Hey I have a mole on the back of each ear

Coffee Shopee

Sketches at a local S#!$bucks. I wish there were still some non-corporate coffee shops around but they can't survive. I don't know why, the coffee sucks at SB, but I guess with lots of sugar and cream people don't notice. Or maybe most people order specialty drinks anyway. I like ordering a "16 ounce" coffee and watching them try to figure out what size that is in their imperialist-barista language. "So...a....?" "Medium size" "Grande!" "Whatever..." The little boy was only there for a second, running around outside, the other three sat relatively still for me.

Damn swipers

These are swipes from Walt Simonson. Looking for poses that I can add too or do something differently.

Why wasn't I briefed?

Incredibles 2!!

Warning: 1 and a half nipples!

Possibly more nipples depending on how good your imagination is.

These are studies from photos found online. Thank the gods for the thinly disguised porn of the "Artful Nude" sites out there. The larger image is 3 scans pasted together as best I could. Also my scanner needs the art lying absolutely flat on the glass, unlike my last scanner, so they are a bit blurry in spots.

I'm Batman!

This was a response to a fellow artist that drew a pencil sketch of Batman and sent it to me. In my foolishness I couldn't just complement the awesome sketch I had to critique it as well as I am known to do. He's fine with a critique but did mention it would have bothered him in the past. So I learned to just shut up sometimes no matter how much that one little thing is bothering me....

So I drew this and sent it to him so he could get me back. No reference used except one Jim Lee pic to help me remember the costume. Then I noticed Jim draws a big bat on the chest now, not the little oval with the bat in it. There's a bunch of issues but the point was to do it quick and without obsessing and getting bogged down with the details. Just over an hour. 4B pencil smudged all over.

Don't know why I did this

but I was looking through some frame grabs for reference and came across this sequence and had to post it. When I stopped laughing I searched for a tutorial on how to make an animated gif. It's 418k so it may take a minute to load. Now that's some acting!

--edit-reduced size to 173k

--just realized Fred Savage is smiling real hard in the first frame at least.

F*ckin Matt Damon

They keep deleting the video I'm linking to--just do a google or Youtube search for Matt Damon Sarah Silverman...

Been a while --again

Holidays and stuff.. here's some art.

Funny letter from a guy trying to criticize (not critique like he says) Eric Canete over on his blog. Link to Eric's blog is to the right. Ummmm nothing else of importance to talk about. It's raining. Big deal here in So Cal...

Drawing vs. Sketching

Disclaimer:
The following is just an opinion and, from past discussion I realize, a minority opinion at that. Please feel free to debate the subject.


I make the distinction between drawing and sketching to remind myself when I'm just scribbling and 'hoping to find the right line'. Which is basically just passing time with a pencil in my hand. Nothing comes from it that couldn't have been better with just a little more focus. I've found when I can't focus enough to do a decent drawing the time would be better spent doing other things like reading something inspiring or educational. If I pick up a Robert E Howard or Fritz Leiber book I can barely get through 3 pages before I want to draw again. Sketching is 90% your hand, 10% brain power. Drawing is the opposite, it's your mind telling your hand what to do. You can scribble around and be loose but if your mind is one step ahead of your hand I think you'll end up with 'sketches' that could be more useful, perhaps made into finished images or at least you'll learn something from them. I've never learned anything from a sketch, even if it somehow (law of averages-chimps typing Shakespear) came out good or I ended up using it for something later. A lot of this attitude comes from quick sketch figure drawing and caricatures. In both cases you are trying to put down the lines in exactly the right place. With caricatures you're working with markers so you have to, with charcoal it just looks better if it isn't worked over and over. So I'm saying engage your mind before the pencil touches the paper. Observe, make a decision, execute.

Of course if you are drawing simply to enjoy it then do it however you freaking want. It can be relaxing and therapeutic but I go to exercise or activity for those things. Again, this is opinion and I think I hold this view because I'm always focused on improving, too focused I think. I realized about a year ago that I was never finishing anything, just doing studies or preliminary sketches and then moving on. Not only is the preliminary stage the most fun but I was too focused on using my time wisely and didn't want to 'waste' any time doing all the rendering and finishing when I wouldn't learn much from that. But then one day I went into my studio and realized I really didn't want to do any art. And I didn't, for the first time in my life I didn't draw for several months (except for working a few caricature gigs, which I can do on autopilot). I was explaining how I felt to a friend and he likened it to the guy that gets a phone number from a girl but then runs the whole scenario of the possible relationship through his head and throws the number away because it's all done in his head already. Remember when Yoda says about Luke: "Always with this one the future, never a thought to where he is now." ? That was me, still is but I'm trying to live in the present more. On that note for any fellow sufferers of the never enough time/focused on the future syndrome: "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle. Great book or audio book

Perhaps I should be suggesting a good balance of "Focused Drawing" and "Drawing for Enjoyment" for everyone. But I think for 99% of the artists out there the enjoyment part isn't a problem so I suggest some extra focus.

D

Band Caricature

Finished the caricature for a friend's band. I was worried that they wouldn't like it but so far they do I guess. They're going to use it for those video advertisements for upcoming bands that play on TVs around the club. The only thing I'm not happy with is the level of exaggeration is a little uneven. 4 separate charcoal drawings of 11x17 each.

Doc Ock is my nemisis

Another warm up, interrupted by phone calls, missing markers and poor drawing. I stop the timer when I answer the phone but it still ruins your momentum and train of thought. Stopping to take pictures didn't help either. I was all set to draw Bullseye but then I realized I was figuring out the drawing in my head before I started so I was cheating. At 45 minutes I realized those building were just not getting done so I spent more time on the figure. Anyone know if Wildstorm ever posted a vid of one of their 60 min contests?

Spiderwoman

Here's todays warm up sketch. To help me choose which character to draw I decided to draw all the action figures I have. I have a...few. I was planning on drawing some buildings in the background but ran out of time fixing crap. I also shouldn't be afraid to use a ruler, my building kinda bends in the middle.

Wish list for Painter ( and Photoshop)

I'm posting this here mostly so I can link to the photo...


Wish List for Painter


Hopefully none of these functions exist already....


Smoother Opacity
It seems like anything above 30-40% for most brushes is nearly the same as 100%. Or at least it seems to get really difficult to control, like the pressure ramps up as you push harder.

Merge layers in one step

Custom Brush Icons.
I want to be able to create a folder for my favorite brushes and create a custom palette from them and be able to tell them apart. Ideally it would be great to make your custom palette, make a bunch of 30x30 pixel images and just drag and drop them on your palette, replacing the image but not affecting the link to the brush. Or make it easier in SOME way.

Include the brush tracking you set up when you save a custom brush.

Real time transforming so we can see what we're doing.

Easier color/value tweaks like using 'Hue/saturation" in PS

A real perspective tool
When you draw on paper you define your vanishing points and hold one end of a ruler on one point and move the other end around your image, drawing all lines back to the vanishing point. On the computer we get a grid we can try to line up our strokes to, like if we couldn't put the ruler on top of the paper but could just light table over top of it and try to draw straight lines freehand. I can't believe neither Adobe or Corel has come up with a way to constrain your stroke to a vanishing point. I envision it something like this image: You zoom way out of your image and then open the perspective palette. The 1st thing you do it define your horizontal and vertical axis/ horizons (have the lines rotate but snap to vertical or horizontal) . Then you click on one of the perspective point buttons (the more the better, I drew 6) and click somewhere on one of the axis and then back on the button to set it. Set as many as you want then zoom back in. Minimize the perspective palette and it should dock somewhere where all you can see are the buttons for the vanishing points. The buttons toggle on and off. Another way to define points, if you were trying to match the perspective in a photo for instance, would be click the little "2 lines" box (or whatever you want to call it) and then click and drag two non-parallel lines and the program will figure out where they cross and set the point.

On a similar note is a usable method for confining your stroke to an ellipse. You could click and drag like the circular marquee tool but then it goes right to a transform mode. Transform real quick, double click to set it, draw your strokes, delete the path, continue on.... You should also be able to set the degree, size and angle numerically. An automatic saving of the last few would be useful, like the brush tracker.

Why is the distance between the fibers on a brush called "feature"? How about "fiber spacing"? This is a very useful function, and shouldn't be hidden in the manual, it should be obvious from within the program.

An older concept

I did a horrible "1 hour" (75 minute) warm up today so here is something else.

I'm ready for the Iron Artist competition!

Just kidding. I did this this morning as a new daily warm-up exercise inspired by the 1 hour competitions at the Wildstorm Studios. http://www.gelatometti2.blogspot.com/
right now there are some cool videos of Jim Lee taking someone through the studio. He seems like the nicest guy on earth. And still humble with all the success.

I'm planning on warming up with a 1 hour sketch as often as I can. See how long that lasts...Anyway, I looked through my comic art folder for a character to draw and chose The Demon, mostly because he's easy. I've never drawn him before but he doesn't have a human face or an intricate costume. And no feminine curves to fuss over. There are lots of lines I wish I could take back but I didn't use white out this time. I will in the future once I get more confident, not just to correct mistakes but to draw with.

I used a Pitt fine line for the face and then started to do the body with a Pitt brush pen but quickly panicked and grabbed my trusty caricature marker and inked most everything with that. I REALLY wish someone would come out with a non-toxic version of that pen. I'm talking about the Markette 690 for you non-caricature artists. It is the closest replacement for the Design marker which was the best pen ever for caricatures. It could make a solid black line from about .5 up to about 4 mm. You had to move really fast for it to not bleed but moving fast is the object in caricatures anyway so it was always keeping you honest. It has a more dense tip then a Sharpy and doesn't wear out and get fuzzy. The Markette is almost exactly the same but they are dryer, they don't shoot the ink out like the Design so you move slower. The Design had xylene in it which may have been the reason it was discontinued. The Markette doesn't say it has xylene in it but it's coming from Canada and I don't know if they require any warnings.

11x17 on a cheap cover stock

But a Monkey Took it!!

This is a birthday card for my gf. I do it knowing the danger inherent in doing something custom for a loved one. In the past I used to draw Xmas cards and a random B-day card for people. Then you don't want to do it anymore and you get grief. It's not like anyone ever spent hours drawing me a card but they feel somehow justified in making you feel you're being lazy if you don't do it for them anymore.

Repost Fin Fang Foom!

This is a bit more like I was planning but I was afraid to obscure everything too much for fear of them thinking I was cheating on any detail. And also I didn't have the time to explore this effect much. Fixed the perspective of the street lights, made the debris falling more obvious and redid Thor's cape-I swear I already did the glowy effect on it before but again, I must have gotten happy with the undoooos and never noticed.
Even for my own self I can hardly bear to hide all the detail, I really need to spend another hour or 2 adding more haze and mist in the right places but it's hard to cover up your hard work for the sake of storytelling. At this point it's a compromise between the viewer really feeling the wind and rain (as best as I can manage the effect anyway) and being able to see the whole scene. Actually I need 2 scenes where at first all you can see through the rain and mist is a huge shape moving between the buildings with lightning and a vague man-like shape above and people running past you, then a gust of wind blows the mist past the viewer and you can see the whole scene.
But that's always the problem isn't it: you can never get the work done as fast as the ideas come. Actually I know some artists that say they have trouble thinking of stuff to work on. I have trouble deciding between the 50 things I thought of today that I'd like to work on but I've never been short of ideas. Even if the ideas are poor regurgitations of stuff that's been done a million times before.

the image is pretty big 1600x1067 pixels...

Old art

A friend of mine is organizing a show for the "Dirt Merchant Art" group http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=98681952 and wanted some art to put up so I was looking through some of my stuff to find something worthy of showing other humans. All I can find is older stuff really. I found these so far. He's also putting together a sketchbook to sell but I gave him other art for that, more current stuff. The 3 headed woman is Alley Bagget from when she had a comic book a few years ago. It's oils on linen paper then I played with it in photoshop. The Demon guy is a gouache I did many moons ago on some gray paper. Yeah, I should work on something a bit more permanent in case something ever comes out good.

Time on my hands

I spent most of the day yesterday looking at art on deviant. I realized that if you find a good artist you can look at their "faves" and probably find similar stuff.



http://ayanimeya.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://loish.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://0effe0.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://manarama.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://endling.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://gunnerromantic.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://reiq.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://jdillon82.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://ariokh.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://robbvision.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://ceeceeluvins.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://janaschi.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://udoncrew.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://briteshine.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://diablo2003.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://ravenskar.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://tritz.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://blasterkid.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://feerikart.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://mcwolf105.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://deadbear.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://biz02.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://josic.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://tonysandoval.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://belldandies.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://fealasy.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://questionstar.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://genzoman.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://ericvedder.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://nunchaku.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://dcwj.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://velinov.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://bridge-troll.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://crisishour.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://artbytheo.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://robotnicc.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://ukitakumuki.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://studioqube.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://gueuzav.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://jonhodgson.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://edbenes.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://elpinoy.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://teresenielsen.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://enayla.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://ryanbnjmn.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://njoo.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://lolita-art.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://no-sign-of-sanity.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://juan-doe.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://tinypen15.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://saejinoh.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://arnistotle.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://hoon.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://leinilyu.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://bluefley.deviantart.com/gallery/



crap--no links
when I copy/paste into an email the links work....
email me if you want to check these out easier

In his pants

Oh yeah, found this looking for Fin Fang Foom! reference. Classic.

Testy

I'm testy today (tired), I just finished a 3 day test for Cryptic Studios. I applied to them because they are making the Marvel comics online game. I only apply to a few studios these days because I'm a primadonna and I deserve the best. But seriously, I wouldn't want to work for some studio in Virgina or Texas that was making a sport game or a WWII game or something. You have to live a life, not just work a job, so I'm going to live somewhere I'll enjoy and work somewhere I really want to.

So I'm tired, I stayed up to 10 AM today, it was due at 11. I was thinking they saw my portfolio and said: "gee this guy can draw people well, we need him for character creation" but they asked me to do an image of a detailed Manhattan street with a "creature preforming an action" . They also wanted orthographic views of one of the buildings in the image, top, side, and front and also 3 thumbnail sketches. I don't want to draw buildings! Damn windows don't line up.....bitch, moan, $#!!* perspective!...grumble.... Actually maybe they said: "gee this guy can draw people well, lets test him on other things..." It was fun, actually, once I got into drawing buildings I remembered what a fellow artist Mike Beanan once said to me "buildings can have personalities just like people.." I don't think I could do orthographic views for more then a few weeks though. I'd have to sneak in some naked lady drawings for my sanity.

Here's what I did as a final image. I was hoping for more atmospheric feel to it but I couldn't figure it out without obscuring more and more detail, which was important as per their instructions. Maybe I'll work on it some more in a while when I have fresh eyes for it. When they said "creature" I thought about it for a while what creature in the Marvel universe I'd like to use. When I thought of Fin Fang Foom! there was no longer any question. The more I look at Kirby's drawings, the more I appreciate them. Crap I just realized I didn't change the perspective of the street lights on the right side. Damn. And the red light on the dragons tail was much more subtle before, now it looks like it's lit by the street lamp behind it when it's supposed to be coming way too far forward to be hit by light on the top of the tail... man, I need to stop making mistakes! Or stop obsessing over them, either one.

coffee shop post-it drawings

on a 2"x3" post-it

Back from vacation

Just got back from Lake Tahoe. Very nice there, makes me want to hike/bike more. Here's a sketch of a superhero (please don't sue me for using your word Marvel/DC) woman and an unfinished ink of a chimpanzee. The 'ink' is just a "HI-TEC-05" pilot ballpoint pen, they're expensive for a ballpoint but I love drawing with them. I'd finish the chimp but I can't find the photo I drew it from.

Jim Lee is Happy

sketch of Jim Lee from some random Con photo. He looks happier then the fan he's posing with.

watercolor study

I made a sketchbook with all 80lb cover stock so I can use whatever media strikes me.

I got too happy with the line work because I wasn't planning on using watercolor until I realized I was doing crappy line work and didn't want to finish it that way. It would help to have a plan Don! Ears are lopsided too. I suck, gonna play Halo 3 now and kill stuff.

30 minutes from a screen shot of Vin Diesel. I tried to make it not look like him but I didn't change it enough.

Caricatures

Drawing some caricatures for a friends band.

"Never Again"

How many times have you said to yourself "never again" after doing some sketches for free for a client and getting nothing for it. I've had people approach me at least a dozen times saying they have a great idea for a newspaper strip/comic book/animated show/children's book....etc..I don't bother doing any work on spec anymore. If it's such a great idea then it's worth them paying for it to get it done. That would also show they are serious about the idea. If they can't get behind it enough to find an extra $500 to launch the project then they're probably going to quit at the first setback anyway.

This art was the last thing I did for the "Globees" lady. My friend never got a deposit from her (never assume) and now I've wasted many hours of work that could have been used for something productive. I say I don't work on spec but I didn't realize I was until it was too late. Having a middle-man handle talking to the client for me was a bad idea. I assumed he knew things he didn't and he assumed the client was being honest with him. If the 6!+(!! ever markets anything even remotely similar to any of the drawing I did for her I'll sue her for 10 times what she was supposed to pay.

The very first thing you need to get across to a client is that time=$$$. It's a universal misconception that artists just love drawing someone else's crap and that they don't have to worry about wasting your time. As if we just sit around hoping someone would give us something to do with our "talent" (I hate the idea that we're "talented" as if we don't have to practice and study to get good). My freelance contract gives them a total estimate which includes 3 roughs and a final rough before doing the finished art. Anymore roughs needed and I charge them for it. I get a 50% deposit before starting the project. Just make sure you ask the right questions during the project to move it along. It's not fair to the client if you let them use up all their roughs changing specific little things and then saying they need to pay you more. Ask them questions about every part of the image at each stage. It's tough to pick someone else's brain and get at what they really want. But if you don't do that you're going to have a deposit only and an unhappy client that won't use you again.

Been a while

I'm working on a project for a website. Through a former client/friend who now does sales for a website building business. Foolishly I agreed to just go through him and not have contact with the client. I say foolishly because although he's a great talker and very articulate and I imagined him making it easier for me I'm finding it just can never be as good as me getting the feedback firsthand. And it's also driving me nuts to wait for a response from the client. I normally wouldn't have accepted "I don't want to affect your creativity by giving you direction". which I guess the client said when my friend asked her what she didn't like about the art she had already. A client that doesn't want to, or doesn't know how to give you feedback needs to be charged several times as much as usual. But since I'm not in contact, I'm trying to go with the flow. I'm getting a good rate as it is so I guess I shouldn't be worried too much at this point. The little bee-girl in color is what she had and didn't like. "More human maybe" is all I had for direction. Did the sketching in Painter since PS was making my curved lines angular for some reason. Maybe I need to reinstall my wacom drivers.

Sketch from photo?

A friend asked me if it was possible to turn a photo into a line drawing. This was my attempt. Not much luck really. Anyone know of a better way?

Artwork for a contest

This was for a Blizzard contest. 5 winners would get tickets to their convention ( http://www.blizzard.com/blizzcon07/index.shtml ), a top of the line video card and sound card, $1000 worth of stuff. I couldn't figure out how to upload the image to their contest page so I couldn't enter it. I sent emails to 2 different help addresses but got no response. As I recall, the last time I entered one of their contests I had similar issues. They responded to my email though and gave me an alternate upload option.

study from a photo

About 40 minutes

AHHH Comic Con

Got to love the freaks and the babes. And i mean 'freaks' in a good way. I wish I had the courage to dress up.

Movies

I just went to Harry Potter 5 and it seemed like an in-between episode or something, not a whole movie. I haven't read the books so i don't know about how they may have butchered it. The one thing I hate about the Potter movies is the plot device used every time is "adults wouldn't understand so we have to do this by ourselves". I think in every movie the entire plot would fall apart if an adult learned about what was going on. "Gee this guy is gonna kill me and my friends and destroy the world. should I tell the headmaster? No, he wouldn't understand." even between the kids, they have an argument and then stand there looking at each other and you say to yourself: "If one said sorry (perfectly logical between these two characters) this conflict would be resolved. " But no you have to wait till the end to hear everyone say they're sorry they didn't say anything earlier. I know- it's a kids story. And I don't care that much.

But now the Marvel comics movies. Man. Stop ruining things, please. They made Galactus a cloud. The Silver Surfer works for a cloud. They ruined Galactus. They could have barely showed him in the ship, all shadowy with some purple and blue highlights and the square pupils--very menacing. But no, the surfer works for a cloud. I think they maybe wanted to save on the CG budget. Big guy in ship= $10 million, cloud= $ 50k. Cloud. Yeah, the cloud tells a better story. It wouldn't even have needed to cost that much, 10 second of dark, unclear CG....

I go to a comicbook movie hoping for a few cool scenes, not a good movie. These dumb@$$3$ can't seem to keep their crappy opinions to themselves and stay true to the source material. I can see them all in a room with very good catering, not a one of them less then 50 years old... "We need to update the character, make him hip and cool..."

Like Sue Storm banging Dr. Doom. What? Why? So you can set up a love triangle and add more drama to the movie? But then not capitalize on it at all later in the movie. This is obviously a case of 'too many cooks in the kitchen ruins the soup'. And the entire movie Spiderman 3 is another example. "He could be...what do those teenagers call it? Emo? but still tough, and then he could punch Maryjane in the face and...."

So I expect very little and then I'm pleasantly surprised when something doesn't suck. Doesn't happen very often though.
Speaking of ruining movies I need to check on the Hobbit movie. Peter Jackson was not going to be involved last I read because of legal (money) issues with New Line. Corporate bastards! Stop ruining things.

Working on stuff

Every year I get motivated by the upcoming San Diego Comic Con to do some comic work, always too late to get enough done though, and this year is no exception. But I did make a decision a while ago that I don't think I would like to work at a studio, full time, salaried and benefits and all for more then maybe a year. Benefits would be nice but I've been spoiled by working for myself for 6 or 7 years now and I think I'd not like to have to put in 40+ hours to make someone else lots of money. I like being paid on my performance, not on the hours I show up for. I've never been able to work slow enough to deserve the hourly rate that is usually offered. "Another break? Can't I just keep working and leave early?" Of course not.

So I decided to be happy that I work for myself and accept that I'm always going to be looking for work. It's the same if you work at a game studio or on a movie, just the gigs last longer. Between freelance art, caricature events, storyboards, and Chippendale's (just kidding) I can make more then just about any salaried job anyway.

Anyway here is a comic cover for my portfolio. If it turns out well. It's nowhere near finished yet. It started out as a gouache and watercolor painting (that I can't find anymore)and now I'm working on it in Painter 10. And wow, at this size I can really see how air-brushed Sue and Reed look. Damn, got to remember to zoom out more as I work.

Just kidding

nothing to see here

DD

Okay, to make up for that horrible sketchy image here's a horribly over-rendered sketch.

Sketchy

I was talking to a fellow blogger (email actually) and noted that he posts sketchy, unfinished work on his site and I don't. I think I have too big an ego to post bad stuff I do. So this is a compromise. It's sketchy and bad but I did it in a car on the freeway and it was turning out so bad I started drawing left handed to give myself an excuse. I did the left side of the figure right handed and everything else left handed while my GF drove too fast down I5 to San Diego.

Hard job

This was from a senior picnic. There was a big blow-up slip-n-slide right next to me. So for 3 hours I had to try to focus on my drawing while girls scream and try to make sure their bikinis are in the right place as they get up(some scream when they start running, the whole approach, the slide, dismount, and the run back to line. The guys try to run fast enough to catch air off the end and land on their heads. Tough job.

Too tired for a challenge

These girls sat down and started making all kinds of faces at me and I was too tired to do anything good with it. It was near the end of a Grad night, probably 3 or 4 am. I do my safe sketch so much I have trouble breaking out of it when it's appropriate.

Busy season is almost over

I've been working lots lately and looking forward to some down time. I wouldn't normally post my event sketches because I think they're real lame but it is about all I've been drawing for 2 months.

Capturing a likeness

Tiny pictures but you can probably figure out most of them.

Posting this here as I'm offering some opinion about capturing a likeness to another artist on his Deviant page. ( http://www.leinilyu.com/ --he kicks major @$$ ) Here is a copy/paste of the post:


Let me preface this by saying I love your work and you're one of the few comic artist I still look at to learn something. That's why I'm checking on your page here. This is page 4 of comments so you'll likely never see this anyway but I'll repost it on my blog.

Copying is working for you but it has limitations. You're going to have to draw the person in exactly the same angle as your reference photo because you haven't really figured out their face, you're just copying shapes and angles. All those shapes and angles change when the face moves. So here is some opinions on how to figure out someones face...

When I draw caricatures I don't need the person to sit still or to look in a certain direction. As long as they look in my general direction I can evaluate their face and then do the drawing I want with that info. I can draw them looking 3/4 left or right or straight on. And although this explanation is real long winded, I can do 20 full faces in an hour for 4+ hours at a time. I do portraits also and I teach caricatures and life drawing.

A huge part of a likeness is in the proportions in my opinion. As humans we have an incredibly accurate ability to measure faces. Imagine meeting a friend at the airport. You can recognize then from like 50 yards away because of the large masses of their face, not because you can see their eyes or nose or mouth clearly. Posting a pic to illustrate that here : http://donflaws.blogspot.com/

So get the general proportions right and you'll be half way there. Next evaluate each feature for it's relative size, shape, and angle. And double check the placement. With the general proportions of the face and the general size, shape and angle of the features you should already have a likeness. From there you should be able to change the angle of the head and still retain the likeness. Of course this is more easy for some people then others. Those people close to the 'ideal type' or the average, good-looking person won't be as easy to figure out.

When I'm figuring out a face I'm constantly comparing the model to the 'normal face'. The 'normal' face depends on their gender and their age and even their ethnic type when you get real into it. So compared to a normal guy of Tom Cruises' age he's, got a bigger nose, smaller eyes, low eyebrows, etc...(his teeth used to be shifted over so he had one front tooth in the middle, not sure if he had that fixed) I keep all that in mind when I'm laying in the structure lines for his face then get more exact when doing each feature. His nose is big but how big compared to an average nose, and big where? tip, bridge, nostrils? What angles are different from the norm?

Anyway that's a lot of stuff so let me know what you think (anyone) I'd enjoy some contrasting opinions and ideas.



You rock man! Made me interested in comics again...

D

Old stuff.....

I was going to rape my old blog of the few good posts and repost them here but I'm just gonna put a link here and leave the old one up. There's some good stuff there still.

http://mindofanartist.blogspot.com/

Tricks!

Living in Southern CA I've been lucky to find some really good instructors.
The aerial perspective trick I learned from a Glen Vilppu class many years ago, I hope he's still teaching. I'm explaining it a different way and using ink instead of pencil but a solid concept should work in most any circumstance.

The legs are something I use to try to illustrate the use of gesture down the limbs. I think I learned that more from studying John Buscema then from any class but it's a common problem (and one I'm still guilty of too).

2 Versions of the same character. Trying to decide on a level of cartoonyness.

So lets start right off with some nudity

That should help my page hits. These are fairly quick about 30mins, from photos, in my sketchbook. And those are JS Campbell copies.

OK! New Blog.

This one has my name on it so there is that tiny little bit of accountability to help me keep posting on it. We will have to see.