Illustration Friday 09/28/08: Packed

I've gotten out of my drawing routine recently, so I haven't posted anything in a while. I've been playing with my wacom tablet the past couple days though, and decided to try something that was completely digital.

My original idea was to paint something that was "packed" with color, so I made the tie dyed background. Then I noticed some of the swirl marks looked like a face, and it took off from there. Not the best face ever, but I was trying to follow the swirls as much as possible.

Illustration Friday 08/08/08: Sail

Here is my submission for this week. Nothing says "Sail" quite like a pirate ship. Someone asked me to draw them a design for a tattoo of a pirate ship with sharks in the water. This is what came out of that request. I'm not sure if it makes a great tattoo, but I like the design none the less.

I have to admit that it isn't new, so I'm going to color it. I'll post the colored version when I'm done.

Illustration Friday 08/01/08: Poof!

So, it took me a long time before I had a chance to sit down and work on this week’s topic. Consequently, I had way too much time to think about how to illustrate poof!. Yet I still have an extremely simple illustration. Simple enough that it was done old school, with MS paint.

Honestly the first things I thought of when I saw the topic were a couple of Monty Python sketches. Namely the Poofy Judges and Biggles Dictates a Letter. I’m not the overly politically correct type, and I think those sketches are hilarious, but I decided not to go there (although I see a few people did). Next, I thought of the obvious magical connotation given by poof!, so I had the idea to draw one of my fairies doing some magic. I still hadn’t had a chance to sit down and sketch out the idea though when I saw “The Usual Suspects” on TV the other night (highly recommended, if you’ve never seen it). I won’t get into its meaning because I don’t want to ruin the movie for anyone that’s never seen it, and if you have, you’ll know what this line refers to, but one of the main characters says the line “And poof! Just like that, he’s gone.” The idea of illustrating someone disappearing was in my head when I looked at a calendar, and realized it was still on July, which is named for Julius Caesar.

The man was born almost 2100 years ago, but it’s amazing to me how much we know about Julius Caesar, and how much he and ancient Rome still affect our daily lives. So many concepts and ideas in our western society can be traced back to ancient Rome. Even things we take for granted, like why we have 12 months in a year, the length of each month, and what some of them are called can be traced back to him. The only individual that has influenced our lives and culture, either directly or indirectly, more than Julius Caesar was another JC, Jesus Christ.

So with this week’s theme in mind, POOF! Just like that, Julius Caesar is gone, so is July, and I’m posting this on Sextilis 6th.

BTW I found references with 2 spellings for the 5th month, Quintilus and Quintilis. I like the u better, even though the i was more common. Seems a bit modernized.

Illustration Friday 07/25/08: Canned

A quick little cartoon this week.

I didn't want to just draw a can, so I tried to come up with something a bit more novel. I thought of the idea of Canned Happiness, and then the part of me that loved Gary Larson's sense of humor took over.

Great Egret

Just to show that everything I do isn't cartoony, here is a great egret (that's the species name, not an inflated opinion of my own work) that I painted. It's acrylic on stretched canvas.

I would classify this one as realistic-ish, which many people refer to as a painterly style. I used to strive for photorealism, but this led to becoming either bored with a piece (super realism takes FOREVER to accomplish), or frustrated that the goal was not achieved. Then I revisited the works of Picasso and the impressionists. You can tell what it is they are painting, but in truth, they don't look anything like their subjects. Take a look at any of Monet's water lillies. Gorgeous paintings, but if you look closely, all he did (I'm WAY oversimplifying here) was paint some red swirls on top of some green blobs, on a blue background.

Although I tend to avoid purely abstract works, and don't enjoy doing cubism, Picasso has greatly affected my thinking about art. Especially the following quote that has been attributed to him: "Who sees the human face correctly: the photographer, the mirror, or the painter?" This really got me thinking about the need to achieve photorealism. In the past few years, I've begun using a more stylized approach to what I create, and I've been having more fun, "finishing" more works, and creating even more than I'm "finishing."

BTW the word finishing is in quotes because I believe, as did Picasso, that a work is never truly finished, you just decide to stop working on it.

Pin Up

I've finally decided to post something that wasn't done for Illustration Friday. Here's a little pinup of a waitress from one of my favorite watering holes. She isn't the best I've ever done, but she is one of my favorites for some reason. Keep in mind that she was intended as a pinup from the beginning, so certain "things" were intentionally exaggerated.

I drew her by hand in pencil, scanned an inked copy, and colored her with photoshop. She's the first drawing I've colored with photoshop, and although I've discovered that I don't like drawing in photoshop because I move the paper around A LOT when I draw to get my strokes onto the paper more easily and efficiently, I do like coloring with it. Still need some practice though. I see a bunch of things that I would do differently if I ever decide to color her again. I'm currently coloring a version of my fierce fairy that I drew for IF a couple of weeks ago. I'll post her if she comes out satisfactorily.

BTW, in order to personalize her a bit, the tartan I used on her skirt is Currie of Balilone.

Illustration Friday 07/18/08: Enough

Whenever I feel like I've had enough, I long to let this guy loose. He's my inner unshaven rhinoceros. He isn't bearded, that implies the facial hair is a fashion statement. This guy has facial hair because he just doesn't care. When you are a big blue rhino, you can get away with things like that. Who is going to tell him to shave?

Alas, I am only an unshaven rhinoceros on the inside, so I'm not going to let a butterfly piss me off, I probably won't gore anyone for looking in my general direction, and the whiskers will be gone come Monday morning.

Stupid civilization.

Illustration Friday 07/11/08: Foggy

I just got a promotion, and I've been busy trying to figure out what I don't know about the new job, so I missed last week.

I was trying to think of someplace that was foggy all the time. Living in NC, I thought I would do a sketch of the Smoky Mtns. Just pencil on paper. Usually I use these media out of convenience, but graphite is perfect for suggesting fog. If you've never been to the Smokies, a bluish fog settles into the valleys pretty much every morning, hence the name.

I really need to break down and get a better/larger scanner. Although the combination of overexposed and underexposed areas kind of works with this subject, the actual drawing turned out a lot better than the scan.

Illustration Friday 06/27/08: Fierce

Went with illiteration, and drew a fierce fairy. Just a sketch at this point. I might have to try fixing and finishing her. If I do, I'll post her again.

Insect wings (including butterflies) on a pretty girl always seemed like an odd idea to me, so I give my fairies leaves for wings instead. When someone can prove to me that fairies have insect wings, I'll start drawing them that way, until then, I like the leaves better.

Illustration Friday 06/20/08: Hoard

I was surprised that not many people went with a dragon theme to illustrate the word hoard.

Illustration Friday 06/13/08: Punchline

I was thinking about going to see "The Incredible Hulk" when this idea came to me. I thought about how motion is illustrated in comic books by using lines to indicate the direction the object is traveling.

I didn't spend a whole lot of time on this one. The "punchlines" are meant to convey the fist is traveling quickly toward the guy's face.

Illustration Friday 06/06/08: Forgotten

This was the first drawing I made for Illustration Friday, but I've just now set up a blog to post it on. For some reason, when I saw the word forgotten, I thought of "Little Plastic Castles" by Ani DiFranco. In it she talks about goldfish not having memories, and she speculates that the castle must be a surprise every time they see it. I drew a silly little cartoon to illustrate that idea.

I like the way the fish came out. The bowl and castle are ok. I really don't like the colors, which were not helped by a cheap scanner.