Heh...honestly I planned to start blogging again back when I made the previous post. Truly I did. But I was in the middle of self-teaching Trigonometry purgatory and school got all wonky, what with having to switch programs for this semester. So a brief summary of the events of the last few months is in order, following a bunch of art I did but don't think I ever posted here.
School: Last year I started in the 2 year Architectural Design program. Did well in it, was learning a new illustration skillset. IVY Tech kept cancelling all the classes I need to get the degree, throwing off my exit date from school by who-knows-how-long. Decided to go to new degree plan B. Switched to the computer programming program starting in the current semester. I switched to computer programming for a number of reasons, one being that I want to learn how to program comic/art related applications for the iPhone/iPad. Like it or not, it's the very very beginning of a whole new model for the mass distribution of the visual arts. I want to be ready to control that particular aspect of my creative destiny from start to finish. Period.
Now, here's some of the art I've done since I stopped regularly blogging.
So I'll TRY to blog more frequently now, and get back to posting new art. Been working up some new sketches and such.
Well, I haven't blogged in a while. BUt I'm thinking I may be inclined to start back up. Maybe try to post some art more frequently and what not. So check back in and hopefully I'll have some new stuff posted here.
Last summer I, along with Mom's help, re-landscaped the front of the house (an account of which is buried somewhere in this blog). And I totally neglected the backyard. in fairness, the backyard lawn had been overwhelmed by clover, weeds and deadspots, as well as suffered the effects of too much shade in one back corner, no grass and mostly just a large patch of dirt. Knowing I planned to attack the backyard this year, I didn't fret it much.
Honestly, I'm not out back much. Mostly because the back yard just isn't very inviting. I'd like to remedy that over the next couple of months. Of course, there's little if any money in the budget to do it, so I have to be fairly resourceful and creative about it.
When the big ice storm hit and wreaked havoc on my 20-something foot corkscrew willow tree. A fine tree it was, until about 70 percent of the largest branches were partially snapped by the weight of the ice.
I have since debated whether or not I should try to salvage it. I'm pretty sure it would be possible. But, honestly, it's too big for the yard, it's growing into the maple tree (that I never expected to do as well as it has, as it was two tiny little sticks transplanted from the folks' yard). And it's getting so big I'm pretty sure if I don't stop it, the roots are going to grow into my patio and trash it.
So it's coming down, branch by branch (tree removal service ain't in the budget, so the old DIY strategy comes into play). I started that chore today. Probably gonna rent a wood chipper and mulch it all up to and reuse it in the backyard.
Then there's the OTHER tree issue. When I acquired my lot, there were a couple of dead trees that I had taken down, including a large cherry tree. I had the tree guy leave a rotted-out 6-foot stump from the cherry tree, thinking I'd carve it into a functional sclupture piece in the backyard. Now I'm kind over that idea, as I've got more pressing creative endeavors to undertake. So, in pondering wether to remove it or not, my Mom suggested that rather than take it down, I could easily turn it into to a strawberry planter. GREAT idea! I do love strawberries, and this might free me from having to buy Wal-Mart's pre-moldy strawberries. Mmmmmmm.
In that spirit, I made a Wal-art run, loaded up on garden soil, and filled the inside. Should be ready to buy some plants and load it up in the net week or so.
Also, I may treat the wood in an effort to try to retain the two-tone look of it.. I'd like to keep the red of the more recently exposed areas, and contrast it against the grays of the outer bark areas. Not sure if thats practical or not though.
Once that's done, and the tree is down, I think I've decided on putting in a small garden. Just something more for hobby. If it goes well, I'll update it on the blog.
Today was three years since we had to say good bye to Bryan. Bryan was the best. He really was. And I miss him something awful. I love you, little bro.
I've neglected the ol' blog for a month. Been busy with holidays, relaxing and getting ready for classes to start next week. Here's an illustration that's a couple weeks old. I jut never got around to posting it over the holidays. And of course, there are the time lapse vids to go with it. I just did this one for fun, riffing off a well known SW publicity still.
Hopefully, now that the holidays are over I can get back to more regular posting and drawing.
Got up early (finally...that's been a struggle the last week, with me sleeping until past 10 most day...yikes). But got up today at 7:30, went out for Cracker Barrel breakfast, taking my trust sketchbook along as always. Ate and sketched, then got home.
Sat down at the Mac to work. Started a Steve Carrell caricature. I spent about 1 hour 40 minutes on it. Got frustrated by it. It was just OK. Could have been much better, but I couldnt get it where I wanted to to be. So, I abandoned it and fonud new subject matter.
Star Wars always works for me. I had intended for this to be a straight up funny cartoony caricature of Ben Kenobi, but the more I worked it, the less funny cartoony it got and became more of a stylistic illustration. It's by no means realistic with realistic proportions, so it's more caricature in that sense, but maybe with a more realistically rendered style? I'm not one of those artists interested in photorealsim. I mean, that seems to me the domain of great photographers. I appreciate the dedication and craftsman ship of artists who can do that, but I just can't. So this, while not an amazing likeness of Alec Guiness, is a painting I'm pretty happy with. It captures a certain personality, mood, whatever.
But again, just a learning excercise.
The first video was one hour 37 mins work. I used layers alot. Basically I do a sketch layer, then a layer with a color overlay, then a layer with shadows, and layer with highlights. That workflow is present pretty much the entire time I'm working, though it's always fluid, me flattening and merging layers. So the first part is just me getting the foundation.
Part 2 is me adding a limited degree of detail and finishing it. I had to make myself hold back.The impulse was to go in and continue working and add some "sketchy" type marks, but I'm trying to expand my skills, not fall back on the old-standbys just because its the easy solution.
Total time from start to finish - 2 hours 34 minutes (probably due a great deal to the fact that its monochromatic.
