DiggeeTUL Design: Done with PhotoShop!

In order of appearance:
1. landscape/dreamscape project
2. creature project
3. creature detail
4. mechanical v. organic project

The landscape/dreamscape project (used only images from my crappy camera) was quite easy, i'm not sure why nobody opted for a simple approach to it all. Like a little kid, they let their imaginations get the best of them...conducting these grand orchestras of mindless props. anything they could think of. Purple skies. Poorly cut objects floating in a dreamscape. Things photoshop cant teach you. Style.
I primarily only used three photos. California hills, a new age gas station in LA and a Texas sunset.

Although i was most excited about the creature project going in, it soon started to dwindle, damn picture resolution restrictions causing me grief. I was deep into drawing the female body at the time (4 weeks ago?) and wanted to create a super woman! innumerable arms and legs! muhahahahaha! anyways, with that idea out...had to create something...and with images that i've taken on my camera...things get a little tight. I havent touched my camera since 2009. Without a girlfriend demanding you to bring a camera, why bother? I always forget anyways. Nowadays, cameras are only good for Facebook or capturing the perfect figure reference.
Found a few pictures from ACL 09 that had potential. At the Bon Iver show, the camera guy, dressed in a dark colored rain pancho (with hood) looked like Bruce Willis from Unbreakable. COMEPLETELY BAD ASS. anyways, i decided to go with the cloaked figure. THEN! i found a grasshopper in my camera. BAM. DONE. Grasshopper man complete. found a background...uh...didnt quite work out too well. i'm still looking actually...

AHEM. the final photoshop project! Mechanical v. Organic. Everything mechanical has human roots.

Valentine's Day Sucks

Mostly ballpoint and one with pencil. Been drawing incessantly.
The bearded guy pictured below took me about three hours. It seems to be easier for me to map out the drawing when i sketch a basic idea on where the shading should be. shade in the eye sockets, around the nose, edges of the face, chin, lips. Then from there darken the rest of the image...then finally getting to my details. I think I like that process so far. Really helps me to understand what i am drawing.

oh and the half drawn guy down there in the suit? he's playing air guitar...i hope.

Time to go play out in the sun. I Love Texas winters.

First Assignment

Project was a collage piece. Everyone in the class seemed to be working in a very rigid manner. Underlying sketch following meticulous work moving arms, rearranging the composition. I wanted to avoid all of that. I felt like they were losing a lot of energy/movement and life from their drawings. i started off with a doodle page. Loosely drawn female figures, more of a cartoony approach to the whole sketch. Then I began to retract the darks from the center of the image so i could place my figure there. I Utilized the figure i sketched a few days ago. The woman in the sitting position. i decided to not go for an anatomically correct form this time, accentuating her neck and limbs. I added subtle detail to her face, breasts, and genitals. Attempting to distinguish what i felt make the female form as powerful as it is. I think i will have to go in and darken the face and other features down the road. The violent streak of coal surrounding her is a little too powerful and almost pushes her into mid-ground, taking the spotlight off of her.


any crit? I would love to hear it.


Here is a picture of what the piece was before the coal and face detail:

Snowed in

Texas is a strange place. A little bit of snow and ice and everything closes. My apartment transformed itself into my own little winter get away. I have a Drawing Concepts piece due tomorrow and i wanted to get some practice in with charcoal and graphite. Bought my supplies, a generic stick of coal, a stick of graphite and a new sketchbook. It was...different. I'm used to having a whole lot of control and precision with my ballpoints or .3 mechanical pencils. It wasn't too hard to transition and in a sense, it was less work. I began to feel the control with my fingers as i smudged the coal and worked on the gradient.

Now when it comes to conceptual ideas in drawing, I don't think i have anything new. I thought of a better analogy when it comes to the energy of a line and how i feel the lines should move. Like Rain dripping off of someone's face, the line should move as if a drop of rain.

Haven't been able to get the charcoal on film yet, but once i do! It'll be on here!
these were mostly done with a graphite stick, .3 pencil, and ballpoint. Should be easy enough to tell.

Hustle & Flow

Been working with charcoal and graphite sticks the past couple of days. A way to wane myself off of a precision and controlling type of drawing. i bought a 18x24in biggie sketch pad with some decent paper in it. $29.99 sketchbook, got it for $9.99! no more shitty newsprint!
The drawings took a little getting used to. it is starting to grow on me though. I almost feel I am getting a more hands on approach and seem to get a better sense of the 3D aspect of my 2D work. The flows of lines and the energy that flows in the direction of the curve. Its just a feeling, I may be hard to describe. In simple line-work the energy of the line is apparent and powerful. You can FEEL the energy flowing from thick-to-thin, from head-to-toe. i love it, it is beautiful...but right now I am primarily focusing on the minute details of lines. Not just the powerful silhouetted lines of a profile, but the little guys that compose most of the image. When using pen and ink, cross-hatching is good....but what if the cross-hatching is modified, to a seemingly wire-mesh type of drawing, encompassing the image as a whole.
Now when it comes to shading with charcoal and graphite i'm approaching it the same. blending the darks with my fingers in the direction of the energy. seems to make the image pop. On the other hand, I also enjoy when an image is comprised of shading and lines that all seem to be horizontal. fading away the image as if the wind is blowing the graphite off the page.



Zhaoming Wu's figurative drawing exemplifies that last bit pretty well:




i'll post some of my new graphite, charcoal, and sumi ink figurative work once i get a chance.
I'm sure someone has done this before, thought this before, probably blogged this before. I'm just thinking out loud.