News from the Drafting Table

IMC Firstborn Illustration -- play-by-play part 3

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:18:21 GMT

At this point in the process my desire is just to get the whole surface of the painting covered by Sunday. I want to work on the faces while the instructors are around. In fact, a couple of them came by at this point and said, "hey man, you need to get painting on the faces!" To which I said, "I'm trying! I'm working back to front!"

I spent hours of intently focused work on the asteroids, because I was terrified of them looking like floating potatoes. So they are detailed and textured to frankly a bit of a dumb extent.

I was worried at this point that the fact that everyone's wearing white or gray was a problem, but actually (as Donato pointed out) it really works in my favor and helps unify the piece. Which frankly can use all the help it can get being unified.

Boris Vallejo suggested a green wash over the two generals in the back to help get a little more depth out of the piece. Green? Really? But I figured he knew what he was talking about, so I put in the green wash. It was alarming at first, but it only took a minute or two to see that he'd been totally right.

And FINALLY I get to the main faces. What to do with that big floating head had been a problem in the back of my mind since square one. I painted him in yellow ochre ultramarine blue at first, thinking I needed to keep his colors simple, and a little unreal. But it was garish, so I quickly went back in to knock the colors into a simplified and slightly unreal palette, but one that could hang out in back rather than screaming into the front.

Working on the hero's face, I finally discovered the drawing error I'd made. I'm using a reference photo for him, but in the photo the dude (a buddy of mine who I photographed for the purpose) has a beard and is at a slightly different angle, just to make things more challenging. I painted in the far side eye, took a step back, then rubbed it out. Then I painted it again, took a step back, rubbed it out. Then I painted it again, took a step back, rubbed it out. Then I went to the liquor store.

I came back with three bottles of wine and set them out for all to share. I was a lamebrain and didn't get any cups, but people improvised and surmounted that challenge. I wasn't the first to bring something to share. Mr. Mark Scheff had been generously offering people pours from his bottle of whiskey starting the day before. But even though I wasn't pioneering the idea, I was glad to have done it.

I finally painted the far eye. It's STILL in the wrong place. Don't worry, I'll come back and fix it later.

IMC Firstborn Illustration -- play-by-play part 2

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:35:16 GMT

Once I was done with the pencil bit of things, I mounted the paper (Strathmore 500 1-ply) onto a nice archival masonite hardboard. Then I started underpainting the ships with this pretty awesome acrylic ink. It was coming on a bit too strong and I was feeling experimental, so I underpainted the rest of the painting (in very rough color washes, as you see) using oils and this new medium I'd never tried, Galkyd. It wasn't quite handling like I wanted, but I pressed onward.

At this point, I was pretty much convinced I'd ruined the piece. I had a lot of people come by and say, "whoa. That's an . . . interesting approach."

The next morning, I decide I'm following Julie Bell's approach in one aspect -- working from the furthest distance up to the closest objects, finishing (more or less) each area as I go. Before I do that, though, I lay a bit of a glaze over the whole piece to try to calm down the warring colors . . . and that dissolves and washes off 50% of the oil underpainting, leaving me with a sticky, half-dry rubber cement surface to work on. Had I the luxury of time, I'd have let it dry, sanded it a bit maybe, then gone on ahead.

But this wasn't a luxury week. I spent a day laying rather thick paint onto that rubber cement that would just grab the brush and stop it fast. But the work I did on the faces of the distant generals was actually pretty pleasing. And the barely-indicated textures and designs on the wall behind them. The architectural gunk up top started to worry me, and I wished I wasn't drawing so many freehand ellipses here, because I certainly wasn't nailing them.

IMC Firstborn Illustration -- play-by-play part 1

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:34:38 GMT

So I'm finally back in AZ, finally back in the studio, and it's time to catch up on what I've been up to. First order of multi-day business is, I'm going to run through the illustration I'm doing for the IMC workshop. That's right, "doing." The workshop is over, but my illo isn't. It's close, though, another five hours should (fingers crossed) polish it off.

"Firstborn," the story I'm illustrating for here, is a sci-fi story where commanders direct space battles by observing hologram representations of the battles in their command rooms. The hero is a rather unsuccessful young commander, 25 years junior to his brother (the big floating head), the greatest general in the empire. I also stuck the hero's dad and his mentor-general into the piece.

So let's start with the sketch I brought to the workshop. You've seen it before, but here it is for a reminder. In critiques it was decided that the individual elements were fairly strong, but it had too much dead space, and things needed to be pulled in tighter in the composition. Also, I went into this (as did lots of people) thinking I needed to leave tons of space up top, and some below, for hypothetical titles, etc. for this hypothetical book cover. That idea was scotched. Just do a good illo, don't worry about text/title stuff here.

Along with the layout, the design of the spaceships (as well as their placement) wasn't met with approval, so I needed to re-design the ships. The phrase that came up was "too bat-like." So I hit the sketchbook, and then showed my pages of new wing-less (or at least short-winged) ships around to fellow classmates. Someone liked one (one that hadn't caught my eye, originally), so I did a new design taking off from that point. And that one was better, so I did another design based on that design. Then I decided I was there, and drew a dozen or so ships at the angles I needed on tracing paper so I could position them on the drawing. I think the last time I designed space ships was in junior high. It was kind of a fun challenge, though.
There are actually three types of ships in the piece. The big command ship thingy I left alone, pretty much. One fighter I just chopped the wings to half their length, and the third is the complete do-over.

Had I had my studio handy, the required changes wouldn't have been a big deal, (yay photoshop!) but with my half-working laptop, not even a mouse, let alone a tablet, etc. etc. it was time to do things by hand! I resized elements in photoshop, printed them out on a friend's printer, and built a makeshift lightbox out of a sheet of glass from a paint-mixing table and somebody's lamp to redraw the piece at full size (16x24 ish).

It's only the first day of work, and I'm already working way into the wee hours of the morning. I've made some changes I like to the bits and pieces, and introduced a drawing error or two as well. But trust to the process -- I'll panic when I discover the errors in three days time, but I'll fix them.

The Pre-wrap-up Wrap-up

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:07:58 GMT

Well, IMC is over, but sort of not over for me. I don't get back home to the scanner, the computer, etc. until next week, so I've got a big list of follow-up things to do for the class that are kind of on hold.

It was a pretty awesome time, though. In some ways, it didn't quite meet my expectations, in other ways it exceeded them. I've gotta start saving up so I can go next year. I'm indebted to my buddy John F. for turning me on to the class, and for rooming with me and introducing me to all sorts of cool people. It meant I could jump right in to the experience rather than spend a day or two getting to know people and getting a feel for what's going on.

I've certainly got some new friends from the week (and new artists to admire -- and there's some overlap to those two groups). I've got a handful of hours left on my assignment piece, and I hope things really gel together at the end -- but I've got some doubts about that. It was certainly a challenge, though, and I tried my hand at a bunch of things I"ve never done before. In retrospect, though, perhaps a little less ambitious project would have been better. It would have been nice to free up a bit more time to watch the instructors work, and really finish, say, one figure and one ship rather than four figures and a dozen ships (even if most of the ships are tiny). But we'll see if I take my own advice next year. If I know me, I probably won't

IMC I don't even know what day it is

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:08:02 GMT

Left the studio tonight before 1 AM -- first time I've done that all week. Today was also the first day I got out of bed after seven. I've gotten my painting to the point where I'm not panicked about not getting to work on the things I want to work on while I have the instructors present, so I think it's a good time to try to catch up (a bit ) on sleep, and get to the studio bright and early tomorrow.

I've got cool photos, but I didn't bring any interface to get them off my camera, so I couldn't post them even if I had the time. I will later, though.

Good night and good luck.

IMC pt. 3

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:12:23 GMT

Man, this place is giving me weird dreams. I was a hard-boiled detective/spy working in a circus during a revolutionary war that sometimes used WWI type weapons, and sometimes people threw swords at each other. There was this unamerican affairs type inquisition that found me suspicious because of all the foreign books I owned. And I lost an eye. My left one, fortunately (my right is my dominant), but still, it was a little distressing.

The dreams sort of kick in before I'm even asleep. I close my eyes and hyper-animated faces dance around under eyelids. Just in a little spot, it's kind of like having a nickelodeon in your brain (not the network, the slot machine that plays short silent movies).

Finished my drawing late yesterday, and mounted it directly to a board to begin painting it. It was such a relief to have the drawing done -- I had anxieties about spending the week drawing instead of painting. Got a tiny bit of underpainting glazed/scrubbed onto the board, but no actual rendering, since I didn't even get the drawing mounted until 11 PM or so. I seem to be kind of in the middle of the pack in terms of how far along in the process I am, but I still don't think I'll finish the piece this week. But who knows? Maybe I will.

IMC pt. 2

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:29:58 GMT

Day two was a long day (probably the first of many).

All the individual bits of my piece (well, almost all) were deemed just fine, but everything was resized, moved around, tightened up. I really feel at a loss without my lightbox (and my scanner, tablet, and printer, to be honest).

I took apart a couple glass-topped paint-mixing cabinets to build a makeshift lightbox. It mostly works, but it's considerably smaller than my drawing is, so I've got to shuffle things around a lot to draw. So be it.

Honestly, it would have been better for me to do the fixes in photoshop only, rather than rough them in photoshop and redraw the whole thing. But it's too late now!

Illustration Master Class

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:17:02 GMT

It's the first real day of the seminar today. Got checked in last night, had some dinner, met a good handful of people. Ran into Drew Baker, who knew me and I've got to figure out how. I wanted to ask him at the time, but there were three conversations going on at once, and I lost track of things.

The common room of the dorm was filled with people up chatting, working on their assignment drawing, showing around portfolios, all that good stuff. It was tough to leave it, but I wanted to kick the week off with a good night's sleep. If stories from last year are any indication, it'll be the last good night sleep of the week.

I'm both excited and a bit intimidated -- which is dumb. What's there to be intimidated about? I'm here to learn stuff, and I'm pretty much guaranteed to do that. But still, falling asleep last night, that's how I felt. Just a little intimidated.

Here's my layout drawing for my assignment. It gets critiqued today, and we'll see how much needs to change:

Attach of the 50-Foot To-Do List

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:09:02 GMT

I am struggling like crazy to get all the stuff done I need to before I leave on Thursday. I skipped class last night to try to catch up, and I NEVER do that.

What's driving me crazy right now is the stuff that's almost done, but I can't cross off my to-do list because I need this or that piece of information or approval to make them officially done.

I need my to-do list to shrink! It's psychologically important to me!

Buzzing

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:04:11 GMT

I am buzzing w/ energy, and it's not just the caffeine.

I've got a small mountain of projects, many of which need to be done before I leave for the illustration workshop on the 11th. But I'm pretty excited about all of them, so it's a pleasure and a challenge, not a drudging chore.

Gina's World stuff is going well, which is always a good feeling.

On top of that, I've had a story project floating in my head for almost a year. Just a thematic concept and some ideas about the three main characters. But now ideas about scenes and overall shape of the narrative are starting to come to me unasked. I think this means I need to start turning this into something real in earnest. Will it be a comic? A heavily-illustrated prose piece? I'm not sure. If it's a comic, it's going to have a mix of different artists on it. I've got my two faves in mind, but don't know who I'd use for the third. Or, certainly, whether the two I have in mind would be up for the project.

But top of the excitement list is currently the Illustration Master Class in Amherst. I've been shooting reference and drawing out layouts for it, and maybe most importantly shooting ideas back and forth amongst friends. As is my way, I'm setting up a pretty ambitious project (four characters, thirty spaceships, and some special effects I've never tried, all in oils). Will the final piece rock? Maybe not. But I'll certainly have some skills at the end of it I don't have now. Which is damn exciting.

No limitations! I never want my execution skills to hinder my ideas. I'd rather have ideas I can't quite pull off, and bust my butt trying like hell to pull them off best I can, than fetter my ideas to fit within my established, comfy skillset.

Buzzing with energy! (okay, some of it IS the caffeine. Time for some drawing and cup number three!)

Hanna's Birthday Wish-List

Sun, 31 May 2009 23:42:23 GMT

Hanna has put together a list of thing she wants for her birthday. She started out with her lists from the past two years, marking off things she got, and the very very small number of things she doesn't want anymore. I'm making her edit it down further. 'Cause options are great and all, but a birthday list should not read like an 80-point manifesto:

What Hanna wants for her B-day:

Weasel Ball (battery-powered ball that rolls around randomly, has a long hairy thing with google-eyes tethered to it so it looks like a weasel rolling the ball around)
Fly-tech Dragonfly (a remote control plane gets on the list every year, this time it's a remote-control dragonfly)
Activity Books
Bakugan game
"Monsters Vs. Aliens"
A Nintendo DS
A Pokemon game for the DS
Whoppers
Remote control car
Art/Craft kits
YoYoBall
ArrowCopter (rubber-band launched plastic toy, shoot it up, and it comes back down like a helicopter)
Webkinz

Cutting loose -- Slowly

Fri, 22 May 2009 16:36:45 GMT

I had a bit of . . . hesitation heading into the superhero section* of Gina's World. There are a few reasons:

1 - I'm breaking out the crowquill for the first time in years and that has the potential for disaster.
2 - Over the years I've had superhero pages critiqued by so many artists and editors that "it's gotta be perfect!" voice pops up anytime I start drawing spandex.
3 - I'm always more comfortable working as a story teller in the quiet scenes than the big loud flashy scenes.
4 - I wanted the art in this section (about 15 pages) to be a bit of an homage to some comics I loved as a kid (I couldn't find a way to pin that down without being a parody or a cheap copy so I pretty much dropped that idea -- the art here is just the way I draw normally with a bit more exaggeration to the figures and longer hatching).

But I'm halfway through pencilling/inking this scene and I'm really enjoying it. It's slow-going (for the reasons above, largely) but it's also surprisingly fun and satisfying. I think I have managed to tap into the giddy excitement superheroes gave me as a kid, after all. My hope is when you pick up the book and read the pages, the fun and excitement bit comes across but the slow-going is nowhere to be seen. So to the points above:

1- If I screw something up, I can redo it and patch the fix in in photoshop
2 - Can't please everybody anyway. The important thing about this scene is does it tell the story well and is it fun to read, not will it impress somebody.
3 - It's important to step out of your comfort zones -- it's the only way to make them bigger.
4 - Sometimes an homage can just be in the initial idea of doing a type of scene. No need to play it any larger than that.

* Gina's World has got a bit of "Secret Life of Walter Mitty" to it and there's a scene where Gina is a James Bond/Jackie Chan superspy, one where she's a ronin in the Warring States Period of Japan, and this bit where she's a superhero.

B-day

Tue, 19 May 2009 16:51:15 GMT

Some pictorial evidence of the festivities:

Cupcakes, new hair clippies, and her very own Mr. Tato Head. A good time was had by all.

Birthday!

Mon, 18 May 2009 16:01:23 GMT

It's my youngest daughter's birthday today. We went to the grocery store to buy oatmeal and get a banana this morning, and the store staff gave her a lovely purple balloon in honor of the celebration. It was a sweet but challenging gesture, as we were driving a convertible, the roof was back in the garage, and the balloon couldn't go into the trunk without popping. But we made it. We took the balloon with us to day care, and quickly realized one balloon between three kids was going to be a day-long argument, so I took it home w/ me. In the convertible, stuffing it back into place behind the car seat every three minutes or so.

A good friend of ours was in town this weekend visiting her daughter. We saw her Saturday, and the subject of Hattie's age came up. "She turns two on Monday," we said. At which point Hattie ran through the room chanting "Mine mine mine NO NO NO NO NO." Tish watched her go by, turned back to us and said, "she sure sounds two."

Here's a detail from a digital painting I'm working on:

While I'm certainly more a fan of traditional media than digital, I think the digital can be a great tool, especially for practice, studies and experimentation. This piece has a sunset in it (can't see that in this bit) which is something I'd be really wary of tacking in real oils without coming out either garish or dull, so here we are in digital-ville where I can tinker to my heart's content.

Archaic Inking

Mon, 04 May 2009 19:09:39 GMT

I've been doing so much "production" work, I've done very little finished pieces the past several years. Layouts, concepts, pencils, sure, but it's always been another artist doing the final bit. Which is fun and neat in many ways -- that initial idea, composition, pose aspect is often the most exciting. Plus, you get to tear through the pieces, leaving the grunt work (and lots of non-grunt-work too, don't get me wrong) to someone else.

But there's a satisfaction (and a portfolio, frankly) that you miss out on when this is all you're doing. I think that's why I'm really digging (and persevarating over, and going really slowly on) the Gina's World pages I'm doing. I even broke out the steel nibs for this scene (15 pages or so) and the last time I used nibs was . . . on "Vanishing Point" so it's been a couple-three years. I'm doing a couple pages at once, do the tech pen bits on both, the brushmarker bits on both, the brushwork on both, then the nib work on both, then the inevitable going back and carefully fiddling with each panel and every tool at once to polish it up.

I'd kinda forgotten how nibs can be so sweet when they're working well, and such hard work when the alchemy that makes the ink flow off the steel at the right rate isn't working for you. By the time I finish these pages, I'll probably be relieved to be done with nibs for awhile.

Whodrew

Fri, 01 May 2009 21:46:48 GMT

It's always an odd feeling when you're drawing, and you recognize your work as someone else's. Especially when it's someone you don't feel any particular affinity for.

Yesterday I drew a face that looked like Brent Anderson (Astro City) had drawn it. Not that big of a surprise -- he and I value similar things in our work, and I've been compared to him before. But this afternoon I drew a superhero character that quite looks like it was drawn by Jim Lee. This took me back a bit, as I've never had any particular connection to his style. I was just looking for a shorthand in sketching my lighting, and found I'd accidentally recreated something characteristic of his rendering style.

I trust by the time it's a finished panel it'll look like one of my drawings rather than like one of anyone else's.

Criticism

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:13:56 GMT

On rare occasions, someone will step up and offer a critique on your work that's so well-explained, it not only helps you improve the pages/piece in question, but makes you a better artist -- your next pieces will be stronger because of the critiques.

I'm lucky enough to have two friends step up and do this for me in the past day or two. John Forcucci, Darren Taylor, thank you both, sincerely.

Something Old, Something New, Something Plastic, and Something Avian

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:18:40 GMT

For my paintings, I often need some props. I lugged a 75 pound boulder into my studio to paint some rocks in the background for "The Pump," got a collection of small glass bowls (which I later smashed in one very comprehensive accident) for "Air," and so on and so forth.

I've been gradually brewing up a piece that has a series of plastic birds amongst real birds. Toy plastic birds were much harder to find than I'd expected. I had a half-memory of a plastic bird I had as a child that was involved in the spark of the idea, but on closer examination of my brain, it turned out to be a pteradon.

I've finally put together a rather good collection of plastic birds, though. Not one of them is perfect, but I'll draw from them to build the birds I want. I'm currently fascinated by the difference between my bright new "birds in a tube" toys, and some old plastic birds I e-bayed.

The new ones have wings spread -- which is important to the project. But the old ones have a certain warmth and charm the new lacks.

This isn't an "everything new sucks" rant, don't worry. But the colors on the new are rather garish and chemical in contrast. I much prefer the feel of the older ones. I don't know, though, if the old ones looked just as terrible when they were new. It could well be the aging of the paint and the plastic, and the wear on the paint letting the putty color of the plastic show through that unifies them so nicely. But I like it.

Which doesn't necessarily mean I'll use the colors from the old birds in my project. Part of what makes the painting work (I hope I hope I hope) is the contrast between the real birds and the artificial ones, and perhaps that chemical garishness of the the new plastic birds will enhance the piece. I don't know yet, I'll have to work that out further along the process.

BTW, anyone want to loan me some real birds? Caged or taxidermied will work just fine. The ones in the tree in the backyard are lovely, but I need them to sit a little closer to me.

(I almost never use my telephoto lens -- it's fun!)

Mr. Redmon

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:21:26 GMT

Speedpaint

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:46:46 GMT

I haven't had time to paint lately. I'd been (internally) moping about it, and thinking about how when I finished this job, and that project, and got to this stage in that project, I'd be able to paint some more.

But yesterday I decided that wasn't acceptable. I haven't been painting digitally in forever (because I really prefer working with real-world materials) -- but it's a bit faster, and requires no set-up or clean-up. So I pulled out the tablet (and the This Week! character jams) and did this as a warm-up before diving into my work for the day.

A bit closer for the textures (I'm really looking forward to the day when every pic on the internet is at SUPER-HUGE resolution and you can easily and intuitively lean in to look closer at anything you want to):

Taxes!!

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:43:57 GMT

Taxes are DONE. And e-filed. No post-office line for me!

I didn't get a refund or anything crazy like that. In fact, I had to pay more than what my first car cost. And my second, for that matter. But not, ha ha, more than my first and second cars put together. And it's right about what I'd expected to owe, and I'd socked enough of my income aside to cover it, so I guess it's okay. Not fun, mind you, but okay.

Everyone talks about the uncertainty, and the feast and famine nature of being self employed, but for my money (so to speak)I think hassling with taxes is the biggest drawback to self-employment.

I know I didn't get every deduction I could have. But I'm cool with that. I don't agree w/ everything the US government does with our money, of course, but on the whole, it's doing stuff I support, and definitely stuff I benefit from. So maybe I could have weaseled out of a few hundred dollars of taxes, but since I don't see the government as money-grubbing freeloaders taking what's rightfully mine, I'm cool with that.

Dude, You are NOT my Nemesis

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:17:41 GMT

I've wanted to do a bit of Doctor Horrible art since the first episode was posted. I still have a bit of a dream of doing a big Drew Struzan-style movie poster for it. Haven't made any actual move to do that yet, but I did have some new watercolor pencils to try out, so . . . .

Rewriting Freedom

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:34:15 GMT

This morning I've rewritten/replotted/rescripted the next scene in Gina's World. Well, I'm not quite done with the exact placement of the page breaks, but the story's redone. And I like it a lot better. The action flows together better and there's more room for character interaction. It does make the page count swell four pages. Why do even rewrites that tighten up the script up the page count?

But this is what I love about doing Gina's World as a graphic novel rather than the mini-series as I had originally laid it out. Scenes get to be the length that makes them best, rather than needing to come out to 24 pages. Yes, there's a pleasant, puzzle solving satisfaction to hitting that 24 page mark with just the right balance, but I'm just loving the freedom here.

Freedom, potential. Those two words keep popping up of late when I'm talking/thinking/planning art stuff. I kinda like that.

Work and Rework

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:55:58 GMT

I've finished the Gina's World scene of Gina and Keira in the mountains. I'm a bit sad to see it go. The characters were in lush surroundings, and slowing down to experience the world around them. And while I was drawing them, I was too. But it's time to say goodbye to this little slice of Eden and move on to the next adventure.

One of the things I love about working on Gina's World is all the different settings. Forests, cities, feudal Japan, post-apocalyptic wastelands, ancient Egypt. There's always something new and fascinating to draw (and to look at, hopefully).

I sat down to get inking on the next six page scene, but instead I'm chucking it in the trash and starting the scene from scratch. I can do better than that!

(Porphyre -- there's another good shot of "the Rock To Stand On And Look Off At Things" that I'm not going to post, but if you want to see it, drop me a line and I'll e-mail it to you.)

First Friday Artwalk

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:44:57 GMT

Howdy everybody,

It's First Friday, and my reception is tonight at Exposed Gallery.

4225 N 7th Ave
Phoenix AZ

6-10 PM

There will be fruit, wine, hors d'ouevres, and such.

Unfortunately, due to the time change, some friends and patrons who were going to make it no longer are, but I'm really looking forward to seeing the people who will be able to make it.