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.

Mira portrait WIP

So I ditched the previous version of the Mira painting I was working on-- using the DS, I felt like the image was too small. I decided to scrap it and start over, cropping a little closer to Mira's face; it occured to me that, if I really wanted to include her hands in the picture, I could take the painting into Photoshop and expand upon the details later.

I made a couple different attempts, but was finding myself frustrated. I realized that I was getting too caught up in the details too soon. I had tried plotting everything out with sketched line, and it just wasn't working for me. So I changed my approach, concentrating more on building up the image through tone. It's monochromatic at this stage, and once I'm comfortable that the values are where I need them to be, I'll work in more color. Looking at it now, compared to the photoref, I can see there are edits that need to be made, but I think it at least resembles Mira, so I feel like I'm on the right track. The painting's been developing pretty organically, I make changes as I go along. I'm not really trying too think to hard about it, just enjoying the ride...

 

Concurrently, I've been reading about John Singer Sargent's approach to painting. I've long admired his portraiture, and I know I can learn a lot from his work.

July update

Just finished filling up my spaceship/robot sketchbook, time to pick up a new one...

 

On the painting side, started working on an exercise using the kiddo as my subject... She's growing so fast!

As for the comic book, I decided to do several short unrelated stories, and compile them into a collection more or less. I've started scripting out two of them, and two more I've written springboards for. Inch by inch, day by day...