Unfettered

Finally, something new - Tiger, unfinished pencils

2009-06-19T16:01:00.003-05:00

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

2009-06-06T15:33:00.002-05:00

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

2009-05-19T15:00:00.004-05:00

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. . .

2009-04-21T17:41:00.005-05:00

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

2009-04-15T17:32:00.003-05:00

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

2009-04-09T16:40:00.005-05:00

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

2009-04-07T16:25:00.006-05:00

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

2009-04-03T20:35:00.003-05:00

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

2009-03-26T12:13:00.005-05:00

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

2009-03-24T19:11:00.003-05:00

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

2009-03-19T14:19:00.001-05:00

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)

2009-03-16T17:40:00.002-05:00

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. . .

2009-03-16T17:35:00.002-05:00

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.

Path Ends

2007-04-03T17:06:00.000-05:00

Obviously, I have not been very productive in terms of painting. . .

::sigh::

Life does happen.

Here is something that I completed a few months back, in a much, much looser style than normal. I tried to take advantage of the durability of Ampersand's pastel board, it really stood up to a beating. . .and lots of color.

Enjoy!!

Untitled-Water Colors and Pastels

2007-03-23T00:19:00.000-05:00

2 Year Anniversery

2006-05-25T18:05:00.000-05:00

Wow. I have had this blog for two years now, my how the time flies. And while I do not post to the site all that regularly, I do have some plans to make a few more posts this summer. That is, if my travel schedule ever slows down.

Speaking of which, I just returnd from my first trip to Paris, France. So here is a picture that I did for a high school French class project. Yes, it is silly. But it was fun to hand in a piece of cartooning and call it eduction.

Apprécier !

2006-05-25T18:03:00.000-05:00

Untitled (from Freshman Year French Class)
9x12, pen & ink with colored pencil on paper

What are my artistic influences?

2006-04-25T19:10:00.000-05:00

A question that I get often asked is, “What are my artistic influences?”

First and foremost is Frank Frazetta. I wish I had 10% of his talent. His work awes and humbles me. The man had a stroke a few years back, paralyzing his right hand (painting hand). So what does he do? He teaches himself how to paint with his left hand, never mind that by this point he is in his 60's (or 70's). The resulting work is still more amazing, real and creative than anything that I could ever do. Why I have not visited his museum is beyond me.

The other two painters would be Chris Achellios and Royo. I really want to paint the sci fi/fantasy type art like they do (see “Sword of Royo”, so named for Royo. . .obviously). I was not confident that I could paint figures in pastels with the necessary level of detail and I did not want to pencil and ink landscapes (yup, call me lazy) with that much detail either. So I developed a hybrid mixed medium method that actually worked out pretty good for me. As you can see, the pencil work is pretty simple, most of the details of the figure were done with the colored pencil (something that Johnie C showed me). Most of the pictures done in this style, unfortunately for me, was done before I had access to a scanner (well before the digital camera age), and since I gave them away, I no longer have access to them.

::sigh::

In terms of comic book art, the career path that I would forsake all other for, I am most heavily influenced by Michael Golden (whose style I aped in my early teens). I so wanted to be the next Michael Golden. Two others are John Byrne and Frank Miller. I never tried Miller's "Sin City" style, but his older work, like Ronin, really influenced my pencil work. I was so totally in to cross hatch because of that.

Now that I paint landscapes, I have researched the impressionists like Monet and Van Gogh (not saying I am in that stratesphere of artists, but I do try to learn from them). Still learning about color, so I think that my painting style will continue to evolve. Which is probably a good thing.

I am sure that there are others, but those are the biggest influences.

2006-04-25T19:04:00.000-05:00

Sword of Royo
9x12, pastel with colored pencil and inks on bristol

That's me with the hockey stick!

2006-04-16T18:53:00.000-05:00

Found it!

Welcome to my grad school apartment, circ 1993. That is me with the hockey stick, Anthon-Z playing sega, Coney shooting hoops, Johnni C (the artist of this picture) and Stacy at the table drawing, with special guest appearances by Ax and Dale.

I must admit, Johnie was one of the most talented artists that I ever met. He could draw just like Shiro, imho. Too bad he was never able to break into comics. I think his manga like style was way ahead of the curve. It would be another year before Joe Mads broke that style wide open and became the regular artist of the X-men. But for me, Johnie C was the originator.

Man, I still wish I had some of the pages that he penciled and I inked. And Anthon-Z's pages for that matter. I will post the splash page that Anthon-Z penciled and I inked and colored very soon. It is the best comic book related work that I have ever done. No question.

2006-04-16T18:47:00.000-05:00

Dragon Sun-the early years.

One of my favorites

2006-04-11T18:56:00.000-05:00

I just like this one (see "Frozen Bog" below). It is, for me, very difficult to make "dark" pastel paintings but with this painting I was able to achieve something I felt had a very "atmospheric" feeling to it. I was also able to give this piece a feeling of depth, something that I struggled mightily with for a time.

Again, this was painting around the same time as "Poppies". In fact, this, and all the others from that period that I will be posting in the next weeks, were all painted in the same spiral notebook. Now, I tape individual pieces of pastel paper onto an board and frame them when they are finished.

I believe that I have definitely grown as an artist in the last 10 years, but I have fond memories of this time when I began to relearn to paint. It was also a time when my apartment doubled as the hang out and official head quarters for for Dragon Sun Studios—Johnie C, Anthon-Z, Def Stacie, Coney and my boy Charlie "F'K'N" Ward (okay, he existed only as his EASports digital self, but he was always there). In truth, somebody was awake 24/7, either drawing something or playing Sega or Nintendo. Ah yes, those were the days.

Now I am going to have to find Johnie's "Mangaverse" version of my apartment.

2006-04-11T18:54:00.000-05:00

Frozen Bog
9x12, pastel on paper

Even more from the archives

2006-04-04T21:37:00.000-05:00

Okay, I admit it. I have been a big slacker and have not been painting at all of late. But I do, have a host of paintings from my archives that I had previously been unwilling to post.

Why?

Well, I have signed my name to them and I had been clinging to my "anonymity" of my blogger name. But realistically, the only people who don't know my real name are the ones who did not care to take 10 seconds to figure it out.

With that said, here is a painting that I did over 10 years ago when I first began to "relearn" painting. In high school, I wanted to go to Art School instead of a 4 year college. When I decided to go to a 4 year college I more or less stopped painting and drawing. Can not really explain why, but I did. At some point in during graduate school I decided to start painting again. "Poppies" is one of the first painting that I did from that period. I did not know about workable fix or different grades of pastels. I just painted this all in one layer. I think it holds up well, all things considered.

So, since I know that even if I do start a painting in the next few days, I will not have anything to post for a few weeks. Therefore, I am going to start dipping into my archives and bring out some paintings from 10 years ago.

I hope you all enjoy.

2006-04-04T21:18:00.000-05:00

Poppies
9x12, pastel on paper

More from the Archives. . .

2006-03-07T19:59:00.000-05:00

Because I really needed to post something but have had absolutely no time to do any actually drawing or painting. On top of my regular work, I agreed to write two review articles and try to rework my masters to something that is publishable. These are all things that I want to do, but they kinda cut into my free nights. Yeah, yeah, I know suck it up and stop complaining.

::sigh::

I like this picture of Rye. The pastel pigment from the top of his head was sort of rubbed off when the painting was stored in the pad. This painting was done before I knew what either workable fix or glassine paper was and how both can save the pastel pigment from rubbing off. If I still owned this, I would propbably hit it with workable fix and correct this problem.

2006-03-07T19:57:00.000-05:00

Rye
9x12, pastel on paper
Many of my friends have asked me to paint pictures of their horse. Jess was the only one to actually provide a photo. To everyone else, I am still waiting.

Vizzini. . .he said to go back to the beginning

2006-02-06T21:15:00.000-05:00

And so I have. Instead of continuing to stare at the rough sketch of the polar bear, hoping to get up the courage to start using my watercolors (and new Niji waterbrushes) to finish the painting, I decided to try something else in the interim. And like Vizzini said, I have gone back to the begining and my roots. Sketching.

Usually I do tons and tons of cross-hatch (sometimes too much) but for this I wanted to do something a little more down and dirty with the shading. Something a bit more basic. So, I used my trusty ol' #2 pencil, and you just don't get more basic than that.

I do plan on finishing the polar. . .hopefully even soon.

2006-02-06T21:13:00.000-05:00

Lucky Dog
9x12, pencil on bristol

Ah yes, I remember it well. . .

2006-01-26T21:57:00.000-05:00

Prom stole it from Paul's blog. Now I am stealing it from her.

"please post a comment here on my blog with a completely made up and fictional memory of you and me. Anything you want—positive or negative—but the original said please keep it clean but you don't have to do that here. And remember: it has to be fake! After you've left your comment, post this little paragraph on your own blog—and be surprised (or mortified) about what people don't actually remember about you."

As you wait for updates. . .another quiz

2006-01-23T20:34:00.000-05:00

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman		75%
Spider-Man		70%
Green Lantern		60%
The Flash		60%
Supergirl		55%
Robin		50%
Iron Man		50%
Hulk		50%
Wonder Woman		35%
Catwoman		35%
Batman		30%

You are mild-mannered, good,
strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

Here is to hoping I am more productive

2006-01-15T23:18:00.000-05:00

In an attempt to get my self motivated again to paint/draw, I have posted the initial sketch of a polar bear that I have wanted to paint for a while. For this, I want to try something a bit different. I am going to use watercolors, something that I am not very proficient in, and augment the painting with pastels, something that I am more comfortable using. It could be cool, as I have seen some nice pictures done in this technique. Or it could be a big mess, but at least I am attempting to stretch myself. And isn't that what this is all about?

Either way, I will post the picture in stages. . .let's see what happens.

2006-01-15T23:13:00.000-05:00

Polar Bear
14x11, pencil on watercolor paper

2006-01-11T19:53:00.000-05:00

National De-Lurking Week

Because everyone else is doing it. . .and I have not started painting the picture that I have been meaning to. . .

An older piece

2006-01-04T23:30:00.000-05:00

In a effort to be more active on this blog, I have dug through some of my older work. I am really surprised that I have not posted this one before. This is the only painting that I have done on artagain, a thick black fiber-enhanced paper. The black paper gives this piece a neat and ominous air.

As always, this is something I should try/use more often.

2006-01-04T23:28:00.000-05:00

Dragon
9x12, pastel on artagain

Ah, the perverse irony of Happy Bunny

2006-01-03T22:49:00.000-05:00

school prepares you for the real world which also
sucks.

Who's Your Happy Bunny?
brought to you by Quizilla

Song Bird in Blue

2005-10-14T22:46:00.000-05:00

A bird. I have never attempted a pastel painting focused on a bird as the subject. A bit mundane, but yet, completely differnt for me. I have had some requests to paint birds, and realized that I had never painted one in pastels. So I needed to try something first. Sure, I have drawn many birds with charcoal, pencil and colored pencil, just never pastel. It was an interesting process.

Sorry for no pictures of the process (do you guys even enjoy that? Lemme know), just did not do it for this. Plus, this painting was fixed to a board for most of the painting process, making the process of taking pictures (or in this case, scanning) rather cumbersome. I did not even use workable fix to layers the colors. Instead, I used increasing more "softer" pastels to achieve the same effect.

Hope you like it. Enjoy!

2005-10-14T22:42:00.000-05:00

Song Bird in Blue
9x12, pastel on paper

And now for something completely different

2005-09-24T22:36:00.000-05:00

Started a new painting last week and hope to have it finished in another week. It is a small one, 9x12", and so it is much easier to cover the paper. I really want to be more productive so I thought this size would be perfect. Plus, I like alternating the size of the paintings, it just seems more fun that way.

The reason I am not posting the painting in a step by step process is because the subject matter is much different than what I am accustomed to painting. I think that this is the first time that I have attempted this subject matter. No that the subject matter is anything original, but it is new to me.

Interest piqued? I hope so. Look for finished product in a week or so.

Now what?

2005-09-09T22:05:00.000-05:00

Finished and uploaded.

What a relief. The picture I was starting to think I would never complete is done. And I must say, I am happy with the results. There were several times while I was working and reworking this that I thought it was going to be a larger orange mess. But that is the beauty of pastels. Just hit it with workable fix and repaint it.

I thought reposting the other pieces in the sequence would be a neat idea. Thanks P-man, I am glad you talked me into taking pictures during the painting process. Of course, now everybody knows how much of a slacker I was about finishing this one. . .but I guess that is okay.

Now, I need something else to paint. But what size and what subject?

2005-09-09T21:23:00.000-05:00

And finally, the finished product!! Hope you like it!
Mountains of Fall
16x20, charcoal on Canson Mi-Teintes board

2005-09-09T21:22:00.000-05:00

Beginning to put in the details

2005-09-09T21:20:00.000-05:00

Finished blocking the color

2005-09-09T21:13:00.000-05:00

Starting to block in the colors

2005-09-09T21:12:00.000-05:00

The sketch

Finally Done. . .I think

2005-08-24T20:28:00.000-05:00

Well, after a nearly 6 month delay, I have finally finished "Mountains of the Fall". . .I think. The truth is, I never really know when a painting is done and this is no different.

Do not worry, I will be posting a photo of it soon so you can decide. It may need more work, then again, it may be over-worked. Just not sure.

And of course, now I think the title will need to be changed. The painting has become more about the trees in the foreground and less about the mountains in the background. Sigh.

But it is done. I think.

Mountains of Fall

2005-02-19T16:20:00.000-05:00

Now this took much longer to post than I had intended (or more precisely, I really have not worked on this in like forever). The progressing is coming along nicely, I just need to set some time aside to paint. I tried something a bit different and went right to work with the Unison pastels instead of the Rembrants. It turned out okay, but it just mearns that I will be using more workable-fix on the backend (which this piece desperately needs, if it ever is not raining and below freezing on the same day).

I really like how the deep purples folding into shadows, just the way I was hoping. I think with more details, this could turn out to be a very strong piece. Let's just keep our fingers crossed.

2005-02-19T16:11:00.000-05:00

Mountains of Fall
16x20, charcoal on Canson Mi-Teintes board

2005-02-19T16:10:00.000-05:00

Mountains of Fall (detail)
16x20, charcoal on Canson Mi-Teintes board

Painitings of Snow

2005-02-05T11:05:00.000-05:00

It would seem that paintings about snow are one of my favorite subjects. Just one of those funny observations that you make when you finally begin to catelogue the work you have done over the years.

I probably should have posted these a few weeks ago, it would have been more appropriate after the foot and half of snow that we received. And as should be evident from their style, these are older paintings done in the mid-nineties before I really knew anything about pastels and how to work them. I had no idea aobut uses workable fix to add depth. Nor did I know about the more expensive pastels. I was in grad school at the time and the $35 purchase for a set of landscape pastels was a luxury expense ($35 = 7 meals at Taco Bell). Glad I bought them. It is sometimes good to go back and look at the older stuff, it certainly gives me perspective.

2005-02-05T10:54:00.000-05:00

Wintry Twilight
9x12, pastel on paper

2005-02-05T10:52:00.000-05:00

Ice Mountain
9x12, pastel on paper

Goddess

2005-01-14T17:08:00.000-05:00

Been posting mostly grey and black and white pictures of late, so I wanted to show something with more color. This is one of those paintings that I like a lot, but am not so pleased with the name. Really had no idea what else to call it. I should track the original down and take a digital picture so that I can show the beach that she is standing on (why is all art pads 9x12 and all scanners 8.5x11?).

2005-01-14T17:04:00.000-05:00

Goddess of Rebirth
9x12, pastel on paper

More Fun with Markers

2005-01-11T18:05:00.000-05:00

For those of you who liked the horses in the markers (that simulated wash), here are some more. A much different subject matter and one closer to what I wish I could do when I grow up. Hrrrumph, I want to be a comic book artist!!!

2005-01-11T17:52:00.000-05:00

The Battle
9x12, markers on Bristol paper

2005-01-11T17:51:00.000-05:00

The Killing Blow
9x12, markers on Bristol paper

2005-01-11T17:50:00.000-05:00

The Leap
9x12, markers on Bristol paper

More Japanese Style Art

2005-01-06T22:05:00.000-05:00

I love Japanese Art and although I have done some work inspired by Japan (and some out right swipes), I do not think that it has really influenced my style all that much. In college, I had a friend, Johnie C, who could create manga-esque illustrations that would make Shirow Masamune proud but I never really wanted to draw like that. Sure I thought it was cool as hell, but for what ever reason, it was not a style that I tried to imitate.

This picture was originally supposed to done completely in colored-pencisl and have a pagoda in the background. Several failed attempts to draw a realistic looking pagoda (that was in perspective) convinced me to try something. . .simpler. After much deliberation, I went with the pastel background you see now. Part of me wishes that I stuck with original design and part of me likes this result.

2005-01-06T22:00:00.000-05:00

Geisha 2
9x12, colored pencil with pen and ink and pastel on bristol

New Year. . .Old Art

2005-01-04T19:42:00.000-05:00

I had hoped to post some new art work this week, but alas, the holiday break was not as productive as would have hoped. I blame it on the good books that I received and all those college Bowl Games. Don't fret, I have not forgotten about my latest pastel painting and I actually did do quite a bit of work on it. Just not enough to post. But soon.

This finishes up the rest of my commercial art work (unless I find another vault of forgotten art, which is always possible). This is my first and only foray into furniture illustration, pretty satisfying, but not my cup of tea. But it does demonstrate to some (and you know who you are) that I can draw more than landscapes and women who can kick my ass. So there :P

The illustration started with a light pencil sketch followed up by wash (I used a sumi stick and not dilute ink). When it dried, then the pen and ink details were added. I really really like this combination of techniques and this just goes to show how much more versatile I was back when I was a teen-ager. The technique for the add is exactly the same as the fashion figure (I have the original lettering, but I am sure everyone is bored with those large sans serif letters). This one was never wrapped in ascetate and got pretty beat up, sorry about the glue showing through.

About ten years ago I had the opportunity to have this illustration shot on film by a rather large and expensive machine. I love the negative plate, it is so cool.

Hopefully, I get back to painting. So look for more paintings of landscapes. . .and. . .uh, pictures of. . .well, you get the idea.

2005-01-04T19:41:00.000-05:00

Furniture Illustration
1ox15, wash with pen and ink on board

2005-01-04T19:37:00.000-05:00

The negative plate for the funiture illustration.

2005-01-04T19:36:00.000-05:00

Furniture Ad

More Commercial Art Projects

2004-12-28T17:55:00.000-05:00

This holiday season has not been the super productive time that I had hoped. But then again, this is my vacation and other things need to get done.

I thought that I would post some more commercial art projects. This was the final project of the year and would actually be put together at the beginning of the second year class (which I did not take). Therefore I never finished this project which is a shame. I had seen what the final project looked liked from other students, and it is much cooler than these pieces would indicate.

So, the concept: make an abstract cover that was suggestive of sea shells by using free-hand line work to form the illusion of peaks and valleys. This was actually much tougher than it looks. It took me a long time to get the hang of giving these lines depth and if it was not for the help of another student in class, I might never have finished (I heard through the grapevine that the student who helped me has gone on to a very productive career in art, and even worked on the first Shrek movie).

2004-12-28T17:49:00.000-05:00

Sea Shell Pamphlet cover 18x24

2004-12-28T17:48:00.000-05:00

Sea Shell Cover (detail)

2004-12-28T17:47:00.000-05:00

Hand Lettering (3 inches tall)

Illustrations and Lettering

2004-12-18T14:47:00.000-05:00

One of the neater projects in my high school commericial art class was doing a page from a children's book. We were supposed to choose a children's book (I chose one written by a friend of my mother). After reading the book, we were to pick out eight symbols/characters from the book and make a single symbolic illustration that would fit into a 2-inch by 2-inch square. Next, using calligraphy, we were to hand letter the first couple of paragraphs. The illustration is not one of my favorites, but I was quite satisfied with the lettering.

To make extra money in high school and during undergrad, I would do all sorts of hand lettering for people (i.e. wedding invitations, seating cards etc. . .). Now with computers, there really is not much cause for hand lettering.

2004-12-18T14:46:00.000-05:00

Children's Book page

2004-12-18T14:45:00.000-05:00

Children's Book page (detail)

Fashion Figure Ad

2004-12-14T22:05:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned in previous posts, I have unearthed my old high school portfolio. My high school had an intense commercial art program that did a great job of placing students at the School of Visual Arts, Parsons School of Design or FIT. The curriculum was tough, but it stretched me as an artist. Although I chose not to go to a NYC art school, opting instead to go to a regular university, I still remember these classes. Sometimes I wish I had become an artist or pursued my dream of being a cartoonist, but I did not want to live the cliché of a “starving artist” (wish someone would have informed about the cliché of a “starving graduate student”).

Before computers and their wonderful font programs, commercial artist had to do much of their lettering by hand, especially for ad layouts. The letters for my ad assignment were 3 inches tall and are shot down (forgot the name of the machine) to size. I hated hand letter. If you look closely, you can see the Dr. Martin’s Bleedbroof White, which I became quite proficient with over the years. Incidentally, I think the spilt ink in the corner lends the final personal touch.

The fashion figure was painted entirely with a brush on 18-24 inch cold press paper. Of all my work in high school, I am most proud of this figure. I had never before used a brush to draw. The brush allows for incredible control in line thickness. Plus it is really cool. And yes, the figure does have a disproportionally long torso because this is the way they are supposed to look.

The final layout, in my opinion, was quite dynamic. I think this was the highest grade I ever attained in the commercial art class, probably a B or B+ (obviously, I never earned an A).

2004-12-14T21:49:00.000-05:00

Hand Lettering (3 inches tall)

2004-12-14T21:48:00.000-05:00

Fashion Figure 18x24

2004-12-14T21:47:00.000-05:00

The Final Ad 18x24

From the Mind of a 14 year old boy

2004-12-12T14:25:00.000-05:00

Back in high school I took every art class available because all I wanted to be was a cartoonist. In one of my drawing or design classes we were asked to design a new lettering style. This was back in the mid-80's before computers and font packs, so much of professional lettering was still done by hand (more samples of this later). Me being the huge comic book geek that I was, I did something decidedly different. Drawing inspiration from the ninjas and Electra in Frank Miller's run on Daredevil, I designed "The Ninja Alphabet" or "Ninjalphabet" for short. I alternated between the black and white ninjas and tried to incorporate every weapon that I could remember. My favorites are the ones where the ninjas are injuring themselves (E, P, R) and I especially like Q and W, where the two ninjas are just hanging out. It was probably one of the more fun things that I ever got to do in school. I got to screw around and get an A, not too shabby.

More fun stuff from high school coming soon.

2004-12-12T14:19:00.000-05:00

The NIJALPHABET

From the Archives

2004-12-11T13:18:00.000-05:00

Those who braved the old website should already be familiar with my old pencil sketches and my desire to move everything from there to here. This use of heavy cross-hatch was my favorite style (compared to the minimalist style I am currently using). And for the longest while, the only real medium that I used was pencil, mostly the trusty ol' number 2 pencil (not just for taking scan trons) but sometimes I would use HB, 2H, 4H, 2B and 4B.

I just found my old portfolio locked in storage. I always wanted to digitize them, but at the time (late 80's), there were only very expensive options. Plus, they are far to big to scan now. The digital camera should work just fine. Look for them early next week.

2004-12-11T12:18:00.000-05:00

Woman with nice hair
6x9, pencil on paper

2004-12-11T12:16:00.000-05:00

Indy
6x9, pencil on paper

2004-12-11T12:15:00.000-05:00

Girl with scarf
6x9, pencil on paper

Not feeling the love. . .

2004-12-08T17:57:00.000-05:00

Hmmm. . .Not feeling the love with this picture. It looks more like something you'd see in Veiwtiful Joe than what I was imagining. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but I had other hopes for this picture. Part of my issues, I guess, is that I was working with a limited palette of colors. I had planned on buying a bigger set of watercolor pencils, now my enthusiams is not as strong (but they really aren't that expensive, so I still might). I have not yet abandoned this technique just yet, but I am getting close.

So, what does everyone think about this multi-media technique?

2004-12-08T17:56:00.000-05:00

Summer by the Tree
9x12, watercolor pencils with ink and pastel on paper

Watercolor Pencils

2004-11-30T22:30:00.000-05:00

About ten years ago I was really in to using colored pencils over an inked drawing. So instead of using shading or cross-hatch to devolp depth, I would use colored pencils. This necessitated me radically changing how I drew pictures since heavy graphite pencil would interfer with the color pencil. I abandoned this style, mostly because I wanted to do larger pictures and it took too long fill in that much space with colored pencil. I think that this style should go well with water color pencils. At least that is my hope.

Since the style is very minimalistic and I am using a thin pencil (0.3 mm), this scan is very light. But I think it should convey the basics of the pictures. Obviously, the next step is to color it.

2004-11-30T22:26:00.000-05:00

At the Beach
9x12, pencil on paper

2004-11-27T15:11:00.000-05:00

Finall Color Blocking
16x20, charcoal on Canson Mi-Teintes board
The initial part of the painting, or under-painting, is complete. Normally I do not put this much detail in the under-painting, but I wanted to see how the mountain would look. This is probably going to be a mistake since I plan to radically change the color scheme and I run the risk of people liking the under-painting more, which is likely, since at this stage it is closer to a drawing (my strength) and less like a painting (my goal). Only time will tell. But I am really excited about what I plan to do with the colors. As always, there is a vast gap between what is in my head and what makes it to the page.
For the next step I will work the painting hard using my old trusty Rembrant pastels (which are a medium soft pastel).

Bad Ass Fae

2004-11-22T22:36:00.000-05:00

I really should do more of these, maybe do some of these on location. . .hmmm. . .

2004-11-22T22:32:00.000-05:00

Bad Ass Fae
9x12, watercolor pencils with ink and pastel on paper
This is just me screwing around, plain and simple. I have been looking at the sketches over at sketchcrawl with envy over his skill in watercolor (not fair how cool those quick on locations sketches are!). I have always wanted to do stuff like that, but I really suck with watercolors (plus, they are so damn messy, at least in my hands). I had bought a set of watercolor pencils ages ago and decided to give them a try. Bolstered with ink pens and some pastels, I kinda like this effort. But at any rate, it sure was fun.

2004-11-16T22:08:00.000-05:00

Initial Color Blocking
16x20, charcoal on Canson Mi-Teintes board

It all starts with a sketch. . .

2004-11-15T22:20:00.000-05:00

Okay, Pman, you asked for it, you got it. More step by step postings. Part of my reasoning for doing this is to keep me motivated and keep me painting. I figure if I post the painting in stages and people keep asking me when I will finish, then I will try to be motivated to paint more often. At least that is the theory. Enjoy.

Most of my pastel paintings start with a charcoal under-drawing. Sometimes I will block in areas of dark, and sometimes (as is the case with this picture) I do not. The main area of focus of this painting will be the central mountain and it will contain the only significant dark area. The next step will be to begin to block in colors with a hard pastel (NuPastel). Hopefully sooner than later.

2004-11-15T22:16:00.000-05:00

Preliminary Sketch
16x20, charcoal on Canson Mi-Teintes board

FINISHED!!!!!

2004-11-15T21:08:00.000-05:00

This one painting, not the blog.

2004-11-15T21:05:00.000-05:00

Summer by the Tree
12x16, pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes
I am sure most people will not see any difference between this version and the other version of this painting that I posted last week. But to me, there is a world of difference. Trust me, there is. I am glad that I made the changes but even happier that I did not ruin the painting in the process. This piece is, for all intents and purposes, finished. Not much more I want to say about it, so I guess that means I am done.

2004-11-12T23:57:00.000-05:00

Kirbys Thor
14x17, pastel with colored pencil and inks on bristol
Jack Kirby was a Genius. Even a watered down copy of his work looks cool. I was feeling down and out one day, wanted to draw something, but just did not know what to do. I picked up my beaten-up copy of an old Marvel Treasure Edition and decided to do the splash page from Thor #157 (from waaaay back in the day, the cover price was 12 cents). I always thought the Mangog was a cool-ass villain (obviously, the villain in this pic), seems that I am in the minority in this view. Oh well.
The figures are done in pen and ink with colored pencil. The background was quickly done in pastel. This picture was completed in about two hours and completely got me out of whatever malaise that I was in, but that was the point of this exercise.

2004-11-10T20:53:00.000-05:00

Falconess
14x17, pastel with colored pencil and inks on bristol
I saw this as a sketch somewhere (can not remember where or by who), but I simply had to recreate it. It was done at a time when I was fascinated with using simple geometric shapes to help frame, but not limit the picture.

2004-11-10T20:29:00.000-05:00

Ronin
14x17, pastel with colored pencil and inks on bristol
When I went to Japan for the first time and wanted to bring back gifts, I bought a bunch of tee shirts. These were two of the most common images that I found, Fujisan and a samurai. I called this piece Ronin as a play on words. Ronin, aside from being a masterless samurai, means wave-person since they were considered to be, literally, free as a wave. I thought myself quite clever by combing these two images.

HaloScan

2004-11-09T19:54:00.000-05:00

I am hoping that by installing the HaloScan comment system that I have seen on other blogs should make adding comments easier. But as usual, I am confused as to whether it is working properly. Crap!! :(

2004-11-09T19:51:00.000-05:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Summer by the Tree

2004-11-08T20:46:00.000-05:00

It was not this summer and it was not this tree, but there was a summer and there was a tree...

I definitely liked the idea of posting pictures before they are completely finished, especially when many of my paintings need to "age" for a while before I feel they are completed. In this case, I am not sure if this is the finished product or if I will do some radical re-working in certain areas. I am leaning toward the latter and will probably spray it with workable fix and procede from there. In the interim, I have started another painting and will post pictures of it as it progresses.