"I do not think that word means what you think it means..."

Okay, a really bad Princess Bride picture, but I was thinking about the movie a lot tonight, so thought I'd just goof around for a couple minutes in PS and do this.  Not at all the PB picture I'm planning on doing, but fun to scribble out.  Just shows I'm not ready to draw directly into PS. 

One of the greatest romantic movies of all time, of course.  And funniest.  And has one of the greatest songs ever written- there were only 5 songs of true love that were the most passionate, the most pure, and this one leaves them all behind. If you tell me you haven't seen it yet, well, that's just...

inconceivable. 

Music: "Storybook Love" - Willy deVille, of course. Check out an amazing acoustic performance of the song Here

man, i'm tired.

Different Devils I Have Drawn

Well.  I've completely abandoned my original intent of posting 'retro' pictures, for now at least.  I've enough newer items that it might be worth looking at them rather than putting up stuff that, at best, is a throwback to the days when I drew almost every day.

I did this... oh, about a week ago.  The original pencil work, at least.  I know, it's another Daredevil drawing, how original.  But, there's a reasonably good reason for it.  I was sitting at the drawing table, and I was completely without ideas.  Like normal.  I wanted to draw, but no ideas were coming to me.  So, I thought about what Joey has repeatedly told me: look back at the old drawings and draw them again, using what I've learned (assuming I've learned) since then.  Since I'd posted so many DD drawings in the recent past, I thought maybe I'd take a look at those and try my hand at them. 

I was originally looking at the one I posted with him doing a handstand on the corner of a building- I would redo that, with some hopefully better results.  It only took a minute for me to realize that wouldn't work.  I couldn't figure out how or why he would be in such a position if he were leaping off a building (yeah really- realism in a blind guy jumping off a building to fight crime.  Don't judge me too harshly), so I took another thought at the idea of him leaping off a building, and arrived at Parkour, of course.  Parkour, to sum up (no wait, there is too much) is basically a method of moving from one place to another in the coolest means possible.  Check out the opening sequence of Casino Royale or the entirety of District B-13.

Scouring the internet for some good inspiration, I found this nice one of a guy backflipping off a building.  Seemed like something DD would do, so I took a stab at it.  I was going for that more loosey-goosey style I came up with last time, but just couldn't do it- DD decided to stay a traditional-looking hero.  I kind of dug the picture, but realized it was just too close, physically, to the real-world inspiration (for clarity's sake, please note that the DD picture was drawn completely freehand; I used photo reference the same way most artists do- for inspiration).  And so it sat on the desk.

Until today.  I scanned in a few things and decided I was going to go to town in Photoshop on one of them, or draw something completely from scratch in PS.  I came across this one and realized I could do some of both in this one.  Two hours later, and it was all done.  It's basically all layers above and below the original pencil drawing, with some effects thrown in.  And then, once I was done, I realized I forgot to turn DD a bit for a more dynamic pose.  So, a bit more thinking and tinkering, and here you go.

Speaking of layers, I realized partway through that I'd shaded/colored enough of the picture that it looked pretty okay without the pencils (I did this to a lesser extent on the Christmas picture as well), so I've posted the 'original' picture without the pencils (check out the tilt of DD's body).

Okay.  There you go.  Time for me to go eat dinner.  Plus, it's so cold in here I can't feel my fingers.  Thanks for visit, and please stop back again.

Music: "I and Love and You"- the Avett Brothers

The Apocalypse Suite

Can you hear it?

Sitting there, in your comfortably expensive seats?

Shuffling about outside, resplendent in your finery?

The Apocalypse Suite is about to start.

Can you feel it?

At the edge of your awareness, the nervous shift in your seat.

At the base of your spine, the shuffling, scuffling of your feet.

Can't you hear it?

The Cellist twists the pegs slowly

The Flutist holds gleaming metal to lips

Can't you feel it?

The Violinist brushes the bow 'cross the strings;

The apocalypse suite has begun.

with apologies to Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba'

Not a whole lot to say about this really; The title comes from the first story arc of a comic book series titled The Umbrella Academy- it's quite daft, and very enjoyable. Anyway, the title of the story really stuck with me, and involves music causing the end of the world (it reads better than my description). Anyway, one day the above...paragraph-whatever popped into my head, along with the image. So there you go.

I'm not going to post again until next Wednesday. The past month or so has really taken a toll on me, mentally and emotionally, and I really just haven't been feeling very artistic or very creative. I know the spark is still there, but there's no fuel to burn. But I'll keep looking for it. I think it's going to take a few things getting down around here (like give myself the space to create) but I should be up and running again soon. In the meantime, I'll try to keep up with a tiny backlog of things already in the system, and hopefully get back to drawing.

'til Wednesday (if only I posted on Tuesdays...)

Music: "20th Century Fox Fanfare (extended version)" - Alfred Newman and John Williams

Down With the Sketchness

Welcome back- another new week, another set of... something.

I was going to dig out something I'd previously scanned in, but with the late time I was going to start (after 10pm), I didn't want to rush (more than usual) to post something that I could do something with, so I opted to just sketch out something digitally and post that.

I've been reading this manga series called 'Death Note', and so I can guess that it inspired my sketchings this time around. Hence, the big eyes. It's a very good series, and one that has an appeal to folks beyond the usual manga fan- hence, its appeal to me. It's very clever, a mental chess game between a boy who wants to save the world by killing anyone he thinks deserves it, and the boy who wants to stop him. Of course, it's a bit more complicated than that, but I don't think I have the skills to do it justice. Go "here" to read more about it (beware spoilers!).

Anywho, the central sketch started out with no particular idea behind it (like usual), but once I put the eyes down, it started to look a bit like one of the characters. Then, once I did the hair, I realized it looks kind of like Frodo after he's been taken over by the One Ring. So, it's either manga, or Elijah Wood is in fact a living anime. You decide. The other two are really just random sketchiness- that's what I saw once I started sketching. When I sketch like this, I tend to move the pen in fairly random strokes until I can get the idea of an image out of it, then I tend to bring the picture towards that ideal in my head. Usually with varying degrees of success, as you might imagine.

That's it for now.

Music: "Here's Where the Story Ends" - The Sundays

He does his part! do you do yours?

"Freedom Prevails!"

Talk about making a purse out of a friggin' sow's ear... I didn't even want to post this picture, I disliked it so much. It was a sloppy mess- just sketched out, roughly, and not inked before scanning in. I thought it would make a decent "here's what I'm NOT doing" kind of post, because I never took it any farther than that quick sketch. It was still like that this evening, when I pulled it up in Photoshop. As I started adjusting the color levels (it was just a b/w sketch, but it's the easiest way to make the lines visible), the background started warping and discoloring. That was fine, I was just going to delete it when I was done. However, when I started coloring, I chose more muted colors, thinking it might look good as a 'retro' kind of picture. That's when I realized that I wasn't coloring the sketch, I was coloring a propaganda poster.

I should've known it was going too smoothly. It took about 15 minutes, if that, to color Cap. To do the rest? about two and a half hours. The biggest pain was that the original picture was much shorter; Cap hit the top and bottom of the page. So, to make room for the word, I had to extend the top and bottom of the picture; EASIER SAID THAN DONE, FRIENDS. What a pain in the ass. But, I think it came out reasonably well, since it was supposed to be a one-off.


Music: Cap's Theme Song

I Can See Things No One Else Can See

Today's post courtesy the once and future root canal and the pharmaceutical industry.

Cheers!

Music: "Bubbly" - Colbie Caillat

or

Music: "I Want a New Drug" - Huey Lewis and the News

Digital Damsel

Though hardly a damsel in distress.

Last of my first spate of all-digital drawings, I was trying to go for a more animated look with this one. It really started with the line for her nose, and the eyes. I built the rest of the picture around those few lines, and tried to keep it as clean and as simple as possible- almost in direct opposition to the other two drawings. I was pleased with how it turned out, though I did get in to tinkering an awful lot with the line weights and over-working each line, something that's long been a problem of mine. When you can alter ever single pixel of a drawing, why not? But it came out pretty well. There's no real plan or design behind the face, though I think it's slightly reminiscent of 'Mirage', the femme fatale character from The Incredibles. As I look at it though, I get the feeling there's an actress out there someone will point out to me and I'll say "ooooh yeah, that does kinda/sorta maybe look like her. If I squint." But there you go.

In non-drawing news, I finished Joe Hill's short story collection over this weekend. I can't possibly recommend 20th Century Ghosts highly enough to you. It's a tour de force of talent, which is all the more impressive as this is his second published book (the first, Heart-Shaped Box will be picked up from the library shortly. The stories, though usually having horror leanings, do not all fall into that category. And those that do, I think would appeal to just about any reader. Two of the best stories, "Bobby Conroy Comes Back From the Dead" and "Pop Art" are anything but horror stories. "Bobby Conroy" actually takes place in Monroeville (a town very near my hometown) during the filming of Dawn of the Dead, and is a great little story about... well, no spoiling it. "Pop Art" is just... sublime. There's no real way to describe it other than to read it.

Okay, enough with the book report. See you Wednesday.

Music: "Confessions of a Teenage Girl" - Bonnie McKee

It's the miles...

My second all-digital sketch. This particular idea came about when someone pointed out that my Remus Lupin sketch didn't look "old enough" to really represent the character- he's often described as prematurely aged. My reply was, truthfully, I'm just not very good at drawing age lines (or laugh lines, if you're so inclined). Part of that comes from not being very subtle with pencil lines- age lines usually seem to work best when they're suggested in a drawing, rather than explicitly drawn in, and I definitely tend to draw in every line I can. So, when I realized I could start drawing right into the computer, I thought I might have an easier time of it with the ability to minutely control not only the line, but the color as well. For results, see above. I think it came out reasonably well, being what it was. For reference, I have a great book of facial expressions, including a series of an 80+ year-old woman. So, judicious application of pixels later, and I've got the above. It's interesting to look at the way the age lines follow the curves of the facial features, I think. Or maybe it's just me. Anyway, there you go.

Nothing to report otherwise; all's quiet. Oh, not quite- a new feature to the right: Ex Libris- titles and comments on books I'm currently reading, or have recently read, or think you might enjoy. Or hate, I don't know. But they're over there, if you're interested. Perhaps with some ambition, they'll have links to Amazon or some such. Or you can just take my word for it and buy them. Hey, have I ever steered you wrong before? (Don't answer that)

Music: "The Man Comes Around" - Johnny Cash

Digital Dreaming

I was about to head to bed last night after a frustrating night of bad drawing- ideas would come and go, nothing was feeling right to draw, and what did make it to the page was hardly worth mentioning- and an hour or so of surfing the net, checking out www.deviantart.com, which is normally always good to get me excited about drawing. Not last night; nope, last night was all about making me feel like nothing I was drawing was worth the paper it was printed on. Let me tell you, times like that really make me want to pick up the pencil again. And break it.

So yeah, I was still frustrating myself by looking through these artists' pages, and my internet radio was playing on- it's a channel called 'Coffeehouse', which I guess is meant to be a mix of new music and classic rock- all the cool stuff that gets played in a coffeehouse, I should imagine. So I'm looking at this art, and thinking yeah, that's pretty cool, I'll never be doing anything like that, when the radio starts playing some different music. I'm not even sure what it started out playing, but it was good- really good. Nothing up-tempo, or 'feel-good' or whatever, but just good music. Another song comes on, and I'm turning on Photoshop, bringing up a blank page, and taking out the stylus, and drawing the above.

I know it doesn't look like much- hell, it really isn't much- but it's something new for me. The above is the first picture I've worked, start to finish, in Photoshop. No big thing for these folks on Deviantart, mind you, but pretty big for me. I've really been hesitant to look at digital art as art- The fact that someone could conceivably create the Mona Lisa entirely in a computer, without ever touching a tube of paint, never sat well with me. However, as I've come to use tools like Photoshop and the Wacom tablet more and more, I've finally realized that they're just tools- they are all there to help the artist convey whatever is inside his or her mind to the rest of the world. Whether it's via pencil, paint, or pixel, it's all art. And alliterative, evidently.

One thing I've learned about this experience is I still think analog- I sketched out the figure just as I would on paper, moving in just the same fashion- hence all the jagged little lines. It feels a lot like when I first started putting these pictures up on the web for folks to peruse- I know there's so much I can do with these programs, but I'll only learn through practice.

Oh- the music I was listening to led me to the picture above. Music is great for helping me find out what I'm supposed to draw.

That's all for now.

Music: "Girl in the War" - Josh Ritter