Safe, Illustration Friday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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'.