Illustration Friday: Poise

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 Dr. Sketchy Atlanta #2
(click images to enlarge them)

Perhaps an unusual choice for this week’s Illustration Friday topic, anyone who can model so unselfconsciously for life drawing strikes me as the epitome of poise. This model in particular managed to look positively serene while wearing french powdered wig in a very crowded and noisy bar while people were staring at her and scribbling frantically.

While I was attending the SWSX conference in March, I had the great fortune to attend an event which included a session of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School.  There’s more info at the link, but in brief it’s like a life drawing class except instead of in a formal art studio it’s at a bar or club, and instead of a nude model you have a cabaret or burlesque performer in costume.

Dr. Sketchy Atlanta #1

In this particular case, the life drawing was going on in the back of the club, while an actual burlesque show was going on at the main stage. Because it was part of the conference it was packed, but I managed to snag a stool and pad of paper in the drawing area. The performers were lining up to model when they were between sets, they were so excited to participate. It was very cool!

We only did five-minute poses. It has been sooooo long since I did life drawing like this, much less while balancing a pad of paper on my knee sitting on a barstool, but it was great fun.

Dr. Sketchy Atlanta #3

Unfortunately, just as I really felt I was getting warmed up, the rest of my cohorts were ready to move on. But I got several very nice sketches done, and they even managed to survive the night intact.

There are Dr. Sketchy’s clubs scattered all over the country… if this sounds like fun to you, google to see if there’s one near you!

Back in the Saddle

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Some months get more hectic than others. March qualified as one of those.

It’s been a particularly hectic time at my day job — not assisted by my having to move offices for the first time in many years. Being busy is good, but these days it feels like we’re always playing catch-up.

In the good kind of hectic, however, they sent me to SXSW Interactive, a week-long conference on all the latest and greatest internet trends and technologies. It was an amazing experience, which I’m still processing in my head. I met a lot of great, amazing people, and if any of you are reading this and wondering why I haven’t gotten back to you yet, read on.

Immediately upon returning home I had one good day at work before coming down with my all-too-typical Post-Travel Creeping Death Plague. This time it took the form of a horrendous headcold which knocked me completely out for three days, not counting the two days of feeling ucky beforehand and now over a week of deneumont. Fortunately, I’m now just down to a nagging cough, a tendency to tire easily, and lingering congestion which could just as easily be caused by the weather. Which I’m trying to shake off as quickly as possible because I’m still very charged up from my trip and want to act on it, but I’m also playing catch-up from being out of the office for over two weeks. (Not to mention packing/purging ten years worth of stuff to fit into an office which, although it has a window with a nice view, is significantly smaller than my current space behind the boiler room.)

All of which is my long-winded way of saying: watch this space. Tho the pace may be slower than I’d like, good things will be happening here soon.

Illustration Friday: Intricate

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Year of the Snake — Preview
(click to enlarge)

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Even though this week’s Illustration Friday topic gave me several intriguing ideas, I don’t have time right now to make any of them! (sketches will be filed away for later tho…) Instead, I’m uploading a preview of a particularly intricate image I’ve been working on. I just finished the ink drawing this week, and I thought those scales were going to kill me. Scale patterns are so complex and regular, I had to deliberately simplify or I’d be working on it for weeks despite modeling it after a species with simple coloration. I’ll be adding some more details and color shortly.

I just spent the evening scanning in this and three others in the series… almost halfway done! For anyone who doesn’t recognize it, this is the Snake from the Chinese Zodiac, and will be part of a series of 12. Of course, I’ve changed direction slightly and will have to edit my Ox image to match, but that’s what happens when a control freak like me has no outside deadlines.

Illustration Friday: Breezy

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Caught in a Breeze
click to enlarge

Getting back into the swing of things, I was feeling inspired by this week’s Illustration Friday topic. Of course, it’s not exactly seasonal — around here we just had what everyone is hoping was the last big snowfall of the winter before spring starts seriously springing — but the word “breezy” always brings to mind those crisp autumn days when the wind just picks up the leaves and swirl them around. Wouldn’t it be fun to hitch a ride?

She’s a little rough and quick, but I couldn’t resist dressing this inked sketch up with a bit of quick color.  I have a hankering to draw more fairies, but costume design has always been a bit of a challenge for me. Hmmm… maybe that’s why I want to do more of it.

Visit from the drawing board

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I’ve been a negligent netizen again, barely keeping up with any of my online activities.  I think I’m going to have to start doing Illustration Friday again, just to keep me updating, in addition to getting back in the groove in other online arenas.

So what have I been doing? Well, it’s been a bit of a hectic time out in the real world, which has sapped a lot of my attention. But I’ve also been drawing! I’ve been making some real headway on a personal project. Want a sneak preview?

From the drawing table
(click to enlarge)

Yup, that’s the Ox from my last installment up in the corner, next to another nearly-finished drawing. The bottom row has concept sketches, another nearly-finished image, and one that’s been traced onto the bristol and ready to ink. Some of you will probably recognize the Chinese Zodiac taking shape here. As with most of my personal projects, I have to fight the urge to over-think things. As it is, you can see that I started this series before I got my A3 scanner, at which point I realized I could switch to a larger size paper — which I’m loving! I’m still debating a bit what to do with the backgrounds: make a full scene like I did with the Ox, or keep it abstract… full color or more monochrome. One of the beauties of working digitally is being able to play with options, so I’ll probably end up with  more than one version of each.

I’m actually further along than this picture indicates — the Tiger is inked now and looks fantastic, if I do say so myself. The scales on the Snake, however, are killing me! More updates when I start scanning these babies. When this series is done I’ll be making several nice products available to buy, so if you’re interested… stay tuned!

I’ve also slowly been adding new pieces to my RedBubble profile… mostly the more elaborate work from my portfolio. If you ever wanted a print or a notecard of one of my pieces, go check it out; all of the products I’ve ordered from them have been gorgeous and high-quality:
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I’m still taking suggestions, so if there were any images from this blog that you absolutely had to have a nice printed copy of, let me know and I’ll make it available.

Another update soon, I promise!

Happy New Year – Year of the Ox

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Year of the Ox

I celebration of the Chinese New Year, I have this little offering. It’s just the first finished from a series – I have one other inked and two more in pencil stage.  When I’m done I’ll have the entire Chinese zodiac.
Thanks to a bout of stomach flu last week this is a bit late… but just squeaked by in time for the holiday. I’m still not entirely happy with the background coloring and the typography, so I’ll probably do some more tweaking before making it available for sale.

You Can’t Make Me!

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 You Can’t Make Me!

… and don’t go trying to change her mind! (Even if it is way past her bedtime…)

I am resolved to simplify things, if it allows me to meet my other resolution to post something new weekly. In this case, this week’s oh-so-appropriate Illustration Friday topic — the word is “resolve” — a fairly quick one in between working on a slightly more ambitious project.

This is also the first piece of new artwork to be scanned in with my most practical Christmas present: an A3 Mustek scanner. Now I can draw on my 11×17 paper without having to scan it in pieces and piece it together in Photoshop! Not that it was an issue with this one because it was so small, but as I said, I have more ambitious projects underway….

Year-end wrap-up

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Looking back on this year, it’s been a very busy one. Unlike some people out there, most of the chaos has been good. Crazy-making sometimes, but usually for good reasons. I have lots to be grateful for and despite the current state of things in the world I have a good deal of optimism for 2009.

As far as this blog goes, the thing I’m happiest about is that for the most part I’ve been able to keep a steady schedule, in part thanks to Illustration Friday. At the beginning of this year I committed to posting something every week based on the IF topic. I didn’t quite make that, but given my horrid track record for diary-keeping I’m amazed I did as well as I did.

Out of 52 weeks in the year:

  • I posted IF illustrations for 43 of them (only missed 9, although technically a couple didn’t make it to the blog in time to post on IF)
  • 39 of those were new, original drawings, three of which never got further than a rough sketch.
  • 14 were existing work I’d done for another purpose but were appropriate for that week’s topic (and one of those was significantly edited for IF)

I’m pretty happy with that. The hardest part was getting back into the habit when I missed a whole month over the summer due to my insane schedule.

I don’t know if I can make the same vow this year, since I may have more illustration projects coming in. However, I do promise to post something to this blog every week, and participate in IF when I can. I’m also going to start merchandising my existing art more, making better use of my redbubble account and my CafePress store, and making more art that is directly in line with that. Toward that end I’d like to redo my website (including this blog!) but that’s a secondary priority to making more art.

Is anyone else making an “art resolution” this year?

Illustration Friday: Clandestine

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Leda and the Swan

Another from the archives for this week’s Illustration Friday topic. Click the image to enlarge it! This image illustrates the ancient myth of Leda and Zeus. Zeus, also known as Jupiter, was king of the gods but had a weakness for mortal women. His wife, Hera, was the jealous sort so he had to be sneaky about it. He took the form of a swan and seduced a noblewoman named Leda (this sort of thing happened a lot in the old Greek myths for some reason) and she ended up birthing two eggs which resulted in four children who all went on to become legendary figures as well:  Helen and Clytemnestra, who were key figures in the Trojan War, and Castor and Pollux, the Gemini twins. I’m not sure how Leda ever explained all this to her husband…

This picture is available for sale at my redbubble site, in a variety of sizes and formats.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and a fabulous start to the new year!