Monthly Archives: February 2008

Illustration Friday: Multiple

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Sketches: Rat

Time was a bit short this week for this week’s Illustration Friday topic, tho I found it quite intriguing. I’m in the midst of a project, which will be a series, which could fit, but it’s still in progress. So that’s what I’m posting today: work in progress! As always, click to enlarge.
Like many artists, every piece I make starts out something like this. Once I have my basic idea I doodle and sketch until I’ve worked out all the proportions, poses, and details to my satisfaction. Because I work in ink I have to get as much figured out in the pencil sketch and underdrawing as possible, while I can still erase easily. Sometimes there are layers of tracing paper and/or photocopies of previous sketches taped down as I refine the layout. Sometimes these sketch pages are more satisfying than the finished piece! Usually there’s one that really stands out on the page, but sometimes it’s harder to choose.

I was looking for some of my older work that would qualify, but couldn’t find anything already digitized. Which has me a bit worried, since one project was done digitally. when I have a chance this weekend I’m going to have to go through my miscellaneous backup CDs to look for it. I’m forcing myself to be better about backups, but I don’t have the same hardware for my home system as I do at work, which automates the process so I don’t have to think about. In fact, I have redundant multiple backups at work, which has saved my butt more than once. But at home my backups tend to be in batches of CDs which can get a bit messy as each one is in whatever filing system that seemed like a good idea at the time so the same file might be on more than one disk but in a different folder.  And after two house moves and three computers every now and then I uncover another stash of disks, but I think I’ve gotten them all now. What I’m overdue for is a big session of going through all the disks with the multiple versions of my files and the final versions of everything to make multiple copies of my master archive. And getting a decent firewire drive. Can’t have too many backups!

Illustration Friday: Theory

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And now, for something completely different…

Ptolemy vs Copernicus

This sort of illustration is representative of what I do at my graphic design job. Here it is in its original context; it’s a very simplified explanation of the concepts because it’s for schoolkids. I much prefer drawing small furry animals, but there’s not too much call for that at this job!

This week’s Illustration Friday topic hits a bit close to home. I work with scientists all day, and some of them get very picky about how people use words like “theory”. To a scientist, a theory is a proven explanation for why a particular thing behaves the way it does, and has been thoroughly tested, with observable results, by many different people. A theory, in this more formal use, is something which has been proven scientifically to be true until some new observation reveals it to be false. I know a few astrophysicists who are driven nuts by the phrase “string theory” because it’s really just a hypothesis.

The theory that the earth was the center of the universe was around for a long time, and Ptolemy thought he had figured out all of the details as perfectly as possible. In this case, the “proof” was mathematically predicting where the planets would be in the sky as observed from Earth at any given moment in time. The problem was that while his model was very close, it wasn’t quite perfect. There was some variable that wasn’t being accounted for.

Copernicus’ theory was a lot closer to being accurate, but he was  also wrong about many of the details. It took much more precise measurements of the planets’ movements (made possible by Galileo’s use of the telescope) to find evidence that scientifically proved that Copernicus was on the right track and Ptolemy was wrong.

Over the centuries, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have worked to refine that theory, using new calculations and observations to make changes and expand upon it. Copernicus’ theory looks foolishly simplistic, compared to what we know now. Even today scientists are discovering new things like dark matter and dark energy that make them adjust their theories about the universe again. But all the time they are making their theories more and more accurate and precise. And everytime something doesn’t quite add up, they know that means there’s more to discover than they can see… yet.

Illustration Friday: Choose

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Choose!

Right now I’m making lots of choices, and some of them can be a bit scary. Sometimes it’s almost easier to pick between two unknowns, leave things up to a random fate, than to make a reasoned decision that ultimately has to match up with what your gut is telling you…

This week’s Illustration Friday topic had me a little stumped, so I decided to embrace my current life-drawing kick. Ye olde traditional hands study! The pencil sketch for this was done using my own hands in the mirror. (And it sure is fun drawing your own drawing hand that way , let me tell ya!). I have a cheap-0 “full length” mirror in a wooden frame that I keep loose in my studio for times like these; I can position it however I want to get the angle and light I want. This finished drawing is with my brush-pen, which is starting to get interestingly scratchy, with a little work with the Micron. Not quite happy with the sleeves yet, I wanted to tone it more, both with the inks and with photoshop, and it probably needs to be re-cropped, but this week I’m playing catch-up from being sick last week – with a lot of extra, atypical busy-ness thrown in – so I’m not sure I’ll have time tomorrow to revisit. This one is solidly in the “scribbles” category!

Illustration Friday: Blanket

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Blanket Time

I could probably relate a little too well to this week’s Illustration Friday topic. I stayed home from work for a couple of days with a minor but unpleasant stomachache. One of those things where you’re fine sitting still but everything lurches when you move around. Bleah. I spent most of the past two days curled up with a sofa – spent more time with my DS than with a good book I’m afraid, the effort of picking a new book to read off of the bookshelf (and I do have plenty sitting around waiting for me) seemed a bit overwhelming at the time. (Click the image to enlarge.)

Since I was feeling fuzzy anyway, I picked up the good ol’ Ebony pencils for this drawing instead of the inks… love those things, especially on a nice toothy drawing paper! It could use a little more work but I’m still not at 100% right now.

Life Drawing 101

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So, I’ve been feeling a bit “back to basics” the past few weeks. Last week I sat down to do some character sketches with no particularly clear ideas in mind and just drew a total blank. I wasn’t liking the way anything turned out, and was starting to develop “blank page syndrome” — staring at the empty page until it felt like it had sucked my brain out.

This is one of my weaknesses: I have to have a project. If there’s not a specific goal in mind, it’s like pulling teeth to make things happen. It can be an entirely personal goal, but it has to be something concrete.

So why weren’t the character sketches working? No goal. As I thought about it, though, the goal in doing character sketches was actually to practice drawing people. I’ve been doing animals and such for so long now that I’m feeling a bit rusty on the actual human figure.

Ah, now there’s a goal! So I pulled out one of the dusty, flea-market book finds off of my shelf: Vital Karate. Even then I started delving too deep, paging through the whole book to find a pose I liked, laboring over a single sketch. But I shook it off, and went back to the basics. I spent what time I had left that evening doing speed sketches chosen from random pages until it was time for bed:

Sketchbook: Karate
(Click to enlarge)

Of course, as with most photographic reference it was a challenge working around some of the distortions the camera introduces to the true proportions of the figure. Drawing from life is always much more accurate.

As it happens, this past weekend I was meeting a friend at an event at the convention center. In a nearly-miraculous turn of events, I arrived early. A lot early, in fact. But, as it turned out, downstairs from the event we were going to was a huge cheerleader competition, and the various groups were mustering in the lobby below, in full view of the balcony where I was standing. What a great opportunity for another elementary drill: gesture drawings from life.

Sketchbook: Cheerleader practice

I’m horribly self-concious about sketching other people in public, so this was perfect for me. I was able to scribble away in total anonymity on the backs of fliers with a ballpoint pen; unfortunately, I’d switched purses for the day and was without the usual abundance of pens and pencils and little notepads I’m usually lugging around. Squinting through the distance for half an hour really drove home how overdue I am for a new pair of glasses, but also forced me to forego details for broad strokes. As an extra challenge, the girls hardly stood still at all. It was very good practice for someone who’s gotten used to using photographic reference for almost everything.

Has it really been ten years…?

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I have a full-time graphic design job which I love. The work is meaningful and creatively rewarding, my co-workers are great, and the company is good to us. Maybe that’s why I barely noticed the time passing. But it still came as shock to realize that I just passed my ten-year anniversary with the company.

My actual anniversary date was months ago. Technically, my anniversary as a salaried employee was in November, but I’d started working as a contractor for them way back in June 1997. So, why is it only hitting me now?

Last week, the head of my department handed me my anniversary gift. The company is generous in many ways, but cash awards are not one of them. So on service anniversaries we get a small catalog of gifts to pick from and we tell them which one we want. I picked mine out back in December, the lovely little necklace pictured below.

10-year service award

Necklace detail

(My husband voted for the portable smoker, but I knew it would have just joined the waffle iron and the sandwich maker and deep fryer sitting unused in the cabinet. They’d seemed like a good idea at the time too. So I picked something sparkly that was just for me.)

Even going through the catalog didn’t phase me particularly. But when our department head walked in on us during a meeting with the familiar gift bag (with a terribly impersonal memo from HR still stapled to it) it really struck me: wow. I’ve really been working here for more than ten years. That’s officially longer than I’ve done anything else, and I was in the same elementary school building until 8th grade. In a few years I will have been living in my adopted hometown longer than I was in the town I grew up in, depending on whether you count the college years. It doesn’t help that my manager, who was there when I received my gift and was hired about the same time I was is completely in shock that he’s been in one place for ten years too.

It really didn’t help matters that people kept thinking it was my fifteenth anniversary instead of my tenth, either.

I guess that’s just getting older. I still think of myself as “just out of college” but that’s getting further and further away. It’s just driven home by the newest addition to our dept who was, like me, hired almost right out of college. Only much more recently.

I know I’m not “old” but I never exactly was one of the hip, with-it kids to begin with. If anything, I like to think that my cool-factor has increased somewhat with the greater confidence I have now. I was the stereotypical scrubby nerd throughout my youth. Now I’m taking better care of myself both physically and emotionally. I actually have a pretty clear idea of what I want my future to be like… and I know what I need to do to make that happen.

It could be easy to take this milestone as representing the relentless passing of time and inevitability of aging, or even a certain amount of career stagnation. I’m trying to take this milestone of how far I’ve come: my skills have progressed substantially over the years, I have the respect of my co-workers, and I survived the layoffs a few years ago. I have a job that I truly enjoy, and at the same time I’m confident enough in my abilities to get more aggressive about pursuing the other things I really enjoy which it doesn’t provide, including my illustration work.

Oh, and I’ve gotten married, earned my MFA, and bought a house, while I’m counting milestones. Not a bad start, really.

And that young co-worker? She’s coming up on her fifth anniversary soon…