11/18/06 - Life Drawing

We are lucky to have an open drawing session on Saturday mornings at the University. Here is a 55 minute drawing (last drawing of the day); 4B lead on bristol. This was interesting because, besides the model being dressed, she was holding a sitar. This made for a very nice scene but was more than I could accurately record in the time. I wasn't able to depict the pattern on the fabric of her dress nor get much texture on the instrument. Andrew Loomis talks about the necessity of simplifying, exaggerating and diminishing various parts in your drawing (from the intro to Figure Drawing For All It's Worth), so I just tried to go with those suggestions.

08/29/06 - Digital - Sketchbook Pro 2

Digital piece from this August. Really just some small pencil sketches from my imagination that I colored. All done with Wacom Intuous 3 tablet and Alias/Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2. I start with a 2B pencil for the sketch. Then create a new layer - swap the order - and start coloring flats with the wide brush. This is a really neat aspect of SKB2 - you can go right to coloring without worrying about layer blending mode - it just anticipates that is what you will be doing. There really aren't that many tutorials available for this program, perhaps because of it's simplicity? But the Autodesk site has some if you become a member (lower level membership is free!).

Look for SKB2 native source file here (.tiff) PS: this won't work in any program although it looks like a common tiff file!!

09/10/06 Digital - Painter IX.5

Some more digital work, drawn from my imagination, done last month, this time done in Corel's Painter IX.5. I read a quote recently that said you don't sketch anything you haven't really looked at...I guess you can see what I pay attention to. Here's the link to get the trial version.

Watch here for a link to the Painter native format source file (.riff)

10/08/06 Digital - Sketchbook Pro 2

Well it's been a while longer than I mean since my last post...

Here is a recent piece (from imagination) I did in Alias' (now Autodesk's) Sketchbook Pro 2. I really like the feel of the default pencil tool for this application. SKP2 is not really made for highly refined pieces but it has a much easier interface to learn than Photoshop or Painter. The interface was designed so that you don't have have a keyboard - nice for tablet PC users. It is very intuitive and easy to go from your pencil sketch to a colored version. There is a really nice 15-non consecutive day trial available from the publisher - it's worth trying out!

Here's a link to the source file.

03/26/04 - Sketchbook - Inking Practice

Scanned as grayscale so you can see the underlying pencil drawing. These were done on bristol, pencilled first (from my imagination/visual memory) then inked with Raphael 8404 #3 brush and Black Magic ink. The park bench scene was inked with a Hunt 102 crowquill pen.

My big problem with the brush is line weight. I tend to keep it too uniform. Outlines on the highlight side should be thinner and even break up a little. Jack Hamm talks about the "T" and overlapping shapes in his book Drawing the Head and Figure. This helps give some depth to the contour line as opposed to it looking like the edge of a cutout.

02/02/06 - Sketchbook

Some sketches done in pencil then inked with Faber Castell Pitt Brush pen.

02/19/06 - Comic - TWD 1 roughs

This is Project 1 for a local Comics Creators Group I am a member of. The assignment was to rough out the first four pages of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead #1. He has a scriptbook out with the first several comic issues scripts.

These were done 1/4 final size or 3.75" x 2.5". This is the stage of drawing where you work out a lot of the logistical problems and should really be experimenting. These shoud be small but clear. It's easy to become attached to your layout if you put too much work into an early version. Don't always go with your first version. Save the detail for the final pencils. Otherwise you will lose a lot of life and energy from the layout to final pencils.

1993? - Comic - Watermelon

I'm having to kind of guess on the year for this one (Kids: always remember to put a date on your drawings!). Here's another complete comic page: all done by hand. Scanned in color so you can see pencil lines and everything. Other than the borders and the lettering, all inking done with a brush.

1980 - Comic - Silver Surfer & Thanos

One of my earliest attempts at creating a "professional" comic page: bristol board, india ink, 10"x15" image area.

02/18/06 First Post - Life Drawings

Hello. Comments, especially constructive ones are welcome. Here are some drawings - from today - despite our little snowstorm I was able to make it to a local life drawing session.

Pencil (4b lead) drawing from Saturday life drawing at the University. (Click on image for full size image at 72 ppi).Here is a pencil (HB lead) sketch that I inked with a WN Series Seven #1 brush and Rapidograph Universal ink.