Life Drawing Sketchbook (part 1)

 Thought i'd scan in a few images from a recent life drawing session i did and put them up here.

I'm fairly confident and happy with my understanding of anatomy, and normally can draw from imagination well enough to satisfy my inner critic. It's been a very long time since I've done life drawing, possibly close to 20 years, and i was faced with the realization that this was actually kinda tricky... i felt pretty retarded trying to draw the person before me, and not fall back into the unconscious habits of drawing a posture from my imagination.

I was also , really trying to get my head around foreshortening, and in some instances fairly extreme foreshortening, and life drawing really helped with that.

Feet too; i was looking for feet. I just can't get them right most of the time for some reason, and again, this really helped. That being said, i haven't uploaded many of the feet ones i liked... maybe next time.

Same Thing Every Year

Another pencil in sketchbook piece.

Not sure what the thing is on his head is - possibly a leech, or a hat with teeth.

Terrible scan though. Will have to try it again...

Submitted for Illustration Friday topic: Perennial.

The Smallest Gesture

The feel of lead dragging across good paper. Love it.

Another sketch that began with no real direction while sitting around.  The location of the ears was helped along by my 3yo who found the pencil and sketch pad while i was out one evening, and drew one of them in. I had been thinking about placing them low, but i guess he helped finalise the decision....

Submitted for Illustration Friday topic Gesture.

iPhone Drawing (part one)

I was recently given an old iPhone by a friend - my first go at one. They're spanky, and it's nice to have the internet in your pocket when trying to avoid quality time with the family.

One thing i was interested in was the drawing apps, as being able to sketch on a device i have with me most of the time seemed quite handy. 

I was fairly doubtful of how they would work and the quality, but as it turns out, its very touch sensitive, and while it took some learning curve for me to pan a zoom effectively, the interface, while miniscule, seems reasonably useful.

Anyway, i downloaded one called Art Studio, and have been having a muck around with it.

Now if i could just work out how to clean to grit off the adhesive back under the screen protector to stop all the little bubbles occurring....

Commission: Wedding Invitation

Now that the invitation has been sent out, i can upload the latest commission: a wedding invitation for my brother in-law and his fiance.

They asked for a superman theme, and this is the finished result.

I was trying to capture a bi of the Eamon's goofy fun nature, and Lois' kinda loving amusement by it. 

 

My initial sketch i had Lois holding Eamon, as it let me have a bit more fun making him look the part, but was asked to do the alternative one for comparison, which is the one they went with. I probably would have preferred the first one, but i'm still happy with how it turned out.

I manage to slip in a subtle play at them by flipping the 'S' on Eamons outfit, in honour if the dislexia that he wears proudly. I'll add that it wan't picked up until it was basically on it's way to the printer. Make of that what you will.

It Is Not A Toy.

Taken as far as i can in the small sketchbook i have, the next step is possibly trying to colour it up some how.Kinda like it like this though....

Submitted for Illustration Friday topic: Toy.

It Is Not A Toy. (work in progress - 2)

Got a bit more time at it last night while watching telly.

It Is Not A Toy. (work in progress)

Good Lord! Is it late March already? I haven't put up anything since before Christmas.... after a very dark and long winter, filled with flu after flu being passed on between the 2 kids, the missus and myself (we all nearly drowned on the amount of snot pooling in the house), it would appear all is clear, the sun is back, and the finger has been pulled out.

So to ensure people that I haven't died, I thought i'd put up a sketch i'm working on, more of a doodle really. It began yesterday when the Girl was asleep (finally) and i had a hankering for drawing, but couldn't leave her alone in case she fell off the couch.

This is not digital, by the way.

It's been quite some time since i used pencil for anything other than scratching out ideas for complete works - really rough sketches - so i took the time here to feel the lead on the surface of the page, and just see where it took me. I'm still not sure where it is taking me, other than i know i probably should have started this in a larger notebook... the spiral bind is going to stop me being able to finish the top of the head, and  the chin may loose out too. ~sigh~
Let's call this a work in progress; I'll put up more as it progresses....

Pencil 2D Animation Software Revisited

Well, maybe i should have found out about it sooner, but i just jumped straight in and began drawing... didn't look at te size of the area i was working to, just pushed through to about 1500 frames (no, not every frame, just the animatic...).

So, then i try to export and it can't handle a file over about 700px wide it would seem. Fine, i'll render it at 600 wide. But now the animation is really small, and can hardly be seen.

Try camera layer, you say? Right! Oh, hang on now nothing renders, though i do get a folder with an image sequence of the entire thing....


I think this may not be for me.

In import into Flash proved difficult with 1500, 1000px wide jpg's, and after a whole lot of crashing, went and batch resized the images for import in Photoshop. A million years later, importing a few humdred at a time seemed the best way.

Then came the deleteing of static frames - when pencil spat out the jpg sequence the were 12 frames or jpgs for every second that the picture stood still as well as for motion. This was expected but it did lead to a bit more arseing around than i was perhaps wanting.

Is there a lesson learned?

Yep.

Anyway, here's where it's up to now spat out by Flash... the timing is still pretty bad but it's progress people, progress!

Beneath

Submitted for Illustration Friday topic "Beneath".

I had worked through a few idea for this one, intending to go with the main gist that something would be partly submerged, one thing on the top, and beneath it turns out to be something else, eg, an island that is actually the shell of a turtle, sort of thing....

I had a sketch of an 'island' and the water line, then moved down and it ended up looking a bit like a body floating backside up. Then it got tied up in ropes. The i added a weight to it. Then going back to the 'island', i drew a palm tree, coconuts and a monkey.... it all got a bit stupid  - looked like the tree was sticking outta the date -  so i pulled back to just the body completely submerged.

Decided to try a new 'medium' of Painter 11 that i haven't used, the Airbrush. I quite like it , but it'll take some getting used to! Might need to look at getting one of these if i want to keep using it....

He Was All Like "Wha...??"

Quick sketch. Trying to capture a kind of confused look of the face of the hunter about to become the game.

Then i gave him ears like that...

There's a screen capture too i'll put up in a while.

Home Early

A quick study of skin, weight and shame....

No real reason for it, other than for the laugh.

Comrade!

Was just flaffing around, and ended up with something that was a cross between people i saw on a recent trip to Krakow, Poland, and a russian strength guru i've come across in my quest for fitting in exercise around small children.....

Ripple (Watch That Flubber Fly)

This is another Illustration Friday piece - a quick Oil Pastel sketch of what i initially thought doing of after hearing the topic - "Ripple", but before i read about the oil spill fund raiser thing....

A fat man slapping his flab. I have done this myself.

This was just for the laff - the proper one is here....

The Runner

Quick sketch of a beer bellied man in a large hat running nude though a post apocalyptic wasteland.

I can't really explain this one, other that i was doing a study of shadows on the man, and clothes got in the way; and also doing a study of background-as-pale-blur.

I've plans to revisit this at some point, but I'm not sure why....

Swamp Man

Quick sketch of a swamp dwelling man. Wanted a feeling of wisdom and patience, with a twinkle in the eye.

The swamp scenes from Ten Canoes got me thinking about how one might live in such an area. Clearly, you'd need stilt legs.

I've plans ot revisit this at some stage...

The Girl On The Hill

Quick sketch of a girl in a hill, with a fantasy vibe. Wanted a curious expression, and a posture of contained anticipation.

Like she's wondering whether to hurt someone or not, but in a nice way.

I've plans to revisit this at some stage....

Bi And Large (Volume Study)

This began as a pencil sketch of a stereotypical representation of some of the people one might meet in the streets around where i grew up. It was very a colourful, and flamboyant kind of area where one's gender had little to do with it's presentaion. Wanted to get used to creating volume and mass in colour, and also play with some fleshy tones.

Limerick Woman (Attitude Study)

It's weird in this cold dark country how the women seem to have evolved to utilise make-up foundation as a way to change ones own skin tone to another. Many women walk through the shopping malls in their best pair of pyjama's, with an iridescent orange face - presumably designed to give off the impression of a healthy tan. But the tan stops at the jaw line, the concept of 'blending' having been bred from the gene-pool along with shoulders and good teeth.

What lies beneath, from jaw to cleavage, is the natural pale blue if Irish skin. A pale green eye-shadow is often selected to complement this and heavy black eye liner ensures the look of an infant at mummy's make-up table is complete. Add large gold hoop earrings and you're nearly there.

Lastly adopt a look of aggressive distaste one might use after stepping in something nasty.

Torment

Done while thinking about a good friend and work colleague who was going through a particularity hard time. It was his own stupid fault, but the heart still goes out....