Screaming My Lungs Out (With Nothing to Say)

You’ve all been really good sports about reading my lame sketchbook updates… So here’s a little bit of what I’ve been working on lately:

Page 1 colors for that Imaginary Friends comic I’ve been working on FOREVER (or at least it seems like it’s been that long). The plan is to try to get it all done (or at least my part of the submission packet) by the time I go back to school. Shouldn’t be too hard…

I’ll fully admit I’m not the world’s strongest colorist. My buddy Shaun was gonna help me out, but real, paying work kinda got in the way, so he, unfortunately had to bow out. It’s alright for a few reasons: 1) I get a chance to work on my coloring skills and 2) he’s “consulting” on my colors… so he’s gonna help guide me in the right directions.

Things I like: the areas where I used colors instead of black in the lines. Cool effect… But probably more work than it’s really worth.

Things I don’t like: Well… I guess I’m really nervous about coloring in general. I’m scared that my color choices are wrong, or I’m shadowing incorrectly, or whatever. Because my coloring confidence is so low, staring at a black and white page can be a little nerve-wracking. But I think it looks okay so far…

So, like I said before, school’s out – kinda cool and kinda lame. Cool because I can focus a little bit on personal projects. Lame because I feel totally useless without real deadlines, and not having school is a constant reminder of my unemployment. Plus, this is, pretty much, the last image I have to post in the blog… Crud. I’m not sure what I’ll post for Wednesday, but hopefully something good…

I’ve been noticing lately that I’m developing a very strange style. It’s very angular, and I’m not sure if I like it. Well, I guess I kinda like it, otherwise I wouldn’t have started drawing like that. What I mean is that this is not the way I imagined I would end up drawing. Or maybe this is still just a transitional period and I haven’t reached my ultimate “style”? I dunno, do you guys like it? At least does it seem like a step in the right direction? Self-discovery is a strange process…

Time to update again?! Alreday?! Jeez. It’s like I post on this thing every other day…

Little quicky painting I did on the last day of Head Drawing. Not the best in the world, but I think it’s pretty good considering how much time I spent on it. I think the 3 dimensionality is in the lights, and maybe a little bit in the darks as well. The proportions might be a little off, and I would’ve liked to work some of the tones a little bit more, but still… Pretty good sketch.

School’s finally out and I have NOTHING to do. Well, not nothing, I guess, I’ve got some coloring on that Imaginary Friends thing to do, and I’m making miniscule amounts of money doing some flatting work. So, basically what I’m saying, if you know someone who’s looking for an illustrator… or just someone to clean toilets part time… I’m available.

Weird day. I should’ve gotten this post up earlier, but I was a little distracted by baking cookies (and television). I would’ve baked the cookies earlier, but my nap, which was meant to be twenty minutes, accidentally turned into two hours. My own fault, for the long nap. For whatever reason, I’ve been going to bed really late, even on nights when I have to get up early the next day, or I’ve been up early that morning. And it’s not like I’m really doing anything important… I’m mostly doodling in my sketchbook or watching television I don’t even wanna watch (or both). Or, I’m updating the blog… Man, life is nice when your biggest problem is that you overslept on your nap. But, I gotta find a job so that’ll all change soon.

Not really much to say here. Done from a model in head drawing class. Everyone in class, the teacher included, said this piece was very nice, but I’m not sure that I see it. I mean, it’s nice and all, it’s got the strong light source and it’s rendered so it looks a little 3D, but I didn’t think it deserved the amount of compliments I was getting. Perhaps people are seeing things that I’m missing? I think my dissatisfaction comes from my own mixed expectations and unclear goals. I want my art to be photo real, but to also have style and artistic flares, and to be dynamic but subtle, powerful but elegant, painterly but detailed. And I also see other people’s work, and I want elements that they have in my own work, but then I like the way I do things, and ARGH! Honestly, half the time, I have no clue what I’m doing.

Who is this superhero? Sarge?

NO!

Rosemary, the telephone operator?

NO!

Chris, the mild mannered janior?!

Could be!

Self portrait for head drawing class. I get the feeling this is one of those pieces that I think looks good now, but once I take it into class and have it ripped apart by my peers, I’m not going to like it anymore. We’ll see. Here’s the original photo:

Man, this painting STINKS! And I’m not just talking about my painting ability, literally, this painting smells awful. Whoever said that turpenoid is an “odorless” thinner was lying; it still smells funny.

Now, it’s pretty obvious that my painting needs work, but I feel like this is a baby step in the right direction. Because my initial painting experience was in watercolor, I tend to use really thin paints, which you don’t want to do in oils. Here I’m starting to use much thicker application of the paint – specifically in the light areas. I also tend to make the skin tone too dark – I had to rework that initial tone two or three times before it was light enough to really work with. Little lessons that need to be learned somewhere along the way, I guess.

Why hello almost 2 AM. Long time no see (eyeroll). Here’s what I drawed today:

I’m not sure how I feel about it. We had a really long pose on this one (they’re usually six twenty minute poses, this one was upwards of twelve), so it’s a little bit more complete than my other Nupastel ones. I was trying to approach this one like a painting: starting with the shadows, then the two value statements, then building up the lights, finally fleshing out the shadow shapes. I’m not sure if it really worked the way I wanted it to – maybe if I knew more about painting. Fun experiment though.