Baby Steps

The top panel took 2 hours. I'll be working on this on my deathbed.

More Paintings

I will scan this once its further along so you can really see the details. On the left side you can see some of my initial layers, and then a later version. I work spontaneously right onto the painting, and then occasionally take the image into Photoshop and superimpose my initial sketch over it to see what I need to change. I end up with sort of a plastic surgeon's notebook page of changes. :) hehe

Sometime I will be more diligent in documenting the various layers that go into a painting like this - I do some fun stuff with pouring, dripping etc. Basically I came up with a line drawing, copied it by lightbox onto the paper, then painted loosely over it using a lot of liquid, flowing paint to get various exciting textures and a lot of movement. At this point the underdrawing is only vaguely visible, so i repaint it from what I can see of it, and then started applying really, really thin glazes of translucent acrylic. Then take it into Photoshop to compare to the original, fix stuff, paint more, on and on until I am happy. Depending on the subject and how things turn out on their own, I may be more or less meticulous about sticking to the original drawing.


There will eventually be a huge field of purple peonies in the background. I think.

This is coming along. I think it's mostly done - just needs some darker values and some more color in the twisted branches.

Big Blog

Wow, I haven't posted in a while and things are going very fast here....
A sampling:


Illustration for The Green Bird, Illustration Techniques. 8x10", scratchboard


Early stage of drawing for Drawing for Illustrators


Not done but mostly there.


Early stage of 3rd drawing for Drawing for Illustrators. The assignment is to do loose, unfocused markmaking (artist word! :D ) until an image starts appearing from our subconscious. Then we can start developing it.


...later on...


Done!


detail of bottom left corner


Pollockesque diptych of slouchy sad rabbit (left) and llama and bull's head (right). Not done. In the tradition of Ex Nihilo.


Experimenting with some new/old techniques. (Stuff I used to do a lot of updated with ideas from the internet).

More Fun Than Homework

I continued to productively procrastinate this afternoon by working on Retinue. It is coming along well and I have a spin-off piece using one of the figures.

Also doing some watercolor work in Illustration Techniques that I will post soon, maybe. Well, next week probably.

Retinue


Gaurd


detail

These things are starting to suggest other, bigger things to me.

Something From SCAD

I've been experimenting with the Scintique screens here at SCAD (you draw directly onto the screen using a stylus instead of using a mouse; it's just like using a pencil on paper (!!!!!)) and am digitally coloring this sketch/collage from my sketchbook.


Having some silly fun with lasers. :)



progress so far:

I need to redo the drawing on the pope/saint figure and figure out what drawing to do in the foreground.
(the main figure(s) are model Sean O'Pry, fyi)

Scratchboard

My current assignment for Illustration techniques here at SCAD-ATL is a set of three illustrations for a fairy tale, one large piece and two smaller spot illustrations. I chose "The Green Bird," my favorite Chinese fairytale (is it still a fairy tale if there are no fairies in it? Is it a folktale if it has magical elements? anyway...)
Top: sketch for large illustration (final here, bottom, spot #1 finished.
Cheers!

From The Home Decorating Front

Red is the Official Accent Color for the apartment.


Yesterday there was a huge thunderstorm (including The Loudest Thunderclap Ever!) It reminded me of Thailand; it was nice.