Overwrought Bot

Here's a new robot sketch painting, perhaps with a bit too many detail knickknacks, but I'll chalk it up to pushing it for the sake of learning.

I've been following a production path lately that I'm finding works pretty well for me... I'll do a painting with Colors, fairly monochromatic, and then in Photoshop I use a combination of Adjustment Layers and Layer Masks to add a little color. It's something I need to play with more, but it's promising.

Latest digital painting stuffs

It's been far too long since I've posted anything on here, but honestly, I haven't done much in the way of drawing or painting outside of work. I've had a couple of projects on my plate the last few months that have

fulfilled any digital painting urges I might have had. But with the holidays in our midst, I've got a little more time on my hands to start working on some of my own stuff again.

I just recently got a hold of a Nook Tablet, and have tried out some Android painting apps like Sketchbook Mobile and Fresco Pro with varying degrees of success -- since the Nook Tablet isn't using a full-fledged Android OS, I ran into some issues. Nonetheless, I gave it a shot. While it had a certain amount of novelty, I'm not really a fan of drawing on a capacitive screen, and I find that I'd still rather paint using the Nintendo DS, even in spite of its tiny screen. Here are a pair of doodles I did using Fresco:

Here's a piece I just did for an online contest on the toy blog TOYSREVIL, the topic being "My Fave Anime." ROBOTECH was highly influential for me, and doing my own take on one of the show's robots was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. This illo was painted in Colors! for DS and post-processed in Photoshop: 

What I've been up to lately

What have I been up to? Not much, at least insofar as drawing is concerned. Pretty busy at work, gearing up for the big industry show coming up next month, so not a lot of free time. At best, I'm able to scrawl the occasional doodle on some scratch paper I keep by my keyboard:

 

I've also been reading through some old workbooks from the Famous Artists Course (the ones I have are dated 1954) on the side, brushing up on my illustration/painting knowledge. Some good stuff.

I've been so busy that I've regretfully had to miss out on a the last couple of G+ Artist Sketch Challenges. Hopefully once I free up some time, I can go back and do some of the ones I missed, 'cause there were some really fun ones. Here are entries from the last few I participated in:

LUCHADORES DOING CHORES

EMULATE A FAVORITE ARTIST

YOUR DREAM JOB VISUALIZED WITH MICE

 Okay, back to work!

Sketch Challenge Batch

Here are the last couple G+ Artist Sketch Challenges I participated in:

 

08/30/2011: STUNT CHEFS

08/31/2011: YOUR CHINESE ZODIAC SIGN AND ELEMENT = CHARACTER DESIGN

09/01/2011: ANNE'S AWESOME ADVENTURES

09/02/2011: LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF HIT SONGS

The Sketch Challenges continue

 Here are my G+ Artist Sketch Challenge entries for the topic "Ways Penguins Fly":

The Frostfoot Flyer

Totoro & Pen Pen taking the top for a spin

I can't emphasize enough how much I'm enjoying these sketch challenges (big kudos to Carsten Bradley!), and networking via Google + in general has been, well, a plus. Being able to interact with all these great artists on there has been incredibly invigorating, and definitely gives my creativity a big ol' punch in the arm.

Matador

The model at last night's Figurative Illustration Workshop wore a matador's costume:

Drawn with blue pencil, brush marker, and Sharpie pen

Drawn with blue pencil, brush marker, and Sharpie pen

Painted with Colors! for DS on the Nintendo DS Lite

For the next session, our host Aaron Miller said he'd try to get a big poofy Renaissance costume for the model to wear. Fantastic!

New sketch challenge art

The G+ Artist Sketch Challenge has been responsible for most of my personal illustration output this past week, and it's been a lot of fun.

For the fantastically absurd challenge Gargoyles in Evening Wear Dancing with Famous People born on August 25th, I submitted this comic strip:

And for today's topic 80's Movies That Should Have Happened I submitted this drawing:

30 Days done!

Here's something I did for a daily sketch challenge, the topic being "Cartoons as Sea Creatures":

My Narwhal Totoro

Here's today's entry for "Unsuccessful Monster Cereals":

Gamera Crisp Cereal-- Stays scorching hot, even in milk!

And here's a sketch I did of an old man on the bus this morning:

I was looking at my calendar and realized that today marks 30 days since I made a formal commitment to draw at least once a day for a month. My posting frequency got a bit sporadic towards the end because of a heavy workload, but I still managed to eke out stuff.

Things I learned from these 30 days:

• I should have a sketchbook on my person at all times, because opportunities to draw abound
• I missed cartooning, I plan on doing more of it
• Google Plus is a great venue for sharing art with others. Great for networking with other artists as well!
• I used to not enjoy drawing with blue pencil because I thought it was too light... Turns out not all blue pencils are the same. Col-Erase for the win!
• I need to draw and paint more (Granted, I already knew that, I just realized it's something that'll always be true)
• I'm less afraid of ditching a drawing that isn't working, and start from scratch
• I'm more open now to getting things wrong being a part of my learning process. Failure for the win!

Sketchy sketch

Some robot and character doodles:

In other unrelated news, I believe Photoshop opacity masks have earned a place on my "These are a Few of my Favorite Things" list.

Loosening up

Been too busy lately to work on anything beyond doodles, but I've been sticking to drawing at least once a day. It's funny, with all these comics and pen sketches, I feel like I'm revisiting my cartooning roots from back in high school. Not what I had planned at the outset, but I'm curious to see where it goes.  

It's all about the journey...

People and ships

 Latest sketches...

 

I've been listening to the illustrator/painter-centric podcast "Drawn Today" and one of the topics in the episode I just listened to was the use of references. It was an interesting discussion, and something I hadn't really given a lot of thought to. Beyond drawing from life in my sketchbook or painting portraits, I don't know that I've really looked to references for stuff like, say, the robots and spaceships I doodle (at least, not consciously; I've got tons of toys and models around me all the time that certainly inform a lot of what I draw, but I think I absorb that osmotically more than anything else).  Something else to add to my list of things to work on.

Bus sketches

Drew some sketches on the bus this morning, trying to loosen up a bit...

Sketch roundup

Been slammed with work, I manage to get some sketch time in on the commute and at home after the baby nods off...

Bus sketch... Started out as a study of negative space, the scale went a little wonky here and there as the drawing was done over a couple different sessions (different buses, same model... took a heck of a time to get in the identical seat position though):

 And here are some doodles of ships n' robots:

Robot Salutations

For today's drawing/painting, a robot greeting:

Yet another Ashley Wood-inspired piece, created in Colors! for DS. Painting playback can be found on the Colors! gallery here.

Bruiser DX

Fighting tournament robot BRUISER DX,  something along the lines of Real Steel, or for those of you who might remember the old Playstation game, Zero Divide.

In other news, it's been a looong day.

Walker Mech

Managed to scribble out this sketch while I was waiting for files to copy over to my machine...

Down on the corner...

... Out here in the street! Some new commuter sketches:

   

Things are ramping up at work, so I won't get to post as often as I have lately, but I will keep on drawing.

The Tissue Issue

Lights out, uh huh...

Guest Comic

I'm currently working on the layout for a new comic strip. In the meantime, here's a comic from guest artist Mira, featuring dialogue from an actual conversation she and I had this afternoon:

 

Sometimes when I talk with her, I feel like I'm in a poorly translated foreign film. Maybe a Bollywood movie, since she occasionally breaks into a spontaneous dance routine.

It's a Friday

Not much on the illustration docket today... I started doodling a ship in Colors! for DS, but I'm not sure if I'm feeling it enough to finish...

I'm gratified by the positive response to the comic strips I've done recently, and I can say with certainty that I'll make a couple more in the near future. I have at least a few more ideas I want to play with.

 

I would prefer it if they stay fairly spontaneous; the minute it starts to feel contrived, I plan on giving it up. The joy of the strips for me so far has been that they're based on stuff that really happened.

Sleep? BAAA!!!

As per suggestion, here's last night's Facebook status converted into a comic strip...

Drizzle

For today's illustration, tried for a bit of a storybook feel...

And here are some quick sketches I did on the bus this morning:

Talk Time

After a long night of not much sleep because of a certain 19-month old, I had to get this out of my system...

Elder

I got on the bus this morning and down the aisle from me sat this elderly Asian man with a cane propped over his lap. Unfortunately someone was between us along my line-of-sight, so I could only see his head, hands, and knees. At first I thought to let it go as a missed opportunity, but it was just too good to pass up-- senior citizens often make good subjects to draw; their limbs tend to fall into dynamic angles, their clothes will drape over their forms in interesting ways. So I started to draw the man, and no sooner than the moment I put pen to paper, the person between us stood up and got off the bus. Yes! It then became a race against time, before someone sat between us again, the old man reached his stop, or I reached mine. I sat there scribbling away, juking my head back and forth trying to see around seats and bus poles. I imagine it looked rather silly, like a pigeon scanning a sidewalk for discarded Cheetos. Thankfully, I had just enough time to get the fellow down on paper...

30-day Drawing Commitment

My wife gave me this cool hardcover sketchbook that she made at North Branch Projects...

 
... and I decided to capitalize on the opportunity to fill it up, by committing to doing at least one drawing and/or painting everyday for a month. It may be from the sketchbook, could be a digital painting, or even something scrawled on a Post-It... and I might not be able to upload something everyday (it depends on my access to a scanner or a camera), but I will do my best to create something new each day, for the next 30 days.

So to kick it off, here's a pen-and-brush marker sketch... I like that it seems to tell a little bit of a story:

Figurative Illustration Workshop

Last night I attended the Figurative Illustration Workshop, hosted by illustrator/designer Aaron Miller at Platform Studios Chicago. (Thanks go to my friend Bleu for inviting me!) I had a good time, realizing in the process how rusty I was at dedicated figure drawing. I definitely intend to participate in future sessions, and highly recommend the workshop to other artists, it's fun!

Sidestepping the portrait for a bit

I've put the Mira portrait on hold for the moment, while I try to work out some color theory stuff in my head and on (digital) paper. I've been reviewing the sections pertaining to color in the Andrew Loomis book "Creative Illustration" and this part is what I'm trudging through:

It is obvious that all pigments of a given color do not match– we have a great variety and assortment of them, but they cannot be inserted harmoniously into a subject that did not start with them in the original palette or the three chosen primaries of the picture. Get this clear: There are three primaries of the spectrum, but you choose your own three primaries for your picture and paint the whole thing with them, and those three primaries are the parents to all your color. They are not to be confused with the spectrum primaries, since they may contain only ingredients of the primaries. They are called primaries only because they are the primary basis to all further mixture. If you will understand this you will never have to worry about relating color.

 That's one of my weaknesses, IMO, having colors relate in an image. I've usually just flung color about willy-nilly and more often than not lucked out without really understanding why it works when it does. At any rate, when I return to the portrait I think there's a good possibility I'll start over from scratch, taking into account some of the thinking about color I've been doing.

In other news, my friend Bleu invited me to check out this Figurative Illustration Workshop on Friday, and it sounds fun.

Buildings Roamin'

bil·dungs·ro·man/ˈbildo͝oNGzrōˌmän/
Noun: A novel dealing with a person's development or spiritual education.

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I've added buildings to my list of commute sketch subjects. I usually find myself shying away from drawing stuff that doesn't fall into the categories of human, robotic, or spaceship, but it's time to put away those tendencies. As they say, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained..."

Mira portrait continued

I've reached a stage in the painting exercise where I'm happy with the likeness for the most part, and if I wanted to I could just take the image into Photoshop, throw all sorts of effects and textures on it, and call it a day...

But that's too easy; I realize that's not the point of the exercise, which is to take the painting to as finished a level as I can. So I'm going to push forward, through the fear that I'm going to mess it all up. And if I do screw things up, at least I know I can always start again, and there's nothing wrong with that.