Vegas baby, Vegas!

Went to Vegas for Christmas, good times. Wish I drew more, but too much going on. I did manage to get some airport sketches in though.

I'm trying to get more caricature in my sketches since getting just a likeness is starting to bore me.


I incorrectly was under the impression that this pen was waterproof. Nope.


This guy's wife was on to me, so I had to pretend I was drawing someone else. I hadn't been too kind to her husband in this drawing, so I wanted to make sure she wasn't going to come over and ask to see it. I guess that's always the danger... and part of the fun.



Have a great New Year everybody and I'll see you in 2006 with more drawings and maybe a book!

Snow on the brain

So, Ed The Monkeyking and I did a drawing exchange. I can't wait to see what he drew, but until then, you can see what I did. I'm starting to like this inking with a brush a lot more...

Make sure you go check out the Monkeyking's BLOG!.

Then, I decided to try out some new custom brushes in photoshop and I threw some colour on it. I wanted to try and do a "different than the usual" colour scheme for snow, as well as see how dark I could make her colours without losing her in the tree. It was of mixed success, but fun none the less.

SEASONED GREETINGS!

Merry Christmas to everyone who checks out this little blog.

And as an embarassing little extra, I kind of tracked the process of this year's Christmas card which you can see below...

I posted the thumbnail ideas for this card a few posts ago. Those lead to this pencil drawing. As you can see, there are MASSIVE problems with her right arm. I just handled it poorly, and my solution to the design was weak. The main problem being that it doesn't look like there is an arm under that sweater.



So, I tried to fix it when I inked it. I think it works pretty well. The lines of the sweater might lose her a bit in the texture of the tree, but I think the colour fixes that problem. Normally I would try and make the character clearly defined at the ink stage, and not depend on the colour, but I changed my mind on how to handle the tree (originally it was going to be just a black silhouette.) I also wanted to maintain some sort of texture to her sweater.

Sketchcrawl 6 - The Living Room!

Sigh, good times, good times. Remember when that guy did that thing, and then you drew that other thing with the bird and the gasoline powered generator. Yeah, that was cool too. The gold bars? Oh yeah! That was crazy! I was surprised that you can catch an escaped rabid tiger that quickly... well, of course everything comes at a price. No, I hear prosthetic limbs are quite good these days.

Ok fine, I wasn't there! I was trying to cover up the fact, but you had to spoil it. Was my story too unbelievable, or was it the lack of drawings?

Any ways, I had to bow out of Sketchcrawl 6 because of other things of a Christmas nature that needed to be taken care of as well as the fact that we (as in my girlfriend and I not the royal we, and certainly not the me and my other personalities "we.") got our couch yesterday and I needed to wait for the delivery truck. In honour of no longer having to sit on a Vietcong Bamboo Torture Cage (AKA a Papasan) I drew this in lieu of a full blown sketchcrawl. I shall be there next time!... unless I'm too busy being comfortable on our new black leather couch.

Rock

For some reason, I drew a quick model sheet of one of the guys I work with. You'd think I have better things to do with my time.

Searching

Looks like more Christmas stuff. I'm still trying to figure out this year's card. I have had a bunch of different ideas (which I guess is better than no ideas at all) but I think I'm finally getting close. Here are some quick sketches of a few of said ideas.

T'is the season

If things went as they should, I would have my Christmas card already designed and drawn, alas such is not the case. Instead, I have designed this year's wrapping paper. This is something I started a couple of years ago when I didn't have much cash. It was cheaper for me to draw something up on 11x17 paper and make a bunch of photocopies of it, than it was to purchase wrapping paper. Now I just do it for fun. I'm pretty happy with how this year's turned out; now if I only knew what my Christmas card will be...

Rockets Away

Hmmm... what the heck is this? It's a rather lame attempt at one of those assignments my friend and I give to each other. This one was Rocketboy. I have no idea where that rat came from or why I've allowed him to have a match around a small child. At least I was smart enough not to light it for him...

Happy Thanksgiving

Wel, my buddy Robert told me this morning that he is attending 3, yes THREE Thanksgiving dinners. This of course required a drawing of him after all of those drawings.

Have a safe holiday everyone and try not to consume too much tryptophan...

For something in the future

Haven't been posting as much as I would like. Here are some sketches that I did in my book as I try to figure out a decent bear design. The design isn't there yet, but I'm getting closer.

Eventually, you will see what this is for, but not quite yet.

Sketchcrawl 5.0 ALCATRAZ!!!

Took me a few days to get around to posting this. I was hoping to post photos as well, but I just haven't had the time to upload them from my camera.

It was another gorgeous day in the Bay area, these Sketchcrawls have managed to have some great weather. I had never been to Alcatraz before and I think I should have gone earlier so that I could focus on drawing this time out. I was caught up in the overwhelming amount of information and massive amounts of things to draw thus, not much drawing was done. Not many people use the word "thus" any more. If I had more pull, I might try to bring it back. Um any ways, as I was saying, hopefully I will be a little more prolific next time...


I liked the shape in this, but I wish I had "pulled the camera back" to see more of the building.


I would have liked to do caricature portraits of all of the famous inmates, but I think people were getting tired of me standing in the way while I drew this. The wonders of digital technology allowed me to take the drawing outside, and slap some washes on it using the pic I took with my digital camera as reference. My teachers in school always told me to draw from life, I wonder what they would say knowing that this is done from a picture of a picture?

Ukelele

Yesterday's assignment was "Little girl with Ukelele." This one is a little messy...

Book bag

My friend Robert and I give assigments to each other to do over lunch. Here is one from earlier in the week, girl with a book bag. I wish I used a bigger dot screen pattern.

The Idea Dictates Everything

Saw David Lynch give a talk last night on his films, consciousness, creativity and the brain. Above are my notes from the talk. He was a fascinating speaker and had some really interesting insights into the act of creativity and how to help realise your maximum creative potential through meditation. Really interesting stuff.

From a filmmaking perspective, I think the best piece of knowledge I took from his talk is that "The idea dictates everything that follows." Seems obvious I realise, but I think it is something that should always be in the forefront of your mind, not just when making a film, but I think it can be applied to any artistic endeavour. The initial idea, what you are trying to say, will dictate everything that follows; it will inform every decision you make about what elements you will use to communicate that idea.

It filled my head with far too many ideas, and my head raced most of the night. It took me forever to quiet my brain so that I could sleep... where I had many insane dreams where humans would turn into cartoon versions of themselves and then return to relative normalcy. They only spoke in numbers. I guess Lynch messes with your head be it in person or with his films. If you have the chance to see him, I would do it. The evening was free and we got a dvd from another lecture he gave. I think you can watch it online at www.davidlynchfoundation.org

Tank Girl

Sigh, one of my favorite comics from back in the day. Yes, the stories were zany, but it was Hewlett's art that I was truly drawn too. The obsession continues today, and he remains a major influence on my drawing. That said, this was an exercise in drawing one of his characters without evoking his style, yet still trying to capture the spirit of the character. I have drawn her in the past and they always came out as an imitation of his style, instead of a drawing that was truly mine. I think this is closer to a more personal approach.

Just for fun I scanned this at various stages so you can see the pencils, inks, and final colour.

I've been goofing around with roughing stuff out in yellow pencil, it's kind of hard to see while I'm refining the drawing, but when you drop it into photoshop and change the mode to grayscale, the yellow drops right out leaving a clean, inked drawing. It disappears completely, unlike the supposed non-photo blue I have used occasionally in the past.



Here's the ink. I'm starting to feel more comfortable inking with a brush, but I am still not convinced that this is the final direction I want to go. There are elements of pencil and pen that I really like that I cannot capture with a brush, perhaps once I gain more control. That said, I love the loose quality of line you can get with a brush, it really helps maintain the life and spontaneity of a drawing. I think most of my inking with a pen has killed the drawings to some extent. Perhaps they aren't completely dead, but in the very least they ended up brain starved zombies, craving my cerebral cortex as a mid-afternoon snack.

It ain't no Tadahiro

Well, another experiment with the digital colour. This time I left it as a pencil sketch then coloured it. I was going for that Tadahiro Uesugi feel. If you have never seen his work, you should check out his site, he is truly amazing. You can find his siteHERE He'll be in Los Angeles in November at THE NUCLEUS GALLERY in a show called 3 TREES MAKE A FOREST. He is doing the show with 2 other outstanding artists RONNIE DEL CARMEN and ENRICO CASAROSA

Binary Code Girl

Hmmm, blogger won't let me upload any images. I can't have posted 300 images already, nowhere near it. Now I have to figure out this damn coding.

Any ways, if this works, you're looking at another attempt at digital colouring.

and now for something completely different...

Let's switch things up a little. My friend and I have been drawing tigers. I don't do much digital colouring so I thought it was time to try something new...

Grrrr

Feeling a little uninspired and thus, a little frustrated. The drawing feels the same.

Still more girls

A couple more for the road...

I don't know what's up with my proportions lately.

Even more girls

I don't know whether I'm really learning anything from this recent swarm of girl drawings, but we'll see where it goes.

2 more

Unfortunately, her hands don't relate very well to her face, but the rest of the drawing I like. This is what happens when I don't analyze the drawing enough before I ink it. Will I ever learn?

More girls

Maybe if I draw enough of them, I'll finally figure out how to draw them. That's the theory any ways.

In an attempt to loosen up with the inking, the left leg became kinda wonky, but I still like the drawing, flaws and all. The other's head may be a bit big, but I like the attitude. Not sure why I've been drawing girls with solid black eyes. There's more...

Girls.

Haven't done any drawings in my girl sketchbook in a while so, I thought it was about time. These were all done with the brush, which is slowly becoming a favorite tool... for sketches any ways. Not so sure about finished work, but we'll see.

More fun with a brush pen

Just playing around some more with the brush pen. I'm starting to get a better handle on inking with a brush, but I'm still not sure if I want to ink my next story with one or not. I love the lively line and how, if you stay loose you can better maintain the spontaneity of the original drawing. On the other hand though, there are still elements that I like about inking with my pens. I guess I'll just have to do more tests...

Delicatessen

I saw Delicatessen when I was in my last year of college. A friend had recommended it to me and the story was one of those that I was immediately drawn to just for its weirdness. It was one of those few films that I just bought without ever having seen it, knowing that it would be something that I would really enjoy. I was right, it quickly became one of my all time favorite films, and Jean Pierre Jeunet (even though he co-directed this with Marc Caro) instantly became one of my all time favorite directors.

Fast forward to last Saturday... The Rafael Film Centre was screening a copy of the film. I've never seen it on the big screen, but even better, Jeunet himself would be there to introduce the film!!! He gave a great little talk about the film including the fact that we in North America have never seen a proper print of the film. The printing process that was required for the film was rather expensive (since Darius Khondji was the cinematographer, I would imagine it was the bleach bypass process) Miramax refused to do it, so the print was never as good as the one seen in Europe. Jeunet said he was always rather embarassed by the "$#!T U.S print" as he put it. So, for this screening, a new digitally remastered print was made and we got to be the first U.S audience to see a proper print of the film. I always loved the cinematography of the film, but I was amazed by how much MORE colour there was in this print, it was simply stunning. The video copy I had was much more brown, but this new print was a true treat. Hopefully the new print means they are preparing to finally release the dvd over here, it has been something that has been missing from my collection for far too long. If you haven't seen Delicatessen, go to your local video store and hunt down a copy.

Miyazaki inspired

Thankfully, my deadline was pushed back (that almost never happens) so, I have a little extra breathing room. Thus, last night after watching the story reel of NAUSICCA, this ended up in my sketchbook. The values could use some work but, it's kinda fun.

Do yourself a favor and pick up the DVD release of NAUSICCA: VALLEY OF THE WIND. Miyazaki's storyboards are staggeringly beautiful. He has such a loose, confident line and his compositions are fantastic.

Nausicca!? Why does he keep talking about Nausicca? This is obviously inspired by TOTORO! Shut up.

The new brush pen

Whew, just got a massive deadline dumped in my lap so, I might not be around these parts much this week. Until then, here's a little experimenting I was doing with my new Kuretake Brush Fountain pen.

Nothing

Sometimes, I just don't have any ideas...

Unsanctioned

My buddy Robert came up for a visit from Phoenix this weekend and we went on a two day unsanctioned Sketchcrawl 4.5. Sketchcrawl was the brainchild of Enrico Casarosa and I was lucky enough to go on Sketchcrawl 4 last month (see one of my earlier posts for some sketches.) Enrico is a great artist and you should check out his work HERE You can also see his work and many others on the SKETCHCRAWL WEBSITE AND FORUMS

We started in Marin County on Friday at Muir Woods, then we headed to the beach which is the pic you see at the top of this post.


Eventually we made our way back to San Rafael for a tasty dinner at La Toscana and then for some Apple Cider at the Aroma Cafe. By that point we were both kind of tired and some punchy drawings like above happened.


Day 2 started in San Francisco. Robert didn't get to go on Sketchcrawl 4 so, I thought I would take him on a route similar to the one we all took back in late August. That means we started at Delores Park. I don't know why, but I seem to start these days out with some rather detailed work instead of some light easy sketching to warm myself up.

We eventually made our way to the Haight-Ashbury district where I did some rather dreadful drawings. While in the area I was called a pimp, we got to see a guy try to jack a car, we were asked if we wanted any bud, and I was asked by some scary guy in Golden Gate Park whether I wanted to see his hog. Oh the joys of the big city.

By this point the sun had disappeared under some clouds and the wind kicked up. We sheltered ourselves in the Canvas Cafe where Robert got to see the Dan Lee Exhibition before it was taken down that same evening. We drew some caricatures (with mixed results) of some of the patrons of the cafe.


We then ended the day in Sausalito for a last sketch or two. This was probably my best of the day although, I wish I had captured the warm light that was hitting the buildings as the sun began to set. I was tempted to go back in when I got home with a few hits of gouache, but I thought it was best to leave well enough alone. Returning to a painting usually leads to me screwing it up.