Return to the blog....again

I've been a horrible blogger for the last few months.  I have been busy, however, with a great many things.  In November I attended Illuxcon, which was a fantastic opportunity to meet some of the best (traditional) artists in the illustration industry as well as see their work in person.  The convention also offered some lectures that were invaluable to someone looking to work their way into the business.  I could go on and on about what I learned there, but I think I should just stick to the main thing that is on my mind right now.

On my second day at Illuxcon I went to a lecture featuring Jon Schindehette of The ArtOrder and Wizards of the Coast fame, and Christopher Burdett of, well, Christopher Burdett fame.  During this lecture, Jon mentioned a few things to think about when building a professional portfolio.  One of the things that really stuck for me (probably because I heard it many more times that weekend) was that you build a portfolio with work that you want to do in the future.  By that, Jon meant that if you want to do spot illustrations, fill your portfolio with spot illustrations, if you want to paint monsters, then fill your portfolio with monsters, if you want to do book covers, fill your portfolio with book cover styled work.  So I got to thinking.  What is it that I'm best at right now?  If I were to be working professionally right now, what would I be able to offer clients?  Currently, not paintings, digital or traditional.   While I believe that I have most of the basics down, I don't think I have the ability to produce consistent work which is very high on a priority list for art directors anywhere (I would hope.)  So for me that rules out book covers, game cards and just about anything else that would use painted art.

....Well, now what?   Recently my wife mentioned that while my paintings were nice, my preliminary drawings were much better.  She should know...she has a BFA after all.  So, after some thought, I decided that my highly educated (and beautiful.....and talented....etc.) wife was right.  Plus, for me personally the drawings were much more rewarding to create than the paintings were.  That's not to say that I haven't gotten anything from doing said paintings, I have in fact learned a lot from them over the last few months.

And so we come to where I am now.  What can I do with black and white drawings in the current world of illustration?  Well, I have a pretty good idea, but I'm not 100% sure, then again who starts out completely sure about anything?  The best that I can do is produce the best work I can, show it to prospective clients, and hope someone happens to have a project that it fits into.

I apologise for my feature length post, but putting these thoughts into writing has actually narrowed my focus... funny how that worked.  I'll have to keep that in mind.

At the risk of making this post so very much longer, I have to stick to the promise I made to myself that I would keep this blog "illustrated."  I recently came up with a drawing exercise for myself that involves faces, props (a term I use loosely) and technique. The rules of this exercise were as follows;  Draw 8 faces, 2 start to finish directly from reference with no alterations, 2 start to finish from reference, but with props added, partially from reference, 2 with props added, started with reference and finished without, and 2 without reference whatsoever.  The original medium that I was to work in was paint, as this was before the big epiphany, but has since shifted to pencil and ink.

Looking back at these drawings, I see a definite shift in style (?) if that is the right word, as I let go of the reference.  That will have to be worked on I think.

I hope this long winded post is worth it in the end for you.  I know it was for me (at least writing it out was.)  If you've made it this far, thank you for sticking around, and I promise I'll try to keep the word / art ratio tilted a little more toward the art in the future.

Digi Sketches

I definitely need to step it up on my posting here. I look at the last post and think about how it seems like ancient history already.

Like always, I've been spending my time doing sketches, playing with different media and pretty much working willy dilly on whatever comes across my brain.  Now that I think about it, I should really look at starting back up with working on serious, finished projects seeing as how I still have none to share.

I do, however, have some more sketches to show. I've been toying with my wacom tablet lately, using some brush settings inspired by Daarken (whom I'm sure a lot of people know from Magic: The Gathering.) It surprised me how just a couple changes to how I was approaching my digital work improved the end product immensly.

An Odd Group

The zombie was my first attempt at actually sketching with the tablet.  Up to this point I'd been scanning sketches from paper and painting over those.  The succubus is my first attempt at (mis)using reference while sketching on the tablet.  The cyclops is me working out some flesh colors for another project that I'm working on.  I'll have to do a post on that project later.  Finally, the alien....well...he's...he is what he is.

More coming soon.

Been A While

     Well, it has definitely been a while since my last post.  Between the full-time job that sometimes spills into way-more-than-full-time and other regular happenings around the house I haven't had a whole lot of time to put together anything I deem postable.  That's not to say I haven't been doing anything, it's just that the majority is unworthy of public viewing.  Luckily none of the failures have been disheartening, like always, I see them as examples of what not to do next time.  Things like sticking closer to my small color studies and making sure I can carry a composition all the way from thumbnail to full size without losing what makes it work are surprisingly difficult for me.  I've also noticed that I need to work on controlling values in black a white and even more so in color.

     Most recently I have been bouncing between an oil painting for an ArtOrder challenge and ink/watercolour stuff for my own fun.  I'll have to explain the painting and ArtOrder another time, as those are almost whole posts in and of themselves.  The ink work I've been playing with is my latest way of working on value control.  I lay down a pencil sketch, ink the lines, do several layers of light ink washes to establish the value structure and then add watercolour.  It is definitely an enjoyable process for quick little drawings and it seems like a viable way to work on a lot of things without wasting a whole bunch of paint on bigger projects.

Yes....he's here to eat your brain.

     Mr. Mindflayer here is a product of my new artworkout routine attempt, he's pencil, ink and watercolour on illustration board.  One thing I know for sure is that  I need a bigger brush if I'm going to continue to do large background washes, otherwise, I'm happy with my first attempt.

I'll be back...with more...in less than a month.

Star Wars Studies

One bad Bobba

Realised today that I should probably keep the posts rolling.  I've been working on a painting for about a week now, but it is nowhere near ready to be shown.  I'm currently on the second iteration of it, as the medium/ surface combination I was using on the first was being uncooperative.  I've also been spending a lot of time working out color relationships and reworking parts of the painting that I had previously thought firmly established.  Needless to say, my current project is one of the most involved things I've worked on in a very long time.  Here's hoping it works out well enough to share.

Gamorrean guard from Jabba's collection of minions

I've also been working on bumping up my understanding of color, thus today's post is some "quick" color studies I worked on recently. I say "quick" because they were meant to be just pencil and watercolour but instead became pencil, watercolour, felt-tip pen, and gouache.  The pen and gouache came in after I lost a lot of detail to color bleeding with the watercolour.  I got impatient with the wet paper and didn't want to get a hair dryer to help speed up the process....  I'm just going to chalk it up as a learning experience;  treat the medium properly, or suffer the consequences (unless you like the results, then you can enjoy the consequences.)  They took much more time than I had originally intended. Still, they were a fun little exercise.

Admiral "It's a Trap" Ackbar

I should be posting the initial sketch for my current project soon.  Until then, well, I'll just keep working on it.


p.s. I know that I use the English version of watercolour, it just happens that I believe it is a more aesthetically pleasing version (I'm weird like that.)

Introduction



Good morning to you Mr. Skinny

 Quick introduction:  I'm Cliff, and this will be my blog (-ish thing.)

.... aw hell, I can't leave it at that.  The current plan is to use this blog as a place to put some of my work up for people to see.  I'm positive that I might end up sharing more than that later, but rest assured that it will all be at least art related.

Also, if you're wondering how Mr. Skinny could possibly drink coffee... just let it go.  Some things should not be questioned.