sketching things

More things from another life.

 

the first batch: ink/pencil/marker/gouache. Technique as taught by N. Schureman.

the last batch: charcoal, acrylic/oil. Technique learned elsewhere but for the same class.

intermission iii

 Been a busy bee--so I entertain you with this piece from a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...

Not that long ago actually, lol. But I'm in a bookish mood because I just came from my first day at this amazing thing. So I share with you this bit of fanart from way back in 2011 for a book I immensely enjoyed, Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld.

"Being dorsal was real flying - the wind in her face,
and sky in all directions..."

Even after all these years, this piece really stayed with me. I edited it quite a bit--with watercolor, of all things! It was originally in oil and acrylic, but it just wasn't catching the brightness and skyiness I wanted Deryn to be surrounded by. I loved her freedom and her solitude. It was equal parts liberating and restricting, and I found that dynamic fascinating!

The inspired Mr. Westerfeld was wonderful enough to feature it on his weekly Fanart Friday blogposts and you can see the original version here. You can also see the Broadway musical poster version of it here (lol!) as well as a few cutesy, chibi versions of the two main characters I did back when I was experimenting with photoshop.

Maybe in the third round I'll try pen and ink. There's something nice about the gesture in the original sketch I really like:

Heck, I even like the back of the sketch, roflol!

 I think that's part of the magic of illustration sometimes. You don't know why something's working, it just feels right. So you just run with it and see where it goes....

Nice memories.



medium: Started acrylic and oil. Then digitally edited to a watercolor background. World is so forgiving with computers in it. Though I guess not so much with the internet in it too....balance?

paintings, still more

Self portraits from Art Center's Portraiture class with D. Luce.

I like these.  I don't know why.  

medium: oil

  

more painting things

Paintings from Art Center.  I forget for what class and for whose class and who was with me in the which class.  

They might actually have been from the workshops.

 

These funny little abstracts are from the end of a painting day.
I hate throwing away leftover oil paint, but I hate saving it too (it gets a weird consistency).
So I started doing smaller alternate portraits on a sketch pad or spare canvas to try to use up all the paint.
Confession: sometimes I like the caricatures better than I like the portraits.

I love painting.  

medium: oils, predominantly.

painting things

Figurative paintings from ye ol' Art Center days past. 

I forget which classes these were for.  My memory failing is not to be interpreted as subtext or subconscious inner-workings (though would I be conscious of it, if it were?) -- it's more likely the accumulation of too much time passing, too many faces blurring, and the privilege of too many great teachers in too many great classes imparting onto us the singular importance of the basics.  As it should be, I believe.   

mediums: oil (maybe acrylics) on probably canvas.

Whencesoe'er I came...

This baby we christened Octobook.

Jackie came over one day with this beautifully-engineered little thing and entrusted him into my care.

He was....challenging. Stubborn. Refused to submit to my authority. Sigh.
But I love this little guy.

You do your best to prepare the little ones for the real world and, with all your advanced worldly experience, you believe you've done what you can.

You reasonably expect your progeny to see clearly the path you've laid before them and to reverently partake of the wisdom you freely give--until, bit-by-bit, your carefully laid plans unravel and the wee little thing takes hold of his ever-strengthening faculties, dismisses your unsolicited assistance, and (by the power of his own fierce conviction) becomes a thing you could not have foreseen, could not have contrived, and would not have wanted to try to foresee or contrive if you could do it all over again because that would only ruin the delight of the surprise.

And so the artist finds herself a master, leading the vision, yet also, a servant, paradoxically, being led by it.

Whenceso'er I came / Whereso'er I go

The quote is from Moby Dick.

I pitched it to Jackie and she approved. I think it appropriately embodies the paradox of a character being led on by Fate while retaining his agency as a Hero--ever-willful and carving his own path; Fate be damned. It sounds contradictory and yet there it be. We demand that the Universe be linear, and the Universe, in turn, says "Screw you, puny human."

Who can fathom it.

We only cared to make 50, signed and sealed. You can purchase them here on Jackie's etsy shop. Object is smaller than it appears (a 3.5' square) but a warning: this is a very serious pop-up--not for the faint of heart.

Update (14.08.02): as of this week, Octobook is sold out (Comic-con 2014 was its fated last appearance). Alas! It's time has come to an end. They've all found good homes, I'd like to think, and I hope for their bright futures.

medium: watercolor scanned and re-printed to cut, folded, and packaged between two slices of book board.

holiday vii: christmas 2014 and some miscellany

Illustrious Colleague and I repeated last year's endeavors for this past Christmas' warm and fuzzy sharing and holiday cheer and all that crap.

This year it was a holiday version of an old favorite.

Again, Illustrious Colleague did the hard engineering part and I did the fun designing part. She says she prefers the engineering over the illustrating, but, in my myopic microcosm, I cannot comprehend people not liking the things I like and liking the things I don't like.

It's an "old favorite" because this was our first version. Think of the santa card as "Carriage Pop-up 2.0: the Holiday Edition."

The reindeer also propagated.

I may or may not have slipped them an aphrodisiac.

If you want any of the above, you may go bother Illustrious Colleague about it on her Etsy shop.
In retrospect, I probably should've blogged all this before the holiday season, but I can't seem to bring myself to care.

medium: sketches mostly done in pencil. some digital. everything else i forget....it's been a while.