Studio Bowes Art

Somnabulistic Snippets

2012-01-01T23:37:00.000-08:00

Over the course of the holidays in December, I found myself in front of the drawing table with a little free time on my hands. How, you may well ask, do I like to relax and spend my free time? Why drawing of course!

See the entire post on my blog; Studio Bowes Art: Somnabulistic Snippets

{PS: I have moved my blog over to my word press site, and post here only as a guidepost to my blog. If you are a subscriber, please update your RSS feed to: http://studiobowesart.com/blog/feed/ }

“RGK; The Art of Roy G. Krenkel”: A book review

2011-08-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

Summary: I randomly selected the book, “RGK, The Art of Roy G. Krenkel” off of my shelves of inspiration to do a book review. Along with a brief overview of the book’s contents there are some of my opinions about aesthetics in fantasy art.

Read the entire post at www.StudioBowesArt.com

Dear Reader,
Please note that I do publish my blogs primarily from my website. If you would like to stay up to date, use the above link, and you can subscribe to the RSS feed there. ~ Thank you, Brian

Spinning Dreams into Goals

2011-07-18T10:43:00.000-07:00

Summary: Foresight might not be 20/20, but things can be a made lot clearer with the use of a calendar. A time management system for freelance illustrators.

Having recently taken the plunge into freelance illustration as a full time career, one of the first challenges to come up for me was identifying specific goals as well figuring out how to accomplish them. The solution to which is a strange thing that some people refer to as "scheduling."

The Problem

Now, if you are anything like me, you will know what it is like to be constantly flitting from one idea to another. Of course one of the big down sides to this way of being is that often times, many good things can get started, but not too many of those are seen through to any sort of finish. As all those different ideas are popping up here and there, it becomes difficult for me to stay focused on the task at hand. It's almost a state of mind where there are just a ton of things to do and everything kinda has the same priority. When this is happening, I sometimes find myself doing a little of this and a little of that, but at the end of the day it seems like nothing has been accomplished. Which is sort of a problem.

Read the complete blog post here: Spinning Dreams into Goals

Dear Reader,
Please note that I do publish my blogs primarily from my website. If you would like to stay up to date, use the above link, and you can subscribe to the RSS feed there. ~ Thank you, Brian

Steps in the Right Direction

2011-05-23T22:44:00.000-07:00

Summary: What follows here is my story of becoming involved with my immediate neighborhood to solve the issue of an unsightly asphalt ramp. The result is an example of how we can use the power of illustration better the world we all live in.

Read the complete blog post here: steps-in-the-right-direction

Dear Reader,
Please note that I do publish my blogs primarily from my website. If you would like to stay up to date, use the above link, and you can subscribe to the RSS feed there. ~ Thank you, Brian

Light During the Darkest Days

2010-12-17T09:55:00.000-08:00

The Chieu Hoi Saloon, ready to hit the shelves

In this blog post I get giddy about a second illustration going to print, and then get very prosaic about life, illustration and the nature of things coming to pass.

Currently my primary blog is through my website, so if you'd like to update your RSS feed to go there, this is the URL: http://studiobowesart.com/feed/

Best Wishes,
Brian Bowes

Society of Illustrators #53 Submissions

2010-11-06T08:42:00.000-07:00

Well, wish me luck, the images have been submitted and the bill has been paid! Now it's all up to the judges at this year's Society of Illustrators annual show/ contest to vote on this year's winners and participants in the 53rd Illustration Annual.

For my submissions, I had to balance the cost and the number of images that I could afford to submit. I felt that 4 of the images that were created over the last year would be a nice representation. Of course I wanted to submit the piece that I did for the IMC, that was such a formative experience that I wanted to show the final piece. Also, in keeping with the Steampunk vibe, I entered my cover illustration for Steampunk Magazine #6.

Next up for submission and in a different genre, is the wraparound cover completed for PM Press' Noir Anthology;"Send My Love and A Molotov Cocktail." I submitted this one because of the over all feeling of the image, and because it is a little more concept and a little less figurative work, and besides all that, I just like it.

And finally, the piece that I have been working on for the past month or so, and that was alluded to in an earlier post, "A Curious Introduction!"

Watch for an upcoming process post about the creation of not only this image, but of the whole promotional piece that this is a part of, and of the considerations behind the core concept. But for now, these are my four entries, and I feel that they do represent where I've been and where I am at. Of course I live in hope that maybe one or more of these images might be chosen to be amongst the prestigious pages of the Society of Illustrators Illustration Annual #53! Only time will tell.

Links to other blog posts:

Click here to read more about the "Jetcycle Getaway," and part of my IMC experience.

Click here to read about the creation of Ol' No.6.

October Surprise: the Sneak Peak

2010-10-14T06:48:00.000-07:00

Who's been reading James Gurney's book?

Well, things have been quite here on the blog... too quite, but, that doesn't mean that I haven't been busy! Actually I've been working up a couple different images. One image is for a charity auction later in the month, and the other is an all out effort to make a promotional piece for Halloween. Which is, oh, right around the corner!

I don't want to give too much away, but I am pretty excited about this whole promo. I am putting together a short story, and I mean very short story for the card. There will be a sum of 3 images through out, one will be brought to a finer level of finish,and one will be sort of sketchy, and the third, will be as nice as time will allow. So far things are going well image wise. I am feeling that 'deadline' pressure to make sure that this thing is well thought out, well designed, and delivered on time.

As these projects have been rolling along, I've found that I enjoy taking pictures of my drawing table. Don't ask why, but it just kinda cracks me up to see it. No particular reason.

what it looks like trying to create beauty out of squallor

However, for those who like to snoop, many of my secrets are laid bare on the table there. Jeez, it really is a mess isn't it. Oh well, works for me!

Finally, the promised sneak peak. I came up with this little, or not so little guy as the the case may be, by looking through a Dover copyright free image book of animals. The insect page just seemed to be the right fit for this piece.

Bug Eyed Monster?! more like Bug Eyed Beatnik!

So, I wanted to share a bit of what I was up to in this quick post. Watch for more news as this promo comes up to a finish here in the near future. Now, that I see this fella, with his handle-bar mustachio, he really should have a name... what do you think? Any suggestions?

As ever, thanks for reading along, your comments are always welcome, please go to the regular website and leave them there: (Studio Bowes Art | October Surprise )

Best Wishes,
Brian

A Time For Love

2010-08-14T00:19:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who keeps checking back in with the blog. I have to admit that this last month or so has been quite busy. I am happy to say that some of that 'busy' has been creating new works, that will be appearing here on the site soon enough. Oh look here's one now!

The Lovebirds are a response to the the recent overturning of Propostion 8 here in California. (There's a news article, if you'd like to read more, at the end of this post.*) I am happy to see that all marriages will be recognized by my state. I was actually quite surprised when Prop 8 passed back in 2008. I guess that at least as a state, if not as a country, that we'd gotten past all this 'separate but equal' crap. This is the 21st Century after all!

I chose the Lovebirds intentionally. After looking into it a bit, I found out that Lovebirds are a bit difficult to breed because it is hard to tell the male and the female apart. Along with that factoid, I was initially drawn to their almost rainbow coloring. If you are unaware, often times Gay Culture will stand behind a rainbow flag. I think that the metaphor is obvious; all the colors of the rainbow representing all types of people. The text at the bottom reads, "Lovebirds Sing Freely," meaning in part that Love's sweet song is free to us all regardless. I think that's is apart of the best of humanity, the ability to love and love freely.

This piece is a more editorial type of piece than I've been doing in the past. I am putting in an effort to broaden my horizons and to develop a quicker process in hopes of courting some publishing work for not only online sources, but also the traditional sources like newspapers and magazines. So, look for more pieces like this in the near future.

This push towards an editorial style dove tails nicely with the recent 4 Week Challenge** over at Zero2Illo.com. I really enjoyed the 12 Week Challenge, but was unable to finish it, sad to say. In part I fell off the trail at 'build a website' week, along with the pending trips at that time to the IMC followed by ICON. As the saying goes, "Fall down 7 times, get up 8." This is me, picking things back up again, moving forward the best I can.
I really enjoy recieving feed back on the work, the writing, and the messages, so please feel free to drop me a line, or to leave a comment on the blog.

Best Wishes,
Brian
{p.s. If you haven't already, please mosey on over to the blog's new home on www.StudioBowesArt.com I will refresh this blog for a while, but eventually everything is going to move onto my website. So please, follow the link on over and adjust your blog readers accordingly. Thank you!}

*San Francisco Chronicle Article

**The 4 Week Challenge

IMC 2010: initial impressions

2010-06-25T23:26:00.000-07:00

: "What have I gotten myself into now!"

"Humble" would be the word that can summarize my feelings about attending this year's Illustration Master Class. Never in my life have I been surrounded by so many incredibly talented and wonderfully supportive people. My plan is to revisit many of the ideas and experiences from this trip through different blog posts. I thought I would just start with an over view of the whole experience first.

The Illustration Master Class is a week long intensive workshop focusing on Fantasy and Science Fiction Illustration. Rebbecca Guay is one of the central organizers ( if not "the" central organizer, ) and she is supported by a faculty that reads like a "who's who" of Fantasy/ Sci Fi Illustration; Donato Giancola, Scott Fischer, Gregory Manchess, Dan Dos Santos, Julie Bell, Boris Vallejo, and Art Director Irene Gallo. This year's special guests were none other than James Gurney of Dinotopia and the Gurney Journey, and Art Director for Magic the Gathering, Jeremy Jarvis. If you don't already know these folks and have an interest in the this field of Illustration, I would HIGHLY recommend searching these folks out online.

The outline for the week went something like; arrive on Friday, meet the faculty and thumbnail/ sketch critique on Saturday, followed by a healthy dose of "Get the F to Work" on Sunday through Thursday, ending with a clean-up and open studio on Friday. Each day was punctuated by 2 talks given by one or two members of the faculty. These were great moments to open up my mind and just soak in the incredible talent and intelligence of the presenters. During the studio hours, the faculty would circulate between the 85 participants and encourage, guide, suggest, and paint with them.

My personal journey here started 2 days prior to the IMC, with a plane flight into La Guardia airport in New York. I was up all night the night before preparing everything that I could think to bring with me, maybe I brought too much, but I remembered my portfolio...at 3AM! Sheesh! In a focused hurry I printed out 7 new prints, and whammo, there's a new portfolio. I believe it represents the best of my work as it is now. It was kinda fun actually. I slept mostly on the flight, connected in Philly, on time to LGA in a little puddle jumper. I brought my drawing board ( the standard one, 24x26" ) on the planes. On the first flight it was in the overhead compartment, on the second flight it fit in plane's closet. To circumvent any hassle from the airlines, I played the neurotic-artist card, which seemed to work.

The evening that I arrived I crashed at my sister in law's house in Queens, where I found out that New Yorkers, unlike San Franciscans, like to eat tacos rather than burritos... which is just weird. The next day I had arranged to meet with Dorian Iten at the bus station to ride up together. We met at the depot and prepared for the 4 hour bus ride. Most of our time was spent looking at Dorian's portfolio from the past 2 or 3 years in Florence where he'd been studying. I don't mind saying that already I was feeling quite small! We made it to Amherst College around 3pm and signed up for one of two groups. I accidentally signed up for the group that was headed by Donato, Dan, Boris, and Julie. What I had meant to sign up for was the group which had Jeremy Jarvis, Rebbecca, and James Gurney in it, as they worked in water-media to one extent or another. It was like choosing between 'brilliant' and 'awesome!'

That first night was spent meeting people and sharing work. I was immediately struck by the quality of craftsmanship out there, and the broad array of styles and ability levels. As people arrived, the overall vibe was one of joy, and an ineffable positivity. A group of about 7 of us headed out to town to have some Vietnamese food. We all chatted as if we'd known one another for years, there was such a feeling of immediate familiarity. Upon returning from dinner a lot of people gathered in the main community area of the dorms and began finalizing our sketches and chatting. It was great! There were lots of people talking, and introducing themselves and sharing their sketches, telling stories of last year, sharing art ideas. There are a number of people who'll be working in watercolor as well, which I was particularly excited to be apart of. I was part of the last few who were sharing ideas and sketches. As I went to bed, I felt like my work was somewhere in the middle of the pack. There's some work that I saw tonight that's totally pro, and others' who are just staring off on the path, but regardless of quality, everybody was on that path which I think is an important thing to remember.

Day Two: We Start in Ernest

This day can be summarized by the phrase "Epic Crit." The day started at 10 am and was over just past 11pm. It was amazing to hear Greg Manchess, James Gurney, Scott Fishcer, Jeremy, and Rebecca talk about each piece in detail and address each one according to it's own merits. We didn't crit through the whole 13 hours, we ate in the cafeteria and had two presentations.
The first presentation was the introductions of the faculty and the general outline for the program, which was followed by an amazing, and I mean AMAZING slide show of all the faculties work. In one way that presetation kinda said to me, "Ok, this is where the 'bar' is." The work was mostly oils, with Scott and Rebecca presenting some watermedia. At this point I am really liking Scott's work, it seems right up my alley. I make a mental note to talk with him about my portfolio and the business side of things. After this presentation we started the crits. I made copious notes in my sketchbook about each piece. Mine was on the far left, but the crit started on the far right, this meant that it was a looonng time until we got to my piece. But I am not complaining, I learned just as much by listening to what the faculty had to say about other folks pieces too.

We broke to go to dinner. I found a spot at a table with Michelle, Noel, James Gurney and Jeanette. We had a really nice discussion and many laughs. The highlight for me was James Gurney sketching me. He showed it to me afterwords, me and my block head and silly smile. I was honored. Then we went back in for more critiques.

As they approached the end of the crit the instructors were getting worn, and basically I critted my own work using all that had been pointed out in earlier pieces. James made me a quick sketch to help with the composition and value structure, and Greg helped me to crop it. There were a few comments made, but I got out of there pretty quick. I guess I could've stuck around, but they were tired and I was weird being in the hot seat. After the crit I came back and lay down for about 2o minutes, then went back to hammer it out some in the studio until 2AM.

So, that's the start of my tale of the IMC. These first days were so informative and important. I really admire all the people who came out to this event. It takes a lot to stand in front of your hero's and expose your work, warts and all, to them. I don't know about anybody else, but I suffer from an irrational desire to present things in their most perfect form, but as I noted to myself in my sketchbook "get over yourself!" Well, this is definitely the beginning of that!

I will continue to share my observations about the IMC as time goes on, but until then, Stay Tuned!

Thank you.

and Love is in the Air

2010-06-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

This piece was commissioned as a wedding present by a friend of mine, for his friends' wedding. I believe that he's kinda hit the trifecta of goodness with this gift. Let me explain, in one way he's strengthened our friendship by believing in me and my aims to support my life with my art (which feels great, I must say), next he's generated more positive energy by giving a totally unique and personal gift to his friends, which all kinda culminates in generating the reciprocal esteem from his circle of friends as well as from myself. It's like a win, win, win.

Technically speaking, this piece was a fun one to work on. I guess sometime here in the recent past I'd become aware of my problem with soft edges. The manner in which I work tends to favor crisp clear edges, which I really like. However, even too much of a good thing can be not so good. It was my intention with this piece to create a soft feel for it. Not only for the technical challenge of it, but more so, because of the subject matter. Toss in a little diaphanous light, and we're starting to set the stage for romance! To see the results of the initial intentions, I would urge you to check out the shadows across the ground as well as some of the passages in the dress, and the bride's shoulder, or the groom's shoe.

I don't suppose that I would've have guessed at the onset how this image would affect me. But I am glad to say that after putting myself in a mind set of affection and love, that my relationship with my own lovely wife got a little bit better. Funny how focusing your mind and energies on everything that this picture represents can change you. I said before that "sometimes even too much of a good thing can be not so good," I should amend that and add, "..unless it's love."

My best wishes and warm regards go out to my friend, and my friend's friends!

12WC: Week 7 Branding like Bonanza {part 1}

2010-06-01T10:14:00.000-07:00

There are no doubt some of you out there who remember this show. I have many fond memories of the rump-bubbabump bubbabump of the theme song and all the cool cowboy stuff, mostly the hats. For those of you who've not had the Bonanza experience, basically it's a family from the old west who ran cattle. At some point they'd have to deal with branding the cattle.

This weeks challenge has to do with defining one's own brand. { but Brian, where are the week 5 and 6? You may rightly ask. Well, I've been working on some images, but they will be posted another time. } For now, this weeks challenge is about asking the poignant questions, and discovering the principles that underlie my work. Along with finding a color pallet, fonts, and images that help to support those key concepts.

I tackled this in two parts, the wordy part and the picture part. There are a whole list of questions that are designed to help initially define the brand. Like; What is it that my product/service does that makes it different? What do I do that adds remarkable, measurable, and distinctive value? What do I do that I am most proud of? Then there are some questions that were addressed in the beginning of the 12 week challenge about identifying clients. These questions all fit under the umbrella of the "Feature / Benefit."

Here are the answers to some of those questions.

How does my work add value?

• Through the hand crafted and unique technique my work strives to have a warm and personal quality to it.
• My work aims to engage the viewer's imagination through metaphor and implication (aka story telling/ narrative devices.)
• My work draws forth an emotive sense of the subject through imagery, color, and technique.
• My work achieves an understanding of the conceptual problem and creates a unique visual concept as a solution.

What is measurable about my work?

• Quality of craftmanship
• Engaging imagery
• A history of growth and development via blog (you're watching it happen before your very eyes!)
• Consistent theme/ area of focus/ audience
• Punctuality, meeting deadlines

What am I most proud of?

• A technique which is very personal, effective and unique.

What do you want to be famous for?

• I want to create memorable and inspiring images that will stand the test of time.

What is it that my product/service does that distinguishes it from others in my field? (15 words or less)

• My work is skillfully crafted to effectively communicate timeless adventures to a targeted audience.

• My work provides a unique visual solution through a distinctive and engaging technique.

• My services create visual content designed to engage and inspire our youthful imaginations.

So, you can see, that I have no problem setting up some lofty ideals for myself there. Time will tell if I am able to meet these objectives, but I have always been one to aim for the stars. For now, I am going to post this up and let these ideas percolate a little bit longer. Stay tuned for the next post which will be about the image end of branding. I had a lot of fun creating a new personal identity, and look forward to sharing it here.

Thanks for reading along.
Cheers.

12WC: Week 5: The Strange Fruits of Labor

2010-05-11T13:28:00.000-07:00

"Goggles"

I am happy to have pulled this piece together... finally. The ardent reader will recall that this image was actually started some 7 months ago*. It is unusual for me to put something away like this, but at the time, well, let's just say "stuff came up," and leave it at that. For the last few months this piece was actually pulled of the board that it was taped to, and stuck on my wall... staring at me... watching... waiting. Every time I worked at my desk, it would be there, looking back at me all un-done.

So, I took this opportunity to set things aright, and pulled it down from its lonley and dusty place, taped it back up and started making moves. The process was realitivley easy going, almost alarmingly so, but perhaps during its time on the wall, it was ripening. Ah, such are the fruits of labor. For this painting, I didn't stop to take process pics, things just moved along smoothly from one stage to the next.

*I'm keeping this post short, but if you're interested in the first stages and the story behind the image, please check out the first post { here }, and the second { here }

Stay tuned for more to come, there will be another painting coming up in the next two weeks. Thank you to everyone who's been leaving messages it's really great to hear from you.

Cheers,

12WC: Week 4: Get to work!

2010-05-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

Now we've come to the end of week 4 of the 12 week challenge. Arguably, we've entered the "fun" part of illustration, making images!

Before I move on to the painting, I have to say that part of this challenge for me has been about zeroing in on what I want to do, who I'd like to purchase my works, and how I can make a business of doing this. After looking at some of the other challenger's works, I have to say that I am at once, both terrified and filled with the "I'm not worthy" thing and, greatly inspired. This, of course is part of the inner, personal challenge. To be able to find my own self worth in the presence of other talented artists may be one of my biggest obstacles. Illustration is unique in this way, where we can find ourselves cheering on our friends while challenging them, and in return to be challenged by their now stronger works.

Now, here's the story of the painting! As some of you may remember from the earlier post "Alien Moon Phases," recently a friend of mine finished writing a fantasy novel, "Velor" which is looking for a publisher. In order to create a more positive and appealing property he decided to commission a few pieces of work from me.

This is will be the cover image for the book, so we talked about some of the key concepts that he wanted to represent his story. High on the list were feelings of ambiguity, of being lost, and that kinda the main character in the story is the journey it's self. After discussing some key scenes in the book, we arrived at a moment wherein the band of travelers is lost in a mountain range and decide to take shelter in a cave.

After a few thumbnails, we liked this drawing. The characters were ambiguous, the mountain is big and they are small, and the cave is threatening while offering shelter. I wanted this to be a "frying pan to fire" scene.

Moving right along, this is the first image that I took after the first washes were laid down. As a technical note, I tried some new paper, an Arches 260lb hot press. In the store I liked the plate finish which seemed smoother than the 300lb paper, but not as slick as the Strathmore 500 series that I had been using. I thought I'd just give it a go. The paper was stretched, it was kind of attached to a board {wet paper and tape don't mix so well, I guess that's why everybody else uses thumbtacks... lesson learned,} and we're off to the races.

These early washes on the page were really fun to work with. One simply cannot know the difficulty in painting "white" in watercolor. It actually turns out to be a study in shades of gray, but such is the story of my life!

After that point, I got really busy painting and didn't take anymore process pics, but somehow I ended up with the final painting.

All, in all I am happy with the image. I find that the compostional tool of using a spiral to bring the eye into the center is a lot of fun to work with, and that the over all effect of weather and light has come across to an acceptable degree. There are some nit picky things that, if I had to do this over again, I'd do differently, but in the end I am generally happy with the piece.

As for the new paper experiment, in the final stages of painting, the paper really started to buckle and warp from the numerous washes that I was applying. Looks like it's back to the Strathmore board, and the challenge of creating soft edges on it, and I'll have to save this paper for simpler works.

During the whole process, serendipitously I discovered a book "The Great Age of British Watercolors 1750 - 1880, and I was totally blown away with the works there. These guys were creating amazing realism in their watercolors as well as a great sense of mood and atmosphere. I didn't like everyone's work, but some stand outs are John Sell Cotman, and some lazy bum named Joseph Mallord William Turner. I could rhapsodize about their merits for quite some time, but suffice to say that these are some real solid building blocks in watercolor painting.

To summarize about the painting and the 12 week challenge, we are supposed to create 2 pieces a week. Realistically this is pretty much out of my reach, as I want to bring up pieces to full paintings, but that doesn't mean that I'll do anything but my best to create as much as I can in the next 3 weeks.

Stay tuned, I'm not exactly sure what the next painting will be, but there will be one and I hope that you'll be around to offer your comments and critiques!

Cheers,
B

PS: Links to stuff referred to in the post;
• the earlier Velor post: "Alien Moon Phases" ( which has a fun little video too! )
• the book: "The Great Age of British Watercolors" { and as ever, support your local book stores when you can! }
• John Sell Cotman { wiki-page } how have I not know about this guy?!
• JMW Turner { wiki-page } as a note, I knew he was good... but, wow.
• other 12 week challenge posts { here }

12WC: Week 3: Target Audience

2010-04-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

The 12 Week Challenge has been really great at building upon the previous weeks. Well done Jon!

The Task
1. Based on your research, I'd like you to gather a targeted list of 10 Companies, Publishers, Art Directors, or Manufacturers that you will be contacting when we get to that part of the challenge.

2. Armed with everything you know about your list of contacts, plan out 6 portfolio pieces that you will be creating in the next 3 weeks of the challenge.

This week's challenge has to do with building up the target audience. Now that I have an idea of what work I'd like to do. It's research time figuring out who's hiring for the work that I do. It's a good query and one that I am not wholly unaware of. For some time now I've been building, rebuilding, refining a mailing list. However I tend to open the door pretty wide. This week's task asks me for 10 targets, so I am going to use this as an opportunity to hone in my vision. Laser-Marketing.

Here we go, in no particular order, Part 1:

Aladdin Paperbacks: Karin Paprocki
Atheneum Books For Young Readers: Ann Bobco
Realms of Fantasy: Laura Cleveland
Pyr Books: Lou Anders
Wizards of the Coast: Jeremy Jarvis, Matt Adelsperger, Jon Schindehette
Tor Books: Irene Gallo
Analog Science Fiction and Fact/ Asimov's Science Fiction: Victoria Green
Baen Books: possibly Toni Weisskopf
Subterranean Press: William Schafer
Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers: Dan Potash

and now, for Part 2:

Velor cover ( a fantasy novel )
Love and a Molotov Cocktail cover ( a Noir ) image
Character Art ( basically card Art )
Concepting Magic Challenge
Dune cover
Pulp Science Fiction ~possibly based on a Ray Bradbury short story

Ok, in all fairness, numbers 1 and 2 are already in my work flow and need to be done in the next few weeks. So, I say why not double up and include them in the challenge.

By the way, the illustration above is available on skateboards through Zazzle { here } If you'd like to get some other thing with this, or any image of mine, please don't hesitate to talk with me about it. I'd be more than happy to accommodate your requests.

Zero 2 Illo, home of the 12 Week Challenge { here }
Art Order Challenge "Concepting Magic" { here }
• other 12 week challenge posts { here }

Thank you for reading along, please stay tuned... there's more to come!
Cheers

12WC: Week 2: OGSM

2010-04-18T17:14:00.000-07:00

Well, another week, another challenge. This week it is the Business Strategy whittled down to a nice 1 page document; the OGSM. Objectives, Goals, Strategies, and Measures is what OGSM stands for.

I will start off saying that this is a totally brilliant piece of information to generate for any business. Entering into the wild and wooly world of illustration, it is absolutely key. I see it as being a bit like a tuning fork. It allows me to retune to my initial objectives for my business.

However, getting myself to do this was like giving a cat a bath. I had all kinds of problems with focusing my vision in this way. Part of my problem was in trying to get my statement to be both succinct and realistic. Sure, I'd love to say, "by the end of 2010, I will have made 100k," but that isn't realistic for me right now. So keeping it real was important to me.

What was a little bit easier was the creation of a list of things to do. In fact it was so easy that I created a 3 page outline listing it all. The next challenge was for me to put this in a format that would be like the one presented. But, this is why having deadlines is good. Without a deadline I could've put this off indefinitely. So, here's me turning in my work.

I suppose I will need to review and renew this initial outline, but for now, it is a place to start, a structure upon which to build towards my objective for 2010: "To establish a profitable freelance career."

As ever, if you would like to make a comment, I am always glad to hear what you think. You can comment here on the blog, or send me an email through the contact link on my website {here}

• other 12 week challenge posts { here }

Mutant Challenge: Small Win

2010-04-12T18:13:00.000-07:00

Anubis; my answer to a Mutant future

Recently on Art Order, there was a Mutation Nation Contest. Basically the challenge was to come up with one of two Mutant paths; a gene splice of two critters, or an anthropomorphic blend.

My thinking that ended up leading to the painting above, is that after whatever holocaust blows us off the planet, and radically contorts all forms of life that might be left, there will be scavengers. Packs of wild creatures, roving like gypsies, mutant creatures scouring the land looking for anything of value. They would be scrappy critters with sharp pointy teeth and an insane laugh that could curdle milk. Enter the mutant dogs, half man - half jackal, and all business. Seen here in their natural habitat, the mutant dogs have ripped up anything that might be used as a bludgeon; a parking meter, a no parking sign, and "other."

Their leader, Anubis, runs an orderly, if not psycho, band of scavengers. Woe be unto those who might cross his street or per chance happen to have upon themselves a scrap of anything that he may desire, for he is quick with a smile and a laugh but he's just as quick to shred your flesh right off the bone!

For those of you still reading along { thank you } here's the process that brought about the final painting. In all honesty, I have to say that this painting is not one that I consider to be a huge triumph, more that it is a small win. I was able to finish on time to enter the contest and I was able to explore some new techniques with the airbrush. But as a finished piece, I don't think anyone will think "elegant simplicity," in other words, I think the piece is overly complicated for the requirements. Where did it go wrong, or was it ever right?

This is one of three thumbnail that I generated. The things that I like here are the saunter of the main character, and the creature in the super foreground. I felt like the creeping mutant dog in the back felt a little like "a boy and his mutant dog go for a walk," so I axed him. I did like the flotsam of fire and smoke in the background to give it that post-apocalypse feel.

A little further down the road. I am still trying to wrangle some kind of understanding/ imagineering of how these legs might work, and how the rest of the body would respond. I am struggling with the hips and the shoulders. I know there should be some kind of contropposto going on, but my result so far is very square.

The value study.

Then after showing the WIP around to some friends, I started to rework the drawing. While I was doing that I couldn't quite remedy the awkwardness of the character in the fore ground. And by awkwardness I mean "I wanted to draw those fabulous backwards dog knees." This may actually be the point when I start going downhill, I was falling in love with my drawing. My friend and drawing mentor Mark has warned me numerous times about this. I was sacrificing the piece for those hard won lines of legs.

After some friends Vaughn and Vince {see links below} helped out by sharing their observations about this drawing, I brought it to the final stage. Some of the suggestions that were made was to establish a better horizon line with some more dynamic perspective to give a better sense of space, and also to better coordinate the main character's gaze with where he's pointing.

In the end, the painting seems to be a technically well produced piece, but that it's just a little too busy for my taste. Not bad, but a beautiful looser. As the age old saying goes, "you have to paint the bad paintings too," and for me, that's OK. It feels good to know that I am still learning, and that the next piece... well the next piece will be even better.

As ever, your comments and observations are welcome and appreciated.

Cheers

Helpful Friends:
Vaughn Barker { site } and { blog }
Vincent Lee { site }
Final Challenge Gallery: come see everybody's work... it's pretty incredible!: { here }
Original Mutation Challenge page on Art Order { here }
Keep checking back for the gallery link, which will be posted here when it becomes available.

Loving Life, Drawing

2010-04-08T00:41:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that this most recent life drawing session was a lot of fun. How to explain, just good people having good times. Well, enough said, the pictures can speak for themselves.

20 minutes

Ok, I can't resist making a few comments, these are all still so fresh at the time of this writing. I felt a few things coming together tonight, not just the good people, but on the drawing board too. It just seemed like I was able to concentrate on things like composition, on line quality, and center of focus.

1 hour

I have to admit that I am proud of this drawing. I feel like the pose says something along with the quality that the drawing seems to have. Don't ask me what it's saying, but it's saying it.

45 minutes

This was the final drawing of the night. Here I had some fun with splitting the pose in two. This is a tactic I may explore further some other time as well.

Hope you enjoyed these as much as I did making them. As always, feel free to leave comments and to share your own observations.

To see more figure drawing posts you can go { here }

Cheers

12WC: Week 1: The Big Question

2010-04-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

First, mad props to Jonathan at Zero2Illo, thank you for spearheading this challenge. I am really looking forward to focusing on my work as well as offering a lending hand to my fellow 12WCers.

The task for Week 1 of the 12WC:

Ask yourself this question…If I could illustrate anything and get paid for it, what would it be?

If you hate illustrating comics (even if you are great at them), it isn’t very sensible to fill your portfolio with samples of your comics work. Even if you think this is your best shot at getting that first commission, it’s recommended that you should focus on creating a portfolio that reflects the work you really, really want to do – not just the work you can do.

Here are a few things that might help:

Remember this is a business, we’d all love to get paid to only work on those premium projects, but we all have to start somewhere, so balance out what you’d love to be doing with what is going to pay the bills. Aim for the sweet spot between what you love, what you’re good at and what has potential to generate an income.
Remember this is for the 12WC so even if it’s not the absolute 110% ideal area you want to be working in to begin with, that’s ok you don’t have to stick at it forever – the important thing is that you can move on from this stage to the next one with something you’re happy with.

You may have already considered all of the above and have a clear idea of what you want to be illustrating – now is the time to ask yourself some further questions:

Is your idea commercially viable?
What are the target markets (publications, manufacturers, brands and companies) currently commissioning this kind of illustration?
Who are the big players (illustrators) in this market?
Why are they successful in this area? Look at their website and other online profiles, search for interviews with them online…How do they promote themselves? If you can break down what makes them successful (other than that they are very talented), you can apply this model to your own business.

Now, regarding the question, generally speaking, I want to create narrative/ figurative images with a slant towards action and adventure. I’d like to work doing books and magazine, both covers and interiors {black and white, and color pieces}. Ideally, I would like to work on a YA Adventure series, possibly of my own authorship.

There are some different avenues where I’d like to see my work grow into, for example; experimental graphic novel forms {i.e. “Lore” by Ashley Wood,} also the Sci-Fi/ Fantasy gaming world holds a lot of promise this includes game art, card art.

As I review this, I can see that I am very print-centric. One area that I need to explore further, is the online publishing world, an example would be Digi-pulps, and Downloadable books. Surely there is more, and I'd appreciate any help in thinking of it!

As for people who’re in it now and making a living, Tom Kidd, James Gurney, Rebecca Guay, Larry MacDougald, Paul Bonner, and Omar Rayyan just to name a few. For the most part these are folks who are working in both a similar market as I am, but also ( for the most part) in the same medium. Now, to unearth how they've met with success... you know aside from being awesome!

links:
Week 2 Challenge is next!
• other 12 week challenge posts { here }
Zero2Illo {site/blog}
Omar Rayyan {blog}
Tom Kidd {site}
James Gurney {blog}
Rebecca Guay {site}
Larry MacDouglad {blog}
Paul Bonner {site}
"Lore" by Ashley Wood {but buy it from your local comic shop}

Thanks to anybody who made it this far in the reading!

Up to the Challenge

2010-03-30T10:05:00.000-07:00

The Beholder

In this wacky online world that I've found myself in, there recently came to my attention through a post on Escape from Illustration Island's site, the 12 Week Challenge from Jonathan at Zero2Illo. Let me just say, BRILLIANT concept. As one who's doing aiming to transition to full time illustration, this is such a great asset. So, I am taking the challenge.

2010, is already a good year for illustration, and there's much more on the horizon. Going forward, I need to find the nexus between my ambitions and intentions, and the practicalities of life. As I've said to some of my friends, "There is no plan B."

Anyway, I am looking forward to meeting a growing community of illustrators through this challenge, and encourage you to follow along here as I'll be chronicling my experience here.

Here are some of the links to the challenge {here} and to Escape from Illustration Island {here}
As ever thanks for tuning in!

Figuring It Out, One Drawing At A Time

2010-03-23T22:10:00.000-07:00

5 min warmups

Sometime here in the recent past I realized that I hadn't been posting any drawings from a figure drawing session that I attend. I also realized that my posts can be a bit... hmm shall we say "wordy?" In that spirit, I'll keep it brief, and.. here we go.

20 minutes

I don't suppose one can over state how important regular drawing, and regular figure drawing is for an artist. As some of you may know, it's simultaneously like working out at a gym, as well as incredibly liberating.

20 minutes

1 hour

20 minutes

Stay tuned for more drawings and paintings. Also, if you feel like putting in your comments, I'd love to hear what you have to say about the work here.

Also, to see my other figure drawing blog posts, check them out {here}

Thank you

Ol' #6: A Past Future In The Present

2010-03-16T22:32:00.001-07:00

Recently I had the good fortune to paint the cover of Steampunk Tales #6. It so much fun to work in a genre that I really dig. I like to describe Steampunk Tales as a 'Digi-pulp.' They are really taking a great format that has propelled so many story tellers and illustrators forward from the past, and bringing it into the 21st Century by making it accessible to so many tech platforms. Sort of a past future in the present, much like Steampunk.

{ I've posted links at the bottom of this post where you can go to download the latest issue, please check it out! It's a lot of entertainment for just $1.99}

I really enjoy Pulp action and drama, and may have really started my romance with them after reading { and by 'reading' I mean 'mostly looking at the pictures,' } "Bradbury: An Illustrated Life, A Journey To Far Metaphor. Ray Bradbury was one of the first authors who really got to me. His work was a.) short, b.) rich with fantastic imaginings, and c.) just down right beautiful. I've been in love with his works since I was in my single digits. Moving forward, what I saw in this book was how he got his start through pulps and fanzines. Of course, next to each one of those stories were fabulous, bizarre, and wonderful illustrations. Many of those illustrators went on to have full and rich careers, but, in the beginning they were doing it in a spirit of adventure and a love of the stories. I don't mind saying that here too, in this same spirit, I wish to send down a tap root in the hopes that my works will, over time, blossom and bear fruit.

I like to share the process of how these images come about. I have to say right up front that I didn't document a lot of steps on this one, but what I have is here.

I guess what really got the ball rolling was a note from the editor that connected me up with the writer G.D. Falksen, whose authored a series entitled "An Unfortunate Engagement." He briefly described an scene wherein the Hero, Heroine, and Sidekick are liberating slaves from a Siberian airship factory. Already I was drooling, there is just so much to work with here; giant airships, explosions, narrow escapes... ahh the stuff that pulps are made of!

The first take that I was ready to settle on { there were many that ended up on the cutting room floor } was one that showed the Hero charging at the front of the masses, grit in his teeth, and explosions all around! I described it like this in the email: "Take 1: Our intrepid trio crests a hill ready for more action as the giant airship burns to the ground in the background. Airships! Ray guns! Action and Adventure!"

As I continued to work over what was going on, I wanted to leave more for the imagination of the reader. Some of my favorite works of art allow the viewer to access what's going on. This can be done in an infinite number of ways, the way I chose was to allow most of the action to be "off screen" and to focus on the Hero and Heroine. The second sketch was discribed thus: "Take 2: The faces of two of the Intrepid Trio turn to face the explosions from the airship factory below, they are illuminated in crimsons and orange. Above them a Steam train waits to whisk them to their next adventure! Explosions! Narrow Escapes! and a Train bound for Adventure!"

Some other smaller details that I enjoy are a sense of timing. To name sources here, this comes from at least two different places if not more. The first would have to be "Drawing Comics The Marvel Way" where there's discussion of dramatic action and the example is drawing someone throwing a punch. The gist of what they said is that showing the moment just before the action or just after the action creates the highest drama. The second source that came to mind { and this is where you'll have to bear with me as I geek out a bit } is in the book " The Art of Jeffery Jones." Now, the image I am talking about is actually a painting by Harvey Dunn, which is shown as an early painting influence. The image shows a man sitting in a barn window with a stern look on his face, now it took me a while to put it together, but there's this wonderful wisp of smoke just above his rifle... AH HA! I thought, "he's just fired his gun and his expression is in reaction to that." Now that's the kind of timing I'm talking about, "What just happened, What's happening, and What will happen."

I have to be honest here, and just say that I read as many books and look at as much art as I can, it all percolates around inside, and sometimes it comes out in strange and wonderful ways. You can see that in the final drawing here a few changes have been made from the sketch. One, the sidekick was dropped. I felt like the duo made a stronger triangle shape on their own. Two, you'll notice that the gun's come back... and there's that smoke.

I also like the train in the background, because for me it gives a sense of 'future'. In a way, the past is where they've come from, the present is him shooting into the bright light of an explosion, and there, just over the rise, Ol' #6 waiting to take them to them into the future. Next stop.. ADVENTURE!

The new issue is out now, so please check it out and download it. For the low low cost of $1.99, you could have some great fiction, and fun art!

You can download Steampunk Tales issue #6 {here}

Please contact me through my website if you are interested in purchasing a print of this. {here}

To see other Steampunk inspired works by yours truly {Steampunk Made The Old Fashioned Way}, also {Dorothy: Then A Strange Thing Happened}
and some other works on the website {here}, and {here}

Books mentioned in this post: {Bradbury: An Illustrated Life}, {How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way}, and {The Art of Jeffery Jones}

Alien Moon Phases

2010-03-10T12:49:00.000-08:00

You just have to love having creative friends. Recently a friend of mine finished writing a fantasy novel, which is looking for a publisher. In order to create a more positive and appealing property he decided to commission a few pieces of work from me, which I am more than happy to do!

The first step was to create what amounts to chapter headers, and a kind of time signature through out the book, he suggested the 28 moon phases of the double moon that hangs above this fantasy world.

I suppose I could have done quick pen and ink moons, but I couldn't resist just giving it my all, and doing my best. So, I first had to figure out how to create 28 pieces where the moons would go through all of their phases. Early one morning as I woke up, I realized a method that would accomplish just that, { ancient artists secret, corner me at a party and I may tell you. } After a few small experiments I settled on a method of production, and then it was off to the races.
Considering my choice to work with watercolors, I am often endeavoring to create works that are solid pieces, and that use watercolors for their strengths, as well as trying to strengthen their weak points. Recently I have become fascinated with edges, both hard and soft. For me, it is more difficult to create a soft edge, so I took this opportunity to work it out on the page.

In using watercolor, one method to create soft edges is the wet-into-wet technique. Which if you are unfamiliar goes basically like this; make a puddle of water, charge your brush with color, dump the color into the puddle, stand back and make faces as you try to control the chaos below. So, that became the first pass on the moons. Sometimes I used just blue, other times blue and black in the first wash.
Next, after the first wash has dried, I came back over them with a wash of black. There is an effort on my part to consciously loose the edges in the moons' shadows, and to create the chunky craters and such at the shadow's edge. During this wash I also experimented with creating little flares of color to break up the hard edges along the outside of the wash.

That process went a little like; make the first wash, while it's still wet come back with another clean brush and create a puddle just a hair away from the edge, when that is done simply break the tension between them, and BOOM! the color rushes into the puddle. { It actually works better when you use the sound effects out loud. Another reason I work by myself, otherwise people would just think that I am crazy...}

The final *phase* of this paintings { ho ho ho } was to wash in the light gray texture of the illuminated side of the moon, and to clean up any odd bits. Baddabing.

All in all I really learned quite a bit about painting during this process. Which, you know, amazes me because I really thought, just prior to this, that I finally knew everything... { he he }
As a bonus, due to the nature of these paintings, I cobbled them together in a quick little Quick time movie. Enjoy!

Addendum: see the final piece for this project { here! }

Illustration Friday: Muddy

2010-02-10T15:02:00.000-08:00

"MUDDY"

This topic put me in mind of "the Big Muddy Mississippi", the Blues Man, Muddy Waters, both of which put me in the mind of the "Delta Blues." In response to these, I put down this free hand watercolor in about an hour. Quick and loose, I used as muddy of a pallet as possible. I've named him South Paw.

Taking my shot at entering into Escape From Illustration Island's contest to win the new Drew Struzen DVD! Wish me luck!

Steampunk: Made The Old Fashioned Way

2010-01-31T22:36:00.000-08:00

Pen and ink illustration for Steampunk Magazine.
{ click on the image for a closer look }

Getting back to my old love, Drawing, I set to making the final for this piece in pen and ink. I may have discovered something in the process that is unexpected, and it has to do with time. Basically because the technique of working this way requires long streches of time and concentrated focus, the mind tends get kind of "free." I found that there were unique thoughts surfacing through out the project while I was deep in the process, things that surprised me. I managed to capture one that goes like this:

"'CONCEPT' can be a guiding light during the process of creation. Each choice may not be apparent in the end result, and it doesn't need to be. In this way artistic intent can be infused in the work."

Now, those who know me will know that I am prone to a "loose" thought process, but this kind of thing even gives me pause for a moment.

I don't know if it's true or not, I don't know if it's universal. I do know that it seemed true in the moment, and that it feels like the real art work is being done, ever so gently washing over and through my thoughts.

The nuts and bolts scoop on the image itself is that it is for an article about Steampunks in today's society, at least that's part of a brief synopsis that I received. I decided to use nib pens and ink to work towards an old fashioned feel. It works with the subject matter, as well as being something that can't be done on the computer. { however it is not clear how well pen and ink 'reads' on the computer screen... good thing this is for print! } Much like a Steampunk Atlas, our craftsman has the weight of the world on his mind, but focuses his attention on the work at hand.

Much thanks goes out to the folks at Steampunk Magazine for including me in their publication. We're all looking forward to seeing issue #7 hit the stands!

Prints of this image are available upon request, please email me here.
Link to more pen and ink work from me here, here, and here.
Link to Steampunk Magazine

Perceptions: Finding Value in Mood and Tone

2010-01-19T22:33:00.000-08:00

This post is the result of two different conversations with two different friends that I've had in the past few months. In conversation one; my friend said to me that one of the best ways to solve your own problems in life is to find somebody else, give them advice, and then follow it yourself. I don't doubt that he was talking about me to me.

In conversation two my friend and I were talking about our personal voice in illustration, I recommended to her that she take a closer look at the work that inspires and influences her, and examine them for all the qualities that she liked. In other words, the "why," as in "Why do you like that piece of art?" In doing this that she would be able to see the continuous thread that ran through all these disparate images, and that thread would be her personal preferences, her aspirations. Expanding out from there, she would be able to strengthen her own works by explicitly understanding her influences. Simple, right?

So, you see, this post is me, taking my own advice, and hauling some art into the light, expressing my perceptions of them in an effort to reveal qualities which I endeavor to imbue in future illustrations.

Mood and Tone; The concept

Two artists who are wonderful in the conveyance of Mood and Tone are John Jude Palencar and Alfred Hitchcock. Both of whom are able to create intense, and sometimes somber, moods in their works. I've been a fan of John Jude Palencar's work for quite some time, however it is rarely the subject matter he chooses which captivates me, but it is the way he portrays things, his technique, pallet, and composition. Which add up to the creation of specific moods through out his work. So, it is his use of the tools at hand which he chooses to express himself that I admire.

Because John Jude Palencar's expressions are often psychologically charged, that, I thought a nice companion artist would be Alfred Hitchcock. True, Alfred Hitchcock works in a different medium, but he incorporates many of the same tools to create the myriad of moods and tones in his work. He is a Master of composition, in the use of lights and darks, and also in his ability to imbue a psychological tension into his pieces. For this side by side comparison we'll be looking at a still image from Psycho that I pulled off the web, along with an image from John Jude Palencar's website. I should pause here to thank Mr. Palencar for his express permission to use his work here, as well as to credit the Opera Company of Philadelphia who originally commissioned the Madame Butterfly piece that we'll be looking at. Links to these sites can be found at the bottom of this post, please check them out after your done reading.**

"Put light colors next to light colors and dark colors next to darks, then where you want the viewer to descend, put dark next to light." ~ Harvey Dunn.

This succinct sentence holds the cornerstone to quality illustrations, and the nature of communicating with images. Part of what Harvey Dunn is talking about here is a strong value structure. A strong value structure is absolutely essential towards crafting and communicating with an image. If that structure isn't there, the picture will be confusing and ineffective. As artists we are communicators, and through the conscious use of the tools at hand it becomes possible to communicate those ineffable qualities of life, rendering visible the invisible.

Pretty heady stuff, but there is a simple way to view this as well:
Mood=Tone=Value

To start with let's open ourselves to the wholeness of these terms, as they encapsulate multifaceted concepts.

Mood can be a slippery idea to get our hands on. People talk about mood all the time, but what are they really saying, what is a mood? As a working definition let's agree that mood refers to an emotional state of mind. We can talk about moods like, Joy, Elation, or their counterparts, Sadness, or Melancholy. One might go so far as to say that Joy and Elation could be described as being "light" moods, where as Melancholy and Sadness might be "darker" moods. It is this critical connection which follows through to Tone and Value.

Tone can be defined in lyrical terms. We can talk about Tone in musical terms; low and high, soft and hard, or quiet and loud. Consider the "tone" of songs by The Talking Heads, the Grateful Dead, Tool, Sonic Youth, or Alison Krauss. In most cases each song tells a story of sorts, and the tone of the song can put you in the mood of the song. Just for example take the simple story; boy meets girl. How many times have you heard that one! But, depending upon the tone of the song, it could be the blues, or a cosmic metaphor. The tones clue us into the mood. Perhaps not coincidentally, in the visual arts Tone also refers to the general effect of light and shade in a piece. Another way to say the same thing is that Tone refers to the general effect of the value structure in a piece.

Value, can be defined not only in terms of a relationship of dark to light, but also in our relationship to ideas. Ideas that we either judge to be, in it's simplest terms, good and bad, right and wrong, etc. Now, as you will have well learned by the time you are able to read this, there is a lot of gray area between these two extremes! That metaphor, the transition from dark to light, is best shown visually as a value scale.

So, I hope that you are now able to begin to see the line of connection that exists between Mood, Tone, and Value. They can all be descriptors for a piece of work, and as creators these become our tools with which we are able to draw out emotional cues in our work. After all, the very essence of life is a constant flux between extremes, it is not by any means monotonous, or of one tone.

The Images

There are many ways that an artist can communicate visually. For the sake of this post, we are going to focus on the value structures of each piece, and leave hue, saturation, and texture for another time. Therefore, I've shown the images with histograms next to them to give us a linear way to think about the value structures of the pieces. A histogram is basically a graph that describes black to white on the X axis, and intensity on the Y axis. This is a good tool to examine not only other's work, but your own as well.

This is John Jude Palencar's "Madame Butterfly" which was originally commissioned by the Opera Company of Philadelphia. Please take note of the histograms to the right of the image which show a heavy dose of darks. {you can click on any of the images to see them larger in a new window.}

To adjust our vision towards dealing with value, and for the moment forsaking his beautiful pallet, a gray scale version of the same image. Notice that the image still communicates very clearly. Try to become aware of the sense you get about the painting.

The thing that is most notable to me in this image is the sense of isolation. Her face is literally highlighted, which not only emphasizes her expression, but graphically sets her apart from the muddled and dark space in which she exists. Here, Palencar has adhered to the same strategy as was mentioned in the earlier quote by Harvey Dunn. If we take a moment to pause, and consider the value structure we can recognize that the majority of the image is dark, that is to say more than 50% gray. Even the highlights on the hair is around 50% gray! While most of the edges in the pieces are delineated by a shift in value, there's a lot of detail that is left to sink into the darkness. This is a very effective method for highlighting details and areas of focus, and allowing other areas that are not of as much importance to simply be implied. It is also an effective way to set the tone of the piece.

Can we expand the concept here and make the leap to viewing the value structure as a narrative element? Would it be correct to assume that Madame Butterfly has a lighter, or higher value ( value in the sense here of moral value ) than her surroundings? Is she a beacon of light in an otherwise dark place? I can only assume so, since I have yet to see the play. These kinds of unfolding meanings are through the linkage of Value, Tone, and Mood. When we take a moment to analyze good work, we can begin to play with these concepts of, in this case, isolation, moral standing, and an overall tone for the play.

Next, I've chosen to take a look at this still from Hitchcock's Psycho for it's similarity on the whole, of emotional and psychological tension. While the media is different I find that there are some good connections between the two images.

Here's Marion Crane. In this still she's been driving all day, tailed by a cop, and finally into the night. The whole scene is quite nice as it comes to this point, and slowly all light around her starts to vanish, save the dashboard light, which highlights her face. Also, notice the histogram at the right side of the image.

In both of these images we have an illuminated face set in a dark space. Setting aside for a moment the huge amount of emotional information transmitted by their expressions, we still can understand the mindscape, the tone of these two images, which is remarkably similar.

The space and light become descriptors, not just of the forms as they are but also of the overall mood. As the histograms show us, there's a heavy dose of darks in each of these pictures. In fact I don't actually think that there is any pure white at all in the image of Marion Crane. {poor Marion, we all know how this ends.} We can begin to generate our own associations with what the dark represents as a metaphor. Who wasn't afraid of the dark when they were a child? It's the unknown and we tend to fear.

Also, the darks can be a visual cue towards an inner space, towards introspection as a result of the isolation. This is accented by the image of the seemingly detached floating heads. The heads become symbols. It seems to me that both the images are pointing at an emotional state of mind, or mood, of isolation, of surrounding darkness, and a moral position. I wouldn't go so far as to say that these two pictures are implying the same state of mind here. The faces communicate quite the contrary. However, in working within the line of thinking about the Mood, Tone, and Value of the images, they are very similar, which is to say that both of the artists have utilized their tools in a similar way to help lead the viewer towards what it is that is being communicated.

We can get a sense from both of these images about the ideas that the artists are communicating with us; the sense of isolation and drama, of introspection, the moral and mental state of the characters. The foundations for these moods are rooted in a strong value structure, and build upon this foundation are more nuanced emotional details, transmitted through the faces of the characters. While there are a great many more details and decisions that have going into these two images, their foundations are very similar, and as with many illustrations which strive to communicate beyond the obvious and into the deeper realms of meaning, one must work with value to establish a concordance of tone and mood.

I hope that this journey has been of some benefit to you, and that you may take a second, third or more looks at you favorite artist, regardless of their medium. The pictures are talking, we only need to listen.

** Again I want to thank John Jude Palencar for his kindness in allowing me to use his work here, please find out more about him and visit his site { weblink here }

If you are interested in stills of Alfred Hitchcock check it out { weblink here }

If you'd like to see where I've started to utilize these concepts in my own work, look here and here.

Book Cover: Pike

2010-01-12T17:57:00.000-08:00

This is the second of the two book covers that I was asked to do for PM Press. Amazingly this piece was a great sounding board for the other piece The Chieu Hoi Saloon. Both pieces were a lot of fun to work on, and they provided a great point and counterpoint to work between. For instance this piece for Pike called for a cold harsh feeling, where as The Chieu Hoi Saloon required something warmer, although still gritty.

It was that "gritty" aspect that was one of the major challenges that I had to work with. Considering that often times watercolor, as a medium, tends to be softer and smoother. So, to build in some good ol' Noir Grit was a challenge. With this piece in particular you'll notice that I've spattered a lot of paint about, some to be the falling snow, and some to just be noisy on the picture plane.

Here is the progression from one of the initial concepts to final sketch. I was initially drawn to this concept for it's graphic quality. I liked the stark tree as an emblem of this character's family tree, that it would be desolate, broken, and dark, it's seen dormant during the wintertime. While the story's main character is actually Pike { for whom the book is named }, the character of the estranged grand-daughter, Wendy, is actually the epicenter of the story. She provides the touch stone between the main character and the mystery of his daughter's death. You can read more about my initial thoughts from the first blog post here.

Here is the expanded final sketch which shows both the front and back panels for the book. I had some fun putting that little wispy weed at the bottom of the spine. That's totally just for fun, I like books that have a tiny picture on the spine. Given the chance to do more book covers, I can see really pushing that tiny spine illustration.

When moving from here to the finish, I knew that one aspect that I wanted to show in both this and the other cover, was that the piece should be something that couldn't be created on the computer. I wanted it to be expressly "a painting." There just seems to be so many great up and coming artists working digitally that I don't even want to compete with them, so my answer is to create a something that is wholly original and difficult to do digitally. So, in this piece that is evident in the sky. The washes, upon washes are ripe with accidents and recoveries { I'll leave it to you to find those! } I found myself thinking a lot about the skies in pieces that I've seen by Sir Russel William Flint. While I wasn't directly looking at his work, it is strange to me that it would just emerge that way.

As with any piece of work, in hindsight I look back and see areas that could be stronger, but that is what the next piece is for! Stay Tuned, and thanks for reading along.

Book Cover: The Chieu Hoi Saloon

2010-01-10T17:33:00.000-08:00

January has been a very good month, 2 book covers ~ DONE!

The past few weeks have been quite eventful. there was the Holidays, followed by New Year's eve, sprinkle in t he social events, and you've got a busy month. Some where in all that, I made time to paint 2 cover paintings for the "Switchblade Series," from PM Press. As I mentioned in my previous post , Santa brought me a great gig doing 2 book covers. I am happy to say that both covers are done and on time.

The books are stories that were outside the scope my personal work, and so I was challenged to come up with images that would be appropriate for the stories. The cover shown here is for The Chieu Hoi Saloon. The other image will be posted separately.

The folks at PM Press were very nice to work with, and they allowed me full reign on these pieces. In turn I did my best to deliver work that would be conceptually strong and technically well done. I feel good about both those aspects, but as always, there's room to grow.

Here you can begin to see the genesis of the work. I submitted a couple of concepts that were generated off of the initial brief that was sent to me. The thumbnail I chose to use has strong graphic appeal, and speaks to the story with in. As I look at other cover artists whom I admire, I am often really attracted to work that, while based in the literature, resists being literal. This is not the contradiction that it may seem to be. My endeavor is to allow room in the image for mood and tone to creep in. Bearing all this in mind, I felt that this image would work the best.

Next was to expand the image from just a cover image to a wrap-around cover.
I struggled with a few things in this image. One was the gun in the shadow. For a long time I wanted to put something in the character's hand that would possibly cast a "gun-ish" shadow. Then at some point, I remembered that this is an illustration, and not a photograph! It's funny that I should have to give my self permission to do that, but hey that's life. Another area that I worked on was the perspective, you'll notice in the sketch that the street light in the upper left corner moves from the sketch to the final. I realized that if the guy is walking and casting his shadow that way that everything else in the image should be the same. In that way the internal logic of the image wouldn't be broken.

I am very thankful for the opportunity to do these book covers and hope that it will lead to many, many more such wonderful gigs!

Check out the companion image: "Pike"

Rush Job

2010-01-05T19:32:00.001-08:00

Yippee! 2010 is starting off wonderfully. A good client of mine contacted me for a rush job to spruce up their product information page. I had about 1 day to work on it. Everything went very smoothly, and I was especially grateful for the new brush pen that my sister gave to me for Christmas that allowed me just to flow from rough pencils to inked final. There was some additional challenge to create a readable flow with the bulk of information that had to be presented.

You can see the end result on the Ring Thing's Product Page. My initial contact with this project was noted as A Quick Fling, earlier on this blog. The astute reader will note that much of the graphics for their poster ended up being used for their website.

Still working on the book covers, those should be up by next week. Cheers, and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas... now get to work!

2009-12-25T22:47:00.000-08:00

Hey all, so Dame fortune and Santa have smiled upon me and delivered me two book covers to paint. I am very happy to be ushering in 2010 with some illustration work.

Here's both the brief's that I've received thus far, hopefully the manuscripts will be emailed to me soon so I can parse out some more details.

The Chieu Hoi Saloon
It’s 1992 and three people’s lives are about to collide against the flaming backdrop of the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. Vietnam vet Harry Hudson is a journalist fleeing his past: the war, a failed marriage, and a fear-ridden childhood. Rootless, he stutters, wrestles with depression, and is aware he's passed the point at which victim becomes victimizer. He explores the city's lowest dives, the only places where he feels at home. He meets Mama Thuy, a Vietnamese woman struggling to run a Navy bar in a tough Long Beach neighborhood, and Kelly Crenshaw, an African-American prostitute whose husband is in prison. They give Harry insight that maybe he can do something to change his fate in a gripping story that is both a character study and thriller.

Here are the thumbnails for The Chieu Hoi Saloon. After reading the brief on this story, I felt that it was a story about a reconciliation between Harry's past and his present. I drew a strong connection between his Vietnam War experience and that one of the other main characters is a Vietnamese woman. As a supporting element I realized that LA/ Long Beach and Vietnam both have a lot of palm trees in them.
The first thumbnail reads quite well and is graphically very strong. The viewer is looking down on Harry as he's walking along a boardwalk/ sidewalk. The shadow is cast as that of a soldier; his shadow is his past self. The palm trees help to frame him and reference both LA and Vietnam. This is my personal favorite. It works well from across the room, and communicates an idea from the story. There is still some room to communicate the feeling and mood of the story here as well.

The second thumbnail is another variation on the shadowy past, but in this image we're in closer on Harry, and his shadow is cast upon a wall next to him. I think there's some room here to draw connections between a pitted and scarred wall, and the lined and weathered face of Harry. It is a more personal perspective.

{P.S.: see the final product here}

Pike:
Douglas Pike is no longer the murderous hustler he was in his youth, but reforming hasn't made him much kinder. He's just living out his life in his Appalachian hometown, working odd jobs with his partner, Rory, hemming in his demons the best he can. And his best seems just good enough until his estranged daughter overdoses and he takes in his twelve-year-old granddaughter, Wendy.

Wendy bears with her all of Pike’s failures to his family, enough heartache to last a lifetime and a few unanswered questions about her mother's death. And, following in her wake, a dirty cop named Derrick Kreiger, who carries an unhealthy interest in the girl. Pike, Rory and Derrick circle, evenly matched predators in a human wilderness of junkie squats, roadhouse dives and Cincinnati slums, with Wendy at their epicenter.

Here we have the Pike images. I worked around some ideas about what is at the core of this story. There is a "past coming to the present and having to deal with it" theme. Also I noticed a theme of unexpected family, where in Pike has to deal with, and, defend his "new" grand-daughter. As it says in the blurb "Wendy is the epicenter," and so she's integral to the concepts up to now.
In the first thumbnail we see Wendy as a silhouette against a dark tree. I like this image, and feel that it has a graphic punch for a cover image. I like the metaphor of the family tree, and showing it as a dark foreboding shape. There's a lot of potential for this image, there's a great deal that can be communicated through her body language and facial expression. { this is where the details from the manuscript will come in handy } This one gets my vote.

The second image is more narrative by comparison, Pike is shown working on a broke down truck with Wendy close at hand. Here I am showing the broke-down family as the truck, where Pike has get in there and fix it. I've highlighted his forearm which will have tattoos on it, referencing a sorted past. Wendy is shown in contemplation of her grandpa's hand, and it is ambiguous as to whether or not she's actually going to reach up and touch his hand. I think that this image highlights the family dynamic, more specifically the relationship between Wendy and Pike.

And that's all for now folks, stay tuned for details as this develops.

Portraiture in Watercolor

2009-11-29T17:31:00.000-08:00

I am super happy to post this painting. I was honored to complete this portrait for some friends of mine who commissioned the piece after seeing the Paintings for Presents that I posted.

The concept to use their daughter as Max from "Where the Wild Things Roam," was serendipity at it's best. I'd been thinking about how to make this a piece that would be something different than the classic portrait. One of the places that I found inspiration was with Gustav Klimpt, in that he often uses the 2d and the 3d to great effect. So initially, I thought it would be something like a Klimpt, in that there'd be a bold shape, and the the figure would fit in it. As I went through some sketches, I happily stumbled upon Max. From there it was shooting reference pics to support the idea. Knowing that the images we'd taken at the playground would be my only reference, I shot many pictures, and endeavored to match one or two to a scene.

Technically speaking, the painting was challenging to work on. After arriving at a drawing that I liked, moving to a painting can sometimes be an opportunity to flub things up, but good. This is of course always the case, but we must persevere through those moments. So, I prepared the board, and smeared Cobalt Blue over everything but the Max suit which was to be white, and set into painting.

I tried my best to keep the momentum going for the painting, and to not allow myself to be bogged down in details to early. Following the 3 rules that I learned when first learning to paint in watercolors: Work big to small, back to front, and warm to cool.

In the end I enjoyed the concept and the process from gathering reference pictures, to drawing and painting the finished piece. There's just no way to express the feeling of making a blend happen 'just so,' or working life into the face. It is just a joy to paint, and to have others enjoy it in the end.

Goggles Comic: Cover Up

2009-11-12T23:29:00.000-08:00

Well, here is some work in progress { and I use that term loosely.}

I was working ahead with the cover image when a conversation with the author provided me with some crucial character info that I missed in my reading of the story... baddaboom, big baddaboom.

It turns out that the Goggles themselves need to be more chaotic, and wild. I think I can still save this image and add onto the drawing, it's still early enough in the process to make those kinds of changes. But I feel like a heel for missing that character element to begin with. So, I'll continue to try to save this image, and in the end if I have to burn it, so be it. But I'm not ready for that just yet.

Previous Post: here

Studio Bowes Art Online Store: Grand Opening!

2009-11-03T17:48:00.001-08:00

Studio Bowes Art Online Store

I am happy to announce the Grand Opening of the Studio Bowes Art Online Store! I'm posting up prints and posters, mugs, and my favorite, the skateboard! Check it out {here}

The proceeds from this online store will go towards sending Brian to the 2010 Illustration Master Class held in Amherst, MA. Please feel free to stop on in 24/7 to take a look, and if you don't see something that you'd like, I am more than happy to special requests.

Also available are personalized portraits. Handcrafted with watercolor, these can make for great gifts for the Holidays, Anniversaries, or Birthdays. Feel free to contact me directly through my portfolio site {here}, and read more about it on my blog {here}

Goggles Comic: Cover on Board

2009-11-03T15:28:00.000-08:00

After sitting on this for a while, life's cleared up, and the next project is up and running. A friend and I have worked out a story, and developed it for release as a comic. And by developed it, I mean that he's written the darn thing, and now I need to deliver the art! Our objective with this project is to have a bit of fun, we're both comics fans, and decided that we'd give it a go. The plan thus far is to produce a sample of the work, and then approach a few different publishers, to see if they are interested, and if that fails, there's always self publishing.

After doing considerable thinking on the matter, the cover is going to be the first thing, then I will work out the pages. So, with out further ado, or a-doo-doo...

Part of my intent with this cover painting is to keep things quick and loose. I feel like often by the time a drawing makes it to the final board, a lot of life has been wrung out of it through tracing. So, I've intentionally left this one looser.

First a few free-hand color comps. I really like the earth tone pallet, but after some consideration, I started thinking about James Bama's Doc Savage covers, images here, I like the tone of his images, he pulls a hue as the major key for his images. Which I thought would work better for a comic cover ( I do actually want people to buy this!)

I started working using white to knock back the background. The image below was started with a wash of orange, then knocked back with chinese white. There's an intentional halo around the edge of the shadow and figure, my hope is to create a little edge vibration, especially between the blue shadow and the orange edge.

Now, the drawing is on the board, and at least one thing has changed from the preliminary drawing, notice the tentacles along the bottom edge, which I am seeing as being in the foreground. I think they help to really emphasize the danger that our heroine has walked into.

I'll apologize now for the quality of the photo, it's just a snap shot that I bent around in photoshop to get the lines to show up.

It Figures...

2009-10-22T01:21:00.001-07:00

Well, so in this post, I am making up for a little lost time. These first three drawings were done on Oct. 7, two weeks prior to the time of this posting, and the rest of the drawings were created on Oct. 21. (My Uncle's B-day!)

While I do think that there's tons of stuff that's awkward about these drawings, you know some of the proportions are off and so on, but there is a feeling that is starting to emerge from within the process of drawing.

2 - 10 minute studies

40 minute study

Some of this feeling can be attributed to just making drawings for a long time, in other words, confidence is starting to seep into the work. That's a slippery slope right? Certainly I don't want to become over-confident, or over-confident's cousins, arrogance and ol' big head. There's no faster way to kill a drawing than a huge dose of ego. That being said, there is a feeling of... "goodness" that is happening during the process of drawing, a certain sense that the pressure is off, and the drawing is happening for the love of drawing. Because through this looking and observing there comes an understanding, or if not that at least an effort to understand what is being drawn.

2 - 5 minutes
20 minutes
20 minutes

1 hour

I feel like I am approaching the room that my first figure drawing teacher told me about. He didn't call it a room, he didn't call it a state of mind (although it is both of those), he simply uttered 4 words into my ear when he saw that I was struggling, trying to make the drawing just so perfect that I was all locked up, he looked over my shoulder and whispered in my ear, "Just fuck it up."

Now, it's taken reams of paper and years of drawing to begin to approach that place. From where I'm at it is a place where there's no hesitation, a deliberateness of mark making, a facility and a joy of drawing. A place where the judgement is suspended, and there's no time or space for self doubt. In short a place and a time where Fear has no place; Fearlessness. Who hasn't at some point had to enter a situation and had to put fear off to the side and just do it the best way you know how. It's a powerful place to come from. I don't know if it's a place we ever fully arrive at, there may still be those nagging critics in the back of our minds, but it's as good a place as any to aim for, and that's all we can do.

Paintings for Presents

2009-10-14T18:07:00.001-07:00

Greetings,

This year I am offering to do paintings for the holiday season. It will be a totally unique gift, created specifically for you or your loved ones. The above image is a flyer that contains more details, click on the image to see a larger version. Also, feel free to download it, or to pass it along to your friends. I am open to any reasonable requests.

This is a direct link to my developing online shop: Studio Bowes Art

Here are larger views of the images shown above:

You can see earlier posts on this image here which show part of the process used to create this piece.

This is a sample page from my sketchbook.

You can find the story of this portrait here from an earlier post.

I hope that you find this idea intriguing and feel free to contact me with any related questions.

The Return of Figure Drawing

2009-09-24T21:53:00.000-07:00

I am so happy to say that the figure drawing sessions at CCA/ Illustration have resumed. One can never over value the power of drawing from life. In this particular instance I made three 20 minute drawings, submitted here for your perusal.

The following image was cobbled together in photoshop, just to give a sense of the page. While the patchwork of scans isn't the greatest, this image is only to give a sense of the whole page.
Prior to the drawing session, earlier in the day, I was in conversation with a friend regarding the work of Kent Williams. While we both agreed that there is some merit to doing straight master studies from an admired artist, that in the end that is only an exercise in seeing. While we both professed a love of his work, we both also agreed that there was already a Kent Williams in the world and that there really isn't a need for a second. Thus we were encouraged to follow our own paths. As my friend succinctly put it, "there is enough room here for all of us."

Having been thinking about what it is about Kent's work that I really like, one thing that came to mind is how he lays in his lines. No doubt after A LOT of life drawing that the artist grows accustomed to the form and can be more bold { or subtle } about their comments on the page. With this in mind, these drawings endeavor to be bold, more direct and then to allow the drawings to adapt over time. This of course can lead to distortions and misproportions, but after all these are drawings not photographs.

Dorothy: Then A Strange Thing Happened...

2009-09-07T23:38:00.001-07:00

"Then a strange thing happened.

The house whirled around two or three times and rose slowly through the air. Dorothy felt as if she were going up in a balloon.

The north and south wind met where the house stood, and made it the exact center of the cyclone. In the middle of a cyclone the air is generally still, but the great pressure of the wind on every side of the house raised it up higher and higher, until it was at the very top of the cyclone; and there it remained and was carried miles and miles away as easily as you could carry a feather.

It was very dark and the wind howled horribly around her, but Dorothy fond she was riding quite easily. After the first few whirls around, and one other time when the house tipped badly, she felt as if she were being rocked gently, like a baby in a cradle.

Toto did not like it. He ran about the room, now here, now there barking loudly, but Dorothy sat quite still on the floor and waited to see what would happen.

Once Toto got too near the open trap door, and fell in; and at first the little girl thought she had lost him. But soon she saw one of his ears sticking up through the hole, for the strong pressure of the air was keeping him up so that he could not fall. She crept to the hole, caught Toto by the ear, and dragged him into the room again, afterward closing the trap door so that no more accidents could happen."

It was from this text in the Wizard of Oz, that the initial spark of inspiration flew for this piece. I was particularly struck by a few things here. One, that there is so much emphasis placed on the 'centered-ness' of not only the cyclone but Dorothy as well. Here her reaction is quite relaxed, what a Taoist might call the Wu Wei, or going with the flow. Secondly, there's the strangeness of the floating dog in the center of the room, that just sounded fun.

I owe a great big Thanks to everyone who helped me through out the completion of this piece; Zelda Devon, Rebecca Guay, Randy Chavez, Paris Raupach, and to my friends and family who helped keep my spirits up, thank you. The amount of learning that happened during the course of this illustration would be hard to quantify, certainly at each turn there was someone there to lend a helping hand.

Process wise, this piece was done in an effort to create a well composed, dramatic image, with a strong underling value structure. Consequently, it has seen numerous revisions along the way. This idea was germinated from the assignment options for the Illustration Master Class held earlier this year, due to personal reasons I was unable to attend and from there I realized that there was no need to hurry this piece along. In hindsight, that certainly allowed time and space for many small details to mature.

There will be another post later on reviewing some of the process tips I picked up and the journey from blank page to painting, but for now I hope you enjoy the image.

PS: to see the original post about this image and watch it all come together go to Post #1: Steampunk Wizard of Oz
to see the previous post about this image go to Post #3: Dorothy, as she is

Dorothy, as she is

2009-08-23T10:23:00.001-07:00

Well, the painting has been coming along, not quite fast enough for my liking, but it is still in progress. I wanted to just post up some images to show where she's at before heading off for some much needed vacation {I am wound tighter than a Tin Man's ticker} Watch for the thrilling conclusion in about two weeks after my return.

PS: to see the final post and the finished image go to Post #4: Dorothy, Then a Stange Thing Happened
to see the previous post about this image go to Post #2: Dusting off Dorothy
to see the original post about this image go to Post #1: Steampunk Wizard of Oz

Orbital Debris: Zeta Thief

2009-08-11T21:14:00.000-07:00

While waiting in a Doctor's office, some people read magazines while others knit. This comic page was waiting for me while I waited. It's a self directed comic, I was surprise to watch it emerge from my sketchbook. I didn't know it was in there, but here it is.

Comics are a great way to work out that narrative image making skill, with the addition of time. I've noticed that in, what I see as successful, single image pages the viewer can get a glimpse of what just happened, or what will happen, alongside what is happening in an image. With sequential art, there's all kinda space to play with time, place, as well as core story telling ideas like foreshadowing, metaphor and so on. Of course books have been written on the subject of comics and how to read and draw them, so I'll hold back the diatribe on comics... for now.

As I continue to delve into the world of comics {who knows, maybe there is work for me in the industry yet,} and develop styles and so on, I have to give a tip of the hat to some of my heros: Barron Storey, Bill Sienkiewicz, Sam Keith, John J. Muth, Jeffrey Jones, Berni Wrightson, and Stan Sakai. Each is a hero for different reasons. If I were to grossly hack these select few into groups, I'd have to say that Barron, Bill, and Sam would have to go into a bag labeled, "Freakishly Great Art and Story Telling." The remaining fellows could be slapped with a label that read, "Stories and Drawings to Make Angels Weep."

This piece leans on lessons gleaned from Barron's classes, and tries to refine and incorporate the graceful inking of Jeffery Jones or Berni Wrightson. Having said that, I've got a long way to go!

Dusting Off Dorothy

2009-08-05T18:05:00.001-07:00

With more than a little help from my cattle prod wielding friends, I am happy to have brought Dorothy back to the edge of OZ. There have been many reworks of this piece since it was last posted on the blog, but well worth it. There's been some great learning experiences so far. You can visit where last we left Ms. Dorothy here, and after viewing that should handily be able to distinguish the two images. "Why, Brian," you may well ask, "why all the changes?"

Well, dear reader, to begin with my original intent with Dorothy was to have her floating between the two words, the gray and bleak of Kansas, and the emeraldy goodness of OZ, so the first change was the direction. A simple reflection upon the vertical axis, and already she's less planted on the floor boards and more sliding into the cyclone cellar. Then came the feet, I don't mind say, I've swept her off her feet. {oh hardy har har~}

Also I've simplified the image somewhat, and tried to focus more on her face and her reaction to all this whirling dervishness, and that's been done by creating a richer value structure. This is of course, the cornerstone to any narrative image, VALUE, VALUE, VALUE! I've had some real help with taking my sheepish values to a more dramatic place by one Zelda Devon, big props go out to her. There were a number of people who were very generous with their time and there informed perspectives. In the end I hope the piece lives up to all that was put into it. And that's the next step, painting. Look for the next post in two weeks.

PS: to see the next post about this image go to Post #3: Dorothy, as she is
to see the previous post about this image go to Post #1: Steampunk Wizard of Oz

In the between times

2009-08-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

Somewhat in preparation for the upcoming Dorothy piece, and for the experience of putting paint onto the page again, I've sketched out this SciFi scene. It's all free hand, so it is what it is.

I've had some recent inspiration reading the July issue of Imagine FX magazine, especially the Justin Gerard article. I really admire his work and was fascinated to glimpse his process, and the way that he utilizes Photoshop to manipulate his image. For my tastes however, I can't get over loving to make a painting. There's a certain thrill in that for me. Sure, as I stare at the blank page I am certain that I don't know what the hell I am doing. That's just a crucible that has to be passed through. I am told that other's have similar feelings, that doesn't make it any easier however.

This piece is just a fun little thing. A giant tentacled creature, a spaceman wielding a broad sword and protected by his t-shirt and fish bowl helmet! {some of you may be able to spot the artist who's work I've been drinking in lately..}

Dorothy's up next, stay tuned.

Art Auction Wrap-up

2009-08-02T12:09:00.000-07:00

I'll start by thanking everyone who helped to make this poster sale a success. A Gigantic thank you to Brent and everyone at Shinteki who brought me this work, and took the extra time and effort to have the auction on Ebay. They have tireless energy and are super fun to work with. A thank you goes out to each and every person who put bids on the work, it is an honor and I am touched by your efforts.

Brent brought the posters over to the house to have them signed before they are to be shipped and distributed to their new rightful owners. Each poster got a signature and a message to the buyers on them. (see above)

This was the first occasion I actually had to see the final posters. It was really fun to see them at size, and then to compare them to the original drawings that I had scanned in, it was something like a 300% increase in size. I have to say, bigger is better in this case. However it does drive home the point that I picked up from David Lance Goines that if if doesn't work small, it isn't going to work big.

In the end, I am really happy with the turn out for this project. It was fun to generate 7 pieces in about 2 weeks, and to fortify some computer-art skillz. Then to seem them so warmly received, and to have them go on to have extended uses beyond their originally intended use is such a delight.

Art Auction!

2009-07-22T14:39:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,

I am so excited to announce that Shinteki is holding an art auction of the posters that I did for a recent game puzzle of theirs. Evidently there was a positive response at the games, and Shinteki have generously decided to hold an auction for the game pieces! The auction goes through to the 27th of July.

I am really happy and really touched that they'd put in this extra effort. We already knew they were great people, this just goes to further the point! So check it out, make a bid, and you might be the lucky one!

http://www.shinteki.com/artauction.html

You can also see the original post about these works here and here.

Sketchbook Moonwalk

2009-07-07T01:03:00.000-07:00

I wanted to just post up a page from my sketchbook. Recently I've been coming back to drawing and painting just for the fun of it. I am still working on the Wizard of Oz piece which has a more serious side to it. For reasons of my own sanity I've come back to drawing for enjoyment, and this page is simply that.

A quick fling

2009-07-01T22:19:00.000-07:00

One can never tell where things are going to go next! A friend of mine has a mother whose something of an entrepreneur. We were introduced to each other last year and she hired me to do some simple story boards for a PSA for her company No Kiddin' Condoms.

This year, she was on her way to an event where women inventors compete. As it turns out the designer she thought was going to prepare her 'pitch poster,' basically flaked out on her, and in a panic she called me up. My solution was quick and dirty, I figure it took me about 7 hours from beginning to end.

I don't suppose this will turn the world of illustration and design on its ear, but I am happy to have been able to pull it off, get paid, and have it look not half bad.

*PS* January 2010: additional post "Rush Job" for this same client.

Steam-punk Wizard of Oz

2009-06-17T15:35:00.000-07:00

One of the projects for the Illustration Master Class in Amherst MA was to create a cover image for a steam-punk retelling of the classic "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz."

Conceptually this combination of two worlds is ripe with possibilities. It is an area that I hope to mine for a few more pieces. The first piece is the cover image, and these are my preliminary works for that.

The scene I've chosen for the cover is from the beginning of the book, when Dorothy and Toto are in the cyclone over Oz. In the book, there's a moment when Toto falls into the hole where the cyclone cellar was, Dorothy rushes over to save him. Only to find that he's buoyed by the air pressure of the cyclone. I chose this scene because it allowed me to show that she was falling into another reality. Around her will be the gray and drab world of home and below will be the radiant colorful land of Oz. I hope to heighten the effect with color as well, choosing desaturated grays and muted tones for the house, and vibrant golden greens for Oz.

Here is the compositional drawing. I am working on developing angles, trying to set the stage so that there is the possibility that Dorothy might fall into the hole. She should be right on the edge. There may be further refinements in this drawing later, simple things like lifting her heel up on her left foot, maybe pointing that right foot. Or, maybe I'll try switching the feet around so that the right foot is forward and the left is back. Clearly she'll need a top too. Those changes will be made after getting a model to pose for me and taking some photo reference. This will also help to add to the overall steam-punk style too.

Here we have the initial value pattern. Again, to heighten that contrast between the drab world that she's leaving and the luminous world of Oz, I've tried to keep the house in 50% gray, and kept Oz and Dorothy in 20% gray. A simple triangle or zig-zag pattern really. (I guess staring at those Hokusai prints flows out here and there.)

Now, we come around to the more finished value study. While I will make adjustments to bits and pieces of the drawing, this will be the template for the final piece. The area's that will receive some immediate attention will be Dorothy's pose, the whirling cyclone clouds (they just aren't whipping around enough for me yet,) and defining the Emerald city down there on the ground (right now it's some geometric shapes.) The Yellow Brick Road should also be a bit more clear after the color, right now it's the white line that leads to the Emerald City.

Stay tuned for more developments. I may be releasing some of my sketchbook sketches going forward too, just for fun. Please feel free to leave comments, I like to hear what other's think!

PS: to see the next post about this image go to Post #2: Dusting off Dorothy

Portraiture in Watercolor

2009-06-09T17:23:00.000-07:00

This most recent piece was actually set in motion about 6 months ago, in an auction to raise money for a local school, I donated a portraiture drawing session. What originally started off being a 1 hour drawing session has morphed into this watercolor painting.

The girl is about 5 years old and her parents were the top bidders who won the portrait. The way that the painting came about is that we arranged for me to come to the school and to do some life drawing on the spot. But little children often suffer from Antsy-pants, soooo, I brought my camera with me. What I ended up with was two nice drawings that gave good gesture and sense of her proportions, and 2 or 3 pictures that were worth anything. Feeling good about that, I came home to the studio and set to work. Obviously photo's give one the ability to really get the details of the face. I really tried hard to leave things as fresh as possible, but my early inclination was to turn her into an 80 year old woman by painting into every nook and cranny of her face! Of course children's faces are soft and round, corners and lines have yet to happen, and so my intention was to create a sense that the colors and values were just ever so lightly floated there.

Technically, I felt that I found a good stride with this painting. I enjoy small crosshatching marks, and with watercolor one is able to build a rich color and texture due to the transparent quality of the paints. My heros for this kind of mark making would have to be George Seurat, his drawings are positively sculptural, and Andrew Wyeth (who could not just LOVE the way that he created his final paintings.) This kind of mark making shows up in some of my pen and ink work as well. For me it's a great way to develop tone. This was really the first time that I employed this method in terms of creating a whole painting with it.

Another note that I was conscious of during the creation of this piece was edges. There is a big effort to display hard edges, and to balance that with soft edges. The soft blending along the cheek and nose area are of particular joy for me. The outer edge is another place where I wanted to show some softness, as well as the rough brush strokes on the paper. For this I looked to John J. Muth for inspiration, I find that his blends and backgrounds are rich with wet into wet blends, and sensitivity to color and edges. I have to admit it was a brave moment putting those moves on there. At that moment, I had the head and shirt done, and most of the hair. So, I had to take a deep breath and launch into that, and well, the results are there on the page.

Finally, speaking of the page, the paper itself is a handmade piece of watercolor paper from Twin Rocker in Illinois. I was gifted a sample pack of papers from them, which I adore. One thing that I didn't account for was their sizing (the glue in the paper), and the way that it accepted water. In other pieces I've painted on Strathmore board, and Arches Hot Press. This Twin Rocker paper really should have been soaked then stretched rather than painted directly onto, consequently the watercolor didn't soak into the paper very quickly. However the back side to that is that the color also lifts very easily; making corrections was a breeze. The rough nature of the paper and the natural surface were positively a joy to work on.

I hope I have more opportunities to do portraiture, it was really fun. If I am being really honest, I admire this piece for the things that it is to me. So many times, I can create something and find that in the end, I am still not quite satisfied with the results. Here, I am.

Comic Book Finals

2009-06-01T22:26:00.000-07:00

Ok, fun only begins to describe this project. Originally I was contacted by a really great company, Shinteki, who do games and puzzles for corporations as well as private events. Defiantly check out their website, it's amazing! So their latest challenge involved creating several faux comic book covers, that's where I come in.

The puzzle will be running until June 6th, and I will post the answer after it's all over and done with. I just couldn't resist posting the images though, because I enjoyed making them so much!

Process wise, I decided that for the sake of efficiency and authenticity I decided to delve into Photoshop to make these. They each had a very similar genesis, starting with sketches/ thumbnails, up to final drawing in some cases, then on to inking, scanning, and photoshop. Very similar to how I assume many comics are made these days.

I wanted these to have a somewhat classic comic look to them, with a dash of pulp, spiced with a little digital pizzaz. To those ends, I worked out some of the stressed features on the images; dog-eared corners, worn spine creases, and faded and stressed edges.

An interesting side effect of streamlining the creative process was I found some unusual color choices, that I wouldn't have made had I done these traditionally. I guess there can be a certain fearless quality to laying down color in the computer, simply because it is so impermanent.

Even though I was using photoshop, I did make an effort to to use too many filters, and to use the effects in photoshop judiciously. Although I may have gotten carried away here and there, c'est la vie.

So, go ahead, these are the clues. I don't know if there was a prompting question on the actual puzzle, but all the information is in the images (or else it wouldn't have worked!) Give it a shot, and send me your solutions, for each correct solution I will give you a free drawing! Deadline's June 6th.

Comic Book Gold

2009-05-20T10:37:00.001-07:00

This newest project is turning out to be quite a lot of fun. Recently I was approached by a company (who's name will be revealed at a later post) to do some faux comic book covers. They had a series of seven specific characters in mind from the start and have given me a rough outline of what needs to be in each image. Otherwise, they've give me a lot of leeway to create the images in whatever way seems to be the most effective.

The images will be used as clues in a puzzle. I will be explaining the reasoning behind each image after the event has run. We wouldn't want some adventurous googler to get an advantage. Here's a sneak peak anyway. (P.S. I am not sure why the colors are so funky, the finals will have a different pallet to them.)

Final Figure Drawing Friday

2009-05-06T09:59:00.000-07:00

Well, all good things must come to an end, and what an end it was. My post is two weeks after the fact, but the final drawing session was another one that amazed me. For what ever reason, there are some days when we feel like we couldn't write our name well, and then there's the other days. The days when all is well in the universe and we are in harmony with that. This is how I felt about this past session.

Maybe I'd eaten well that day, maybe my mind was relaxed, maybe the planets were just lined up just so, but whatever the reason I felt confident in drawing. Also, the drawings were remarkably free of the usual mental strain that I put on them. Maybe simply allowing them to be what they are was enough to release that critic that resides in the dark corners of my mind.

These first drawings are just that, the first drawings. Almost immediately I liked the model, enjoyed her poses and figure, especially her nose. Weird right? Anyway, this first page is obviously very loose, 1 minute drawings.

These next two drawings are moving into the 5 and 10 minute range. Somewhere in here the pencil started to live a life of it's own. Really, there's sometimes no other language but poetry to describe the feeling when drawing is happening well. That's not to say drawing is happening "accurately," or "precisely" these are, I think, the ideas that need to be removed from ones mind.

It's an important fact to remember that we are not cameras, that we are not creating photographs, but drawings. An impression of not only that which is before us, but as in the case of master works, that ineffable feeling that a drawing can allude to or call for from with in us.

I feel that the beginnings of that are what is going on when an artist is surprised by their work, or something "falls off the brush," this it is the case when the drawing is leading the way.

These next two pictures are an interesting set. I think it is of note to talk about how I created these. Basically, I am drawing and painting on a semi flat board. The foot of a drawing horse set on end. I mention this only because after looking at these pictures, the dis-proportion starts to make some sense.

The first pic is how the drawing looked to me while I was working on it. Notice that there is perspective, evidenced by the convergence of the the edges of the paper at the top of the image. All seems to be well or well enough with the proportions.

Yet.... when I look straight on to the piece... whoa! She's got a mondo head. This one had drawing creep from the start too. Notice the extra paper that's attached to the top. Drawing/ painting with watercolor is a little like being a train conductor, once it's moving forward, there ain't no reverse! This pose was about an hour, and probably 30 minutes of that time was spent wrangling the proportions around. Clearly the drawing won that match.

Finally we come to the last piece. There was some extra time at the end of the session that the model sat for about 20 minutes. In a flurry I decided that the earlier drawings utilized the pencil well, and that I would do the more traditional approach of pencil first watercolor second. (Off the top of my head, I do believe all the other watercolors were done just with a brush, in other words, no under-drawing.) So, quickly, lightly I worked around the figure for about 7 minutes, then for the remainder I painted in a semi-planer way. With a short time to go, I charged the brush with the Windsor Blue (red shade) and popped in the background. There wasn't any logical reason at the time, or at least none that I was consciously aware of.

I was stunned at my own audacity at that moment. I felt it was a bold risk, and one that paid off in the end. Heck, you decide.

Troll, Digital Corrections

2009-04-15T16:38:00.000-07:00

Well, here's the final, final, final... finally.

This one has been cropped to the final size and scanned in, rather than the snapshot from before. In an endeavor to keep on growing I've also taken this into Photoshop for some minor adjustments. Can you spot them before you read on?

After living with the painting for a little while, it became time to scan it and get digital. Those who may know my previous work, will know that I am a bit of a "Ned Ludite," and have pushed off the computer for some time.

Having read others' posts and listened to some arguments regarding the computer and it's place in the illustration process. I think that the argument that really sold me on it was the fact that in today's world, illustrations are ultimately digital at some point. That being the case, why then give away what control you as the illustrator have in that process. When one scans their own piece, you are able to modulate the colors (and hope that the recipients computer monitor is calibrated something similar to yours!,) and make any final adjustments before sending it off, i.e. Digital Corrections.

For those of you at home who've been playing along and tried to spot the changes, I'll point some out for you. Firstly, and most importantly, there is the elf's face. I was really disatisfied with how the painting turned out, and wanted her to be more ingaged with the troll. So, I've changed her eye as well as tried to build a bit more structure under her face. This being the first real attempt, I am not totally convinced just yet. It's a good start, but there is certainly room to grow.

Other changes are way more subtle. I've tried to accent the top of the Troll's head to pop it away from the cave wall. Of course there was the clean up from the muliple scans, edges needed to be made invisible, and there were actually some cat hairs that mysteriously appeared (he said as he casts a sideways glance at the peacefully sleeping cat.) That's about it.

Troll painting... Done.

PS: there are a whopping 8 posts that chronicle the creation of this piece, to see the first moves check out Post #1: Fantasy Series
to see the previous post about this image go to Post #7: Troll, The End

Figure Drawing Friday

2009-04-15T14:59:00.000-07:00

A few weeks of figure drawing have gone by without any posts of the drawings. I don't know if any of these will throw the Art world on it's ear, but the function of art was definitely served here. That is Art as a verb. The following drawings are, to me, more about my experience at that time. Read what you will.

I have to say that the past few weeks have been pretty intense, and of course it shows up in the drawings. These are a far cry from sensitive light watercolors. I brought out the charcoal, just to keep the drawings skills sharp, and look for my elusive 'black'.

This is a series of 5 minute warm-ups on one page. I guess sometimes good drawings happen when we're not looking, or is it especially when we are looking? The main drawing here really benefits from the previous work on the page. I like the economy of line here.

I really started to feel for the model here. She was really putting her energies into a 'Spring' theme, light music, little garlands, etc., and I was charging into a more physical, agitated state. Here she was the water giver. If you know your Major Arcana, she reminded me of the Star card.

This was one of the final drawings from that session. You can see that the actual drawing moved on the page quite a bit through corrections and wiping out. I've totally departed from the vibrant, hopeful, spring theme of the session, and moved into a Frances Bacon state of mind.

This session and the next session I will post soon, are more to me like going to the gym and working out on a punching bag more than a ontological search for ethereal beauty. I guess some days are like that.

Troll, The End

2009-04-06T10:21:00.000-07:00

This could very well be the end for this painting. It's been really great blogging this, in that I was able to reflect on all the choices that brought it here. A big thanks goes out to Randy, Jenny, and Paris, for their critical eyes. Sometimes we get by with a little help from our friends.

PS: there are a whopping 8 posts that chronicle the creation of this piece, to see the final moves check out Post #8: Troll, Digital Corrections
to see the previous post about this image go to Post #6: Troll, rolling along

Troll, rolling along

2009-03-31T15:24:00.000-07:00

Today will be a succinct post. These are just some more of the Troll Painting as it evolves. The actual painting right now is coming right along. I am finding that zone of love of painting as it comes to life on the page.

For those of you following at home. I've done some color correction, but you can see in the over all hue of the picture, when my light bulb burned out, and I had to use a fluorescent bulb. There is a definite yellow cast to the piece. Look for another post about the visual affects of light with side by side comparisons.

I hope you enjoy these as much I as I enjoy making them.

Cheers,

PS: there are a whopping 8 posts that chronicle the creation of this piece, to see the next moves check out Post #7: Troll, The End
to see the previous post about this image go to Post #5: Troll Process; First Moves

Troll Process; First Moves

2009-03-24T08:36:00.000-07:00

Somewhere in the caverns of my mind I realized that I could photo-journal this while I was making it. It turns out to be quite interesting to me. Far too often is a painting finished and one has to just remember how it got there. With this new "computer-magic", well, we can all go along for the ride.

If you've read the past posts (Have A Spare) you'll remember that this had to be redrawn. I was toying with the idea of drawing it a 3rd time, onto the 500 series Strathmore board. But I decided that I'd work on the Arches 300#. It has a way of absorbing the pigment that softens the blends, and can be atmospheric in a way.

With that behind us, OFF WE GO!

This first image is the drawing on board, and some reference material, i.e. the value study, the color study, and some photo reference. This way of making a picture isn't the fastest way, no doubt, but it does work out many kinks early on, and lets the picture develop to have a 2nd and 3rd read in it. I believe you can find this method in earlier Art History because people did spend a lot of time with paintings after they were finished, what with no babble-boxes and whizbangers to occupy our time. So, for this painting, which is an image that one might find inside a book, the method is quite appropriate. Remember when you were a child, and how you delved into each picture in a book, drinking in all the details.

Ah, the fist moves, possibly some of the most terrifying things ever. After making a lovely drawing, what do you do but slop paint all over it! This is where the color study comes in handy, it's like a road map, and helps take the edge off. You may notice, that at this stage I am blocking in the warms and cools of the painting. The blues get a little blown out in the photo, but all in all it is pretty balanced on the painting itself.

Working back to front, and big to small, and warm to cool. The basic tenets of watercolor painting. Here the background is brought to a semi-finished state. There is still some room to punch up the values later on when each section is spoken to. In the end this will allow a certain value harmony. I suppose if I'd achieved a certain level of mastery I could paint each part to its completion each step of the way, using the value study as my guide, but my dear reader, I have yet to be quite that confident. Maybe with time.

Today is another workday, look for a new post coming soon!

PS: there are a whopping 8 posts that chronicle the creation of this piece, to see the next moves check out Post #6: Troll, rolling along
to see the previous post about this image go to Post #4: Have a Spare

Have A Spare

2009-03-18T19:56:00.001-07:00

The burned out light bulb. As an image it says a lot.

Today has been a two steps back day for this painting. Although not a total failure, but certainly enough to want to set fire to something.

Let's start with the paper. Oh, my lovely Strathmore 500 why have your forsaken me. After making final minor adjustments to the drawing adding details and such, I taped it to the board, and made ready for the first washes. I like to wash the whole paper with tone so that from the start there is something holding it all together. I knew something was up when, after having applied the initial clean water wash that helps the drawing to set into the paper, there appeared little pimples all over the board. This hasn't ever happened before. I thought "maybe I've just put too much water on the board, I'll wait for it to dry out." I used a hair dryer some, and set about preparing my paints. The pimples didn't go away. I applied the first wash and sure enough, damn pimples. The pigment soaked into those parts and looked really bad. I thought I was done with pimples when I was done with adolescence, guess not.

I will spare you the details of the printing issues that I ran into, as I really don't understand them myself. Suffice to say that I finally made the call to pull the painting off the board to salvage the printout underneath it. I cannot explain this unusual reaction. I carefully reviewed other pieces that were created from the same piece of board. The only thing I can think of is that I may have used the back of the board. If that's the case, I'll make some other painting on the other side later. But for now, luckily, I had a full sheet of Arches Hot Press 300# under the desk.

The show must go on.

Having redrawn the image on to the Arches, I returned to my desk to find that the Chromalux bulb that I use in my desk lamp was blown out. Hurmf! Luckily, I had a spare bulb on my shelf.

Today's lesson kids, "have a spare."

PS: there are a whopping 8 posts that chronicle the creation of this piece, to see the next moves check out Post #5: Troll Process; First Moves
to see the previous post about this image go to Post #3: All Trolls on Board!

All Trolls On Board!

2009-03-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

Finely, the Troll image has made it onto the board! The next step will be painting, which can be a hair raising experience. This all took a little extra time due to a family emergency that came up. Now things are in order, and we're getting back on track. It's all part of the process.

The color study proved to be quite useful. It's done at about 25% of the final size. There were a number of smaller issues that either got worked out or became obvious that they will need to be worked out in the final.

As the painting was happening, I noticed a few items that hadn't shown up in the value study. One is that because I dove in for the darks first thing, the Troll's left foot all the sudden became the center of interest because of the strong value jump. Not that it's not a foot worthy of attention, as far as Troll feet go, it's a pretty nice one, bunions and all. But it ain't the center of attention, which I want to be the key hanging from the Troll's hand.

Another 'Key Issue' (oh hardy har har) is that the values are backwards between the key and the background. The key needs to be dark and the background needs to be lighter.

The biggest issue that there is the shadow shape behind the the elf. It meets the cliff that she's standing on, and is really odd. It is too flush and creates an unintentional tangent. That'll have to go.

Over all, the colors are in order, I'll just have to take care that the values are correct. I really want the sense of depth between the foreground and background. If all goes according to plan, the middle ground will be atmosphere.

Well, now, that brings us right 'round to the final painting. Right now I've transfered the drawing on to final board. I like to use a 500 series Strathmore plate finish bristol board. It's nice and thick and holds the watercolors well. It also dries flat which is great later on when it comes time to scanning and such.

PS: there are a whopping 8 posts that chronicle the creation of this piece, to see the next moves check out Post #4: Have a Spare
to see the previous post about this image go to Post #2: Troll Time

Troll Time

2009-03-11T10:12:00.001-07:00

Well, thank goodness for friends. After showing my previous drawing (here) of this scene to some comrades, it was justly pointed out to me that there were some holes in the work. So, as the saying goes, back to the drawing board. I feel better for the revisit, the piece is stronger and should communicate more easily.

What happened? Well, for one reason or another many people kept pointing towards the lower left corner of the image. It seemed there was a visual leak there. My solution was to revisit it, and more closely observe the troll and his clothes and hand gesture. It need further resolution to become more believable. After all, who wants an unbelievable crabby fantasy character?!

Probably the biggest change that was made was to the Troll Hole. Compositionally it needed something to help keep the eye flowing around, whereas before the eye flow would get stuck there, or worse yet, leave. Also, I wanted to put something between the viewer and the troll, while leaving the space in front of our little Elven heroine open. The reason is that I want the viewer to easily identify with her, this means that there are no visual obstructions between her and the viewer. Now, the opposite is true for our Troll. I didn't want people to "get too close" to him. The solution came about as a leafy stump and rocks.

This technique is often employed in movies. Where I first became aware of this was in the opening sequence to "Raging Bull." There we see the main character in the ring, shadow boxing (metaphor please!,) but the camera/ viewer is always outside the ring, there is a constant visual barrier, which also reminds us of a bars on a cell or cage (Foreshadowing Metaphor Please!) Check it out for yourselves: Raging Opening Sequence.Here, through the magic of Photoshop and tissue paper, is the final drawing. The next step is to work up a color comp. I'll still use the value scheme from before. Turns out there are many mico-decisions that are made in the creation of a narrative piece of illustration, and these are just a few. Enjoy!

PS: there are a whopping 8 posts that chronicle the creation of this piece, to see the next moves check out Post #3: All Trolls on Board
to see the previous post about this image go to Post #1: Fantasy Series

Figure Drawing Friday

2009-03-07T00:55:00.000-08:00

Ahh, another Figure Drawing session Friday.

I am really loving these occasions to draw for a few hours.

Today's excitement was that we did without a model. For those of you who've ever had to make due, you know the drill. It's portraits of the people around you, or people start to volunteer to be the model. We opted to model ourselves.

Myself, I did a 20 minute pose for the group. It was fun to walk around afterwards to see what people had created from it. After that brief stint as a model, I have a renewed appreciation for what models do, it ain't easy, that's for sure. If you ever want a challenge, be still for 20 minutes, then see how you feel!

These drawings ended up being quick and simple, no big deals today, just doing the work. The two pencil drawings are a gal whom I went to school with. It was nice to see her again and a surprise to draw from her for 20 minutes or so. It is something of a challenge to draw people that you know. I found that early on, I was just trying to draw a portrait of the person, focusing in on the face. Noticing that, I decided to use a little exaggeration to help me work out of that. Thus the head shot that's a little wonky.

The color image is another student who attends these sessions. She had a really great triangular-floppy-doll-pose that I enjoyed working from.

Figure Drawing Friday

2009-02-27T23:37:00.000-08:00

Today's figure drawing session was extraordinary. We were fortunate enough to work with a jazz musician (who's name escapes my mind right now.) He was positively wonderful to work with. Essentially he performed for about 2 and a half hours off and on, with n'er a dull moment. Absolutely great! He played a bass clarinet, a musette, and a flute-ish recorder. At times he worked in a bop-jazz way, and in other moments he played like an autumn leaf on the wind. A very spirited performance.

I am happy to say that this got me thinking about the figure in a refreshing way. By tone, and color as not only representative of the physical before me, but also of the tone and color of the music he was playing. In reviewing the images they seem less like drawings, and more like moments or events on the page. It is so energizing to change one's perspective. Especially in that I've been working a lot from photo's as of late, and there is the pitfall of the flattened image that can occur. It is nice to come at these problems in a robust way again.

Again today, the company was exquisite, I enjoyed seeing some old friends and meeting a few new people too. Watch out for more images from these sessions.

Fantasy Series

2009-02-25T10:03:00.000-08:00

This is an ongoing project that will be end up being 2, maybe 3 paintings. They will be based on an imaginary fantasy story of my own concoction. Essentially, the story is about a princess who strikes out on an adventure to save the King, who has had a magic spell cast upon him that is poisoning him. Up to now, she has had to escape the castle, learn the antidote, get the antidote from a dragon (what fantasy story is complete without a dragon! Watch for future posts on this image as well,) and at the end she has to sneak back into the castle. To sneak back into the castle she has to out wit the Troll who guards the hidden entrance under the waterfall, and holds the key to door.

As I went through the numerous thumbnails developing this drawing I finally came upon a setting that I liked, and that told the story. After I had a thumbnail version, I invited my friend Lauren over to do some photo-reference. Here, I'd like to put a shout out to Pat over at P•Kok, a local clothing boutique who specializes in natural fiber clothing. Pat was very kind and allowed me to borrow a few pieces for the photo shoot. Please visit her shoppe and buy lots of groovy stuff! www.pkoksf.com or on Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/p-kok-san-francisco

After I'd established a design that I liked, the image is brought to a final-ish drawing. I had some fun developing the Troll. At first he was a kindly forest spirit who would move the waterfall with magic. But the more I looked into Trolls, the more I realized that this girl is lucky not to be eaten! So, this incarnation is a real snotty, grumpy, bastard, and I kinda like it better that way. Who wants a nice troll anyway?:
And from there is developed the Value Study:

The next step is to transfer the drawing onto the final paper where I'll make a watercolor out of it.

STAY TUNED!

PS: there are a whopping 8 posts that chronicle the creation of this piece, to see the next moves check out Post #2: Troll Time

Figure Drawing

2009-02-17T15:16:00.000-08:00

Ahh, for the love of Figure Drawing! There can be no other activity that, for the artist, is so crucial and at the same time so nourishing. It has the potential to be so exhilarating as well as so frustrating, all within the span of moments.

As it turns out there is a life drawing session on Fridays that I am starting to go to. The price is right and the company exquisite. Here's some drawings from the first two sessions. The colors are enhanced, the originals are so light on the page that they didn't scan too well. In the future I'll work on the boldness of marks. But for now...

Cazamero Portrait

2009-02-11T14:30:00.001-08:00

This project was done in the middle of 2008. I thought it'd be a nice opener for the blog.

This image was created to be a gift for my wife's Kumu Hula (or Hula Master-Teacher) Patrick Makuakane. In Hula there is an important connection that is formed between the teachers and the students. In honor of that lineage that is passed down through the generations, the image shows Kumu Robert Cazamero and Kumu Auntie May Klein who were both Patrick's teachers and provided him with much inspiration.

Having decided on the subject, I first worked out a drawing through thumbnails, which resulted in this drawing.

The next step was to put in the initial washes. Warmer tones were used for the Robert Cazamero, and cooler tones for Auntie May Klein to show that Robert is in the present tense, and May was in the past.

Now the painting started to take off, and detail was added. This is the really fun part! First I worked the foreground then the mid-ground, all the while developing the background.

As the painting came to a finished state, it looked like this.

This is where it gets interesting. When a painting is to that finished state, there is usually a time where I just look at it. For this purpose I have a little easel. As I was bringing the painting back into the studio to prepare it for delivery, I had in one had the little easel, and in the other hand a glass of pomegranate juice (which I love so much.) It was like a slow motion scene in a movie, the board began to fall off the easel, and I reflexivley reached to catch it with my other hand... the one with the juice in it.

A period of time passed where nothing but profanities spewed forth.

I then got onto the task of recovery. With less than 2 hours to go before it was to be presented a good portion of the painting was sliding off with the pomegranate juice. There are moments in life where our past comes back to us and it seems as though it had been for this specific reason, to right now aid us. And this is the case with my first job out of High School as a photo retoucher (yes in the era known as PPS, Pre-Photo Shop.)

As my wife came home and prepared for her class, I wearily walked up with the painting, no worse for wear, juice all blended in and no-one was the wiser... until now!

Ah-hmn, Hello

2009-02-11T14:18:00.000-08:00

For 2009 I thought I'd start blogging. Partly so that you are able to see my process, and partly so that I can share whatever information passes across my drawing table that you may find interesting.

And so it begins...