More Plein Air
I painted a drab, crooked building on a very cold, gray and misty morning by Lake Merritt. And then afterwards I got breakfast at a diner and everything was fine.
Archived entries for Sketchbook
Plein Air Paintings
I’ve been painting en plein air the last few weeks with Dice Tsutsumi, Robert Kondo, and Shelly Wan, who have been kind enough to let me tag along on their weekly outings. It has been, at the same time, both horrifying and wonderful. I sweat the entire time. My hands tremble. I develop a stutter.
…this is the stuff of inspiration!
It’s been terribly foggy and overcast in the mornings, so the lighting hasn’t been very exciting. But at least it’s been consistent. More to come…
Junk Buildings
Here are a bunch of thumbnails I did in my sketchbook for a particular building I wanted to design. I love this stage; just playing with shape, allowing the brush to make stray marks, following them down the rabbit hole. This is the best way to free myself from prematurely obsessing over details and allow for “surprises” in the design.
There is a lot of emphasis on silhouette in animation and design in general, and for good reason. But I think it’s often preached to the point of formula and gimmickry. It’s important to remember that it’s just a tool and it serves a context. It’s relatively straightforward to come up with an interesting silhouette. But when the design is fleshed out, when it’s “turned” in space, does it still work? Not always. I almost always revisit the basic shapes even after I’ve followed a good silhouette into the rendering phase, working back and forth until I find the best solution.
Remember that old geometry rule? “A square is always a rectangle, but a rectangle is not always a square.”
Well, think of it this way: “A good design will always have a good silhouette, but a good silhouette will not always be a good design.”
Today’s Warm-Up #7
I sort of hate this drawing. It was one of those things that I should have just scratched and started fresh with, but decided to keep fussing over until there was absolutely no life left in it. Well, on to other things…
Today’s Warm-Up and an Interview
Here are some architectural thumbnails for today’s warm-up. I love doing these quick little studies, just playing with shape and proportion.
In other news, Chris and I were interviewed over on Pinball Publishing’s blog, CoinOp, regarding our collaborative project, Rigamaru. We talk about how the whole thing got started, our process and inspiration, and what’s on the horizon this year. Check it out, folks.
One last thing, Chris has a monoprint up for auction in the Brownstones to Red Dirt charity fundraiser. The auction will take place online, March 6th-13th. Check out their website for more details, and to see all the fantastic work being donated!
Today’s Warm-Up #4
There’s something about cartoons in traditional grayscale that I love. It’s just a timeless look for them. I seem to always come back to it.
For those of you who don’t know, I moved to the Bay Area this past week. I’m pretty excited to get out and explore and do some painting and sketching. I might even trade in my pasty-white Portland complexion for a tan.
Today’s Warm-Up #3
Another character from said Mystery Comic today. Is she good? Is she bad? What’s on that piece of paper she’s holding?! You’ll have to wait and pick up the book to find out… many, many months from now.
New Ink
Chris got the outlines of his new tattoo started yesterday: a circus themed sleeve of epic proportions, done by the talented and prolific Jason Kundell at Artwork Rebels in Portland. I brought my sketchbook along.
Today’s Warm-Up #2
So my pal Dennis has thrown down the gauntlet. He’s been doing this New Year’s schtick of posting daily warm-up sketches to his blog, and has trash-talked me into hopping on the bandwagon. Here is a first pass at another character from the Mystery Comic I’m working on with Sara. I haven’t decided if he looks homeless enough yet or not.
Today’s Warm-Up
Warm-up drawing today of a couple of characters from a comic I am working on with the great Sara Ellis!
Life Drawing at Hipbone Studio
A page from my sketchbook of some recent life drawing. I haven’t been since June, so the drawing felt rather labored the whole time. Also, I didn’t eat breakfast. Always, always remember to eat before going to life drawing. You don’t want to be that guy breaking the silence with your gargley stomach noises. Trust me it’s awkward.
I recently bought some screentones at a local Japanese bookstore, and I’m aiming to do more mixed media experimentation in my sketchbook. I’ll post some samples soon.
Batty in Winter
Yesterday I saw this older woman at the bakery where I get coffee. She came in wild-eyed from the cold, with her hair tousled from the wind. I immediately sensed her batty, junior high art teacher kind of energy. I’m guessing she was 4’8” in height, and would not have been at all shocked if she’d spoken with a British accent.
Josie
No life drawing this week because I got caught up in some other projects. But here is a warm-up sketch of my aunt’s dog, Josie, whom we are dog-sitting while my aunt is out of town. She’s a black lab/boxer mix, already 80 pounds and not even a year old. One day as surrogate owner and I am pooped!
I hope everyone has an excellent 4th o’ July weekend!
More Life Drawing at PNCA
So I’m trying to take things a step further this week. Still working with straight ink, but moving away from thinking so linearly about the edges. Instead, I wanted to construct the body mass by mass, not line by line. It’s like working from the inside out, rather than the outside in. Or, you can think of it in terms of sculpting. I have one of those refillable Japanese brushes (can’t remember the brand), that I filled with some watery ink. I just worked light to dark, building up the shape volumes in layers. At the very end, I used a black brush pen to define some of the poster edge and a few particularly dark folds in the skin. Next week I may bring some white gouache to go back into the highlights a bit. 5-20 minutes on these.
More Architecture Tests…
Another test in the sketchbook today. Trying to nail down the level of “freehanded-ness” I want in the finished inks. I like where this is going, but I think some of the edges are still too soft and the proportions could use more exaggeration.
