Tag Archives: art

Midst

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   Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

    Guy meets girl. They like each other. Guy asks her out. Girl says we’re friends. Guy moves on. 

    Normal, right?

  Followed by girl stalking guy and not leaving him alone. Because she can ladle out rejection, but apparently can’t take it.

    This week’s picture comes from a daily art challenge that I took on. I decided to make a few changes in the final image.

    First, I decided that instead of drawing all the folds and pleats in his clothing to simply make them a solid white. This involved drawing it as negative space, or the absence of imagery.

       This also meant I had to give a lot of attention to the background. Since my markers come in gradients, I was able to create the illusion of distant objects by drawing them first.

     In the end I was pretty content with what I came up with. It took 3 hours and was almost exactly what I had envisioned.

      Hope you have a great week!

Is Deep

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      Thumbnails can be fun as long as you can keep from going overboard.Which I rarely attempt to do.

     So instead I let myself have fun with it; I take it however far it can go. Sometimes I make a simple drawing; others I get the lizard, lol. 

      I guess what I’m saying is that I’m learning to remove the limits I put on myself. That’sa good thing.

      Right?

Twiddle

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     Believe it or not, I don’t always spontaneously draw things. I do prep work from time to time, like Batman, except I’m not just making shit up and claiming I knew the whole time.

      Screw you, Batman.

       The color pallet for this image had to be pretty exact; I couldn’t just use brown and say presto!

    The base is everything. Whatever the foundation color for a person or thing always try to lay that first. It matters because sometimes your whole image will fight you if you don’t.

       Some people do color shifts or values during this. With markers on sketchpad paper, all you end up with is mud, at least that’s been my result.

       I always break my subject down to my pallet range. Some parts may not need the whole setup, but everything gets its own thing.

         It’s fine to kind of step back along the process and see how far you’ve come and whether it makes a cohesive image. Practice will help with this aspect. In fact, DRAW ALL THE TIME. 

       There’s a lot of time to finish an image unless you’re under deadline. Don’t be afraid to slow down if you’re Java problem with a particular section; you can even practice it on a piece of the same type of paper you’re drawing on. I’m not done here, but it’s details now. All because I had a plan. 

😉

It’s Raining Bricks

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      So…I bore easily. Really, REALLY easily and art has always been the way I daydream. It allowed me to create whole worlds and explore trains of thought otherwise denied to me. I couldn’t imagine NOT having the ability; it is my mutant power after all.

      But I did lose it. Which should have been a sign that I’d lost myself as well, but I didn’t notice in the mess that my sanity was becoming. In the end I lost everything I cared about and did some inpatient time in a mental care facility.

    Yeah, not my best moment. But it doesn’t even make the top ten list, so no worries.

     One of the things that they offered me, besides a lot of pills, was a chance to draw. They were stunned at what I could do; so was I, having almost completely forgotten. By degrees, I rebuilt me. By hand.

    You could say art saved me. I regained my sense of self. Accepted a new role with my family. Got a new job. I turned it around. 

     Art was there when I was down and out. Now I draw everyday. I have customers, which I still find weird, hahaha. I’m content.

    No happy ending. But my happy place is only a thought away.

The Deluxe Life

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     The weather is breaking and its finally merely cold instead of frigid. I haven’t done much; work carried me out of town for awhile. Still, I managed to work on one image.

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   Using thumbnails is something I’ve never attempted before. Sure, I’ve made my share, but never with the intent of it being a primer. It was good to have a reference for the image I was creating.

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Working while working

      Prismacolor markers are getting to be really fun for me. Of course at some point I’m going to need to get back to digital art, if only to keep those skills intact.

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    For now though, I’m going to just roll with it. Life doesn’t always give me such a smooth road, so I’ll enjoy this period of creativity, thank you.

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Crushing Hope

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      So… I’ve acknowledged the fact that there’s one person who can totally knock me off my game. It’s a little sad, but it kept me from being as content as I try to be. So I drew this spontaneously while watching a Star Trek commercial…

       I was actually surprised at how well it turned out. The values were added first, followed by coloring. A lot of the time my mind wasn’t fully on it and I really had to concentrate to stay on task.

     The good news is that I got through it. The better newsis that I got through it. I hate being at the mercy of something like this. But if you’re trying to control life, it will hurt you. So I ride my lows, stay calm in highs and try to find comfort in the middle. Contentment.

Wubadubbawubwub

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In case you don’t understand the current reaction…

End of rant. On to art.

    So after a particularly vivid nightmare, started working on this script this week. It took five hours; this surprised me.

      You see, when I was a kid(hell, even now lol) I loved comics. Especially Marvel. Being artistic and all, I figured it was a cinch that I’d work there one day. I looked forward to it and one day I took a bold step. 

    I sent in a bunch of panels. 

     After what felt like I a century I got a letter. A rejection letter. I was crushed and decided maybe I wasn’t meant to be an artist after all. That I’d have to settle for my back up career as test pilot or astronaut. My drawing was covered in red ink corrections, a sure sign of authority. Damn.

     Years later I met the guy who sent me that letter, Jim Shooter. I told him about it and he asked how old I was when I did it. Six, I replied.

      The man was inconsolable. He actually teared up and told me he was sorry about it. He asked if I’d put my age on it. Hadn’t considered that. “No.” If I still drew. At that time, the answer was no. 

    I’m fine. My life has been a comic of sorts, full of adventure travel and tragedy, hahaha. No I didn’t become an astronaut, but I worked for NASA and met several. I even have a piece of Hubble’s old thermal shield, brought back after the lens repair mission.

   And I draw again. I don’t have any dreams attached to my art anymore. It’s for me mostly, with an occasional commission thrown in, mostly for ego sake. 

      Because I love art😉.

Tangent of Expectations 

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     Another weekend gone. This one especially sucks because I get to hear what appears to be a firefight outside. Great for celebration, not so much for PTSD based nightmares.

     Anyway, after a fender bender I was involved in last week, I decided to draw #jezebelle. It’s been awhile since I drew any vehicle.

    Since I didn’t want her to be all oblong, I actually used tools instead of freehand work. It was… interesting . Some of it came back right away. Other parts took a little erasing, lol. All part of the process, right?

       My life kind of falls away when I’m  really into a drawing. It’s a little hard to explain. I guess you could say that the only thing that exists for me is the next pen or brush stroke. Sometimes I wish I could stay there forever.

       Once it was completed, I stared for a moment, both happy and sad that it was done. My mind is already shaping other projects. The more I create the faster they seem to come to me. I’ll never be able to finish them all! 

Isn’t that great?

1st World Problems

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         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.

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      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.

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