táctil blog

George Lucas

2012-02-01T11:52:00.001-08:00

What in the world is George doing? He did a brilliant job with his original Star Wars creations. They are classic films. However, when he re-released them with additions and technological changes it was all downhill from there. Then came his prequels which were lifeless husks of the original films. Now with another re-release of his Star Wars series in 3D (how many re-releases can he do?), one doesn't really need to wonder why he is doing it. It's the reason is why everyone else is doing 3D: MONEY!! And devoted fans are gullible enough to fall for his exploitative actions. Well, I was gullible enough to see his prequel films, but I refuse to see his 3D work. I wish George would just move on to something else and stop tweeking his films. He's creative. He's rich. He's got clout. What's stopping him from trying to create something original? If he did something different with the attempt to break new ground I would be curious enough to give it a chance and see it, and I think other fans would too.
Anyway, enough rambling. Here's my illustrative portrait of George makin' silly money.

Brad Pitt

2012-01-31T15:52:00.001-08:00

My logical follow up to Angelina is Brad Pitt.

Angelina Jolie

2012-01-30T15:00:00.000-08:00

I am starting a caricature series of celebrities to build up the number of pieces in my illustrative portraits portfolio. For some reason I chose to start with Angelina Jolie, not sure why. As I spend the next month or so working on the portraits, my hope is that my conceptual skills will improve along with my technique.

Finches

2012-01-14T11:26:00.000-08:00

Here are some works that I created for a crab feed fundraiser for my son's class trip to Washington DC. I completed a total of 18 pictures which will be raffled off. I worked into the wee hours finishing the drawings, making it quite the marathon drawing session. I lost track of how many hours I put into this project. I'm glad it is a 3 day weekend so I can recover! Now I just have to mat the pictures. Ugh!

Storyboarding

2012-01-09T12:57:00.000-08:00

Things have finally settled down after the holidays and celebrating our anniversary. This morning I was able to do a few hours of storyboarding for the prologue of my graphic novel. I still need to work the text into the design but these pages are a good representation of how the prologue will flow. I may add a little more to it. Once this section of my story is done, I was thinking about offering it as a free download to promote the story as a teaser of sorts.

Make-over

2012-01-03T09:54:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick illustration for my website that is under construction. With the big change in my life of getting a new job, I am having to rethink some of my goals for my professional art work. Instead of trying to do a wide variety of things with my art I am finding the need to have to focus on just a few things. So I need to make sure that whatever I do, it is something I find worth my time, energy and expertise. The great thing about having a "normal" job is that it will allow me more flexibility to work on things that I am more passionate about, and not just things to pay the bills and put food on the table.So with that in mind, my website, and how I present myself (dare I say "branding"?) are going through a makeover for the next several months. In that time I hope to have my graphic novel ready for publication and have a good body of art to display for my fine art/gallery work.

Saturn's Moon: Supporting Material

2011-12-27T10:20:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple of sketches of ideas for my graphic novel, which will be called Saturn's Moon. The first is a futuristic car, called a "mobile" in the story. My son made a comment about it not being able to fly. Good observation. The reason for this is because the story represents a post apocalyptic society of sorts, where society has restructured itself in a way that even though it is technologically advanced, it is also technologically repressive to the common citizen. The use of "higher technology" is a crime and the penalties for its use and possession are severe.
The second sketch is of a space transport. The transport takes qualified citizens away from oppressed Earth and allows people to start a new life in a massive space station colony near Saturn's moon Titan. The station exploits Titan's natural resources allowing its colonists to live independently from Earth's population.

Illustration Friday: Sink

2011-12-21T22:02:00.000-08:00

My first two studies for this week's topic focused on the idea of a sinker that is used for fishing. Though I liked the imagery that was starting to take shape with this idea, I decided to let it sit for a couple of days to see if I could come up with anything else. These two studies were drawn with a ball point pen.

After asking my family what they thought of when they heard the word "sink", my wife suggested imagery that included a kitchen or bathroom sink fixture. Again, that got me thinking of fish, however, how water life my be affected by the things some in society dispose of through our sinks. This illustration was created with pen, brush and ink, with ink and watercolor washes.

This may be one of the last Illustration Friday challenges that I'll be doing for a while, though I may get a couple of more in after the New Year. After a long time searching, I have finally been able to find employment in a non art related field. This is a bitter sweet life change as it means I will have to restructure my time for my art pursuits and readjust my goals as an art professional. It is a good thing, but I obviously won't have time to do as much art as I would like.
So as the New Year begins, one of the art projects I will be focusing is my graphic novel. I have already started outlining the story and sketching out the breakdowns for the storyboard. I plan to publish the story by June, but it may take longer than that. I also want to complete my Avengers fan art series. I have only finished one character, and so I want to finish all the other characters before the movie hits the screen in the summer time.

Montage & Trailer

2011-12-01T12:20:00.001-08:00

Here is a montage of my 30 Characters Challenge. The characters created will be used for the development of my digital graphic novel called Saturn's Moon. Also included is a video trailer for the work in progress that shows all the illustrations from the challenge.

30 Characters Challenge #29,30

2011-11-30T22:33:00.001-08:00

Had to play catch-up with the last two characters. So I decided to put them together as one illustration again. Notated on the illustration are just a few details that may give one an idea of the culture of this future society. I was thinking once my graphic novel is completed, making a readers guide to the culture of the depicted future society. Kind of like how George Lucas did with Star Wars.
I'm glad to be done with the 30 Characters Challenge. I think I'm done with doing challenges for a while. Presently I need to make my own challenges. I think writing and drawing a graphic novel, along with my other artistic and professional efforts, is plenty challenging.

30 Characters Challenge #27, 28

2011-11-28T15:01:00.001-08:00

I didn't do any drawing yesterday so I decided to combine two characters into one picture. These zombies are sharing a sinuous snack. I also included a still video showing my working process for this picture.

30 Characters Challenge #26

2011-11-26T17:09:00.001-08:00

Back at the challenge from my Thanksgiving break. This one looks a bit more posed like the typical comic character.
Four more days to go with the challenge. It's been good so far!

Purple Scribble

2011-11-25T22:54:00.001-08:00

With all the drawing I did before Thanksgiving I was able to take a couple of days off from the 30 Characters Challenge. Just to keep my art chops up, I took a few minutes to do a quick scribble sketch with a purple ballpoint pen. Just a little something from imagination.

30 Characters Challenge #21, 22, 23, 24, 25

2011-11-23T18:36:00.001-08:00

With the Thanksgiving holiday just around the corner, it can be difficult to get any drawing done, so I decided to not just catch up with the challenges, but also get a bit ahead. To keep a quick pace for completing so many drawings I had to keep my technique really simplified. I like the less is more approach.
Most of the characters are zombies. However, one is a main character for my graphic novel that is in the works. Here's his description:

Jackson Wyntrson

· Albino

· Billionaire

· Former philanthropist who has lost hope forhumankind

· Decides to relocate to Titan to seclude himself

· Is mistaken for a zombie once the outbreakoccurs

30 Characters Challenge #20

2011-11-21T16:38:00.001-08:00

Here's another zombie face for today, however, I don't think I'll be able to catch up on the last one to be up to date. If I do 2 tomorrow, I will be totally caught up, so I'll shoot for that.

30 Characters Challenge #19

2011-11-21T11:12:00.001-08:00

Fell a little behind in the challenge, but I will try to add two more characters by the end of the day. I'm working out specific facial features for my zombies with this drawing.

30 Characters Challenge #18

2011-11-18T22:19:00.001-08:00

One reason I have used models for my zombies is because my son says that my zombies all look the same. This zombie is from imagination, but I think I did a pretty good job making him look different from my typical zombie characters. Got to build up a repertoire for the walking dead!

30 Characters Challenge #17

2011-11-17T22:21:00.001-08:00

Nadine Lombardi

· Japanese/Italian

· Chief executive officer of corporate travelcompany

· She has family on both Earth and Titan

· She worked her way up to a higher social class,but decided to stay on earth to care for her family

· Has a divided family: Titan (Italian) family ispompous, egocentric, and looks down on anyone that lives on Earth; Earth family(Japanese) is lower middle class that struggles to survive; they value closefriends and family

· Though Nadine is an executive, she still takeson extra work to take care of her Earth family; she therefore has to travelback and forth to Titan; technology allows for her to tend to the corporatetravel company

· Nadine is Thomas’ love-interest, though sheunknowingly intimidates him

Illustration Friday: Silent

2011-11-17T16:29:00.001-08:00

I would hate to say this illustration was "inspired" by the events that were discovered taking place at Penn State. So I'll say that I was compelled as an artist to create imagery that addresses the events that deeply affected innocent victims. It seems when it comes to child molestation, there is a lot of silence that shrouds both victims and predators. How is it that society looks the other way? How is it that an individual can continue doing terrible things to children for years and years? As a parent, I feel that I cannot be careful enough to see that my son does not fall victim to the evil people of the world.

Illustration created with watercolor, pen, brush and India ink.

30 Characters Challenge #16

2011-11-16T21:39:00.001-08:00

Thanks again to Melissa Lackman for her son's pic. He makes a really great zombie!

30 Characters Challenge #15

2011-11-16T21:35:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Melissa Lackman for her childhood pic that I used for this zombie design. There is nothing more creepy than a little girl zombie!
Hey, half way through the 30 day challenge. Yay!

30 Characters Challenge #14

2011-11-16T21:31:00.001-08:00

Got a bit under the weather so I had to take a few days off on the challenge. Still not up to par, but feeling well enough to play catch up. We'll call it art therapy :) Here's my next character for my graphic novel.

Victor Gutierrez

· Hispanic who is far removed from his culture(bigotry still exists in this future society)

· Can’t roll his ‘R’s in his last name “Gutierrez”

· Has worked hard to earn his place in society,even if it meant stepping on others in the process

· Ambitious

· Looks down on the poor and uneducated

· Makes things happen

· Worked his way out of lower class and thinksthat there is no reason why anyone else couldn’t do the same

· On the outside, Victor is an upstanding citizen

· However, in a tight situation, i.e., zombieoutbreak, he cannot be trusted

· People have a bad feeling about him, though theymay not be able to give a rational explanation

· Victor talks down to Willie, ordering him to“Fix this”, or “Clean up that”

· Victory resents Willie for earning his way tolive on Titan and would do anything to tarnish Willie’s reputation (Thomas maykill Victor since he befriends Willie)

30 Characters Challenge #13

2011-11-13T21:58:00.001-08:00

Every zombie story needs to have half a zombie crawling around, right?
For this design, since Sundays are typically busy days for me, I decided to save a lot of time and just work from imagination. I'll get back to "zombiefying" pics tomorrow.
It's still not too late if you want to be depicted as a zombie as a character for my graphic novel. All participants will be listed in the credits. Just send me your pic to my email at valleyjo@softcom.net.

30 Characters Challenge #12

2011-11-12T22:45:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Rafael Santos for sending his pic for this zombie design. There is nothing cooler than a zombie riding a sci-fi motorcycle!

Hope you like it.

30 Characters Challenge #11

2011-11-11T21:56:00.001-08:00

Thanks to all who have volunteered your images to model as zombies. I am still accepting pics if you would like to email them to me at valleyjo@softcom.net. I wasn't quite able to complete one of the zombie designs today. It has a sci fi motorcycle that I am still working the kinks out, but it should be done by tomorrow. Lots of fun! In the mean time, here is one of the main characters for the graphic novel. I think I will start laying out the story on paper soon since I've got a pretty good start on the characters and a load of reference materials.

Willie Bragg

· - Is a handyman

· - Is a “nobody” but serves a necessary role

· - Being a Jack of all trades, he is the best atwhat he does and quietly earns the opportunity to live on Titan

· - Willie does his work dutifully, regardless ofwhat people may say about him; “It’s my job” is his outlook

· - He is an intelligent problem-solver and can fixalmost anything

· - When put in close contact with Thomas during thezombie outbreak, he becomes Thomas’ father-figure and his conscience of sorts

· - Willie eventually finds out what sort of personThomas is (Thomas can’t get himself to kill Willie) and struggles with callinghim out or taking matters in to his own hands

30 Characters Challenge #10

2011-11-10T16:21:00.001-08:00

Here's my next zombie. Pretty horrific, but hey, it's a zombie! :)Thanks to my good friend Tim Lewis who was the first to volunteer to be "zombiefied" for my graphic novel. I think the story will have much more personality by using actual people for some of the zombies. At the rate I am going, I will never run out of ideas for the rest of this month's challenge. The only big challenge is making time for my creations. This one took about 3 hours to draw.

Illustration Friday: Stripes

2011-11-10T11:41:00.001-08:00

I almost thought this piece wasn't going to work out. I started it off developing the form and shadows with a single hatch technique in pen and ink. Then I added linear accents.
I should have stopped there, but then I wanted to add color. Wanting to try something a little different, I used colored ink instead of watercolor, with unexpected results. I didn't realize that the green ink was of a very cool hue, and instead of getting a brownish color when mixed with red, the result was purple. Yes, it is possible to make purple from red and green! So that was my first disappointment. Then it all went down hill when I started adding more red for the stripes; then red to the background to balance off the stripes; then green to the background to tone down the red. I stopped to let things dry and to give myself time to think about what I might do next.
The next day, instead of deciding to trash the piece that worked to hard on, I decided to collage text in the background, an approach that I have used in recent illustrations. I like using text to complement the subject of a piece. I use it for texture and not so much for a literal message. However, in this piece, it can be taken both literally and as a textural element.
With the text, I simply typed out the word "stripes" several times, in different fonts and printed it out. Then I took a brush with India ink and loosely framed each word. I then tore out the words and some of the inky marks on the paper and glued them to the picture. With the glue still wet, I carefully added ink to the image, isolating some of the words, and adding bolder lines to the figure for more of an emotional impact. I also mad the border much bolder than it was before for more graphic punch. Pretty much all of the hatching in the background is covered up. So much for all that time spent rendering it in.
All in all, I think I resuscitated the illustration to a piece that I am proud to present.

30 Characters Challenge #9

2011-11-09T13:00:00.000-08:00

Every zombie story needs a ton of zombie characters, right? Well, as I design my zombies, I am also using actual people as references. So far I have "zombiefied" myself, and this one is of my son. I'm looking for more people for zombie models, so if your interested, just send me a pic to my email at valleyjo@softcom.net

This is for a graphic novel, so all models depicted will be mentioned by name in the credits. The page number where they can be found will also be mentioned.

30 Characters Challenge #8

2011-11-08T20:15:00.000-08:00

Since my graphic novel will be a zombie story, I thought I ought to draw one. I did a self portrait for this one, which makes me wonder if I should use people I know for zombie models.

Officer “Babyboy” Garcia (zombie)

· - Suspects Thomas Cain of murder

· - Follows Thomas into a shuttle destined for thespace transport to the Titan Colony (which Thomas is not authorized to enter)

· - Thomas kills Garcia by slitting his throat witha knife; he then hides his body in the waste section of the space transport

· - The next time Thomas sees him, Garcia is azombie

30 Characters Challenge #7

2011-11-07T23:54:00.000-08:00

Trini Tubo

· - Small, but tough Filipina

· - She is the one that is called to handle humanconflicts, especially if things get physical

· - She likes to talk with Angel because the men’scare product company that he sells for has a women’s special occasion jewelryline

· - She likes to read horror books

· - She is afraid of the dark and likes to haveThomas walk with her during her night rounds

"Two Paths"

2011-11-07T15:11:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, my son and I attended First Saturday Art Club, hosted by JLI. Because of our busy lifestyle, we have not been able to attend many of the meetings so it was a real treat to be able to participate. In a nut shell, every first Saturday of the month, JLI lead artist Jon Guerzon studies paintings from the Haggin Museum and talks about certain art concepts with artists, young and old alike. Meetings are held both at the museum and at the JLI studio. This time we met at the studio. At the previous session, the painting A Woodland Temple by Thomas Moran, was discussed. We, therefore, got to do a few practical exercises to understand what was discussed in the last meeting.
One of the concepts that was discussed was the focal point of the painting, and how certain elements lead the viewer's eye to different areas of the paintings. A close look at the painting reveals two arches formed by the heavy foliage of the trees, and gives the viewer a choice of which path to take (although lighting of the right side arch probably has more pull that the left side).
So we went through a couple of exercises to play with focal points in our own designs. The last exercise was to compose a picture that uses the two arch elements, and also has the landscape as part of the theme (though some artists chose to not incorporate the landscape).

Here is my sketch that I did in the JLI studio. We had the option to work with other media and colors, but because I wasn't sure what to do, I chose to simply work with pencil. I eventually chose to draw a face because that is often a subject that I use to experiment with new ideas and concepts. By the time I finished the drawing, there wasn't really enough time to take it a step further, so I decided to take it home and make a more refined version of it, using my illustrative approach.

So here is the sequence of the process. 1) Use monochromatic watercolor washes in the first stages, with the exception of minimal color in the lenses of the binoculars; 2) Use pen and ink hatches to render form, light and shadow; 3) Use pen, brush and ink to refine the imagery and add linear techniques to further develop the forms.
Illustrated with watercolor, pen, brush and India ink

30 Characters Challenge #6

2011-11-06T22:12:00.000-08:00

Sergeant Norm Ortiz

· - Incompetent site sergeant

· - Doesn’t know how to make decisions and is notone to be caught up in human conflicts

· - Tries to joke around with his co-workers but isnot funny

· - Socially awkward

· - Has the inability to grow a full mustache andsideburns

· - Angel is always trying to sell Norm male careproducts

30 Characters Challenge #5

2011-11-05T20:40:00.000-07:00

Angel Torres

· - Works for Infinite Horizons, where Thomas Cainalso works

· - Is always trying to sell men’s care products toco-workers

· - He especially tries to sell to Thomas since hehas difficulty with growing sideburns (a sign of masculinity in this future society)

· - Since products are part of a pyramid scheme, healso tries to recruit Thomas

· - One of his pyramid selling lines is that heactually met someone who was so successful with selling that he was able to buyhis way to the Titan Colony (where anybody who is somebody resides)

30 Characters Challenge #4

2011-11-04T12:56:00.000-07:00

I've got maybe 1 to 2 more security guards to create, then I can move on to other supporting characters to the Thomas sub-plot. I still have 2 or 3 more plots to create characters for, plus a bunch of zombies. This project might take longer than 30 days.

Tom Earp

· Retired cop

· Has a big ego; thinks he’s better than theaverage guard

· Everyone calls him “Wyatt” behind his back

· Likes to carry a bunch of cop gear on hisutility belt

· As a former law enforcer, he is able to use acellular phone, which he likes to flash in front of the other guards

· Supporting character for Thomas sub-plot

Character illustration created with pen, brush, and India ink

30 Characters Challenge #3

2011-11-03T15:53:00.000-07:00

Here's my third character for the month. It may seem like I'm just drawing a bunch of security guards, but each character is important to the story. Plus the story is a bit sophisticated in that there are at least three sub-plots to it. Sort of a Tarantino approach to the script. Here's the character description:

Nicky Amos

- Loves being a guard, no matterwhat the task

- Always carries a clip board tokeep track of his daily tasks and write down notes for his reports

- Has government-approved electronicdevice* that is always clipped to his belt; he uses it to keep time, track theweather, and get updates on “the game”

- He checks his device like anervous tick

- Supporting character in Thomassub-plot

*PDAs, computers, cellular phonesand similar technology are banned and illegal in this future society. The general public is back to using paper andmostly analogue devices. Only thegovernment is authorized to use higher technology. It helps them regulate and control thepublic.

30 Characters Challenge #2

2011-11-02T13:03:00.000-07:00

Here's my next character. In trying to come up with interesting characters, I tend to draw from my own experiences. In this case, I used to work as a security guard and seemed to have a lot of interesting co-workers. I took elements from one of my associates and created Eugene. Of course, names have been changed to protect the innocent (and not so innocent). :)

Eugene “Bookworm” Smith

· Thomas’ co-worker

· Likes to lift weights, eat, and readphilosophical books

· Supporting character in Thomas sub-plot

Illustration created with pen, bush, and India ink

30 Characters Challenge #1

2011-11-01T13:28:00.000-07:00

Here is my first character for this month's 30 Characters Challenge. The characters that I am creating will be part of a story for my graphic novel that I will be starting before the end of this year. I'm not sure when it will be finished for publication, but I am hoping it will not take much more than 6 months to create. Here's the description of my character:
Thomas Cain

Doesn’t like to be called “Tom”,or especially “Tommy”

A wannabe alpha male

Slender and slight

Intelligent and crafty; scheming

Serial killer on the brink of arampage

Security guard for a corporate travelcompany where lots of “alphas”, both male and female, are employed (at leastaccording to his perception)

Paranoid that every one is lookingdown on him

Once he breaks, he prefers tosavor the sufferings of his victims. However, as his psychotic carnage continues, his number of murders escalatesas his appetite for the kill and feeling of dominance becomes insatiable.

He is almost caught by theauthorities, except he evades capture by slipping away in a shuttle that willmeet with a space transport to a luxurious living colony on Titan, one ofSaturn’s moons

When some of his killings comeback to life as zombies, and the plague begins to spread, Thomas at first is inKiller Heaven. However, he finds thatsince zombies do not suffer, he is dissatisfied with killing them

Thomas finds himself caught in theposition of being a hero when saving a group of people from a zombie attack.

Character illustration created with pen, brush and India ink

Illustration Friday: Scary

2011-10-28T17:19:00.000-07:00

Who hasn't told scary stories with a flashlight under their chin?

Illustrated with pen, brush, ink and watercolor.

Illustration Friday: Fuel

2011-10-25T16:10:00.000-07:00

My illustration for this week's topic is pretty straight-forward and, perhaps, a bit cliche, but it is what popped into my head and I just went for it.

Created with pen, brush, and ink with watercolor.

Illustration Friday: Scattered (Brain)

2011-10-20T22:21:00.000-07:00

Here's my take on this week's topic "Scattered". Anyone else get brain-scattered?
Created with watercolor, pen, brush and India ink.

Illustration Friday: Hibernate

2011-10-06T22:37:00.000-07:00

Here is my illustration for this week's topic.

Created with pen & India ink.

Painting to Print

2011-10-06T08:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a project I almost discarded until an acquaintance expressed purchasing a print of the design. This design is based on one of my sermon paintings. Though I like the concept, it is not my favorite painting, specifically how it was executed. For some reason I get a lot of people telling me it is their favorite painting.
So a while ago I had the idea of painting more refined versions of the sermon paintings on a smaller canvas so they could easily be reproduced and made into prints. The prints would be for sale. I already recreated the Communion Triptych, then started on the foot washing design. Then I got busy with other things and just decided to not do any more recreations because the triptych was not really selling that well.
With the interest of at least a couple of people, I decided to finish the design and just order prints as interest dictates. I don't want to have a bunch of prints sitting around the studio looking for a home.
This painting, as with the triptych, started out with a black and white underpainiting. After the paint is dry, I will coat the canvas with gloss medium and allow that to dry. Then I'll add glazes of color until the painting is completed. This is the way that many of the old masters used to develop their paintings, except I'm using acrylics instead of oils. Here's what I've done so far including some closer detail pics.

24 Hour Comic: Through Eyes

2011-10-02T01:30:00.000-07:00

The 24 Hour Comic challenge is to create 24 pages of a sequential comic story (which is the typical number of pages for one comic book) in 24 hours. As I am typing, I am at 18 hours and 40 minutes. I didn't work on my story the entire time (I had Saturday errands to run), but I wanted to complete it before 24 hours passed so I could get some sleep and be rested for church the next day. So with that I was a success. Oh, and the only preparation allowed for the challenge is to get supplies together, reference materials, food, etc. Absolutely no preliminary sketches or plots written out.

For my story, I divided it into 4 subplots. I guess we can call them chapters. Each chapter starts and ends with an eye, hence the title Through Eyes. If I put titles on the chapters here is what they would be: Chapter 1 The Futility of Life. I've been toying with this irony in my head for a while so I decided to put it down on paper for the challenge. I'm pretty happy with it.

Chapter 2 Gay Boy. Part of this is from my childhood experience of walking to school. There were a couple bullies on the way that called me, and sometime my friend, "Gay Boy". A few times they even shot at me with a BB gun. It's a wonder I survived childhood. The ending is made up, but I am sure as a child, I wouldn't have minded doing something like that, though maybe a little less harmful.

Chapter 3 Atomic Fighters. I don't know what I was thinking with this one. I had a creative block for a bit and so I just decided to draw and make it up as I went. Had to stay on schedule! So since the plot ended as a catastrophic event, that lead to

Chapter 4 Life Suits. Originally, I wasn't going to do a zombie story because I don't want people thinking that is all I am interested in. But I thought a post apocalyptic setting would lend itself to the walking dead so I thought "Why not?"

All of the story was illustrated in graphite pencil.

I tried uploading it as a PDF but Blogger wouldn't do it. Sorry if it takes a while to navigate.

The Avengers: Black Widow

2011-09-30T12:18:00.000-07:00

Here is my finished illustration of Black Widow. The process was pretty straightforward, but I took a bit of time to think things through and get the details right. Since Black Widow is originally Russian, I wanted to depict her like a James Bond movie character of sorts. Ah, the Cold War! It seemed to spawn all sorts of story plots.

This design is for a series where I will be depicting all the characters from The Avengers movie that will be out in 2012. One character down, 5 or 8 to go.

Illustration created with watercolor, gesso, and India ink on cold pressed watercolor paper.

Check out the process video if interested.

Avengers Fan Art WIP

2011-09-28T14:32:00.000-07:00

As I wait for my watercolor wash to dry, I decided to show a couple of details of my latest work in progress. The new project that I am working on is to create fan art that is inspired from the Avengers movie that will be coming out in 2012. My plan is to create a full figured portrait of all the characters featured in the movie, then do at least one group portrait of all the characters. Instead of depicting them as they are in the movie, I wanted to draw them as they are in the comics, specifically, their costumes. My spin on things is that I am rendering them in a more refined approach of my usual illustration style which uses watercolors and India ink. I am wanting to balance stylized depiction and realism in my drawings.
My intent with this project is to create and sell prints of the artwork. A long shot goal is to get into selling both fan art and my personal work at comic conventions. I am hoping to earn enough money so I can mingle and network at the conventions.

30 Minutes of Creativity "The Future"

2011-09-19T10:38:00.000-07:00

Back in June, I participated in a free online challenge called 30 Days of Creativity. For 30 days in June, anyone could participate with creating something, anything, on a daily basis.
Well, the 30 Days team is at it again with 30 Minutes of Creativity. Unlike 30 Days, 30 Minutes is done one day per month so it is not as overwhelming. Like the 30 Days challenge, there are optional prompts to get the creative juices going if creatives need it. This month's prompt is "The Future".
My project is loosely based on the prompt. For 30 minutes, I drew 10 custom business cards with pen and ink. The text on the cards was already printed out before I started. I was going to try to draw on 4 postcard too, but I ran out of time. I guess one can only go so fast with a dip pen. "The Future" will be bright if these cards get me business!

"Why We Remember": Behind the Scenes

2011-09-18T19:22:00.000-07:00

The minister of my church asked me if I could share a little bit of the background for last Sunday's sermon painting for this Sunday's service. I agreed to do it, however, as I got to thinking about it, I didn't really want to stand in front of my church and explain my process. It sounded too much like an art history class to me, and though I really enjoy art history, I am pretty sure the general public doesn't share my enthusiasm.
So I decided to share in a different way, and create a still video of my process and what I was thinking for the design. Outside of the Internet, this is the first time I have been able to share in this way. It somehow seems more real than sharing via blog, though I am happy to make connections through the Internet.
Feeling rather creative, I decided to not only share still photos and narrate, but I also wrote the soundtrack on guitar. It only took me 2 or 3 hours to write, record, and edit the song. Music doesn't always come that quickly for me.
The media I used for this project was Windows Movie Maker for the video, and Audacity for the instrumental and vocal recording.

Illustration Friday: Boundaries

2011-09-12T21:25:00.000-07:00

I interpreted "boundaries" to mean "personal space". I had a recent experience of having a chat with an acquaintance, however it seemed that we both had a different sense of what defined personal space. In fact, I'm almost positive that he had no concept of it. No matter how much I tried to shift my position slightly away from him during our conversation, he countered my effort by coming even closer. I'm sure there has to be a Seinfeld episode about this situation! What does one do?
Illustration created with watercolors, pen, brush and India ink.

Why We Remember

2011-09-11T19:06:00.000-07:00

In a recent workshop where I shared my approach to speed painting, I was asked how much time was usually given to me to plan out my designs. I said sometimes a couple of weeks, but I prefer about a month's time for planning. Well, compared to that, my latest design was done at break-neck speed. My minister came to me with an idea on Tuesday saying, "I know this is last minute, but ...", and he shared his idea of doing something as a memorial for 9/11. So I agreed to try to come up with something, and we traded ideas back and forth a few times. On Thursday we agreed to the final design that would be used for the Sunday morning sermon painting.
For our Sunday morning church service, I painted during some of the songs, a video, and the sermon. I finished at the end of the sermon, just at the right time.
I had two basic ideas for the painting. The first was using images of the Twin Towers, and the Pentagon and surrounding them with visual symbolism. Examples of symbols were an olive branch for peace and restoration, a dove for peace, grace, and God's spiritual presence, and a child for innocence and hope for the future.
The second idea for the painting was to make it more of a collaborative effort with my audience. Though I would have preferred limiting input to just the church members, the time constraint left me to resort to other methods of getting help. So I used Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and EDM Yahoo Group and asked the question, "What does FAITH, HOPE and LOVE mean to you in the context of remembering the events of 9/11?" Though I didn't get as big a response as I wanted, it was actually more than enough to where I had to condense and paraphrase the thoughts that were expressed. Since I have lately been using text in my personal art work, I had the idea of writing out the thoughts of those who shared in the painting design. I really wanted this piece to be more than just my response to 9/11 and allow it to be an open forum of sorts. Unfortunately, due to time and space limits, I was unable to share all of the shared thoughts on canvas.
Here are some details of the painting and also the final design.
Created with latex and acrylic paint on 6 feet by 4 feet canvas.

Illustration Friday: Disguise

2011-09-02T15:31:00.000-07:00

I'm a day late on the IF topic, but I decided to complete it anyway. I finally figured out how to put audio to the still videos using my original music recordings. It was as simple as converting the audio file to an mp3 format. I was making it much more complicated than it should have been. So now I don't have to worry about getting sued for using someone else's music on my blog and can have fun occasionally writing music to accompany my videos.
So here's my still video showing my process to illustrating the topic "Disguise". To be appropriate, I titled my song Disguise Me.

Here's a pic of the completed illustration, which was created with watercolors with pen, brush and India ink. The imagery was inspired by the opening scenes of The Dark Knight film.

New Business Card Design

2011-08-25T11:49:00.001-07:00

I decided to get away from the logo look for my business cards and use art work that actually represents what I do. I realize that artists using their work for business cards is nothing new, but I put a little twist in the idea. Being tight on spending cash lately, I couldn't afford to make color prints for my cards or buy colored ink for my printer, so my solution was to take more personal approach. I lowered the text on the card layout leaving room for me to draw in the open space above the text. It took a couple of hours out of my day to do this, but I'm sure it will be worth it if I drum up business from it. Obviously, if things get really busy I'll have to do a different tactic for promotion. I was thinking of using the same idea for promotional postcards too.

What do you think? Does this seem to be a more personal approach to doing business? Or does it look too low budget?

The text for the business cards were created with Print Shop software printed on Avery printable business cards. My cards ran out, so then I resorted to card-stock which work out great. The images were drawn with colored ink and India ink.

Illustration Friday: Influence

2011-08-24T14:52:00.000-07:00

I decided to do two illustrations for this week's topic. The first has to do with our societies educational system (here in the States) and how it seems the decision makers are so concerned with how the rest of the world, especially China, are way ahead of us in math and science. Though I agree that we have some challenges with our system, I think we are going at it in a backwards way. We seem to want to have the high academic scores that China has without paying the same dues that China has paid. However, the American culture and Chinese culture are very different, and what I think we really need to do is not compare ourselves with other countries, but go about in our own way, according to our way of thinking and culture to excel in our educational system. We need to not let the influence of other cultures dim our focus on what we need to do.

This second illustration centers on the influence of family and obesity, a major problem in the more affluent nations of the world. I think the importance of healthy living starts with attitudes that are developed in the family unit. Whatever habits are modeled by parent are followed by their children.

Both illustrations were created with India ink and watercolor.

New Sketchbook

2011-08-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

It took me about 4 months to finish my last main sketchbook (yes, I keep more than one sketchbook at a time). So now I am starting a new one. Lately, I have been focusing my books on a certain technique or medium. I find that it is good discipline to give myself creative perimeters for my book drawings because it gives me more focus and direction. This forces me to come up with creative ideas when I feel that I have exhausted all other ideas, even if it is subtle.

In this new sketchbook, I decided that I want to limit myself to using just ball point pens. They can be any color. I am looking forward to seeing where my new journey will take me in the pages to follow.

A Closer Look @ Art Battle Design

2011-08-14T21:15:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share a bit of my process for this year's Art Battle design. The theme was "Stockton is Magnificent". So right from the start, I felt the need to include certain landmarks that are characteristic of Stockton.
This initial study is the first thing that came to mind. It is King Kong sitting on top of the downtown movie theatre with the mayor of Stockton in his hand. I drew this without any references, and to my surprise, it is a somewhat accurate view of the area. Though I liked this idea, I wanted to explore other possibilities for imagery.

Not being very motivated for the next couple of weeks, I didn't do any drawing for the Art Battle. Then I went to the Haggin Museum (in Stockton) to see the Salvador Dali exhibit, featuring his watercolor drawings of Dante's Inferno. Totally inspired by his work (he was quite the draughtsman), I decided to work out this drawing at a table right there in the gallary. King Kong is centered hanging off the Bob Hope theatre, mayor in hand. To the left is sketchy imagery of an agricultural landscape (the Stockton area is a major contributor to the nation's ag products, as well as many parts of the world). To the right is the image of the Port of Stockton which is one of the few deep channel ports that leads directly to the ocean. This contorted perspective was inspired from one of Dali's drawings.

This next sketch is one of my favorites. Here, Kong is coming out of a ship's cargo holding area, like in the movie. In the background is the Port of Stockton.

Though I liked the coming out of the ship idea, I wasn't quite sure how to make it work within the context of the theme and in a unified composition. So I went with yet another idea of Kong climbing Burn's Tower located at the University of the Pacific. You know how he likes to climb things! I really liked the composition of this study, but I really wanted an accurate ariel view of the area, and Google maps just wasn't working for me. Plus, I don't think the mayor would like being manhandled by a giant gorilla (or would that be gorilla-handled?) So on to another idea.

This is my final idea. I decided that it would be the one to use for the Battle because it is humorous (especially depending on the viewer's opinion regarding the mayor. Ah, politics!) Also, it is a fairly straightforward composition that wouldn't be too challenging to complete within the 2 hour time limit. BTW, this was the final page of my sketchbook. Somehow it seemed like I was finishing a chapter of my artistic experiences.

Before starting the Art Battle challenge, I used a 4H pencil to lightly block out the main elements on my paper so that I wouldn't get lost in the heat of the competition. The final drawing was created with watercolors first, then pen/ink and brush/ink were used to render the finer details and values.

Art Battle 2011

2011-08-13T17:41:00.001-07:00

I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do the Art Battle this year. There's been a lot of personal stuff that has been distracting me this summer. Through it all, it has been difficult to conjure up enough motivation to do any art, especially preparing for the competition. But at nearly the last minute I put together a plan for a design that I was happy with.
Here's a pic of me and the son drawing side by side. After last year's event, he really wanted to give it a go this year. I'm very proud of him for doing his best and taking the opportunity to have the Art Battle experience.

Here's me half way through my design. I'm used the sun to dry my watercolor washes so I could go back over it with India ink. The warm Stockton weather is just a little less slower than using a hairdryer to dry the paint.

The son finished way before me. He was asked if he wanted to draw another picture but he declined. It's a lot of work making pictures! :)

Almost done. Still utilizing the photo references, even for the final touches.

Me and the son proudly standing by our completed works of art.

A closer view of the son's work. Goku and Vegeta having drinks at Starbuck's. Created with graphite pencil and colored pencils on paper. Good job!

Here's my work. King Kong climbing Burn's Tower (a Stockton landmark) and Stockton

Mayor Ann Johnston peaking into the picture plane, "Magnificent!" This cracked me up when I though of the idea. At least I can entertain myself :) Created with watercolor, pen/brush and India ink.

Art Battle 2011 Prep

2011-08-11T09:59:00.001-07:00

Here are some detail pics of a few studies that I have done as preparation for this year's Art Battle here in Stockton, California. Being that it is a competition, I'm only showing details so that I don't totally give out my ideas. Have to keep the actual composition a secret for now :) However, if you look closely, you can probably get a rough idea of what my art will focus on.

This year's theme for the Battle, which is being organized by JLI, is "Stockton is Magnificent". Speaking of battles, the theme of a magnificent Stockton seems to be an uphill battle, especially since Forbes Magazine listed it as the "Most Miserable City" in the US. Though I think that's a bad call for Forbes, I think the worst critics of Stockton is its own community. Stockton has a lot to offer with culture, the arts, sports, agriculture, and many other things, but the average Stocktonian is unaware of these things and too lazy to seek these things out, things that are right under their nose. If the perception changed in a more positive direction, and a little pride for the community developed, I think our city would thrive.

Rant, rant, rant! Now time to do some art!

Illustration Friday: Perennial

2011-07-27T18:30:00.001-07:00

I decided to go with an edible perennial for this week's topic. Thyme is probably my favorite herb. I like it for it's culinary versatility and use it often when cooking. I especially like it with potatoes as it really eccentuates the flavor.
I wanted to experiment with this illustration a bit, using graphite, rather than ink over my watercolor washes. I like the subtlety that the medium gives compared to ink. I think I'll experiment more with using pencil with watercolors.
For those interested, I also included a still video of my illustrative process.

Illustration Friday: Gesture

2011-07-20T14:39:00.000-07:00

This was the first idea that came to mind when this week's topic came up. Even though I tried out a couple of other ideas, I kept coming back to this one.

With this illustration, I wanted to focus on the gesture of the ballerina's body, as well as the style of drawing technique, which I would consider gesture-like, but not truly a gesture drawing.

BTW, I know a female ballet dancer is called a ballerina, but what is a male ballet dancer called?

Created with brushes and India ink.

Gateway

2011-07-20T09:22:00.001-07:00

A couple of nights ago, as I started to go to sleep, I envisioned a design for this painting and woke up the next day still thinking of it. Since I had a canvas already stretched and ready to go, I started the painting that next day. Though the basic elements of the composition are similar to what I had originally envisioned, the colors are a bit different. I had not planned on using red. Also, as I was in the process of creating, I decided to use some pages for collage out of a magazine that was just laying around close to the canvas. It just so happened that the colors coordinated with what I was using.

"Gateway" was created with acrylic, latex paint and collage. Painted with brushes, fingers, hands, and twine.

Illustration Friday: Stay

2011-07-14T20:41:00.001-07:00

For this week's topic I decided to portray Mick Jones from The Clash singing "Should I Stay or Should I Go". A little different from my initial thought of depicting a dog obeying the command "Stay".

Gesso, acrylics, ink, colored pencil on paper.

JLI Workshop

2011-07-11T18:43:00.001-07:00

Here's a couple of examples from my workshop that I did last Thursday (July 7th). In my workshop, I shared some of my techniques that I use for my Sermon Paintings. I called them my "speed painting" techniques, similar to the idea of speed painter Denny Dent, yet with many differenences (I'm much slower and not as charismatic). I shared this with Jagged Lines of Imagination Academy, an organization that teaches art to all ages, but mostly children.
The first picture is a rough sketch of my design. In the background, you might notice that I had more planned than what eventually became the final product. Since time was a major consideration I decided to simplify the design. I did other preparatory sketches, but am unable to show them because I gave them away to two lucky individuals at the workshop.
With the final design I had children take part with painting parts of the statue, which is imagery inspired from the 2nd chapter of the Biblical book of Daniel. It was interesting to see each person's different way of handling the paint brush on the canvas. Some worked bold and quickly, and others worked carefully and tediously.
To prepare the canvas for the workshop I had placed a low tack tape to the surface to mask out the black lines for the forms and shapes. After everyone finished with sharing the painting process, we all helped with removing the tape from the canvas, which was lots of fun but a bit of a challenge since the paint dried rapidly from the hot weather and made it difficult to remove.
Today I touched up the painting a little bit and removed the rest of the tape that was missed during the presentation. Though there are things I wish I would have done differently with the final design, I am still happy with the overall experience. I would love to do more workshops in the future because I find it is fun to share the creative process with others.

Drawing done with an ultra fine Sharpie. Painting done with acrylics and tape.

JLI Sketches

2011-07-08T22:44:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of sketches I did from observing a free class held by Jagged Lines of Imagination Academy. The class was part of the Stockton Artwalk which is held on the 2nd Friday of each month in the summer time. It was open to the public. There was also student art for sale to help fund JLI and I also donated my work for sale. Unfortunately, I didn't sell a single painting. The Artwalk was pretty dead; not many artists exhibiting and not many art viewers. What's the deal in Stockton? There seemed to be much more going on in the past years.

I also presented a workshop for JLI last night featuring my Sermon Painting techniques (I called it "speed painting"). Presenting the workshop was a really good experience for me as I got to share certain things that I have learned about speed painting and I got to get the audience to participate with creating a painting right there in the studio. I'll post the finished painting later next week.

These two sketches were created with a black Prismacolor Artstick on 11" x 18" paper.

30 Days of Creativity #30

2011-06-30T21:59:00.000-07:00

"Charlie Chaplin" is today's creativity prompt. I remember watching his movies at a pizza restaurant as a child. I found them intriguing. I should seek out his movies now to see what I think.

I can hardly believe that these 30 Days of Creativity is over, and done back to back with Everyday in May. I can definitely say that things will slow down a bit as I readjust my focus to other things. I think as soon as I can get steady employment (in this terrible economy) I will shift my attention to producing gallery art. Maybe my luck will fare better in that field rather than illustration.

This Chaplin tuxedo cat was created with pen, brush and India ink.

30 Days of Creativity #29

2011-06-29T22:32:00.000-07:00

"Cardboard Boxes" is today's creativity prompt. I decided to keep the drawing quick and easy. I just used a Sharpie on paper.

30 Days of Creativity #28

2011-06-29T01:17:00.001-07:00

Today's creativity prompt is "Pirates vs. Ninjas". Today was a tough day to do sequential illustrations. With my son having a friend over for play and then my family helping some friends move later on in the day, I had a lot of distractions and time demands. So I was up late finishing this project. Originally, I had planned to use pen/brush and ink to render the pages, but the Sharpie ended up being a faster solution.

30 Days of Creativity #27

2011-06-27T17:51:00.000-07:00

Today's prompt is "Extinct Mediums". So I decided to capture my "spot" illustration design on video (digital of all things!) I'm not sure if the audio is as good as it could be. I'll have to work out the kinks for future videos. I also embellished the drawing with software for the final design. Yes, I know, digital again, but maybe there could be an ironic implication :) It seems that the present day media are just too convenient to resist.

Created with charcoal on paper, an inexpensive video camera, and digital software.

30 Days of Creativity #26

2011-06-26T20:49:00.001-07:00

Today's creativity prompt is "Unicorns". I am finding that when I don't have much time in the day to work on the challenges that I lean towards the digital medium. With my doggie drawing already scanned and at the ready, it is a very quick way to create imagery. Even so, I still prefer to work the old fashioned pen to paper way.

Digitally created.

30 Days of Creativity #25

2011-06-25T17:08:00.001-07:00

"Board Games" is today's creativity prompt. If I ever retire, I always thought it would be fun to to spend my time playing board games in the park.

Drawing created with pen, brush and ink.

30 Days of Creativity #24

2011-06-25T00:13:00.000-07:00

"Lawn Gnomes" is today's creativity prompt. It seems so long since I have actually touched a pen to paper. I guess that's a potential downside of working with digital media.

Created with watercolor and pen, brush and ink.

30 Days of Creativity #23

2011-06-23T12:49:00.001-07:00

So I received a package of Scotch Brand items from the 30 Days of Creativity team as an appreciation for my participation. The idea is to use the items for the day 23 prompt "Plaid". Initially, I had so many ideas, many of them being very sophisticated, and I was wondering how I was going to pull it off in one day. Finally, I went with the simplest idea, which was a really vague idea of scanning all the items into my computer and experimenting to see what would happen.

First of all, I drew my "Spot" illustration on one of the delivery packages, then scanned it in with the other items to follow. Then I copied and pasted a few plaid Scotch logos and connected them to make a couple bigger plaid patterns. Finally, I opened a package of restickable shapes, scanned them, and scattered them throughout the image. I really like how the transparency of colors blend on this one.

I'm having fun with this digital collage thing. I'm glad it didn't take me too long to do because today is a rather busy day, with visiting out of town family, cooking, and an art reception later this evening. What a balancing act!

30 Days of Creativity #22

2011-06-22T20:41:00.001-07:00

"Neon" is today's creativity prompt. This bright guy was so much fun to do I wonder why I procrastinated with doing the project. Sometimes I really need to get myself out of that unproductive mindset!

Digitally created.

30 Days of Creativity #21

2011-06-21T21:10:00.001-07:00

"Cheese" is the creativity prompt for today. Apparently this dog is not afraid of the "cheese touch".

Created with an ultra fine Sharpie, photo of cheese on a sidewalk, and digital software.

Illustration Friday: Launch

2011-06-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

I decided it would be appropriate to use a previously created illustration for this week's topic. Normally, I try to treat each topic like an actual assignment. I found it especially fitting to use because Sierra Bible Camp is beign held this week. What are the odds?
This design is being used for t-shirts and printed materials for the encampment. Above are a printed piece and the actual illustration without text. I didn't do the lettering but left that job for the youth minitster to handle. When my son comes back from camp I'll have to show how the design looks printed on his t-shirt.

The illustration was created with watercolor, white Prismacolor pencil, gesso and Prismacolor felt pen, plus creative use of masking tape for the border effect of the image.

30 Days of Creativity #20

2011-06-20T20:37:00.000-07:00

"Platypus" is today prompt. This is Spot the platypus.

Digitally created.

30 Days of Creativity #19

2011-06-19T22:09:00.001-07:00

"Beach Ball" is today's creativity prompt. Having fun with the digital medium.

30 Days of Creativity #18

2011-06-18T21:46:00.000-07:00

Today's prompt is "feet".

Digitally created.

30 Days of Creativity #17

2011-06-17T09:35:00.001-07:00

"Super Powers" is today's creativity prompt. This little guy's bite is bigger than his bark!

Digitally created.

30 Days of Creativity #16

2011-06-16T22:35:00.000-07:00

"Hipster" is today's creative prompt. Taking another departure from my usual style, I decided to make the next few designs based on an idea that I have had brewing for several years. I figured now is as good a time as any to experiment with it. This little doggie is my spot illustration dog (get it, "spot"?) The idea is to use one basic design, and use it to express a variety of ideas and concepts. Very similar to what Absolute Vodka did with their ads a while back.

Created with a Sharpie and digital software.

30 Days of Creativity #15

2011-06-15T21:05:00.000-07:00

Today's prompt is "Sea Creatures". I didn't like how my design was coming out on my usual watercolor paper so I switched to just drawing it in my sketchbook with a Sharpie.

30 Days of Creativity #14

2011-06-14T21:19:00.000-07:00

"Picnic" is today's creativity prompt. Since I have been doing a lot of drawing today, I wanted this one to be simple, straight-forward, and not take to long to do. Even so, it exceeded my expectation. I really like how it came out.

Created with pen, brush & ink with watercolor.

30 Days of Creativity #13

2011-06-13T21:02:00.000-07:00

Today's creativity prompt is "Albert Einstein". According to Answers.com, he owned a white Maltese. Of course, all things proposed as facts on the Internet should be questioned, but giving the benefit of the doubt, here's a Maltese. I tried to get it to resemble Albert but I didn't take enough time to really develop the drawing. I guess not every picture is a masterpiece, right?

Drawn with brush & ink with gesso.

30 Days of Creativity #12

2011-06-12T21:59:00.001-07:00

For today's prompt "Abe Lincoln" I decided to do a rubbing of a cat silhouette over a bunch of pennies with a Prismacolor Artstick (get it, "Abe Lincoln"?) Then with an ultra fine tipped Sharpie, I added form and a few details with a pointillistic technique.

Illustration Friday: Swept

2011-06-11T23:55:00.000-07:00

This week's topic is inspired by something I saw on the news. In Auburn, California, a billboard displaying a woman in a swimsuit was taken down because it was perceived as pornographic and offensive to some. The news station posted on Facebook asking if their viewers thought it was pornographic, and should it have been taken down. I found it interesting that no one really addressed the question of pornography (at least during the one time I read the post's comments), and many seemed to think that if some one has a nice looking body (the model on the billboard), then there should be no reason why they shouldn't show off what they have. If it's ok to see scantily clad people on the beach or in Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, then what's the problem?
Well, I'm not even going to attempt to address the entire issue. All I have to say is that I think there are some elements to the above examples that are probably intended to have sexual appeal. I think I'll let my illustration say the rest.

On a technical note, I decided to time myself to see how long the process would take to complete this illustration. I got the idea from one of my Facebook friends. So here it is.

This first image is a sketch of my idea. At this stage of the process, it can take as little as a few minutes to come up with an idea, or many hours. Luckily it didn't take me that long. This stage took me about 25 minutes to complete.

From there I used a 4H pencil to outline my composition and make final decisions on what the imagery should be. I use a 4H pencil because it is difficult to reproduce on the scanner. I had to really adjust the contrast on my software in order to get these lines to show. This is about 48 minutes into the illustration process.

Next, I added watercolor over the pencil layout. I know that many artists outline in ink before adding watercolor, but I find that this keeps my technique loose and allows for more implication rather than a total literal representation. This stage was about 1 hour and 15 minutes into the illustration process.

Finally, India ink was added with pen and brush. I really like using a brush for inking. The brush strokes have a lot of character and it is a very quick way of laying down ink onto paper. Total time for the creative process was 2 hours and 23 minutes.

30 Days of Creativity #11

2011-06-10T21:59:00.000-07:00

Here is today's challenge "Crayons". For this one I decided to depart from the India ink and use an oil pastel crayon and a watercolor classroom set.

I also decided to capture the creative process on video. I borrowed my son's video camera (thanks, son!) To keep it uploadable, I kept the video to about 5 minutes and compressed it in Windows Movie Maker. Videos take a lot of memory and Blogger only allows 100MB. Sigh! That's really fast drawing!

30 Days of Creativity #10

2011-06-10T18:00:00.001-07:00

Today's creativity prompt is "toaster". I had a challenging time coming up with an idea for this one, so I went with the simple approach.

Created with pen, brush and ink.

Illustration Friday: Shadows

2011-06-09T21:41:00.001-07:00

I just ran out of time with this week's topic, so I didn't get past the sketching stage of the illustrative process. However, since this is a pretty refined sketch, I decided to share and submit it to Illustration Friday anyway.

I've been participating with Illustration Friday for the past few years, and now I have a bunch of work that isn't really doing anything. I am wondering if I should try to sell it, but I am not sure how I would go about such a thing or if anyone would even be interested in purchasing.

Any thoughts?

Illustration sketch created with an ultra fine Sharpie pen.

30 Days of Creativity #9

2011-06-09T15:12:00.000-07:00

Today's prompt is "Cowbell". I kicked around ideas for a Chris Walken and S&L illustration featuring cats and dogs, but it would have taken at least a couple of days to work out the details, and this is a daily project. So I went simple and created this design.

Created with watercolor, pen, brush and ink.

"Fashion" Demo

2011-06-08T17:05:00.000-07:00

I tried to finish this yesterday but ran out of time. I'm still experimenting with Windows Movie Maker for making still animations to demonstrate my art process. Much to learn, but it seems there's never enough time to master certain skills. Anyway, enough whining! Here's my demo.

30 Days of Creativity #8

2011-06-08T13:56:00.000-07:00

For today's prompt "Recycle" I used an old art magazine to add as collage in my illustration.

This diptych was created with watercolor, collage, and India ink.

30 Days in May #7

2011-06-07T22:56:00.001-07:00

Today's prompt is "Fashion". Here's a really quick illustration of my dog Ruby. She's decked out in her striped sweater. Really nice for winter walks.

Created with watercolor, colored ink, and India ink.

30 Days of Creativity #6

2011-06-06T23:06:00.001-07:00

Had a lot of fun working on today's prompt "argyle". How could anyone not like a Scotty dog?

Created with watercolor and brush & ink

30 Days of Creativity #5

2011-06-05T21:33:00.001-07:00

Today's prompt is "unibrow".

Do pets grow to look like their humans, or do humans pick pets that look like them?

Illustration created with watercolor and pen, brush and ink.

In case you wanted to know ...

2011-06-04T14:46:00.000-07:00

Here are the two works that I was referring to in yesterday's post. The first The Connoisseur by Norman Rockwell, the second Balloon Dog by Jeff Koons. Though I admire aspects of both artists' work, I have to say that neither greatly inspires me that much as a visual artist. Nevertheless, they are both important figures in the history of art and illustration.

30 Days of Creativity #4

2011-06-04T11:41:00.001-07:00

"Cat meme" is today's prompt. I wasn't familiar with the term, so I looked it up on Wiki (they would know!) Cat meme basically refers to all those email forwards that I delete (apologies to those send me those types of forwards).
The first image was created with watercolor and pen and ink. The second image is a copy of the first piece with Photoshopped text (in true character of today's prompt).

30 Days of Creativity #3

2011-06-03T21:30:00.000-07:00

"Chrome" is today's prompt. With this illustration, I pay homage to Jeff Koons and Norman Rockwell. Can you guess which pieces of art?

Created with watercolor and pen, brush & ink.

Illustration Friday: Asleep

2011-06-02T22:40:00.000-07:00

With all the online art challenges that I've been doing, I barely had time to get this week's topic completed. I decided to keep it simple so I wasn't up all night trying to finish it. Just like today's illustration of Mr. Frodo, I though using a complimentary color scheme of red/green would be interesting. I think often times using a limited palette can create a more substantial image than trying to balance a bunch of colors in a design.

Illustration created with watercolor and India ink.

30 Days of Creativity #2

2011-06-02T20:48:00.000-07:00

Today's prompt is "ice cream", and this is one happy cat. I decided to try a limited palette of a complimentary color scheme, yellow and violet.

This illustration was created with watercolor and colored ink.

30 Days of Creativity: Bicycle

2011-06-02T01:06:00.000-07:00

Here's the start of another challenge for the month of June. 30 Days of Creativity is an online challenge to simply do something creative everyday in June. I'm choosing to use it as motivation to build my illustration portfolio, but anything, visual, music, etc., can be done.
Since I've been wanting to have more cat and dog illustrations in my work, those will be my subjects for 30 days. There are also optional prompts for each day if participants want to use them. I decided to use the prompts, so today's prompt is "bicycle".
I have included a study, which I drew as my wife was shopping for a wedding shower at the mall. It's been a busy day so luckily I was able to find a place to sit and work out the the concept. This is drawn with a Bic gel pen.

This illustration may seem like a typical "cats and dogs" image. However, it personally depicts my experience as a boy. I liked riding my bike a lot, but some times there were dogs in the neighborhood that would get loose and, well, you get the idea. It's a wonder I survived childhood!
The final illustration with drawn with pen, brush and India ink. I didn't have time to add watercolor. Maybe later.

Everyday in May #31

2011-05-31T12:59:00.001-07:00

"Draw a spray bottle" is the final challenge for Everyday in May. Drawn with an ultra fine Sharpie pen. I also shared an audio/slide demonstration of my drawing process for this challenge. Just experimenting with something different. Feel free to share your impressions of demo.

Tomorrow I will start a new challenge for the month of June called 30 Days of Creativity. I'll be using it as motivation to further develop my illustration portfolio.

Everyday in May #30

2011-05-30T12:01:00.001-07:00

"Draw some school supplies" is today's challenge. School is almost out for our family so we're pretty low on supplies around this time of year.

Drawn with an ultra fine Sharpie pen.