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.