Author Archives: thumper71

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About thumper71

Avatar of the Universal Imagination

Fun is Work

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     I can’t believe how many projects I have going now! It’s ridiculously draining, lol. No anime, no gaming, just art ALL THE TIME!!

   Isn’t that awesome?

    Of course not every piece has to be super realistic or complicated. Take this one. It’s a picture of a friend, done in Photoshop. I’d promised it to her a while ago. Felt nice to actually make it.

   I suppose I could polish it a bit more, but the comic book feel would be lost. 

  I did have to make a few anatomy corrections; otherwise it looks like her. I was glad to do it because it was fun. 

    Now that the head is the right size, I can send it to her. She was pretty happy and I had a good time. 

    I wish everyday was that way.

Be

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    Yay! I actually got permission to post my digital art! Maybe I was wrong to give the choice, but I feel that portraits​ are kinda personal. 

     I’ve been so busy with repairing my home. It’s a little over one hundred years old and it’s last update was in the 80’s. I’m not trying to go too modern, but things like floor sag and bad rafters come before the pretty stuff. Foundations first!

     Maybe I should just enjoy this period of my life. After all, it hasn’t been this quiet in a long time. No impending doom, just everyday things. I should be content.

    Ha! Who am I fooling? Even though it’s true, that’s just not my nature. After a decade of nothing but one emergency after another, there is no way I could fully believe that calm waters are ahead. But is that experience or paranoia?

    I gave up on happy. It abandoned me. My world has been mostly grey with occasional flashes of color. I’ve come to accept it, even appreciate those rare instances.

    Was I wrong? Could it be?

     Here’s the truth; I WANT to be. I really do. I know it’s a little like giving up on life the way I live. But I’m not sorry. It’s my way of… I’m getting my affairs in order. That’s all I’ve been doing. Stalling in the hopes that it isn’t necessary, but keeping my distance from life so that I won’t mind parting with it.

    Dammit.

   Okay. I need to start doing more than getting by. I need to find joy in little things. Like my art. It doesn’t need to be complicated because now I know what I want!
  I want to be.

 

Inflict

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     Finally! Back to the digital art! I know some of you thought I’d given it up. Truth be told, a lot of people don’t want their stuff posted. 

    Add to that the fact that I find portrait work sorta boring and you get mostly sketches. No biggie.

    This image is a little special though. Because although this IS from a person, this pose technically never existed. I had to modify the stance in order to create something a bit more dynamic.

     I get that some consider digital art to be little more than photo manipulation. I always try to change some aspects of the image I create, just to prove that I’m not just adding a Photoshop filter and calling it a day.

      To me it’s a way to conveniently create large scale media. While I acknowledge the need for some high speed flip art ability, too often it ends up being a reason to pretend art is just a thing easily made. 

    So yeah; if you hadn’t seen the previous steps, you may be tempted to think I used an animate filter of some kind. Nope!! Just good old knowledge and talent applied.😊

     So the next time you see the words “digital art” on my page or any other, remember the effort it took to pluck an idea out of your head and put it together visually. After all, the process matters as much as the end result.

More Good News for Bad News

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    My time for art has been rather tight lately. If I’m not doing stuff like the image above for clients, I’m editing videos and doing photography. It all adds up, so I try not to think of it as work. That would kill the vibe, lol.

    In the meantime, it’s always a joy to find an hour or two for my own personal projects. This weekend was such a break. I went to my local Starbucks, sat down and begin this picture. Actually had a guy get upset when he was informed that the person in the picture was a girl. Silly dude, strong girls rock!

So since this is the month for it, expect a few more strong women 😉

Uno Problema

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     I was going to remark about the wonderful weather we’ve had recently, but since the cold came back, why bother? Instead I’m just trying to do my thing and put some art together. Is that cool with you guys?

     Sorry the photos for this don’t start at the very beginning. I was so engrossed in what I was doing I almost totally forgot! I’ve decided to break out the pencils occasionally, just to stay fresh. Plus I’m intrigued by Crossfit right now, so I decided to draw one of its athletes.

     I have a request for a rush project, with no concern for my price!! So happy!! It doesn’t mean that I’ll gouge the client; that’s how you get a bad reputation, something I intend NOT to cultivate. Still, it’s a signpost letting me know that I’m heading in the right direction.

Wish me success!!

[un] Sound

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       What a horrible year! Or at least January was. February has a lot to make up for. Luckily the check I got from one of my old credit cards was a nice start. So let’s get rolling…

   This one is purely for fun. I bought this tanned paper notebook a while ago and have rarely used it. Plus my prismacolor pencils have been languishing at home, so it was time to dust those skills off.

     The usual tactic here is to use the shade of the paper as one of your colors; it’s a pretty cool effect, but I could care less about it. 

      I’m after time on this one. Not as a sketch, but a complete picture. 

       Honestly, I do images like this to keep the fun aspect of art alive. People always want to see their ordinary lives in art and I could never understand the reasoning. Why? But now I feel that what they’re trying to do is capture a feeling visually.

    So each layer of color adds emotional context. And if you miss that then there’s a good chance that your technically sound picture can feel dead.

     No artist wants a disconnect in his images. The thing with being self taught is that you have to realize this yourself; otherwise you’ll draw a lot of dead faces and mannequins, lol.

Laughing in the Pain

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      There’s a reason I hate doing landscapes. I grew up in a nonstop version as a kid. Later, the military made sure I had plenty of alone time in various natural locations around the world. Your dad took your family camping for a few days? My “uncle” Sam took me for weeks, sometimes months on end. It got old.

    Still, I can appreciate the value of being able to create one. So occasionally I give it a go. It’s good to practice ALL your skillsets, not just your favorites.

     So when I was asked to provide a serene sunrise image for a customer, I didn’t have a problem with the issue. It’s good to be able to have a diverse portfolio, you know?

      Working towards a complete picture is such a struggle. It took a lot of time for me to understand that, to a certain degree, I was little more than a glorified Xerox machine. I could copy, but I couldn’t create.

    It took an uncomfortably long period of time to develop my mind’s eye. To imagine something or someone and bring it out into the world is highly satisfying. I would never have learned to do so if I had stayed in my comfort zone.

   So it’s okay to try new techniques. Give something different a try! You’d be amazed at how many times it proved immensely helpful in a form I was already familiar with. If all you’re doing is stuff you already do well, be prepared to see your peers surpass you.

Bygone Be Gone

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      This year I’ve started the process of reducing the amount of non-art in my life. I’ve also started to do those things I’d avoided until now.

     The first thingis getting my furnace repaired; it caught fire a couple of years ago and I’ve endured some bad winters huddled in one room of my house.

    I had avoided fixing things because to do so meant conversations with my ex. That’s it. 

   On a similar note, I’ve paid for my mental health and physical injuries myself. After watching my dad’s frustration with the VA ( veterans administration), I was loathe to visit them, even though I was medically discharged and had received extensive psychiatric care. I just didn’t want to be deconstructed for a couple of dollars. Plus I was fine, I continually lied to myself.

    I started working on the floors upstairs in my house this weekend. I always had a reason to procrastinate. But I’ve decided that my house isa physical manifestation of my mental health and self-esteem. So shit gets fixed.

   Broke up.

    My art is now on display in my nearby comic store. They framed it and had me sign it, so they must like it…

     And I have a few vehicles to get rid of. Maybe I shouldn’t, but honestly I feel that I need to. 

I’ve been asked to do the covers for a few indie comics. With pay! So there’s that. I’m feel like I’m starting to get a set of goals. We’ll see.

   Last year I lost 60 pounds. This year I’ll settle for 40 more.  And the hair.

   I still don’t know about the hair.