Trying to practice painting a sense of scale. It's something i've been missing. I feel like if I post embarrassing attempts like this, it will force me to develop faster.
While flipping through my old art folder, I realized that for every drawing I put up there are about 20 that never quite make it. Sometimes they were just stupid ideas I wanted to remember, other times something stopped me half-way and I never picked them up again. Here are some of the poor little guys that never went anywhere.
When I was younger there were places in my dreams I would return to again and again. These days I remember them in small flashes, so i've been trying to record them somehow.
The music that goes with it (I fixed the link, and YES, I know this comes from the Twilight soundtrack, but that's not the music's fault): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pbGdE43ns8
I've made a 17 page comic for the upcoming Anthology Project. There are some incredible artists involved, so it's awesome to be a part of it.
Here are the first 3 pages.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Some photos from my recent trip to Jasper. This is the stuff that inspires me the most.
Some life drawings with a brush pen. I've been using my standard pencil for too long, needed to mix it up. I'm not used to ink, let alone a brush, so this was a valuable exercise for me.
The lead characters from the incredible adventure story by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Knowing there's a John Carter pixar movie coming out makes me more excited than i can stand.
This was a quick warmup image. After a 2 week break, getting the artistic engines re-started can be rough. Was listening to the Transformers soundtrack by Steve Jablonsky.
Art is great for sorting out all the complicated clutter in your head. It makes sense that all the classic artists filled their paintings with deep personal meaning. They had just as much to work through back then.
But, since i'm never going to tell anyone why I painted this:
Here's a painting of a knight ridding off on some quest.
Had a dream about a battle last night. I was an archer, and the hordes we were fighting got more and more challenging (yeah, just like a videogame). Wanted to paint this character up before I forgot about it. Most of them were just people with varying degrees of stone armor, but these ones were special. Stone skin except for their belly's, which was more like elephant/rhino skin.
With every new image I create, either for myself, or for work, it's become more clear that I really like the moments before or after the action. Action scenes are great and all, but there's something i can personally enjoy much more in a moment that's about to explode, or in putting the pieces together from something that already has exploded. This is a very simple form of the latter.
Our hero tries in vain to capture the romantic attention of the lovely leading lady. However, she's a girl of action, and with danger afoot he'll be able to woo her with more than mere words.
Thinking of the moment our hero notices the girl for the first time. I really bounced around with technique on this one. I need to find a new way of working, so I think i'll experiment for a while.
I would never have guessed that the nintendo DS could become so dear to my heart. It's great to be able to sketch color, rather than line. Definitely been good practice. Here are some of those color studies.
Bow falls in Banff
Looking at some of Bosch's paintings of hell, he made some awesome color choices, and I think they hold up to modernity really well. These were from a walk in the park. I really wasn't able to get much more than just color dabs here, and discovered it's tough to paint outside (from reflections in the screen). I found it easiest to find a shady tree to hide under. I came back to this one at home and added the red....thing...because I want to be cool.
On a drive with my sister, I sat in the passenger seat drawing things as they passed. Drawing the ocean to relax. A little guy fighting the 90's A creature that eats trees and poops bricks. They slowly turn forests into bricked wastelands. Believe it. Just a big cube tank in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
This one is a little older, but she's never seen the light of day so I thought i'd give her a shot. I wanted to try coloring the lines a bit, see how that works.