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.