Blogs from the Edge, 2

Still on vacation, still posting. It helps to get posts done when I've been talking art and photoshop with the Brothers Weaver every day. Not that that helps with the writing, but it's all a creative process. Or something.

Anyway, today was the first day of actual touristy-type stuff done in the 'Burgh proper. Well, actually, in the North Side, but still 'Burgh-like. The past few days have just been me savoring the fact that I didn't have to turn around and drive back down to Baltimore like most weekends. Regardless, today was spent walking around the relatively freshly-developed and -revitalized North Side- specifically, the area right around world famous Heinz Field and PNC Park. Having the super-powered camera courtesy of Dave, I was able to take a great many pictures. It was a beautiful day, slightly warm, and made for great wandering weather. One of the great things about Pittsburgh- there are huge swathes of land that are essentially just for pedestrians. Makes sense, of course, since so many folks would be on foot around game time, but still nice to see. Lots of great scenery of course- just look over the river, and there's the skyline. I found a very nice little Korean War Memorial near Del Monte Place (or something like that- one of the buildings between the two parks) and a number of small waterfalls/water sculptures. I found out that they offer tours of both parks, but unfortunately I felt that I was pressing my luck in leaving my car parked back at the McDonald's a mile away. No need to fear, of course, other than having my heart explode from the walking. Lastly, stopped at a new brewpub for a tasty sammitch and beer. A good day, by any stretch of the imagination.

Oh- the picture. Well, this is the finish pic from Monday's post, obviously. Time spent learning photoshop tricks from Joey and Sean, and the internet, led to the completion of the Iron Man pic. Possibly suitable for a wallpaper, should it suit you. Heh- "suit" you... Iron Man, Suit of Armor, get it? sigh...

That's all for now- more Friday!

Music: "Shut Up and Drive" - Rihanna (the song I got to carry in my head for the 1.5 hours I was walking around, thanks to it being the last song I heard from a radio...)

Blogs from the Edge, 1

Well, I appear to be doing better than expected with posting, though admittedly, this is the first one for the vacation.

It's been a great trip so far, all two days and some change. The drive in was fine, as I wasn't hellbent on getting here ASAP to maximize my usual weekend-long trip. Saturday was quite the eventful day. My friend Dan came out 'burgh-way to make the trip to the North Side with me to the Carnegie Science Center so we could see Bodies, the exhibit with the plasticized people and parts. Educational, and alliterative. It was great to see so many people interested in the exhibit, though for educational or morbidly curious purposes I can't say. I found it very interesting, and it was certainly fun to try and dredge up vague memories of all those classes from college (Dan and I both being Biology majors). The one downside to the exhibit was that no cameras were permitted, and there were too many people around to permit the time and line of sight to try to sketch anything. Still, very fun. And after that- Iron Man! Fantastic movie, both as a 'comic book' movie and a straight-up action movie. The acting was superb all around, and Robert Downey, Jr. just owned the part. Good day.

Today was a bit less active, but equally fun. I had a drawing session/photoshop class with Joey and Sean- showing how much I have yet to learn in Photoshop, and how two people can approach a task from completely different directions and achieve nearly the same result. Then, out to celebrate Dan's birthday with his folks. Finally, back here to set up my computer and go to work on the sketch and this post. Sadly, I wasn't paying as close attention as I thought; Photoshop wasn't working as well as I'd hoped. This is only the most preliminary start on the picture. The rest of the week will hopefully be progress on this, or something else entirely... Ah well, tomorrow is another day. What that day may bring? No idea. But it should be fun.

Later!

Music: "Supernatural Superserious" - R.E.M.

Heart of Steel

Well THAT took a lot longer than I expected.

This was supposed to be a quick coloring job, just some red and yellow. 2.5 hours and 22 layers later, I'm done. Still, for an unexpected effort, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Iron Man is just one of those characters I love from a visual perspective. I don't even know why, since I don't ever seem to like the armor he has in the books. I guess it's just the idea of a guy running around in a suit of high-tech armor (in crimson and gold, no less!) that I enjoy so much. Who knows. Anyway, there you go... Hopefully I'll take some of what I learned this time around to my next project- part of the time it took to do this was spent re-learning things I've already figured out in the past, but promptly forgot. Ah well, it's not like I have to go to work tomor- crap.

Later.

Music: "You Know My Name" - Chris Cornell

Art Department Strikes! Extra: Collaborating

As promised, an early post to finish out the week. I was going to start another 'theme' today (just finished the last touches) but thought better of it. Besides, I wanted to show this off.

This might look familiar (scroll down. go ahead, I'll wait.) See? It's the Iron Man picture I posted last week. But it's more than that. My friend Joey pulled the original picture off the blog and went to town on it with his own considerable Photoshop skills. Take a good look at it, then check out the original post. See how the light gleams off the armor? Joey did that. See how the armor actually goes from lighter to darker, giving it depth? Yep, Joey did that. Pretty cool, huh? That's what experience will do for you. I've been drawing for almost as long as I could hold a pencil, but I'm still new to the photoshop/digital art revolution. This is why I have friends like Joey and Dave to show me the capabilities of these crazy programs. And I'll tell you, it's wicked fun. Digital art is apparently the one thing that brings out a streak of meticulousness in me. I can spend a loooong time working a picture over, one pixel at a time. Thank god that doesn't carry over to anything else though...

Anyway, I just wanted to show off some of the capabilities of Photoshop, and more importantly, the joy of collaboration with your friends. In a way, this is a continuation of this week's theme of past projects, since the highlight of those was working with friends. Hopefully Joey will pick out some more art to work his photoshop magic on- OR HE WILL START HIS OWN BLOG TO SHOW OFF HIS ART.

just sayin'.

That's it for now- nothing new until... Tuesday? Let's say Tuesday. Have an excellent weekend, wherever you may be, or wherever you may be going. I will.

Music: "With a Little Help From My Friends" - The Beatles

Bonus Track: "Dreamline" - Rush (for the trip, of course)

Test Your Mettle

Today I'm rounding out this week's theme of "guys in armor" with the best-known armored comic book character, Iron Man. I've always been a big fan of Iron Man... or at least his armor. This picture came about mostly because I was looking for a chance to draw Iron Man, and I finally had a pose come into my head that worked for him. The armor is no particular era (Iron Man changes his design pretty darn frequently), but is probably most like his "Mark IV" armor (if anyone cares) which is the one most people who've seen the '60's cartoon would recognize. I'm pleased with how smoothly the picture came out, especially since this was the first time I'd drawn any kind of comic book character in some time. It's always a challenge to draw their over-defined musculature without making them ridiculous (setting aside the argument over the inherent ridiculousness of superheroes). They're always fun to draw, regardless of how muscular they are. The other goal of the picture was to get a sense of motion in the figure- I'm working to avoid making my figures look stiff and unnatural. Making them look like they're 'alive' is the hardest part of any drawing.

And here's me fooling around with Photoshop. I thought I'd give a go at coloring this one first- mainly because the lines were pretty solid on him, which made it easier to use the "paint bucket" feature to fill in large areas. The whole color job took about 5 minutes. Again, much to learn.

Nothing more to report here... have a good weekend, and I'll see you back on Monday.

Next week: Revisiting (very) Old Haunts, and the Return of the Art Department!

Music: "Flathead" - The Fratellis