Life Drawing

I love ink and drawing hands and feet.

I'm also loving sign painting/stripping brushes with sumi ink.

Give these a shot if you like bold thick and thins:

Kafka Longliner Brushes

Mack Sword Brushes

2010 Sketchbook Preview

I've added a 99 cent sketchbook for download on Lulu for a limited time. This is a preview of my 2010 sketchbook for the 2011 Emerald City Comicon. Once the con hits this preview will be taken down and the full book, over 100 pages of sketches, will be available for download and physical delivery for 15 dollars.

I just finalized the 2010 book and it is well over 200 pages. This will change the price point I had been planning. I should have that update soon. Sorry about the adjustment, but this does mean twice as much art as expected!

 

 

sketches

I'm pretty sure I met Artemis incarnate. Rad!

Costa Rica trip album... AKA I like pigeons.

Costa Rica was so cold! But still wonderful. Tons of wildlife, forest, rainbows, great food, ... a destruction derby... Captions mostly aren't on the images yet and about three quarters in everything turns into pigeons. A lot of pigeons. :) I mostly was not doing much photography this trip so a lot of the highlights aren't really represented. Like stumbling around in the dark with flashlights listening to screaming coatis and avoiding tarantulas and tree dwelling vipers.

meerkats

Prepping sketchbook scans for Emerald City currently. Hope I can get this years sketchbook done in time!

Monster Home at Art Blocks for Ghana

Monster Home has been donated the the auction Art Blocks for Ghana.

Please click their link. Many many people have contributed fantastic work towards this charity event, and more is still on the way!

"The Picture Book Project Foundation presents Art Blocks for Ghana – a charity art auction of original works created by top artists within the animation and illustration community to provide boarding and education for orphaned children in Ghana, West Africa. Online art auction coming March 2011."

8x8
Pencil, Marker, Charcoal, Acrylic


Work in progress images

sketchbook scans

(I just saw the last couple of posts on a regular computer monitor. Oh man those scans are yellow. I'll see about posting nicer versions in a bit. Doing art on this laptop can be tricky!)

This first image is an exercise where I look at someone for a second, then look away and draw my impression of them. From that first image I begin breaking down and exaggerating forms. The sketch with the heavy darks was my initial drawing. This person was very beautiful, and at some point she noticed our drawing group and came over. I quickly flipped the page so she wouldn't see what I'd done to her. The flower was kind of a give away.

The green creatures are an example of marker bleed through my sketchbook pages and how I use that to play with. I try to take advantage of the random forms my tools offer up as a place to play with something unique. I wouldn't have drawn that otherwise. It's quite fun and learning to have fun in this way has had the side effect of making me relax about my physical work. I can't say I'd be happy initially, but if I dropped a sketchbook in a bucket of water it's likely I'd find up sides and play around with the results. In my mind I'm a messy artist, in practice, I'm kind of a stiff. As Scott would say, I want to rub my face and roll around in it.

tools

My current tool set. 

I use the Pilot, Lamy, and Kuretake the most. 

The last two, you could argue are excessive, but they feel balanced in the hand, draw well, and last a long time. You can replace the brush tip on the Kuretake, giving it great longevity. I've used lots of brush pens, but they haven't lasted too long in my meaty paws. I do like abused brush pens for grimy texture. The Kuretake is holding up well so far and the brush tip remains consistent and smooth.

Also, there is a cool product called sugru if you want to make a custom drawing grip that feels great and can be removed.

I love these skinny little cashier moleskin notebooks. The pages are perforated and can be torn out easily. If they are too big you can cut them up to fit in your pockets. 

The Studio Goods sketchbook is wonderful. It opens FLAT! Beyond being well made, you can scan this sketchbook without the crappy warped seams appearing. No more crushing my scanner to get a clean image. :) Also, it is bound with string. You can snip the strings and remove all the pages with zero harm done. My only complaint is that markers bleed readily through the paper, but I don't use markers much. Plus when bleeds do happen I just draw fun creatures from the bleeding shapes.

Also, also, if you want to get into serious drawing tool trouble Matt sends people here.

Happy New Year!!!! and trip sketches

James and I went to Costa Rica(will post pics later). James drew a ton, but I didn't, I needed to look at the world around me too much. However, I got super inspired by the gold figurines found in the country, the cloud forests, fellow travelers, Riki Tiki Tavi, AND by Felo Garcia's artwork. I saw a show of his work at the Bank Museum in San Jose and it really amazed me. Such wonderful sensibilities!

I keep drawing people, trying to caricature them. I like what I draw, but, well, I worry the people I'm drawing will catch me doing it. If they see what poor portrayal they have inspired, what corruption I've accomplished... I'm bad at capturing the person, but not too bad at pulling out a character. I fear making someone very sad, that what I do might be taken as a reflection of their actual appearance. I wonder sometimes though, if I showed the drawing to them what the actual reaction might be. I have no eyes for human beings, but hope to develop them. I can get pretty jealous of people who are good at portraits. People like people. It's a fact.