Sexy Bear is Sexy

I present to you my favorite in class painting from my Spring semester at AAU. Sexy Bear is sexy. Once my instructor added that bear prop with the girl I was intrigued; when he put the mask on the bear I was hooked.

This is the first of an onslaught of work I'll be posting from the Spring now that I've survived. There was an ASSTON of painting and I must say... oil painting is difficult. I do enjoy the process and experience of painting and will continue to paint in the future, but I feel like it may just be for pleasure for now. Until I experiment a bajillion times more with the medium, I'm not confidant to call it my own.

My experience with watercolors on the other hand.... There will most definitely be more of that in the future.

Now, without further ado, more pictures.

He's watching you....

Aaa....

...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!

Lots and lots of painting! And I'm still not that good at it... but gotta level up my oil paint skills somehow. This semester is pretty crazy, so it's impossible for me to make a coherent post right now. I hope you enjoy the in process painting photos (and random model set-ups/pretty flowers).

Yonder Forsaken

Here are linearts for illustrations I've been working on/had in line to finish correcting and developing. However, it may be due to looking at them and fudging with them one too many times but I've decided to abandon these drawings in lieu of just starting over with completely new concepts. But there were still some qualities about them which nagged at me not to abandon... so here they are for your viewing pleasure alone. I doubt they'll see the light of day again, but each allowed me to learn a lot in the process of drawing it.

Attempted Illustration: a one point fantasy city scene

What I liked about it: the fact that it's a background heavy illustration. Also, I am still fond of the figure walking away with the cat. I also enjoy one point perspective for bringing the scene in on a specific point.

Why it's getting trashed: there are one too many little things to correct which makes me just want to start anew. The details in the infrastructure can be better. Also, the figure in the left peaking around the corner has one too many anatomical things wrong with it so I feel it'd be best to start from scratch.

What I learned: Detail, details, details. I need to be more patient and take the time to add some for heightened realism, as well as visual interest. Personally, I find those things impressive and inviting in illustrations--particularly background-heavy ones. But I can certainly say I feel 100% comfortable with 1 pt perspective now with all its little nuances.

Attempted Illustration: a scene from the book Phantom in The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. This is one of the main characters, Kahlan, trying to save a little girl from the Sisters of the Dark who just slaughtered her parents.

What I liked about it: all the details in the clothing, which I still feel is pretty decent. Also, the pose of Kahlan (the woman grabbing the girl) is still pretty good to me.

Why it's getting trashed: Not seen here is the background I incorporated. It was a little too wonky with one too many perspective issues (I believe it was a 3 pt or 2pt vertical). Background aside, the pose of the girl still has some problems--the foot in the foreground is bothersome. Also, I feel that I could have made her look younger. The anatomy isn't terrible, but it could be better.

What I learned: Motherfucking boots. Look at those sons of bitches. Awesome. You should see the lumpy, formless rainboot it originally was. I also worked pretty hard on the proportions and pose, but still feel that it falls short. I made some ground, but there's still more to do.

Attempted Illustration: Space Future, Go! a take on a scene from the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast

What I liked about it: Look at that beast! How cute is he? Also, it was so fun to draw all those tentacles and I think they came out pretty good overall. I also like the clothing and pose (mostly) of the Beauty. The overall concept of the illustration I'm fond of, even if there is no remaining Beauty and the Beast storyline elements at this point (in previous versions there was more furniture and developed background)

Why it's getting trashed: I started coloring the illustration but just couldn't get over those knees on the girl. Also, her face is... meh. I wanted to be able to work on the drawing larger in order to correct these things, but was already somewhere around 12x18 or 18 x24... I'd already worked on transferring and correcting the image for so long that utilizing my frankenstein-way of transferring a larger version with the supplies at hand just felt too daunting. Wasn't sure if the illustration was worth it.

What I learned: how to draw a squid-octopus monster. And that part was awesome.

There it is. Now these folders of drawings will go to the terabyte harddrive in the sky....err... living room.

The Queen's After Party

And finally, here is the last of the pastel drawings from my class this past Fall semester. These are of the model as a queen at a party... drunken Queen FTW! Very fun to draw... I mean, who doesn't like a sloppy, drunk Queen spilling wine all over herself?

There are some drawings which I was going to develop and finish, but have decided not to for some reason or another. I'll be posting the lineart for these rejects soon, should anyone convince me otherwise to rescue them from the eternally unfinished bin.

Snow Bunny (w/o snow)

Happy New Year, everyone! Here's to working toward 2011 being a productive, creative, and fun year!

But first, one last post from my past semester. This was my final for a Head Drawing class at AAU. Enjoy!

The assignment was to draw from a chosen reference pool of our fellow classmates. Since my camera sucks, most of the time I have to base my decision more on which photo isn't blurry, but luckily this particular shot came out well. How could I resist a bunny hat?

There's something I like about the simple, flat shapes in this beginning stage.

Acetone splatter!

And here was the final I turned in for class. After some critique from my instructor, and my own realization once it was up on the wall and I was feet away, there needed to be some changes made. The brightness of the hat was too stark and drew away from my desired focal point of the face (namely eyes and nose). Throw that sucker back up on the drawing board!

Here it is with corrections. I lightened up the face and darkened some areas more to enhance the contrast, hopefully negating some of that surging bright power of the white bunny hat. I'm satisfied with the drawing overall, and have come to appreciate charcoal more after this class. Of course, once I found out about splatter textures my relationship with charcoal deepened that much more. You will never take my acetone!!!

Color! Oh, Color!

The best thing I gained from my Figurative Concepts class this Fall semester was an experimentation with color via pastels. See, color was an elusive she-beast to me and is only now starting to come around. Previously, I worked mostly in a limited color palette, usually even purely monochromatic. This isn't to say that I'm necessarily going to vastly change my color appreciation and I'm still a hardcore sucker for monochromatic illustrations... but the explosion of color I experienced was a nice diversion from my norm.

We each placed our five best drawings on the floor of the classroom the last day and the scope of it all was pretty cool.

Pastels are actually pretty awesome and fun to use. They provide bold, vibrant color and are a relatively flexible medium--at least more so than my usual inks. Here are a few selections of my work with pastels these past months. In the future, I'll be adding some of these to my Etsy shop so if anything strikes your fancy, keep an eye out.

Ah, pastels. How you have worked your way into my heart... and my hand.

Merry Winter's Solstice, everyone!!

Enjoy your holiday festivus winter celebrations!

A Master's Copy and Awesome Portrait

FALL SEMESTER VANQUISHED!!!

Now there's nothing but time to post some artwork from the semester, photograph work, and draw, draw, draw in this month and a half I have off until Spring starts! So, without further ado.....

This was a Master Copy assignment from my Head Drawing class. We had to copy one of a Master's drawings (from a selection provided). I tried my best and think it turned out alright in the end... definitely the revisions I made from my instructor's critique furthered it much more. Also, drawing a child?! Whaaat....

Here you can see the real essence and evil soul emanating from those dead eyes... or it could be that the drawing's just been started...

This was how I first turned it in. Definitely not as finished as I would have liked it but I thought it was a good start. My instructor, though, was clearly able to see what I had missed and give me some pointers.

And there's the final, final version! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out... at the very least he looks like a human child minus physical deformities. Below is a closer look at the drawing followed by the original reference. I don't know who the Master artist was since it wasn't listed in the file... if anyone recognizes it let me know who it is!

For the final in my Head Drawing class, we had to draw from photo references of our classmates taken with a primary and secondary light source. There are still some revisions I want to make to my final, so I'll post that in a couple of days, weeks or so... but a fellow classmate, Katy Fox, happened to have drawn me for the final. At the end of class she asked me if I wanted the portrait... do I want an awesome, multi-colored, textural drawing of myself?

HELLS YEAH!!! So thanks a lot, Katy--not that you read this blog--but her style is quite awesome and she did a great job. Check it out and be inspired by mah face.

(via some light Googling, I believe I found her website too. For more of Katy's work, check it out here. )