Life isn’t being particularly fair to me right now. Oh well. I’m starting to see the nervous breakdown like appeal of being homeless.
I drew this picture out of spite. I’ve never done that before. Had a young lady accuse me of creating sexist art. I had no reply, so I posted this on her page. It seemed fair.
I’m not sure how anyone will feel about my next picture. So I won’t ask, lol. Today someone ran into my car, so that’s how I get to start the week. So if I seem a little bummed, please be kind.
I always knew that line work or pencil drawing was important, but this picture helped me understand HOW important. It’s everything! I found myself having to clean it up several times.
Although a lot of the time coloring and bringing out detail is where my heart lies, making a good foundation can simplify the whole process .
Since this was colored with markers and I’m self taught, it took awhile, experimenting to find the best technique for getting a more realistic look. I finally fell back on my watercoloring experience to recreate the look I wanted. Although I don’t have a huge pallet, it seems to work well.
Of course there are places where I need textures and the art markers aren’t always the best for that. Luckily, I remembered that I could still use watercolor on some papers the results have been pretty helpful.
So I received a reminder of the difference between old and new me. A guy whose arm I purposely broke about 11 years ago came into Panera Sunday. Yes you read right; I pinned him down and applied leverage force on his upper arm until it broke. On purpose.
He’d just gotten out of church and his family was with him. Father’s day. He seemed so happy and then he looked over and saw me. Did you know black people can lose color? It’s true.
I motioned for him to come over, not really expecting him to do so. When he did, I had no idea what I would say to
him. He was dealing drugs, acting out and being a fool in general. Until he ran into me, he had no idea how much trouble he was in. He told me that I set him on a path that led him home and back into church. He THANKED me.
I sat there flabbergasted.
I told him that I had lost everything soon after. That I’d finally gotten counselling. Inpatient stay. Cancer. Divorce. That I had to accept all of it. Then I laughed and told him we were each other’s crossroads to becoming better people.
He agreed.
So I told him I was truly sorry. He asked if I’d come with him to service next Sunday and I said no. I accept my fate. I’m a warrior disguised as an artist. I thrive in conflict and suffer in peace. The best I could hope for was to die fighting the good fight. And now….
The trick is to keep breathing, right?
This picture was almost a travesty. It all could have gone so wrong. I don’t no how I miscalculated so badly, but I managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat! For you see….
I ran out of deco pink.
“Oh my god stop the presses!” you may be thinking. But you see, that’s the base color layer for this image. I was forced to use another color further up, light peach. It shifted my entire pallet.
It was the best skin tone yet.
In fact, I think it’ll become a favorite. Accidents and incidents can work in your favor. You just gotta roll with it, baby😉.
Hey guys! Hope you had an amazing weekend. Mine was a little hectic; had some chores to do and it took the entire weekend almost! Oh well, at least I accomplished a lot.
I got to “attend” an artist seminar via webinar, which got me amped up to do a few more images. The topic was “don’t put off your dream projects”.
I’ll admit to doing just that recently. There have been a lot of customer oriented stuff coming out of me lately and I can feel my needle dipping below”E”. Not that I haven’t enjoyed my projects; a lot of them have been really fun! But to be honest, I haven’t pushed myself in any of them and that needs to change.
So I sat down last night and made a checklist of all the things I’ve wanted to draw in the past 6 months. I figure that it’s a good starting point.
I have to be honest. A few of them make me a little nauseous thinking about them! It’ll be okay though. Time to grow!
So get ready for some upgrades. Because since these will be mine, I won’t have to clear posting the work. In the meantime, enjoy your week.
People love to ask me to draw animals. I can do it, but I try not to get sucked into the hyper cutesy world, lol.
Having said that, here’s a Pine Marten.
I’ve learned a valuable lesson. Deftones and Hennessey might not be the best combination for me to use as inspiration. I was actually getting angry as I drew this picture! Isn’t that funny?
There was a time when negative emotions ruled me. Then one day I realized something; it was much MUCH harder to not be that way. Everybody let’s the world win. I decided to fight it. It takes considerable effort, but I tend to stay content longer.
So I put wings on an image made from anger.
It helped.
This has been a slow week, but a pleasant one. I want to complain, but that’s just a reflection of my mood.
The thumbnails are a big hit! People are really happy to receive them and so far have been willing to pay up to $10 so far! Pretty cool…
My bigger images are starting to get a bit of love, which makes me feel as though they’re worthwhile. My style is definitely coming through and people seem to want to buy whatever I make.
The stages it takes to draw can start feeling stale to a certain degree, so I try to switch it up for my own sanity, lol.
With this image I decided to forego the usual realistic approach and just try to convey a more cartoon style image. Not too cartoony ; just enough to get the point across.
That’s it for now. I have an immense amount of yard work to do! Hope you guys enjoy the images.
Howly Time! 