Screaming My Lungs Out (With Nothing to Say)

MORE NUPASTELS! YAY!

This was the second Nupastel drawing I did last Tuesday. I really like the rendering on this one, especially on the face. I feel like this is a more accurate description of what the face actually looked like as opposed to some of my other Nupastel drawings. The legs are unfinished, mostly due to time limits. I also wish I could’ve figured a way to pop out her head a little bit from her clothing on the viewer’s left side. I also wish the color didn’t wash out so much when I photographed this. Will someone please teach me how to use my digital camera?

Damn you television… Why are you so entertaining? I should’ve been working on homework, but there was SO MUCH good television on tonight that I couldn’t pry myself away. First I started with two episodes of “House”. Then “Star Trek: The Next Generation” came on, and it was part one of the episodes where they find Data’s head in a cave and go back to the early 1900s (I might have to catch episode two tomorrow). Then the Daily Show and Colbert Report. Then 1/2 of a Nick Swardson stand up. Damn you television! I’ll have to work extra hard tomorrow.

Anyways, here’s some more Nupastel stuff I’ve been doing:

To paraphrase Mr. Montgomery Burns, “I know what I hate, and I don’t hate this.” I know it’s unfinished and a little  more stylized than my usual stuff, but I feel like I’m starting to understand the medium. This was actually the first of three Nupastel drawings I did that day, and I feel like they got progressively better.

I guess my working with the medium is paying off a bit. Well, that and some solid advice my teacher told me. “Chris,” he said, “the goal is to make pleasing shapes. Then it doesn’t matter what colors you use, you’ll end up with something good.” Brilliant. Changed my entire approach to the medium. Now if I could figure out how to take photos of the damn things so the colors don’t wash out I’d be rockin’.

Anyway, have a good weekend all! Don’t watch too much TV.

So, I don’t know if you noticed (probably not), but there was no update for yesterday. Yes, I’m fine, but I think updating three times a week will be status quo for a little while. So, update days are Monday, Wednesday and Friday until further notice. I just need a little bit of breathing room. Plus you guys will get the cream of the crop of my art… well, in theory at least.

I had Head Drawing on Monday, and I actually liked what I ended up drawing:

I really am pushing for a more “photo real” effect. I’m still falling quite a bit short, but I think it’s moving along at least. In general I wouldn’t lay in a black line to define the nose, but it was actually there so I drew it. Unfortunately, without the model there posing for the drawing, it makes the drawing a little more cartoony than I’d like. I’d also like to clean up a little of my graininess with the charcoal. I guess I have to play with my stump a little more… My blending stump. Get your mind out of the gutter. Ian says one eye looks a little stretched, but I’m not sure… ::shrugs:: Anyways.

Man, I’ve been so busy the last few days my blog has really become my last priority – or at least I don’t really have much to put up here these days. I’ve been working on stuff, but it’s either been really big, involved drawings that I can really only milk into one or two posts (such as the Rockwell drawing), little things that I can’t really share with you for various reasons, or just things I haven’t been satisfied with. So, I’m really at a loss tonight. I guess we’ll just go with one or two more of those less interesting character designs…

I thought about giving this kid underarm sweat stains, but I thought that’d be going a little too far.

The shirt was inspired by my father’s affinity for these Eddie Bauer collared shirts. Although dad doesn’t wear slacks very often.

The general design of this character might be a little cliche. Although I really like her socks; inspired by something I think my sister would probably wear.

I’m gonna try to do some more experimenting with those Nupastels tomorrow. Hopefully something I can share comes out of it (no promises though).

So this semester I’m taking a new class, “Sustained Figurative Concepts” (I know, right?). Anyhow, the teacher wants us to use something called “Nupastels”. Really they’re just pastels. Really artsy-fartsy, high quality, expensive pastels, but pastels.. They come in a little rectangle stick thing, about 1/4″ wide and 3-4″ long (similar to compressed charcoal). You use them by breaking them into a smaller rectangle thing, and use the edges for lines or the flat part for filling areas and thick lines… Or at least that’s the theory. In execution, not so easy. I’m having difficulties. I have NO IDEA what I’m doing with these damn things.

So, my excuses… I haven’t used pastels since college (probably Junior year), and I haven’t EVER used Nupastels. My teacher seems to think that medium doesn’t matter… If you have a good idea of how to draw then you should be able to draw with anything. Somewhat true. I sort of think that mediums are kind of like musical instruments. If you know one, you might be able to pick up another and sort of fake it… Like, say guitar to bass or ukulele. But each medium has it’s own intricacies, problems, and uses. Some are so far removed from each other you’d barely consider them the same thing. Kinda how playing a flute and playing a piano are drastically different, painting in water color is worlds away from drawing in charcoal.

The biggest problem I think I’m having with Nupastels is that they’re really a color medium. I’m not sure if you noticed, but most the stuff on my site is in black in white or scales of grey… That’s just what I’m comfortable with, and I’m not even really that comfortable with that! You throw color into the equation and it becomes too much for my brain to process. I’ve done it in the past, but it takes a long time, it’s difficult, and it’s a lot of effort.

But! Being the ever vigilant student I am, rather than curling up in the corner and crying, I’m attacking this problem head on. I simply refuse to be defeated by these stupid things… and I already curled up in the corner and cried for awhile. Here’s two of the drawings I did today in this new, stupid, stupid medium…

Not me at my best (but then again, what is?). But, I’m going to be positive! Both of these drawings, although not very good, have their redeeming values. In the girl’s leg, you can see me starting to come to terms with turning form and making things rest. I actually really like her leg and close side arm. Same with the guy’s chest and arms. Real successful shading and form. I kinda wish that line on his arm wasn’t so strong and that I could’ve figured out how to make his tummy and face work. But, again, baby steps, baby steps.

2 AM and I’m posting this… Have to be up in about 4 hours, so forgive the lack of text. Here’s the Rockwell final. I don’t know if it’s good or if I’m going to get a good grade on it, but this is as close as I could get it.

About the title of this post, I worked on this so long today that I started seeing double. I really hope my teacher likes it. Anyway… it’s bed time.

What the hell is wrong with me? Why can’t I ever do things at the bare minimum; why do I always feel the need to “one up” everyone? My ego’s really caused me to bite myself in the ass this time though…

So… Class assignment I’m working on, I was supposed to choose a picture from an “old” master and copy it. The picture had to be of a person’s face and there were some lighting and position restrictions. Not really an easy assignment, but not impossible, right? So what does my brain think? “Hey! Seeing as I have no real job right now and I have tons of extra time… why not do something harder and try to really impress my teacher and blow all the other students out of the water?!” So, while everyone else is using pictures with one face and minimal background, here’s my genius choice of a picture:

Norman Rockwell’s “Grandpa and the Children”. Three faces and a bit more than minimal background. Great image to stake my claim as an artist to be reckoned with, plus I’ll learn a bunch by attempting something harder. So I do a little bit of cropping to make the image fit on my paper then do the initial block-in…

So far so good. The point is to get the basic placement, angles, and size proportions of the characters. This may look pretty straight forward, but even this step takes a couple of hours to complete (guessing about 3-5). Now that this is about as close as I can get it, I start to plot in the outlines of the shadows:

When you lay in the shadows, it’s funny because you start noticing things in your basic block in that are off or need changing. So, you have to go back in and refine, refine, refine. Again, I’m staying pretty angular and pretty basic, mostly plotting in the big shapes and ignoring small changes for now. Still, it takes a few more hours (2-3). Once this step is done, I fill in those shadows areas with a solid tone, and start refining those edges, making them less angular and more organic. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of this step… so let me show you where I’m at now…

We were required to spend about 10 hours on the thing… I’ve probably passed that by a couple hours at this point with no end in sight (except for the eventual Monday due date). I’ve filled in those shadow shapes, cleaned up some of the edges, and I started darkening up areas that are eventually going to be my darkest black. All the while I’m still double checking proportions and fixing problems. This is where the process starts to scare me. All the while I’m doing this, I’m not sure if my proportions and shapes are right… I mean, they look right, but if I’m wrong, there are some areas that are going to by very, very hard to edit at this point. I feel a bit like a novice trapeze artist performing without a net.

I’m gonna be honest here… I have NO CLUE if this is going to work… and that uncertainty is just exasperating my already high level of insecurity. God, I hope I can pull this one off… I could really use a win right about now.