Artist/Artifice (Whatever)

Most people don't think themselves creative, but each day we push our own individual narratives forward. We make choices, and through action or inaction, these decisions become part of our story. A grain of sand is a mountain to something smaller than it, so then how big are our interactions really? What's the true scale of a word? How impactful is a plea for help? What are the consequences of a touch? How do these things relate to our stories as people?

The only things that are truly "real" to us are the boundaries between each other. Differences in shape, color, size, this is how we navigate the world. Take away those methods of distinction and we end up in endless grey.

I guess that's why I've always been drawn to abstract art; it makes me try to understand things in a different way. It's a means of looking at objects, people, feelings - from the inside and outside - with an open mind.

I don't know what this piece means, but it got me here so maybe that's meaning enough.

That's all for tonight, I'll hopefully be posting more art soon!

Through Eyes of Kindness

So much has happened lately, in my own life, and around the globe. Every day we're exposed to scenes of loss, heartbreak, and "righteous" anger in response. As I was sitting at my computer the other day I decided to express my feelings about all of this through art, this piece is the result.

I think that in life we're all desperately trying to connect with each other by any means that we can; whether it be sharing a story with a friend, a smile, or striking up a conversation with a stranger. We want to surround ourselves with people to ground us, center us, guide us, and to help fulfill us - and whatever we feel our ultimate purpose in this life to be. I feel like most of us view people that would cause others harm as individuals doing just that, fulfilling their purpose to cause harm, but I disagree. People that maim and murder, in my eyes, are people that have lost the tools that allow them to connect with those around them the way they normally would. They aren't "programmed to kill," or "inhuman," they're doing the only thing they can to connect - to commit atrocities that bring the attention of the entire world upon them. In today's world it seems like the cry of a mother that has lost her son echos farther than the laughter of that boy while he was alive. We need to treat the disenfranchised, the sick, and the troubled, with kindness. We need to connect with those around us. We must stop using hate and violence to respond to those that are violent and hateful to us.

It's our responsibility to create and maintain an environment that supports and surrounds our fellow humans with love, and I believe this will only happen when we can see others without hate.

Hello again!

Hey everyone, long time no see! I took a little break but I'm back with something new for you this evening.

While I was away I found that I felt digital art was getting me down. We might have things like Wacom tablets to help us create in a digital space, but it's just not the same as working with traditional materials. Drawing everything a thousand times over in Photoshop was starting to get humiliating. I know I can draw beautiful lines with a pencil or pen, but a stylus just can't seem to capture the fluidity of those strokes. For that reason what I've got to share this evening is an actual painting, I used acrylics and everything! Check it out!

I absolutely love this painting! Not only do I like the finished product, I really enjoyed making it. The proof may be in the pudding, as the saying goes, but the fun is in the creating! Now this might look a little abstract, but it's actually based on a picture I took today. You'll find that picture below.

Can you tell what it is? It's a close-up of a palm tree, right up at the very top, just before where the fronds come out. It was in my front yard and looked cool, so I thought it deserved a photo. I just love the texture in tree bark, it's so beautiful. For that reason I wanted to try and capture it in a painting. Now the color is off a bit between the two, the reason being that my printer is horrible. I tried to print the image so I could use it as a color reference, but no matter what I did my printer made the colors appear cooler than they actually were. That meant I had to do my best to remember what they really looked like! I'd say that in that respect I'd score maybe a 6 out of 10, haha!

I took a few more photos out in the yard this afternoon, and since I have some paint and canvases left over you might be seeing another painting from me soon.

I'll leave you all with a gif; first showing the reference image, then the painting. Thanks for stopping by, and I'll see you next painting!

A Break, Not Broken

Hey everyone, I don't have any art for you this evening but I do want to discuss my plans for the future of this blog.

I've posted a lot of artwork here, I've made a ton of discoveries through the work I've done, and it has been really fun! I also feel like that it has become a habit that's starting to be unproductive. Instead of focusing on the work I need to be doing to get better, I've condemned myself to throwing up a post here each day and calling it progress.

I know I mentioned before that I wanted to start doing something different, and I think that "something different" is going to be taking a step back for a bit. I'm not giving up on this blog, but I need to reevaluate my approach to improving as an artist.

This might be my last post for awhile, or it might be my last post for the next few days. I just want to make sure that I really start putting more work in so that I can get better, and if I've got something to share you'll be able to find it here!

Thanks for sticking with me, I'm sure I'll see you all soon!

Rats, er, mice!

Last night I decided I was going to do something different, and tonight I did just that! While these aren't the most impressive things I've ever drawn, they were fun! Check it out.

I drew the sketch at the top right first, but I couldn't quite use my tablet to create lines that looked the way I wanted, so I decided to switch it up. The next mouse I drew was the one on the center-left. Instead of working from a line drawing I decided to block in the mouses' shape first with a medium grey. I then added in some darker tones to help define its body a bit better, at that point I decided to start again because its pose wasn't really working for me. My final doodle was the largest mouse in the image. I followed the same steps that I used on the second mouse, but added more in the way of value and detail. This was a fun little exercise that helped me to develop a plan of attack for digital studies. It also made me realize my digital sketching technique could use some work. Guess I'll have to figure out some drills I can do to improve!

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

A Beautiful Failure

Last evening I started the painting I'll be sharing with you now, but about halfway into the process I began listening to something titled "Why Your Drawings Suck" on YouTube. Let me just say that it was more than illuminating. Before I get into the details though, I'm going to let you see the image I was working on. Check it out!

In the interest of full disclosure I did kind of give up on this about three quarters of the way through, but there's a reason behind that! And that reason is; this sucks. It sucks. This is sucky art. I don't expect everyone that might be reading this also has the time to watch a twenty six minute long video, so let me summarize it to qualify my previous statement. The artist that created that video listed several factors that contribute to "art that sucks," I'm gonna put those below.

• Line Dependency
• Lack of References
• Technique
• Confidence
• Not Drawing Enough
• Community

Now, let me go ahead and use these bullet points to tell you why this piece sucks. I didn't use any references, I haven't been drawing enough, and I have no real community around me to critique my work. I think I can say with confidence that I have some confidence in my ability (technique), and I've never used lines as a crutch, so that checks three out of six off that list. I feel like I'd be in a much worse situation if I were struggling in other areas, so if these are the problems I have, I'm not to bummed about it.

It's really kind of crazy but I included this in my blog yesterday, and this was before I started listening to that video, "It's impossible to draw what you imagine to if you can't realize what's in front of you". That's my problem in a nutshell, and listening to Istebrak (the creator of that video) confirmed that for me. I really need to start doing more studies, use references when I have a solid concept that I want to realize, and get involved with more artists.

I find it easy for me to forget that when you're at a computer you have access to almost all of the information in the world, along with the people that share it. I so frequently use it to browse the same websites, talk to the same people through social media, and do the same stuff! For that reason I think it's time to do something different, to start being really serious about turning my passion into a career. So that's what I intend to do.

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

Study, study, study

Sometimes it's nice to take a break from drawing imaginatively and draw from life! That's just what I did today, take a look!

To be fair, only one of these things was actually drawn from life (the sketch on the left), but it was a fun exercise! The drawing on the right side of the page was done from a picture I found of a pomegranate online. They're really a very beautiful fruit, I can see why they wound up in old masters' paintings. I used to think drawings like these were pointless, but now I realize the value of them. It's impossible to draw what you imagine to if you can't realize what's in front of you!

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

どうもありがとう!

I was lucky enough to have some down-time at work today so I thought I'd use that to my advantage and start on my post for tonight. Here's how it turned out!

It's some kind of robot! Neat, right? I created this on my iPad in about an hour and had a lot of fun doing so! I must admit that I've been feeling a bit burnt-out lately, so I haven't been able to put a ton of effort into my art. I'll still be posting every day though, I'd be crazy to ruin a more than year long streak!

That's all for tonight, check back tomorrow for something new!

Daren't Disparage Doodles

Hey everyone, and welcome back to Triple D! No, wait, that's not right. I drew something, you should totally look at it.

So I just started scribbling in some orange on a grey background and out popped this! It kind of looks like a Jawa from Star Wars which is totally cool with me. Last night's piece got me interested in playing around with color a bit, so that's why I went with some warmer tones here.

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

Blue

I didn't get around to painting today, but I did create a fun portrait in Photoshop, check it out!

I wanted to use some analogous colors in this piece and I think doing so made it a little more interesting. I don't draw a lot of faces, so I thought this might be some good practice!

That's all for this post, stop by tomorrow for something new!

Real Paint

Today I got to sit down with a good friend, put a real paintbrush to canvas, and paint! It was a lot of fun. While what I worked on isn't finished yet, I wanted to share with you what work I did, check it out!

It might not look like too much at the moment, but I think it's coming along nicely. I was inspired to paint a scene I captured in a photograph earlier this week, and that's the beginnings of it above! I'll be sharing that photo once I post the finished piece, I think it'll be a little more fun that way! 

Here's another look at my painting along with the palette I mixed my colors on.

As a quick note, I was really surprised at how dark the paint dried! These pictures were taken just a few moments apart but the painting actually ended up drying a little bit darker than it looks in the second photo! I felt this was worth mentioning because it's something I'm definitely going be mindful of when mixing colors in the future.

This was a really enjoyable change from what I've been doing lately, and I hope to paint a bit more tomorrow. Make sure to stop by then!

What is this? I don't even!

Hello! It's about to get very weird up in here, check it out!

Sometimes you draw things and go, "wow, this is cool!". Other times you draw things and say, "what the hell is that!?", this is one of those times. Uhm, yeah. So he's some kind of DeVito-esque creature with boxing gloves for hands and an unfortunate taste in swimwear and hairstyles. I really don't know how this happened, but it did, so it's here.

That's all for this post, stop by for something new tomorrow. Hopefully it'll be less unnerving.

Grey Gardens

I must confess I've been feeling a little artistically challenged these last few days. I've got time, resources, and space to create, but it's just not really happening. I keep starting pieces and then abandoning them for some reason. I've got two such images to share with you this evening, take a look.

This character, and his location for that matter, are pretty reminiscent of what I already created here. Looking at this critically now I'm realizing a small part of why I've been frustrated with my work lately. I keep forgetting about the story! I'm not asking important questions like, "who is this character?", "what is he doing there?", "what is he looking at?", and so on. I feel like I'm drawing for the sake of it, which is definitely not my goal. If anything it's counterproductive! Here's another sketch I started this evening.

I think there's a lot more going on here as far as story goes, but I feel like I needed to develop this character's story further before I tried to convey it in a drawing.

I don't really know what the future holds for this blog at the moment. Last year it was a way for me to draw more, and to commit to improving, but I feel like my art's kind of stagnating right now. I don't know if I'm wrestling with artists block or what, but I feel like I've got to do something different.

Maybe I need a break?

Sthrowback Sunday

I've started a lot of cool pieces this year, but I haven't actually finished any but one. In light of that fact I decided to work a little more on something I've shared here previously, check it out!

I posted the beginnings of this back on January 20th, but I haven't gotten to work on it since. I think it's turning out really nicely! I wanted the robot to look a little goofy, and I think his face matches that description nicely, haha! I was also able to add a little more detail into the foreground, background, and sky. One finishing touch I added was to brighten the image up overall through a levels adjustment layer in Photoshop. I did this because while the original image looked nice on my computer monitor, I viewed it on another computer screen and found it to be a bit too dark. Making that adjustment also added a little more contrast into the image, which is always a good thing!

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

Baby Steps

Hey everyone, got another late night update for ya! Take a look!

You might remember this from it's original post here. I felt like it needed a little more love so I worked on it a bit more tonight. It's not a huge jump in progress, but I think it's looking pretty good. I've still got some more work ahead of me here, so check back for more sometime soon!

That's all for this post, see you tomorrow!

Negative Mojo

I was so excited to leave work today and create some cool new art, unfortunately that proved a bit more difficult than I had initially anticipated. After working on a total of four new pieces that I couldn't even bring myself to post here, I decided to go back and work on something I had already started. And here it is!

This piece was originally posted on January 27th, but I haven't worked on it since. Tonight I added a bit more detail into the lower back and legs. It was mostly just smoothing out the transitions between colors. The hardest part I have ahead of me will be getting the musculature in the upper back, arms, and lower legs completely rendered. That's going to require some references, so I'll be saving that work for another night!

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

Golden

So I think I'm having a moment with the color yellow right now, I'm kind of in love with it. Here's what I've got for ya!

The warmth of the yellow shinning through everything that's on top is just so beautiful! I began this piece by sketching with a warm brown color. It seemed to really work with the golden yellow so I didn't end up using any black in this piece, just a medium brown. I might give this painting style and color palette another go sometime since this turned out so nicely!

Well, that's all for this post. Check back tomorrow for something new!

Mermaid Alien Realness

I think that's a pretty self explanatory title, right? Let's see how this turned out!

I think she's really pretty! Granted she has giant iris-less eyes and extremely wide lips, but that's because I didn't want her to appear very human. I think the colors turned out nicely, there's a good balance between warm and cool tones in the piece. I can't wait to spend some more time on this and finish it up!

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

Beware of the Shrubbery

For some reason I thought drawing a plant woman with vines for arms sounded cool, so that's what I tried to do. Check it out!

It's okay looking, but I just couldn't quite get her face right. The color's rather odd and I didn't define her features all that well. Since I couldn't figure out what I wanted her to look like I thought trying to create a character sketch might help, so here's how that turned out.

I think the concept here is pretty cool, but she definitely looks like she belongs in water and not above ground. Creepy seaweed women are interesting too though, haha! Obviously both of these need a lot more work, but I sadly didn't have time for that today.

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)

I worked really hard on my art today, I gave it my all, and I think all I managed to do was polish a turd. And here it is!

To be fair, I think my feelings need a bit of backstory. I finally watched Evangelion 3.33 yesterday, and I kind of didn't like it. I might have actually hated it, which is saying something because I'm a pretty big fan of the series. The color palette and imagery were pretty fresh in my mind though, so I wanted to paint something reminiscent of the movie, and this is what I came with. It's alright I guess, and that's about all I can say.

Check back tomorrow for something new, see you then!

Quickie

Hey everyone, got something new for ya! Check it out!

I wanted to make something a little dark and grungy looking, and I think I achieved that here. I kept the palette a bit muted to help the mood.

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

The flame's still burning

I didn't have too much time this evening to come up with something new, so I thought I'd revisit something I liked that deserved a bit more work. Take a look!

It's not a huge jump in progress from where I last left off, but I think it's shaping up nicely. I really like the detail in the head-branches. Adding that charred texture, along with the glow of the wood burning from within, really turned out great! I also brightened up the flames in the background to add some more contrast to the image.

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

And Now for Something Completely Different

I've been kind of all over the map stylistically this month, and it's only the fifth! I suppose that's not a bad thing though. I did a doodle at work today that turned into something really cool, so I decided to finish it up in Photoshop. Check it out!

It's a little strange, I know, but I think it's pretty awesome! I didn't have a whole lot of time to work on it, but I'm mostly happy with how it came out. The majority of the image's visual punch comes from the sampled textures overlaid on top of my paint-work. And that's something I'm not super excited about, obvious photo-textures are a digital-art pet peeve of mine. At the very least the textures I used were taken by me, so that's good I guess. Hooray for not violating the intellectual property of other artists! Another nitpick I have is with the character, he's a pretty cool looking dude, but he's a little to dark in value to be appreciated. So that's something to work on another time. This is another cool character I'd like to revisit, so keep your eyes peeled for him again!

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

Bad Grandma

Story time! I'm currently working as a customer service representative in a call center. I help people order products on the telephone, and I also help them with issues they might have with products they've ordered. Today I encountered an older woman that wanted to ask me when the handbag she purchased might be arriving. I let her know she should be receiving it in a day or so and she was delighted! Without skipping a beat she told me that she was really excited to get the bag because "it'll be perfect for me to carry my firearm in!". I kept the conversation light as I helped her with a few more things, then we parted ways. I couldn't help but let my imagination wander a bit after I spoke with her, because what she shared was so out of left field, and it made me think of what she might be like in person. So that's what I've created for you tonight! Check it out!

I can't look at this without chuckling, it's kind of amazing. It's obviously a bit of a caricature, and I turned her into a vigilante of sorts (that's what was floating in my mind while painting), but it's totally awesome! She's constructed like a cartoon character, just a bunch of really simple shapes, but she's painted in a realistic style. I think that ended up giving her a really cool look. This piece was a lot of fun to do, and I think I created a character I'd like to explore a little more. Who knows, she might end up in a comic!

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

Cold shoulder - I mean hand

I came up with what I thought was a super cool idea while I was at work today and sketched it out. This is the digital version, check it out!

It's, uhm, okay. I really wanted the hand to look kind of frozen and cold, but I think the colors aren't really helping. Maybe I need to add some white in there? Perhaps a little snow flurry in the background? It needs some work, but that'll be for another night!

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow!

You Can (Not) Redo

Today marks the Blu-ray release of the newest movie in the Rebuild of Evangelion series! Since I'm a huge fan I decided a little fan-art was in order. Check it out!

Evangelion has always been a huge inspiration to me artistically, the mechanical design in the series has always blown me away. If you're familiar with the show you'll see I didn't draw any one of the Eva Units in particular, it was just sort of Eva inspired. This was a really fun little piece to work on, and I'm so excited to see the new movie! That's gonna wait 'till the weekend though, I'll be watching the first two films with friends, then we'll all be seeing the new movie for the first time!

Thought I'd include a process gif to show you how it came together, have a look!

Well, that's all for this post! Don't forget to stop by tomorrow for something new!

Throwback

I finished last month strong, and I planned on starting off this month just the same way. This piece packs a real punch, check it out!

This is definitely one of the most action-packed images I've ever created, and I'm really happy with the way it turned out! I've got a bit more work to put in before I call it finished, but it's looking seriously good already. I got to looking at some of Frank Frazetta's art recently, and that ever so slightly influenced my last post. This piece references the themes in his work pretty heavily though, haha! There are worse things one could do than to channel the prolific talent that was Frazetta, so I suppose I'm doing alright.

That's all for this post, hopefully I can keep on impressing (if that's indeed what I'm already doing). Stop by tomorrow for something new!

With a bang!

I teased this piece at the beginning of the month, and I'm proud to close out January with it in its finished state! Take a look!

This took a whole lot of time and effort to create, and I'm ecstatic to share it with you. Putting this together was a test of the skills I've built up over the last year, and I'd say it's one I passed with flying colors! Calling something finished is always a bit bizarre because the second you stop there's almost always something more you think you can do. While that's no different in this case, I do think this is one of the most fantastic things I've created. I'm really excited to put more time into the pieces I've been posting, because I know that they need more work. If I can do that I think I'll keep improving, and I hope to keep exciting everyone viewing what I do!

Here's to another year of blogging, another year of art, and another year of improvement! See you all in February!

It's great to wait!

While I only spent an hour on tonight's post, I think it turned out alright. Check it out!

It's a little rough 'cause I was trying to get it fleshed out pretty quickly, but I think the concept comes through. I tried mixing up my brushes a little so I could lay down more color faster and it seemed to pay off.

Well, that's all for this post, stop by tomorrow for something new! 

The third time's the charm!

Although I had been looking forward to coming home and working on some art all day, I got off to a bit of a strange start. Take a look!

A teacup and some poorly drawn fabric, riveting! Since this was clearly going nowhere fast I decided to try drawing something else!

Some guy with a sword, in front of bushes? It's all just kind of lumpy and weird. Also the colors are crazy hideous. Except for that purple in the background, that color was speaking to me a little bit. That's when I tried this!

There we go! That's what I'm talking about! It's got movement, the beginnings of a nice range of values, and an interesting character. I can't wait to add some blues and yellows in there, It's really going to make the image pop! I'll have to save that for another day though!

Well, that's all for this post. Check back tomorrow for something new!

Level Up!

I started watching an instructional video series on traditional painting recently, and for tonight's post I tried to put what I've learned into practice digitally. Take a look!

I think this looks fantastic! I'm using what is referred to as a "classical" color palette. These were the colors available to painters before the Industrial Revolution and the development of the wide variety of pigments used thereafter. Armed with only hexadecimal color approximates of titanium white, cadmium yellow, alizarin crimson, burnt umber, ultramarine blue, and phthalo blue, I created this! While I'd love to get more into detail concerning the process, I'm apparently too sleepy to do so, haha!

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

And then there was

Imagine a person you know well, a person you know better than any other person in the world. Now imagine not being able to describe this person your friends, or family, or even total strangers. Sometimes art is like that. When you sit with pen in hand and fall into your imagination it's all there, as bright as the sun, but that light can wither when brought out into the world. Every so often though, you catch it, and you can share it with other people. You can make them see what you see. What I've got for you this evening isn't anything groundbreaking, but it represents the opening of a door. A sliver of light shinning into a darkened room.

It's a little rough, and it was kind of hard to get it to this state, but I'm really proud of it. The work is so rewarding, and I think that's why I love creating so much. Ultimately the finished product is for everyone else, but the journey to that point is for me, and it's something I hope to enjoy for a long time to come. Every post on this blog is pushing me in the right direction, getting me to where I want to be. It's really great sharing this experience with others, because I hope it helps people to feel the joy and pride I feel while I'm working on something.

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

Fun

You might have noticed a small difference in the way my last piece looked, something you couldn't quite put your finger on perhaps. If you did, you were right about something changing. I used a different brush! I was fiddling around in Photoshop yesterday and decided to make a new brush to use, one that emulated a traditional paintbrush look a little more closely. Tonight I decided to have a little bit of fun by painting something with it again to really see what it could do, take a look!

Now I know the painting's not much to be impressed by, but it does look a bit more impressionistic! I can get some really cool strokes by angling the brush, and there's a good bit of texture in it too! I'm looking forward to working with it more soon.

That's all for tonight's post, check back tomorrow for something new!

The wire, you're down to it.

Hello, I come to you this evening late but not empty-handed! I honestly had no plan for today's post, luckily inspiration struck after a delightful nap. While I made a good bit of progress on the preliminary work for this piece earlier, and had plenty of time to complete it sooner; I didn't! But the most important thing is I finished before my self-imposed deadline, hooray! Now, let's get to what it I actually finished. Take a look!

So this is rather different! That's not a bad thing though! I kind of thought while I was sketching that this was piece was going to end up scrapped, but I actually like it. The colors are interesting, I think the composition's nice, and it's actually finished looking! There are some flaws of course, like the clouds not really looking quite right, and the overall light in the scene being off. Fixing things like that will come with time and practice though, so I'm not too worried.

Well I hope you enjoyed this update, don't forget to check back tomorrow for something new!

Good morning Sweden!

I decided to take a break from my latest project and work on something a little bit different. Check it out!

It's a neat little forest scene with a figure in the foreground! I thought this might be good practice to help me capture scale better. I was noticing in my last digital painting that it's sort of difficult to discern the difference in size between the figure and ship in the background, they kinda appear to be on the same plane visually. Because of that I need to add in some extra elements that help separate the two. I included several trees in varying sizes in this image, and there's a line in the form of the stream that gets thinner as it goes into the background. These things work together to create a sense of distance. I'm gonna try to work more techniques like this into my other work in progress so it looks more realistic.

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

Part Two: The Second Part

Last night's update was a real cliffhanger! Were you all wondering if I would actually continue? Were you on the edge of your seats? Most likely no, haha! I actually did do more work on the piece I posted last night though, so let's see how it's shaping up.

Whoa! This looks pretty awesome. As you can see a whole bunch more detail has been added. The sky's now filled in, the dust around the ship has more shape and contrast, and the planet of the surface looks like more than just smudged shades of brown! I think I'm most proud of the way the character's suit is looking, for having done absolutely no preliminary sketching it's kinda good. I'm even not cringing terribly while looking at the ship, which I was pretty much expecting to do before I started working on it more! Oh, and a quick aside, the lines are white so you can see the detail on the ship and character, they were kinda imperceptible in black.

Since there was quite a leap in progress from yesterday to today I made a gif so you can see the difference!

Well, that's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

Part One: The First Part

Hello! I'm posting rather early, aren't I? Due to other commitments I won't have time this evening to work on my art, but I do have something to share with you right now! Check it out!

This took about forty five minutes to sketch, right now I'm just laying in all of the color. I'm not quite done with that step but this is what I've got completed so far. I don't really draw vehicles ever, so rendering that ship in the background's going to be interesting!

That's all for this post. Check back tomorrow for more progress!

Marsupial Man?

So I'm sitting here at my computer listening to Kylie Minogue while sketching and this is what I came up with.

Koala-bear-man? Man-bear-koala? Australian pop induced fever painting? I don't really know. What I do know is that this is pretty cool looking! I think the one thing that really stands out here is the bounced light in the rock shadows, it really adds a touch of realism to the piece. Noting that makes me look at the absence of light elsewhere in the image, so that's something I really be mindful of. I never really used to get far enough into a drawing or painting to consider it, but now that I've been doing more art lately it's glaringly missing from my work. Guess that's just another post-it note on my to-do list of art things to learn!

Well, that's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new! 

Junkyard Giant

I was actually a little afraid this evening that I wasn't going to have anything interesting to post, but I feel like I turned it out! Take a look!

This piece came about after drawing over a sketch I didn't like. I tried to pick a color palette that was a little unusual to give the piece a mysterious mood. I definitely like the way this is shaping up, it needs a lot more work though!

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

Undercooked

Had a really cool idea but I didn't have time to fully realize it, here's what I've got!

Unfortunately, I couldn't quite capture the scale I wanted to convey in the image. My concept was depicting a huge cliff-face dotted with signs of life, like it was some kind of ancient dwelling. I think it just kind of looks like a low wall at sunset though, oh well! The sky's a nice plus, it's inspired by the sunset I watched while on a hike a few evenings ago. Maybe I'll revisit this idea another time, like when I've got some more perspective knowledge under my belt!

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

Rent, Rendered

I made a little progress on the silhouette I shared last evening, here's how it's looking now!

It's slow going, but it's going. This is really the toughest part of a painting, it's fun, but it's almost always longer than it is enjoyable. When you begin a drawing at first there's this quickness to it, you feel inspired, it seems to come so easily! But then the slog begins through refining every little detail, and that's when good music helps to pass the time!

Unfortunately too much time has passed for me to continue working this evening, so check back tomorrow for something new!

Different Strokes

Last night I mentioned that I'd probably be working on developing the characters I sketched and shared in that post, so that's exactly what I did!

The first one I focused my attention on was this guy.

He might seem a bit strange, but I thought there was some potential there. I liked his up-turned face and bird-like neck, so I tried to keep those features prominent in my redesign. Check it out.

This is, and I'm being kind, a little underwhelming. I started by drawing a silhouette to try and figure out how the rest of the character's body would look. Thinking it was shaping up to be pretty cool I then began rendering detail. Once I got to this point though, I realized it just wasn't working out. The design was too generic, the pose too static, and the composition wasn't interesting either. On top of all of that I didn't really take note of the design motif that was most important in the original drawing, the character's angular chin. I wanted this guy to look a bit fearsome, and the rounded features of the above drawing weren't conveying that message. Because of that fact I decided to start again, and this is what I came up with.

Now that's what I was looking for! There's a dynamism to the character's pose, which was missing from my first attempt, and the design is much more interesting. And although it's not really detailed at all, you can glean a lot of information from his shape and posture. I keep being reminded of the need to convey a story in what I create, and I keep seeing how much doing so creates better work.

That's all for this post! I'm gonna try to work on this guy a bit more tomorrow so look forward to that then!