Monthly Archives: November 2011

Practice Run

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It’s the small victories in life that mean so much sometimes. I have a spot on my  counter that’s been there since I have remodeled the kitchen five years ago. It’s something I look at pretty much every day of my life. Up until yesterday, I thought it would be there until the day I die. I was waiting for the pot to boil and had a minute to spare. Then, the idea came to me…why not use rubbing alcohol? It worked, and no more spot. A five year old eye sore, gone with a couple of swipes with a paper towel. I have wiped that thing down countless times in the past five years and now it’s a mere memory. I will milk this feeling for at least the rest of the weekend.

If you look at this sketch and think, “aw, how friggin’ cute…” then I have succeeded. I really pushed the perspective here. There is no sky, just more water crashing around these guys. No worries, though, they can’t drown. This sketch will be a prime candidate for painting soon.

Swamp character study

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Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.

                                                                                                     1 Peter 4:10

I can safely say that God has given me a wonderful gift. For the better part of my life, I have identified myself as being an artist and I am very proud of it. But, what if I stopped drawing tomorrow, or couldn’t draw for whatever reason. Am I no longer an artist? If not, then is my life over? Who am I at that point? I bring this up for one reason, and that is to say, I am not defined by my gifts, but what I do with them. And I don’t believe God gives us only one gift and that’s it. I think we have many gifts and we (God and the royal “we”) choose which we develop at different points in our lives. The important thing to remember is listen to what you’re saying to yourself and feeling and act on it. The best day I have ever had was when I was doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing. Today, it is drawing, tomorrow it will be Interpretive Jazz Tap Dancing.

…kidding…either way, chances are, it will have a profound impact on my life and hopefully, the people I touch. Just like the people who actually do Interpretive Jazz Tap Dancing or raising miniature ponies.

I was at a video production this evening (acting as a prop master – actual title) for a commercial. The leading actor is an Account Executive with an ad agency based here in Atlanta. She decided to start acting professionally fairly recently and it turns out, she is really good at it. You can tell she loves doing it just by the level of creative energy she brought to the project.

Anyhoo, the sketch…These characters represent attitudes. Can you guess which one goes with which character? They are, Myopic, Narrow-Minded, Paralyzed (fear), and Will-Power. This is for the swamp project I am currently working on. What a blessing this project has been

DetectBotOne

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Every once in a while, a drawing will take over my day. This is such a drawing. I can’t help but let it out. This isn’t the first drawing I started today. I was about twenty minutes into one before I was struck with this idea. It’s based on the old pulp detective magazine covers. Overall, I would say I have over three hours into it. That’s about twice what I normally spend on a sketch.

If I had more time to burn, I would develop the clouds more. They have so much potential. If I did, the skull wouldn’t be so obvious as it appears now.

Meathead

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My youngest son, Stephen cooked chicken this weekend and left a piece of raw chicken in the sink. I discovered it yesterday (I gave the maid the week off, okay?). I am still smelling rotting chicken flesh in the kitchen for some reason. There must be another piece somewhere. So, what do I do instead of look for it? I use the smell to inspire this drawing. After I finish posting, I will look for it. I mean, seriously, how many places can raw chicken hide?

Texture is key in this sketch. I want the user to recognize most of the textures here. Therefore, trying to figure out what the more foreign textures feel like, based on knowledge of all of them presented here. For instance, what might the neck feel like, based on the knowledge of the feeling of meat.

Airship Bridge

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In my mind, the airship body is made of the same material that jumpy-castle-thingy’s are, only they are a lot more resilient and won’t pop. How cool would that be? Flying in a giant jumpy-castle-thingy. If I could live in the world of my imagination for a while, I’d do it for sure. I think that’s why we like books like Harry Potter so much, because it allows us to visit J.K.Rowling’s world and see how she thinks. Somehow, we are able to suspend our own reality and accept someone elses as our own. Even if that world has unspeakable evil. I guess that makes the adventure that much more exciting.

Anyhoo, I started this sketch with the scroll work in the bridge. I discontinued the pattern because it seemed to just turn into a complex mess and had no real harmony to it. I then created the ship to the left and that felt more fitting. The way I “bridged” the gap was with a bunch of ivy. It almost gives the illusion that the scroll work is falling away from the ship just after turning into ivy leaves.

66cc

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My buddy, Tom over at Lillie Glassblowers is a steampunk artist. He’s creating some amazing pieces. As soon as I get a link to his stuff, I will post it. anyway, we got to talking about steampunk bikes, and apparently, he’s built one…or actually two…put together like a tandem bike. I need to get a pic of that, also.

Anyhoo, We discussed making a motorized bike. Come to find out, there’s a company out there that makes engines for bikes. If you follow the link and read the comments below, some of these guys are all about speed. Hehe. I am really thinking I may need to build this, or at the very least, buy one of these engines.

I can feel myself gravitating to the higher contrast, more “graphic”. I am working on a couple of logos (which I love doing) and that may be why. It’s evident in the upper right hand corner of the sketch.

Metro Study

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I had the buildings sketched out about 3 years ago. It was for a job I did for Intellum. The rest, I added today. I have always liked these buildings, however I thought they lacked something. Apparently, it was a robot walking through the scene.

I am starting to reuse elements in these types of scenes. I enjoy drawing them and want to see where they’ll go. The blimps are definitely WoW influenced. Perspective is key in this sketch. I was gonna draw another vehicle going in the opposite direction, but thought it may be a bit too busy and take away from the buildings.

 

Amy’s Parents

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This was for a friend of mine. There are not many people you can say you’ve known for forty years. Can you imagine being married to one for fifty? I can’t imagine doing anything voluntarily for that long.

This was a lot of fun. You can probably gather that the sketches on top are the younger versions of the couple below. When I created the groups of sketches, I tried to copy the eyes from the top characters and bring them down to the older ones. I think it worked, overall. The eyes match and it makes the older couple look a bit more lively.

Young King II

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I try to put a lot of thought into every line I put on the paper. Not to say, I pine over every line before making it, what I mean is each line has a relationship with the ones it touches. It conveys shape, density, depth, and even color.

If you strip away all the shading I do with the lines, this is what you get.