News from the Drafting Table

Bringing Forth

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:14:46 GMT

My shaman/witch doctor/conjurer painting is done. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I'm not going to be able to get a good photo of it before I leave for vacation (at 6AM tomorrow). But I'm impatient to show people, so I'm posting the best photo I can get, and I'll replace it with a better one in January.

"Casting" Oil on panel, 18x24

I had a ton of fun working on this piece. I did some preliminary thumbnails, but beyond that didn't due any pencil drawings or layouts or anything for this guy, just kinda jumped in head-first. I wanted to get as much of that spontaneous, creative energy into the piece as I could. I've got two other pieces in the pipeline that'll be straight-to-paint like this one. I'm looking forward to them.

Gearing up

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:46:26 GMT

Finished up some stuff this week, so I'm back to the painting. I'm having a pretty good time.

(I probably shouldn't post this, it's close enough to done that seeing the finish won't be exciting for anyone. Oh well!)

I woke up in the middle of the night with some ideas for the script for Gina's World. I kinda love those midnight revelations. But you've got to get up and write them down or they'll be gone in the morning, no matter how much you think they're set in stone.

Anyway, there's always been something missing in the last chapter, and I think I've got that straightened out, yet. Still some work to be done, but I've got the foundation and the direction for it.

Dr. Sketchy

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:59:05 GMT

Yesterday was a good day for drawing and painting for the hell of it. I did some sketching at a coffee shop at lunchtime, and then went to Dr. Sketchy's in the evening.

Painting in public, with a set time limit, and people jostling you always feels really different than painting in the seclusion of your own study. I really enjoy that energy. Hell, I wish I could do all my studio work in the middle of a busy mall or something. I also love the "you snooze you lose" feel of it. Model's here for 3 hours -- whatever you can do in three hours, do it. Whatever you can't pull off, that's just tough.

This was the model's first time posing for painting/drawing, and she did a great job. Her complexion was so fair (okay, WHITE) that I was expecting to find lots of cool colors in it, but between the spotlight, a bit of rouge, and the light bouncing off that red mane of hers, everything was red and pink. The highlights, the shadows, everything.

Secret Dead Twins are the New Black!

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:32:57 GMT

An alarming percentage of the fiction I've read recently has featured a secret dead twin. The central character discovers that they had a twin, but that twin was stillborn or died shortly after birth. And this explains/symbolizes their feelings of loss/isolation/broken identity/whatever.

Now I've got more of an interest in twins than most people. My wife has a twin sister, and they've both (their whole lives) been really resistant to the idea that being a twin is THE defining aspect of their personalities and characters. And I totally get that. So I tend to be a bit wary of the "mystic bonds" and "other part of myself" stuff that gets thrown up around twins. And the secret dead twin will make my eyes roll whenever I come across it.

(Thought I've got to admit Asterios Polyp handles it much better than most -- the feeling I get isn't that his personality is defined by the fact of his lost twin, but that he obsesses over that fact because of his personality -- and that's a significant difference.)

But here's what makes this really funny: The most spectacular of the secret-dead-twin books I've come across really sort of set me back (I'm not going to name the title). I had no idea how it had come into my house, either. Who had bought this thing? Finally I asked Ellen. SHE bought it. For her younger sister. As a Christmas present a couple years back. Her sister finished reading it and left it behind. Ellen had heard it get good reviews on NPR or something, and bought it without knowing what it was about. But yep, she who would be up in arms about secret dead twins bought her sister a secret dead twin book as an x-mas present. I'd really love to know what was going through Sarah's head as she read it.

You Can't Go Home Again

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:13:39 GMT

I've been reading Thomas Wolfe's "You Can't Go Home Again." It's really one hell of a book. I wish I'd read it . . . five years ago, though.
(Let me interrupt to say that this isn't the same Tom Wolfe who wrote "Bonfire of the Vanities" and such. This Thomas Wolfe died in 1938 (at 38 years of age). I got confused as all get out about them having the same name.)
The book was written in 1934, and it's set in the time right before and immediately following the great stock market crash of 1929. It's about a young writer, but it's full of people excited about the fortune they're making in real estate speculation (like so many of my friends and acquaintances five years ago -- and I would have joined them if I had the capital). It has statesmen proclaiming "the economy is fundamentally sound" even after the crash on Black Tuesday (a phrase John McCain practically quoted in 2008). It has banks failing that were the picture of health the day before.
But had I read it five years ago, would I have seen the parallels? Or are they only clear in retrospect?

Pulling it Together, Pulling it Apart

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:46:53 GMT

Probably a day and a half, two days of work left in this piece. I'm going to split the time up w/ some other projects, so it won't actually be done in two days, but still. I'm not happy w/ the rock textures behind him. I don't want it to look overworked, but now it just looks half-assed slopped in like I don't care. I've got some fun experiments to play with as I lay in the magic glow in his hands, though. Looking forward to that. I think I'll do a half-day on the rock and fabric today, maybe be able to play with the glow tomorrow. Might manage to knock in his skirt/kilt today.

It's funny how my "cutting loose" project seems to take baby steps to get through. You'd think you'd just go "bleagh!! Geronimo!" and there, you've cut loose.

Casting Salt Across the Ring

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:56:43 GMT

There's a lot that's attractive about the speed and ease of digital media. No setup time, no cleanup time, you just take off right from the bat. You don't stop to clean brushes, or need to set up the palette or replenish the paints.

It's pretty awesome. And it's also one of the disadvantages of the media.

Painting in oils, you set up your palette, get your brushes together, prep your surface for painting, a whole (very possibly tedious and frustrating) set of maneuvers and tasks you've got to make before you lay down the first stroke.

A ritual.

In martial arts, in sports, in competition, in performance, in so many things, there's a set and expected warm-up time. You're stretching out, maybe bowing in, or going through some codified or informal ritual (casting salt across the ring) -- and the whole time you're doing that, your brain, and all it's whizzing chaotic little bits, are aligning for the task at hand. Focusing.

Of course, sometimes it's great to jump in head first -- a spontaneous dive into the task. Gusto can be just as valuable as focus. But I think for a lot of us, we don't make time for the focus and preparation as often as we should. I know I'm trying to put together a way to get truly focused as I start a digital piece. The default ritual for digital tasks is checking e-mail, a bit of web-browsing, fiddling with the music playlist -- and it's all very splintering rather than aligning.

(p.s. sprinkling salt across the ring is one of the many rituals before a sumo bout)

Don't Trust What the Internet Says About Painting Highlights

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:02:49 GMT

It's been awhile since I've made time for any observational drawing -- and we can't have that! So I brought out my sketchbook at bedtime to see what we could play with. I often do quick drawings of people who aren't posing for me, and I enjoy that challenge. But it's nice to have someone hold still for you every once in awhile, even if they don't know they're posing.

And then, at the end of one of your wrists, most of us carry around a model wherever we go. Once again, here's my left hand!

It was a fairly good model, but kept instinctively moving to help with the drawing (rotate the page, grab the white charcoal, etc.).

These are done w/ a 2b pencil and a white charcoal. I should have been using an eraser, too, but I was too lazy to get up and find one.

--NOTE -- I wrote the following late at night, and by the light of day, it's much too harsh. The advice I'm panning below is actually not bad advice, and only needs a few explanatory notes (which I'm sure any good teacher spreading this advice uses) to make it pretty much universally applicable. I prefer a different approach, but the "closest to the light" one is probably easier and quicker to understand -- Here follows the rant:

I overheard somebody teaching a student about light and shadow, and he said something I think is . . . well . . . wrong. I looked it up online, and found a number of mini-lessons and tutorials that say the same thing, and I still think it's wrong. Here it is:

"The highlight is the point closest to the light source."

This ain't true. Well, on a perfectly non-reflective sphere it's true, but that's about it. And it's true on a sphere because the point closest to the light is the point most perpendicular to the light. On more complicated forms it's going to lead you astray. There are three things that determine how light an area on an object is:

1. How perpendicular to the light source is it? A plane slanting away from the light is darker than one facing the light.
2. How close to the light source is it? Light does get weaker as the distance increases, but this is usually quite neglibible. The sunlight doesn't care about the distance from the near side of an apple to the far side. Even if we're exaggerating this for artistic effect, it's nowhere near as important as #1.
3. (and this is the one most people skip) where does light have a straight reflection to the eye? Most surfaces (including skin) have a bit of a gloss to them (just a bit) and this places a different highlight (and usually a different color highlight) than the basic illumination does (#1 and #2). This highlight will move around as the observer's eye does. The other highlights will stay in place no matter where the observer's eye moves as long as the object and light source don't move in relation to each other.

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:33:39 GMT

It's been a pretty good day for me. I finished up one painting (which I can't post yet), mounted the drawing for another painting, and blocked in a third:

I wanted this one to feel more spontaneous, even though I'm not working alla prima, so I kinda just jumped in w/ both feet to lay this in. I'm going to work from the focal points out, rather than back-to-front, on this piece.

Vladimir Fiks

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:03:04 GMT

One of Vlad's favorite styles was Film Noir -- and he was an ace at the genre. Here's a little tribute piece I did.

Vladimir Fiks

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:01:24 GMT

A friend of mine died last week. I found out Saturday, and haven't really known what to say since then. He was an internet only friend, I'd never met him in person. But I've been talking with him for eight years or so -- heck, longer than that. Probably ten or eleven. We've collaborated on a bunch of art pieces, that sort of stuff. He, myself, and a couple other friends have been collaborating on an artbook for the last few months.

I haven't known what to say, but it's been on my mind so much that it's just wrong not to say something. Vlad was a really considerate, helpful guy. He was a warm and caring friend, and I'm going to miss him. I've written and deleted paragraphs over and over here, with none of it ever getting to the point, so I'm just going to leave it at this -- the world is poorer without him.

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:20:41 GMT

I'd forgotten my younger daughter doesn't have daycare tomorrow, so I've got one less workday this week. Suddenly I'm in a panic about reprioritizing projects because I'm not going to finish what I'd planned on this week. I'd planned on getting the first layer of paint in on the piece I posted the thumbnail for the other day, but now I need to delay that 'til next week. Dammit. I may sneak in the time to mount the drawing for my motorcycle samurai painting, though. I've also prepped a handful of 5x7 boards and am going to try to work some littler paintings into my schedule. I find the energy built up from doing little paintings always carries over into bigger, more elaborate pieces.

Some clients had commissioned a mural of Don Quixote from me a few years back, but they've since had to move and leave the mural behind. So they commissioned me to do an oil of the same subject. It's fun subject matter to work with. I was trying to pull a little more of an "old world" feel into the paint, and to make Quixote and Rosinante (his nag/steed) bespeak both the heroisms of the fantasy and the awkwardness of the reality.

I can't honestly tell you why the sky is green. It was green in my first conception of the scene. In the planning stages I pulled the sky more naturalistic a few times, but was always compelled back towards the green. The whole way through the painting I was worried about that green sky. But now that it's done, I think it's just as it had to be.

Thinking process

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:28:23 GMT

I've got three pieces in the works, all part of my cutting loose project. The one I was playing w/ thumbs and color studies for this morning is probably the most pure example of trying to pull the freedom and "chunkiness" of my sketchbook work into my paintings. No fancy architecture, hardware, or perspective to this one, just the human figure -- wiry, knotted, and twisting -- and some fun lighting and textures. The pecs/lats/deltoids girdle on the sketch here has gotten kinda super-hero-ey. I'm going to pull away from that, though.

The blue rimlight is such a cliche in illustration I wanted to go with red, and push the glowing energy the character is manipulating blue. But man, that blue rimlight/ red energy version looks pretty good. Sometimes things become cliches for a good reason . . .

I'm planning on submitting to Spectrum this year. As you might guess, the piece I've got in mind isn't finished -- it's the one I've put the most work into, but have gotten the least far on.

Framed

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:40:13 GMT

I love working in real media. Even the best, most awesome digital piece I've ever done, satisfying as it may be when it's finished, never has the moments of enjoyment in it's creation that even a frustratingly mediocre traditional media piece does.

I sure don't love storing those real media pieces. If I could pop them into a portable hard-drive I'd be a happy, happy man. Hanging them can be really nice (though space gets tight fast).

Hanging has always been easy because I've either gone for that modern art thick stretched canvas look, or a simple wood frame. I love wood, so give me something with an interesting grain and I'm pretty set. But the pieces I've been lately have been on panel, so I can't just hang them from the stretcher bars, and they're not . . . well, a plain wood frame isn't right for them. I took a trip to the art museum a few days ago, and really studied the frames. It's a really interesting aspect of art, and one I'd never really studied before.

As a kid painting in high school (or art school for that matter) we'd look down on fancy frames, saying that a piece should stand on its own. If it's good, it won't matter how it's framed. But I don't think it's that simple anymore. (Sidenote, I don't think ANYTHING's as simple as I thought when I was twenty -- if life were really that simple we'd have solved all of life's problems by now).

No, a frame won't make a bad piece good, but the wrong frame can really destroy a piece's impact.

Sadly, the frames that seem right for my two most recent paintings are . . . pretty damn expensive. We'll see what to do about that.

Workin'

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:26:07 GMT

So I'd been thinking that my oil paintings were all pretty quiet. Which isn't a bad thing, I like a quiet painting. But I wanted to stretch out a bit.

The tentacle painting was my first shot at cutting loose, but the figure still stayed pretty still and quiet. Since there doesn't seem to be much point in cutting halfway loose, here are the pencils for the next one in the works. The idea is to make it the opposite of subtle.

Layout Sketches

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:49:01 GMT

My standard postage-stamp thumbnails for this painting didn't bring out a clear direction for me, but pointed out a few pretty neat options. So I decided to work a few of them (originally planned 3, actually drew 6) to a more developed stage so I could better see what was going on with them. And also so they were at a stage where I could show them around and have them actually make sense.

I drew these about 4 inches by 5 (some a good bit smaller than that). Big enough to make the elements in the drawing clear, but not so big I get bogged down with the drawing and the details, just looking at shapes and composition. And concept, in this case. The paper I'm using has more tooth than I usually like. But that's also helping me move fast and not get bogged down in detail. The whites are a white charcoal pencil (General's).

And now . . . I set them aside to work on a couple other projects. When I come back to them (Friday?) hopefully I'll have a fresh eye and the direction I should go for this piece will pop out to me. Anyone wants to weigh in on something here, I'm all ears.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

I'm going to be shooting for a fantasy setting (though not a D & D / Tolkein fantasy setting) with the girls in contemporary outfits, like they'd gotten dressed up to play adventurers. The arrow point will be nerf-foam, and the shotgun obviously plastic (bright orange and yellow, I'm thinking).

My Toilet Exploded: a Dad's Tale

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:21:22 GMT

Saturday Sleep-in Project -- FAIL

Was woken up to deal with a wet diaper, again for problems reaching halloween candy, then for missing shoes, but the coup de grace was settling back under the covers when suddenly there's a pop and a woosh from the bathroom, like someone had suddenly turned the shower up to 11.

The inlet pipe to the toilet had broken, and was spraying water across walls, ceiling and floor. Couldn't quite get the shutoff valve all the way off with my hands, but got it to pour instead of spray, and put a trashcan under it while I ran to get my channel-lock pliers. I mopped it up, and in defiance hopped back in bed and pulled the covers over my head. Five minutes later another kid mini-emergency got me out of bed. I tended to that, gave one last longing look at bed and gave up. It was 7:05 AM and I was up for the day.

So since then I've had a little outing to the hardware store, replaced the broken pipe (getting sprayed with water again because I missed a joint until after I'd turned the house water back on), and things were just fine. There's a giant pile of wet towels, etc. in the shower, but frankly dealing with those can be Ellen's job (her sleep-in day is going much better than mine -- it's 9:15 and she's still in bed).

Getting up from hugging a wet potty, wrench in one hand, cup of coffee in the other, feeling both the minor triumph of fixing something and the minor disgust of having to deal with it in the first place, I caught sight of myself in the mirror. Days overdue for a shave, water sprayed all over my pirate flag shirt, and by coincidence in a pose Rockwell would have loved to have captured. Or better yet, Annie Liebowitz. Wish she'd been there. That would have been a photo portrait I'd glady hang all over the place.

Character and Costume

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:05:53 GMT

Alongside some other ongoing projects, I've been working on a new portfolio piece, kind of an action-adventure/fantasy with more of a contemporary bent to it. I've done a few dozen thumbnails (I posted a crayon one a few days ago) , and have started to narrow down some options. I've also been working on designs for the characters, and think I've just about got them (though as I look at it, I'm going to push the sleeveless hoodie more towards a charcoal gray):

The bigger girl's going to have a bow and arrow, the younger a brightly colored double-barreled nerf shotgun. Here are a couple sketches from earlier in the process:

Next up (on this project at least) is to draw up three or four of my favorite thumbnails a bit bigger and more refined, then make a decision about where the final painting's going. The background's going to have maybe some floating ships, some floating islands maybe, and maybe some of those mortars with streamers that I posted the other day. The octopus in the mason jar probably won't make the final cut, sadly. He'll have to wait around for another painting.

Drag Coefficient

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:41:28 GMT

These things may or may not turn up as a background element in a piece I'm working on:

Quality Drawing Materials

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:17:17 GMT

When we go to the public library my youngest likes to do coloring pages. Not one to miss out on the fun, I usually grab a sheet or two out of the trash can, turn them over, and grab some crayons myself. Sometimes it's random little doodles, but it's also a great time to work on thumbnails and designs. Yesterday it was thumbnails for a new painting I'm playing with.

(Pardon the fold in the middle of the page)

There's stuff I like about it, but I'm thinking I'm going to go with something a little more action-oriented for this. I'm playing with jumping through the air, kinda a low-gravity thing. I'll probably have to lose the cat and the octopus in the mason jar, though.

The Stairwell

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:32:54 GMT

Happy Halloween

Oil on Paper on Board, 12x24inches

And you thought I'd never post any art again.

It's crazy how long I've been working on this piece -- there's interruptions for you, turned a two week painting into a two-month painting.

Jab, Cross, Left Hook

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:28:32 GMT

My artistic ego took a couple of nasty shots Sunday. I'm a bit stumbly after it, but haven't hit the canvas yet. Thank heavens for having a good guard in place.

I'll be wrapping up my tentacle painting this week. I think it'll slide nicely into the halloween season, even if it's not really a monster piece.

I've been doing some photoshop mockups of some different options for finishing it off. Doing some big, flamboyant stuff. But now I'm back to leaning towards something a bit more understated. It's not set in stone, though. Part of the motivation behind doing this painting was to be over-the-top with it, and I don't think it's really hit that goal. I'll finish the piece along my current thinking, and then if I think I ought to go back and add on the extras after all, I can.

No Pinatas Allowed

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:52:06 GMT

It's a half-day at school today. Hanna usually goes to after-school care, but doesn't want to today because there's a party with a pinata and she hates pinatas. Doesn't like how everyone's loud and pushy trying to get the candy, feels like it's rude and not fair. So she stands back, and some adults bring her the leftover candy that's leftover 'cause nobody likes it.

So I'm going to break off work to go pick her up soon as I can.

Do I Complicate Things?

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:25:17 GMT

So I've had this plan to do some simpler paintings. Maybe a waist-up shot, one prop, simple background. But every time I start thumbnailing one I keep adding stuff in and I wind up with two motorcylcles, flying ships, an octopus in a mason jar, etc. etc. etc. all sliding into the composition.

Oh well.

Ants

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:39:48 GMT

I made my last jug of sun tea for the year yesterday -- and here's why it is the last:

The sun moved so the tea was in the shade, so it cooled off. Now that it wasn't scorching to the touch, the ants climbed all over it. I didn't notice this until I brought it inside and set it on the cutting board, then stepped away and noticed there were ants all over my hands. And my cutting board. I opened the lid and saw there were a half dozen walking around on the tea bags, and two dozen drowned in my tea. Bleh.

Speaking of bugs, when we're playing outside, Harriet frequently says that the ants are coming to play with her. She likes to pick juniper berries and throw them on the ground saying "here's food bugs!" But I noticed this morning that how the ants were playing was by being stomped on.