How much Portishead can you listen to until you need to hear Culture Club? No Wham though, that stuff was too angsty. Oops, did I just date myself?
Seriously, though, I’ve been put in charge of making video graphics at work! Hope I do well…
I’m heading on to my next drawing. Because I have to complete a lot of them, I’m getting a lot of practice. With all of the time I’m spending on this, I actually feel more centered and peaceful.
My girlfriend is being pretty understanding, so I try to do nice things for her, like restaurants and stuff. After all, being supportive is important to me. So I fully intend to return the favor.
In fact, since I dedicated myself to drawing, my life has gotten better. I shouldn’t be surprised though.
My art feeds from any negative emotions or experiences in my life. I’ve always known this intellectually. But there was a decade long span in which I didn’t draw. I was angry and hurt.
My wife left me.
I instinctively began drawing after my suicide attempt.
I’ll admit it; I sucked hard at first. But I felt better. But something was missing and it took awhile to get it. Darkness and sadness can’t be allowed to build up or it can overwhelm you. I let my pride in my own resistance blind me to my truth.
…I guess I’m a good person. I just feed on bad emotions. Mine. Yours.
Feed me.
The all or nothing approach is getting to be a bad habit. There’s quite a way to go before this is a finished image, but the results should be worth it. More ideally, all of these images done in this style are beginning to have their own flair. In other words, the more I draw, the more clearly defined my technique becomes.
A friend of mine showed me his brand new Cintiq yesterday. For those not in the know, it’s a digital tablet of sorts, used by artists. So now I have a goal.
The fourth of July weekend is usually the time to take off and enjoy your friends and family. Instead, my girl gets to watch me draw stuff like this. And my customers get to have a little relief. I hate splitting my attention. I wish I could draw all the time. Don’t worry though, it’s coming.
In the meantime, I get to do this as much as possible. Thanks for being along for the ride, guys.
Ta Daaa! Finished! Its been kinda fun working on this, and I hope its well received. As always, I learned a little more with this image and my design choices are getting better. The old me definitely would have chosen a plain background!
Coming to the end! While everyone else is going to be celebrating the 4th, I’ll be busy finishing up. There isn’t a lot left; make the background shape an actual circle, take some of the length out of her neck. Stuff like that. Plus I edited a 20minute piece at work that I’m proud of. Everyone seems to love my footage and style, so I get to keep working. Yay!
Oh, this? This is the one off version that will have the models name in it. Her poster, after all…
I found myself, for the last few weeks, immersed in work. I’m a videographer officially; it’s how I make a living. So whenever I end up on the road, I do what I’m paid to do. However, that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been thinking about my projects.
Last night I covered a lot of ground on the image I started. When it’s done, the talent will get a poster of it. Awesome, right? Then I have a whole slew of bodybuilders to get going on. Man, I’m not going to have any kind of social life!
Okay the flag looked a little clunky. So I got rid of it, which meant I had to do something with her other arm. Plus I had to consider her light sources, so in the end I came up with this. Now to add a color layer and check it all out…
…success!
After a LOOONG work day, I came home and finished up some of the coloring for the bodywork. For me this is easier than everything that came before. The hardest part is knowing when to stop adding detail. Sometimes I go too far and can’t recover, but an artist named Warren Louw explained it to me.
Ha! Warren. If you had told me in the 80’s that one of my friends and mentors would be a white South Afrikaan, I would have laughed at you. I’m glad my world has grown. I was never prejudiced, but apartheid didn’t seem like a friendly environment to me. In many ways though, its a version of my beloved South.
Line work SUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKSSSSSS! Still, the results are worth it. I’m kinda tired right now, but I decided to post this so you can see I’m not slacking off.
Once it’s done, simply make a selection of the line work and on a separate layer add your chosen color. You’ll probably have to invert it, so just use Ctrl+shift+I (invert).
Well that’s it.I’m off to bed. I earned it
Howly Time! 