Of a Friend

Trying to get back into painting with acrylics. Its a tough process, let me tell you. With this particular painting, I decided not to do smooth blends of colors and values. Rather, the paint was applied with a more deliberate separation between colors, thereby allowing "the eye" to do the blending.

I think I was moderately successful in my attempt, although I think when painted this way, the mid-to-high-tones look like the flash of a camera is striking the person's face. In this case, it was, as I was working from a combination of memory and a crappy 3x5" computer printout from a digital camera. This person is rather dark skinned, but I made him waaaayyyy too red. Looks like he just stepped off the beach.

Although awkward-looking, this painting has inspired me to continue painting. I've been working with acrylics for a number of years now, but have only recently become "comfortable" with them. I would much rather paint with oil. However, due to cost issues, time to dry and overall messiness, oils are just not in the cards right now. Oils are for when you have your own shed in the back of the house that is yours to do whatever you please and you can make a huge shitstorm mess and never clean it up and no one cares. Regardless of medium or how much formal training you have had, painting is an intensely personal process that can not be fully taught to anyone. It's up to you to decide what you feel is working and what is not. There is no step-by-step. You need to be in constant communication with the medium. Work WITH it, don't force it. If something you have been taught is not working for you, SCRAP IT.

More later.

For a Friend

This piece was a sketch I did for a friend who had just lost someone close to him.

Gen13 Comic Samples

The following three pages are my latest round of comic samples. I feel that they are the strongest that I have done so far; displaying many of the tips I have received from professionals along the way. There are two pages left to this particular sample. These two other pages are from the same 22 page script, but a different scene that includes the rest of the Gen13 team.

I took these samples to WizardWorld Philly in June and got a very positive response. I am looking forward to finishing these, along with several other 3-page samples before I go to San Diego Comic Con International later this month. Looking at these pages now, about three weeks after their completion, I think my main criticism has to be that my anatomy, while more precise than in previous samples, is still rather stiff. Luckily, this can only be fixed through more STUDYING and more DRAWING!

One tool that I have found that has already loosened my work up a bit since I have started drawing with it only a couple months back is a non-repro blue pencil. For those who don't know, this is a special kind of pencil that does not show up when copied or scanned. Thus, no erasing! Also, I think the fact that I know it is not the final pencil line allows me to loosen up ON the actual page. The lead in the pencil is softer and a bit waxy, which is a nice change from the rather harder leads that most comic artists use. For whatever reason, I'm always so happy with the expressiveness and looseness of the blue lines that I put down. So right now non-repro blue pencils are on the top of the list as far as useful drafting tools for comic artists. In the next few posts maybe I'll tackle lightboxes and Google SketchUp.

Sad Sack of Circuitry

Also part of my "Sketchbook Series" that I have been posting.

This lonely little fella was so sad and heartbroken, he KERRRAAASSSHHHEEDD his space car into a distant, forgotten moon just to get away. Of course, we can't hear (and thereby read) what our robot is saying, but I'm assuming it's Morrissey.

Sketchbook Series

Recently, I've been sketching more from photographs to later translate into my comics work. It's been helping with my anatomy, draping of fabric and also helping to achieve more natural poses. I've turned to Sports Illustrated, wildlife books, the sports section of the local paper and would like to start drawing from books on WWII and National Geographic magazines. Since I am just getting back into this, I've been going for more "complete" drawings rather than giving myself time limits of 10 or 30 seconds or 1 or 2 minutes to do a sketch. I think I'll start working on those sketches as well to improve the fluid movements of my characters. But look how scared that long jumper is of that mountain lion!

Sketchbook Series

This is another piece done during the 'Tuff Teef' Saga of 2005. I drew my teeth as wimps, finally giving in to the build-up of pressure and bursting into fireworks of pain. I like this sketch, and toyed with the idea of using it as a promo piece of sorts, but never got around to it.

Sketchbook Series

Sketch completed in 2006. Ink and watercolor.