Distilled

Safe, Illustration Friday

2006-09-06T20:27:00.000-07:00

The news is full of stories about safety. It's all an illusion. The government makes more restrictions on our civil liberties to make us feel safe, but it's not very effective.

I had an idea to show "safe" for Illustration Friday, but I've reconsidered as it seemed in poor taste once I thought about it a bit.

Instead, here's an old painting of a gondola that I can't remember if I've already posted.

Sculpture on the Louvre

2006-07-08T14:06:00.000-07:00

Back from France, and on summer vacation, I'm trying to get back into daily art making and writing. Here's a drawing I'm working on from one of the outside walls of the Louvre.
Not terribly challenging when you use Painter to trace it, but I'm working on it.

Second Letter to my Niece

2006-04-23T17:44:00.000-07:00

Here's an excerpt from the second letter to my niece, with accompanying drawing of Hobbes on the top of the cabinets. Look close, he's hard to see.

Fake Model Photography

2006-04-22T18:08:00.000-07:00

Drawn! has post about fake model photograpy. I tried it, and after a bit of fiddling, got it to work. Now I can see the interest.

Here are mine, first the source photo:

and then the "fake model."

I like it.

First Letter to the Nephew

2006-04-14T16:30:00.000-07:00

I sent my first letter to my nephew today. It contained just this image with the accompanying text, a memory map of the house we lived in when I was nine.

I've made other memory maps, and they're fun to do, even when you don't quite remember the details of the place that you're mapping. I got this idea from a great book about writing called Writing and Illustrating Children's Books for Publication by Berthe Amoss and Eric Suben. It's got some other great ideas in it too.

I'm also sending letters to my niece in Houston. To read an excerpt from that, go to my other blog Telling Deeds.

Cartooning

2006-01-05T16:09:00.000-08:00

I've been drawing the past month, but I'm practicing some things that I don't feel comfortable showing anyone just yet. I feel uncomfortable drawing people. Perhaps because my art school didn't teach me human proportions.

I know, I'm shocked too. I only started feeling slightly comfortable drawing people after my supervisor decided I should teach it right after my graduation to my high school students. After consulting Jack Hamm's Drawing the Head and Figure and doing some practice, I felt better. Still not easy for me, but better.

All of the heads and bodies that I draw now look stiff. But I'm copying from the greats. I did some Calvin & Hobbes doodles and some Bloom County doodles, plus I'm copying some stuff from a guy that I saw on Drawn! I hope to post some images soon, until then here's an old drawing from August.

London Bridge

2005-11-13T20:50:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this isn't from my sketchbook and it isn't from this month. I drew this in Painter in July in the middle of my photo tracing stage. I've got to get drawing again.

Holy Crap, Batman!

2005-11-13T18:17:00.000-08:00

Wow, I've been neglecting this space for a while. I'll post something from my sketchbook in an hour or so.

I guess I should get to drawin'.

The Hollywood Sign

2005-09-14T15:28:00.000-07:00

We didn't go up the hills or anything, but we did drive through Hollywood, and this was the best photo that I could get from a moving truck. Sucks pretty much, but I'm not that impressed with Hollywood. I've got a photo of a transvestite hooker outside a Carl's Jr. too, so that says a lot.

Seat 26C

2005-09-12T20:31:00.000-07:00

This guy sat in front of us on the plane on the 26th. We got on the plane at 7:15 for a departure of 7:45, had to get off this plane at around 8:45 and then got on another. The second plane left the airport at 10:30. I got up at 4:00 am to leave DFW at 10:30. Cool, huh?

On the Beach

2005-09-11T20:56:00.000-07:00

Jenny and I on the beach, the day we arrived. The sand was hot, but the day was wonderfully cool at about 75 or 80 degrees. Much better than Dallas, which had some 100's earlier the same week. We had a great time, and I'll be posting some scans from my sketchbook later this week. (I broke down and bought a Moleskine to try.)

From a Helicopter

2005-08-30T16:30:00.000-07:00

Just back from California. I took this shot of the Port of Los Angeles from our helicopter ride to Catalina. Then, my batteries ran out and I couldn't get any good shots of the island as we came in. Sometimes having a digital camera sucks.

Calvin and His Close-Up

2005-08-15T17:47:00.000-07:00

ArtRage, about an hour with the markers.

2005-08-14T19:32:00.000-07:00

Hobbes

2005-08-14T19:31:00.000-07:00

Calvin

Sweet Potato

2005-07-27T16:10:00.000-07:00

This is what happens to a sweet potato that you leave in a basket in your kitchen, for about a month. It sprouted about six stems. I cut the sweet potato into two pieces and planted them. Look below for a macro shot of a leaf. If you look closely you can see purple in the stem.

2005-07-27T16:09:00.000-07:00

Sweet Potato Leaf

2005-07-25T20:36:00.000-07:00

Another ArtRage painting, this one of a gondola in Venice. Not horrible, but still.

Paris 2004

2005-07-23T13:05:00.000-07:00

I was reminiscing a little this morning about my trip to Paris last year. I went with some friends, and we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower on the first day. It's really cold up there at dusk. I wished I'd brought a parka. The line was long, the elevator crowded, and some teenage smart ass in the elevator tried to out-word me. Acrophobia and agoraphobia both came up, and then it was a phobia naming contest. Anyway, at the top I took a panorama of digital shots of Paris. I had no idea how white the city looks from up high, nor how interesting it can be to view a city from this vantage.
Painter and digital tablet, Gouache brush size five, from a photo. This wasted a good two, two-and-a-half hours of my day today. And it turned out okay too.

Fruit #2

2005-07-19T14:52:00.000-07:00

Fruit using ArtRage. About 90 minutes, tinkering and messing around.

Metropolitan

2005-07-18T16:04:00.000-07:00

Last week's Illustration Friday topic, Metropolitan. I traced this from a photo that I took in London last year. It feels like cheating, but I'm still undecided about that.
Painter, with the Gouache Brush, size 5, in about an hour. I'm working on a color version, but I like it without.

Fruit - Strawberries

2005-07-17T18:17:00.000-07:00

EDM Challenge #24, Fruit. I did this one in Painter too, in about an hour. I used a photo underneath to get the lines and colors, and it looks weird, I think because of the low res image that I used. Anyway, Gouache Brush size 5 for the lines, and then varying Gouache brushes for the colors. I used Eraser Bleach for some of the highlights, but also painted some of the hightlights.

I'm trying another in ArtRage, but that's not going as well. I'll post it tomorrow, probably.

My Feet

2005-07-15T15:41:00.000-07:00

This week's EDM challenge. Painter, two layers, black lines with Gouache Brush 5 on upper layer, then colored with Gouache Brush 30 on the canvas layer. I did two other reallllly bad versions, so this took about an hour. Then I didn't like the color that I painted with, so I adjusted it to be slightly more pink than tan.

Dad (Mom & Dad's)

2005-06-30T18:58:00.000-07:00

Last week's Everyday Matters challenge, something to do with dad. I have a great idea for something else, but that's going to take a while.

I went to Mom & Dad's tonight, and Dad made me a burger on his new grill. Then I sat with them for a bit, talking. That consists mostly of my dad trying to get a rise from my mom. He's good at pushing the buttons, and she lets him get to her a lot of the time, so there was a lot of "Shove it, Brad!" from my mother. Only, she tells him to shove it by his last name and not his first.

This is the view of their living room from where I normally sit. Usually I face the television, but this view had a bit more to draw as it includes part of the hall and the kitchen nook.
In my big sketchbook, 8 1/2" by 11", Staedtler Pigment Liner, .05, about ten minutes.

My Desk

2005-06-30T15:49:00.000-07:00

I've spent most of the afternoon playing with Painter. The gouache brush makes some nice lines, especially if you try to vary the pressure. I'm still not to the place where I'd like to be, meaning that I'd like to be much more comfortable using the program and my drawing tablet. But, it's getting better.
Painter, about ten minutes, using the gouache fine detail brush, size 5.

Stages of Geekboy

2005-06-28T19:52:00.000-07:00

This is the digital sketch that I made in Painter, using the Cover Pencil at 8% opacity.

Stage Two

2005-06-28T19:50:00.000-07:00

I copied the sketch and pasted it into an upper layer. Then I made the top layer with the sketch 50% transparent, and started using the gouache brush to lay in the color.
Then I added a third layer on top for the black line work.

Stage Three

2005-06-28T19:48:00.000-07:00

Next I added more color, drew the shorts, socks and shoes in gouache. I added the line work onto the third layer. I was going to add other colors for dimension and shading, but instead used the eraser tool. I used the Eraser: darkener for the shadows and the Eraser: gentle bleach for the highlights.

Finally, I deleted the sketch layer, added the super powers as a text layer, and then flattened it all to save as a Jpeg.

Geekboy

2005-06-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

Illustration Friday Hero
Painter 8, three layers, and way too much of my life spent coloring it.
Still, I'm pretty happy with my first digital cartoon image.

Living Room Lamp

2005-06-24T19:02:00.000-07:00

The prompts for this week for EDM and Illustration Friday aren't working for me. EDM is "Dad" and I Friday is "Hero". I've been thinking about the dad thing for almost a week, and I've got an idea but it's not working so well.

I'll have to mull that over a bit more.

The above drawing shows a floor lamp in my living room. I have things stacked on things stacked on things, and I'm very lucky my living room doesn't look like a rubbish heap. Or not much like one. I recently got tagged for a book meme, and this book case shows a few of the 500 or so books that I counted the other day. Pilot Razor Point, brown, about forty-five minutes.

I should have a "dad" or "hero" post tomorrow, if all goes well.

Living Room Chair

2005-06-21T20:12:00.000-07:00

I drew small sketch, in the upper left corner of the top of one of my bookcases. Then, I drew the chair on the same page. After I'd done the chair, I decided to do the background, and it ended up overlapping the first drawing.
Pilot Razorpoint, again. About thirty minutes.

May 1946

2005-06-21T14:26:00.000-07:00

I have no idea who these people are. I'm related to them in some way, but I couldn't tell you their names. I took it from my parents photo collection last year because I thought it looked cool.

On the back of the photo, it only says "May 1946" in pencil. That kid could be my mom, who was born in 1940, or my aunt born in 1943. I'm not even sure that if I asked my mom she'd know.

Drawing Links

2005-06-20T20:41:00.000-07:00

I visited Michael Nobb's the drawing club today, and found some great sites.
Thanks, Michael.

First, some web-based drawing applications:

Typedrawing

The Scribbler

Draw Toy

ArtPad

Flipbook

And last, a truly odd art site, Eric's Portfolio.
A warning: If you don't like the idea of seeing paintings of furry animals bloodied, don't visit. If you suddenly feel curious what that might look like, go see. But don't say I didn't warn you.

The Duomo, Florence

2005-06-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

Still playing with ArtRage, but the way it works with tracing photos it feels like cheating.
I spent about two hours on this, using the tracing paper function and automatic color choice. I like it, but I think that I'll take some time and refine it a bit more.

See the reference photo below.

Duomo Reference Photo

2005-06-19T19:55:00.000-07:00

Self Portrait

2005-06-17T14:43:00.000-07:00

Illustration Friday - Black and White
I've been experimenting with some photographic self portraits recently, like Cindy Sherman. I love to dress up, but don't often put on costumes except for Halloween.

I was looking at a Kevin Aucoin book the other day. He's done some amazing makeup transformations. So I got out some of the makeup that I never use, and also a scarf someone bought me that I thought hideous. It's gold and black with stripes and leopard spots. Not my style at all, but little kids and their parents give weird gifts to their teachers.

I made myself up to look a bit like Clara Bow with heavy eye makeup and tiny lips. I took some digital photos in the mirror, but since I don't have three mirrors and four hands some of them had weird angles in them. I quite liked the angle of this photo, but decided to run it through some software with filters.

So, color digital photo, with a Thumbs Plus drawing filter, and Photoshop torn edges filter. The torn edges really seemed to create a mood.

After the Ride

2005-06-16T19:34:00.000-07:00

After riding around the pond the other day, I also took a photo that looked a little like this. Since the sky appeared colorless and the pond simply grey, I took a little artistic license.

ArtRage again, using the pencil to trace the photo and then the markers to color it. I really like that software. That's my roommate's arm in the photo. He That Shall Not Be Named, but that calls me a wimp for not keeping up. That's okay, I get him back in a thousand little ways, all the time.

Something I Made

2005-06-16T10:41:00.000-07:00

Everyday Matters Challenge #19
In college, I took jewelry making. I thought that I'd end up teaching secondary kids, and learning jewelry seemed much more fun and useful than pottery. Wrong on so many counts.

My jewelry teacher (who attended the same middle school as I) told me a rule of thumb that held true. It takes about three times longer than you think it will to make the object you really want to make.

These earrings took that long. I was obsessed with the comic Sandman at the time, and the character of Death. In that comic, Death is a cute girl who dresses in black with heavy eye makeup and wears an ankh. So, I made her eyes as earrings out of silver. Sterling silver wire, two gauges, and silver disks in the center.

My instructor insisted that putting the earrings into the tumbler to polish them wouldn't damage them at all. Wrong also. One of the wires broke, so I have a pair of earrings that I made but can't wear.

Drawing in Pilot Razor Point (again), took about 40 minutes 'cuz I did it twice. This is the second version.

Egret by the Pond

2005-06-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

Bear and I went riding bicycles again today. I didn't expect to see as many birds as we did. This egret, and a grey bird that might have been a heron, and a mama duck with about nineteen ducklings.
I've posted the photo that I used for this below. This piece is entirely digital, using a free program called ArtRage. I used oil paint. Next time I'll do the background first. Putting the water in after the grass sucked.

Egret Photo Reference

2005-06-14T11:20:00.000-07:00

At the pond, this bird didn't spook as easily as some of the others. Still, I would have liked to get closer.

Memory Map of Bike Trail

2005-06-13T21:55:00.000-07:00

I have this book called Writing and Illustrating Children's Books for Publication. It's by Berthe Amoss and Eric Suben, and it's very well written.

In it they have an exercise called a memory map, to get back to childhood, or at least remember some of the things about being a child.

My roommate and I went on this really great bike trail the other day, and neither of us brought a camera or sketchbook with us. So, two days later I decided to make a memory map. This is in Pilot Razor Point. Green just seemed the right color after all of the trees and the big fields we saw.

You may notice some weird blurry spots. I filtered some of the names in Photoshop to remove clues to where I actually live. At this point, trying to keep my teaching job, I prefer to remain anonymous.

Fountain in Rome

2005-06-11T21:09:00.000-07:00

"Summer" for Illustration Friday.
In 2002, I spent two weeks in Italy. It was about 95 degrees there, every day.
Rome seemed especially hot. In all three cities we visited, tourist and locals would congregate around the fountains to get cool.

This fountain sits at the bottom of the Spanish Steps. It's not a drawing, but a manipulated photo. I used Photoshop, increased saturation, used Median to blur a little, then the Watercolor filter. I tried to combine it with Poster Edges or Ink Outlines to define the edges of the people and objects, but it changed the tone and made it seem less summery.

Branches and Wall

2005-06-09T21:58:00.000-07:00

I have six or seven trees on my property. All of them need to be trimmed to keep the squirrels off the roof, but also so as not to annoy the garbageman. The other morning I could hear a couple of rodents chasing each other across the roof. At least they weren't in the attic.

Tree and Stones

2005-06-09T21:57:00.000-07:00

I decided to make some small, quick drawings in my backyard, and came up with two decent ones out of four attempts. That's not a bad ratio.
I've got to get some of the junk in my backyard cleaned out though, it's almost a jungle back there.

2005-06-08T14:01:00.000-07:00

Illustration Friday - Digital
Done in Painter 8, reed pen and prnt scrn.

2005-06-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

My useless fireplace and hearth.
Sakura Pigma Brush pen, black.

2005-06-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

What's Out My Window
Pilot razorpoint, black.

Drawings and other stuff

2005-06-06T18:42:00.000-07:00

I've joined a yahoo group called everyday matters. It's inspired by DannyGregory, who writes a blog called everyday matters.

They issue a drawing challenge every week, so I'll be attempting to fulfill that starting this week. The challenge is "What's out your window?"

I'm also going to try Illustration Friday, and possibly add some challenges of my own to get myself drawing.

So, I'm hoping tomorrow will be my first illustration post, What's Out My Window.

Backpack

2005-04-17T20:09:00.000-07:00

My backpack in stages, for EDM Challenge #3, Bags, Wallets, Purses. I bought this backpack while still in college. An extravagance at the time, but I really had always wanted a leather backpack. It cost about $100. Not something that I needed, really, but it's lasted more than fifteen years. That's more than I can say for my last fabric backpack.

Painter, about an hour. Gouache size five for the lines, Gouache size 30 for most of the shading, and I blended with the Soft Blender Stump size 20.

Lamp

2005-04-16T05:49:00.000-07:00

A clip on lamp that I never use. Painter with Wacom tablet, took about 45 minutes. I messed around with the shading, using the Bleach Eraser and the Soft Blender Stump. I did the drawing in an upper layer again, and then colored it underneath.

My Shoe

2005-04-15T04:32:00.000-07:00

Backdated, actually created July 15, 2005. Everyday Matters Challenge #1.
Painter, Gouache Detail Brush 5 on top layer, then Gouache 20 and 30 for color and airbrush for shading. About thirty minutes.