Monday, January 31, 2011

Digital scribbling

Still exploring the different aspects of digital: From where we left off on the batgirl pencil under drawing to a finished real world painting, I'd estimate -about 4+ hours.  This was done on a Cintiq in about 20 min.  And I just got the thing, still figuring it out. Kooky.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Analog Scribbling

It's an interesting time to be an artist.  Real world or digital?  I'm not pro either side, as I see advantages either way, and usually, I'm working back and forth.  Navigating the best way to shuffle the two is the interesting part.  For instance, I just finished this drawing of Yvonne Craig's Batgirl. (it's part of a bigger piece I'm working on)  She wore that sparkly purple outfit that I know will be tedious to draw with it's pebbly texture.  Could I have made a digital brush that simulated the texture? Probably.  Would it have saved a few hours rendering time? Certainly.  Would it look as good, with the same character, as real world pencil? Not likely.   So in the end it was pencil on paper into the wee hours.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Mattie

Thought I'd try another True Grit character; Mattie Ross.  I definitely blew my time limit on this one.  I had to cast about to find the likeness, and I messed with gesso here and there, both black and white, which makes for some cool texture and gives some tooth for the colored pencil to grab onto, but starts becoming more painting than sketch.  

I'm pretty blown away by Hailee Steinfeld.  The other tough guy characters not only come to respect her but want her admiration.  To pull that off, you need a little more than, well, Kim Darby peevishness. I'm sure we'll see a lot more of her.


 

Monday, January 10, 2011

'I can't help you, son..'

Maybe he can.

So why does a not-too-web-savvy guy start a blog?  -To get better.  Or perhaps more importantly, faster.  I'm a slow, plodding artist, ask any of my clients waiting for a commission.  My ornery way is to keep banging away, but I realize for a different result, I need a different approach.   I was impressed by Eric Canete, an artist I greatly admire professionally and personally, who started his blog page to step-up his output.  Check out his amazing 90 minute sketches.  So I hope Eric doesn't take mind if I take a page out of his book and try something along the same lines.

When I was a kid in school you could tell what movie I had just seen, because I was drawing it.   So why not go back to that habit for this exercise?  So I drew Jeff Bridge's Rooster Cogburn.  (Do I have to tell you how good this movie is?)  I tried for under 90 minutes, but it took 94, another hour+ for printing out reference, studying it, scanning.



Saturday, January 1, 2011

1111

1-1-11.  -Seems like a good day to start something, so I'm starting this blog.  I've resisted escalating my internet interaction from the basic, e-mailing, Googling and Amazoning.  But it's time I get with the program and perhaps even get a Facebook page -yeah I don't have a Facebook page, what of it?!

Why 'Telling Story'? Because that's what I strive to do in my artwork.  Even in a simple portrait; I don't want to just 'show the girl', I want you to wonder: what did she just do? what will happen to her? why is she sad/smiling/winking/whistling? With art, you can convey more than mere accuracy.  To show that a person is sad, or triumphant, good or evil, it can be gotten across in color, tone, placement, texture and a thousand other ways.  Artists often talk about this aspect of artwork, referring to it as 'telling story'.

Well, I'll share some of what I do here, and try to be insightful from time to time. Thanks for stopping by.

Jason