Finally, something new - Tiger, unfinished pencils

So, I have not finished this yet but it does represent something that I have worked on in the last few months (not going thru the archives of older paintings and drawings). I actually had wanted to add water color and water color pencils to a light pencil sketch. But, ah, I drew this on the cover sheet of the water color pad and not the 40 lbs paper. The cover sheet will not accept water, therefore it has become a more complete sketch.

It is hard to see the rest of the torso, but I have laid it out, along with the stripes. I was actually beginning to worry that I was losing my ability to sketch and draw. But I am pleased with this thus far.

Hope you enjoy.

As My Dreams Died-redux

The partner to "Ever Wistful" was "As My Dreams Died". A bit melodramatic, but hey, I liked the way this looks with the original poetry finally added.

This time I used Keynote instead of Photoshop. For what ever reason I could not get the font to fit in Photoshop properly. Keynote is a pretty neat program and I am enjoying learning how to use it.

Ever Wistful

I did this picture (color pencil, ink and pastel 9X12") back in college for a friend. At the time (summer of '94), I did not have access to a scanner and any kind of photoshop-like program to integrate the poem that went along with it. They had to settle for a painting and print out of the poem. As I was cleaning today, I happened a color copy of the original drawing and decided to add the poetry.

This is close to my original intent (not sure if this is the best font, but it will do for now) of the painting and words. I did two paintings with poems back then. I will work on the other this week.

And I have been working on a new pencil sketch. Hope to have it up in about a week.

Before there was Clip Art. . .

Doing presentations in graduate school in the early nineties (aka the dark ages) meant black and white over heads, not powerpoint (or keynote for you mac users) presentations, with photos and color graphs and builds and animations and imbedded video files. It was primative. Toward the end of my schooling, powerpoint became more common. Hell, I can remember glass slides (although I have sleeves of ppt slides that I will never ever use again but can not bear to throw out).

The point? Since I there was no such thing as clip art and I could draw, my friends were always asking me to draw little pictures that they could include on their overheads. Recently I found a book of such drawings.

The "take home" message was a favorite expression of a professor of mine (who loved to verbally spar with me, in a collegial way) and the caricature bears more than a passing resemblance to him. Score one for me (and my sartorial splendor!!).

And the reason the guy doing push ups has a ball and chain on his leg is because my buddy was giving a lecture on proper exercise at a correctional institution. He said they loved it.

Gahlmaar the Fallen

Probably the most vile villian of the D&D campaign I ran with my college room mate was the fallen ranger, Gahlmaar (version 1 is what the raw pencils look like; version two is the b&w version). He is the ultimate sore loser as he betrayed his friends, his god and everything he believed in simple because he felt disrespected and under utilized. In a pique of anger, he slew the unicorn god, Elasmothera, and violated the sacred grove (now the forsaken Heart of Stone). He took Its horn as his weapon and symbol and wears its skin as his armor. He rules his huntsman with an iron fist. Basically, he is one nasty, indignant SOB.

Re-Learning to Paint in Pastels

Ocean in Purple (pastels on paper 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 in)

Simple Spring (pastels on paper 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 in)

Back in the mid-nineties when I was trying to, essentially, "re-learn" how to paint in pastels I started by making small paintings (5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches). What do I mean by re-learn? When I was in grade school, I just painted and drew and had fun. I took some lessons and improved. The work was quite good (wish I had some proof of these comments but all those originals are lost). My high school had a commercial art program and I thought I would become a professional artist. Well, that did not happen. I dropped out of the program, graduated high school, went to college and earned a non-art bachelors degree and pretty much did not paint or draw for about 5 years. My art skills atrophied incredibly.

But I missed drawing and painting. So, I began small. Above are some of the first pieces that I tried. Not very good but, as the legend says, they were not The beginning, but they were A beginning.

More old D&D artwork

Beyond the Otyugh I also did a host of other drawings for our game. Unfortunately, only a few of these still exist. Have no idea what happened to the original pen and ink drawings. Above we have the pen and ink drawings, "George and the Dragon", "Goblin" and "Draco" (man, was I awful at naming files).

For me, it is fun to look at these again and think about that time in my life but also look at how my art style has evolved, from technique and media to subject and quality. From high school to early college I was in love with line work (thank you Ronin by Frank Miller). While I never fully embraced "speed lines" I did so love cross-hatch. I still do, though on those rare (but hopefully increasingly) occasions, use cross-hatch as primary shading technique. Just not as much.

I am going to post a few more old pieces and then hopefully get to some new, original work. That is the plan at least.

Otyugh from waaay back when

Wow. I had did these drawings back in college for the D&D campaign my room mate and I ran. I lost the originals but had them scanned into my old Mac IIci (the height of cool in the early nineties). I have not been able to open the files in years.

Fast forward to now and with my new iMac and Photoshop I have open these files for the first time in probably 10 years. I think these would be great projects for me to learn how to layer colors in photoshop.

Here is my version of a crazy otyugh. To be honest, not sure if this is a swipe, an amalgamation or just me. Looks pretty cool, tho'. Waddya think?

Iron Man and Spidey

When I asked my nephew which characters he wanted me to draw, he said, not surprisingly, Iron Man and Spiderman. I tried a slightly different approach than used on the Cap and Hulk pictures (done in water color pencils and ink, btw). Instead of laying the color down on the pencils and then inking, I inked it first. Thinking this is a big mistake.

Why did I do this? Well, I thought it would be too difficult to ink the Iron Man armor features. Will not be doing that again. Should just have more confidence in myself I guess.

Sketch of The Knight and the Barbarian

I found a whole host of old pencil sketches that I did back. . .well, when I was in my teens. I am not sure if I ever posted any of them but even still, I think some of them are cool.

And as you will quickly tell as I post these old pictures, this was a time in my life where I was not interested in doing any kind of background. Guess that is why I started painting in pastels to take on this challenge.

Captain America

Yes, I know. . .I should stop doing swipes and start doing real drawings. At this point, they are more mental exercises than anything else. Still, this was fun to do.

Hulk (after Byrne)

So, I wanted to try and do some comic book type art and play around with watercolor and ink. Who better to swipe than John Byrne?

Hmmm. . .can not seem to get the images in the proper progression, but you get the idea.

After a long hiatus. . .

It sure has been a long, long time since I posted anything here (I changed jobs, moved etc. . .) but wanted to put up a few things that I have worked on during my hiatus.

Unfortunately, I packed my pastels away (and they will be in storage for a while) but have been playing around with water color and ink. I will try to post a few of the experiements and some newer stuff as well.