All Around the Mulberry Bush...

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On Monsters

The outer world may be full of full of terrible people doing awful things for insane reasons.  You hear about them on the news or read about them online.  You stand aghast.  You shake your head.  You ask why.

What next?  You move on and forget about it.  You know that in your world, you are safe.  There are no monsters...

...But there are monsters.  In the inner world, they are legion.  They creep through your imagination with free reign needing little more than a dark corner or an creaking floorboard in the night to reach out and grab you by the throat.

Since I was a child, there have been clowns stalking through my nightmares - waiting.

Threadless Tees is running their third annual Threadless Loves Horror competition.  I could think of nothing more horrific than the emergence of a nightmare clown through a jack-in-the-box (the most fundamentally deranged toy ever given to a baby).

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Compostitional sketch
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On the Design

The artwork for this piece was created entirely in Adobe Photoshop using a Wacom Cintiq Tablet.  I began by loosely sketching the concept in various compositions until I found one that felt right.  At this stage, I am thinking in broad strokes.  What is the audience going to take away from this piece when seen in the blink of an eye?  If I am doing my job, then they will see a child shocked and terrified by a horrific clown.

Once I find my composition, I have to sell it.  This is in the details, and for me, the details are the really fun part.  This is where I get to work out just how vile this jester will be.  The wrinkles, the jagged teeth, the fake nose that may not be fake.  This is also the part of the process where you can catch me making funny faces and weird gestures.  It is invaluable to act out the parts of the characters in your scene.  I strongly believe that you will be able to draw your subjects with more authenticity if you (at least on some minimal level) have stood in their shoes.  Elbows raised with huge snarling grin?  Leaning back, hand draw close to the body?  Yes, I was both the clown (his name is Twinkles) and the kid (place your name here if you are afraid of clowns).

Black and White Art
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The next step was digital inking.  I created a new layer over my sketch and started to create the final artwork right on top of it.  I leave my sketch loose enough that this part is still an exciting, creative process - not tracing.  I was surprised at how little of the kid I had in my initial sketch.

 Clown Final Art
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Next comes the color.  I had decided on my black, white, gray, and red palette during the sketching phase.  At this point I was just following my plan with a bit more finesse.  The colors are rendered using halftones (tiny little dots).  You know what these are if you ever looked way too close at the Sunday funnies when you were a kid.  You can make the dots so tiny that they are virtually imperceptible or leave them big enough so that the viewer is entirely aware of them.  It depends on your preference.  For this Piece I wanted to play the middle ground.  You can see them if you dig into the illustration, but you probably won't notice them with a passing glance.  If anyone is interested in how to create halftones in Photoshop, let me know.  I'd be glad to do a step by step, pure art nerd post about it.

The finished piece is to the right.  Click the link below to rate it on Threadless.

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Thank you, and remember...monsters are real.

Make Room Under Your Desk

Photoshop

No matter the mess in your office, always keep it clean under your desk.  You never know when you might need the space.

Oh look. I've found my chops.

The comatose blogger awakens.  There hasn't seemed to have been much art time recently while preparing to get permahitched.

Spending time away from the drawing table is the absolute best way to get lost in self doubt.  Eventually you have to buckle down and face the dreaded blank page in its featureless face, if for no other reason than to discover that your chops have not abandoned you.  "Oh Chops, you would never leave your old Pah, would you?"

Here is a small character sketch created for a picture book idea that's been percolating for some time. Graphite on cold press watercolor paper.  More to come.
Draw everyday kiddos.

Happy Valentine's Day

Brush and Ink, digital Color - Click to Enlarge

Welcome to Made of Lines, Love Edition.  I know that it's been a while since I've posted, but that doesn't mean I don't love you Baby.  Now, I know you've been hurt before, but I'm here to make it all better.  Let's fill that hole in your heart with A FREE PRINTABLE VALENTINE created by Yours Truly. 

1.Click here to download the printable Valentine
2. Click here to download the Valentine Interior

If you like the card, do me a favor and share this link with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.  Why do you have love, if not to share it?      ----------------------------------------------->

Printing tip:  I set my printer to borderless printing and the cards turned out great.  I used Avery Note Cards, but you can use whatever paper you have around.  Cardstock or photopapers would be best.  All you have to do is print and cut that beautiful baby down the middle.  Bingo-bango!  You now have 2 copies of the cutest little Valentine to come out this year. 

Original Art and the finished product

* I included the interior for those who would like it, but I recommend using the inside to write a special message for your sweetie.  Something along the lines of, "I know you aren't into flowers so I got you a card with bugs on it."  Awww yeah!  It's business time.

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This card is more than a year in the making.  I created the original pencil sketch as a Valentine for my lady last year (she being of the flower hating/bug loving majority).  I like the concept, but I wanted to take it further.  This year I stretched out the image so that the card would have a continuous front and back.  I printed this sketch in light blue (20% cyan for you art nerds - leave a message if you want more info on this).  I then inked over my light blue print.  I rescanned the image, removed the light blue lines, and colored the whole thing in Photoshop. 

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The Batman

Brush and Ink - Click to Enlarge

PUNKS BEWARE!

I have had an itch to put brush and ink to paper.   Today I scratched it.  Scratching it didn't help.  It just turned into a rash that looks like Batman.  Weird!

I called my Dermatologist.  He told me that it wasn't a rash, but a drawing.  He also told me that having an itch doesn't always mean having an itch.  That is even weirder than my Batman shaped rash.  I think I need a new Dermatologist.






About the drawing:  This is one of those sketches that I created without even an inkling (sweet pun) of a plan.  I had a piece of watercolor paper, a brush and some ink.  It is always one helluva party when art supplies and the subconscious get together.   You never know who else will show up.  Could be a mouse on a mission.  Often it is Wolverine.  Sometimes it's David Byrne or a fowl-esque dragon.  Today Batman arrived in a dark alley.  Helluva party! 

Start to finish, the sketch probably took 25-30 minutes.  It is a mess, as it should be.  I didn't plan a bit of it.  The anatomy is a mess.  There is no clear light source.  Some parts are way over-done (head and face).  Others are way under-done (the mist/smoke effect).  There are some bits that I really like about it.  This is the first time I played with dry-brush on rough cold-press paper as an inking technique.  Cool effect.  I really like it in the bricks.  I also enjoy the brushwork in the cape, though I am still trying to suss out what is appealing about it.  What I like more than anything else is the smirk on the dark knight's face.  It looks as though he is really going to enjoy whatever punishment he is about to dish out on some punks.  Batman as a maniac vigilante always made a lot more sense to me than Batman as a super hero.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

I put this video-blog together for my elementary students, comparing the artistic process to the writing process that we follow in school.  A lot of kids began drawing snowman pictures after watching it.  Very cool.  Since it follows my process from conception to completion, I figured I should share it on my art blog.  Just keep in mind that the target audience ranged from 5 to 10 years old (and I'm no Bob Ross).

Click here if embedded video does not play! :)

Watercolor - Click to Enlarge

Pencil- Click to Enlarge

Pencil - Click to Enlarge

Valley of the Shadow

"Her hungry yellow eyes examined his mousey frame - measured the distance between them.

He stood defiant." 

THANKSGIVING 2010

 

Don't worry, fella.  You made it.

Happy Halloween!

I bust my hump all weekend on this report, and she can't even look me in the eye.  What am I to her?  Just a pair of feet?

I should report her, but then I may never get the promotion.  What can I do?

Harassment in the workplace is a complex issue.  

Just ask Bigfoot.

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"Take me!" the buzzard longingly whispered in the alligator's ear.

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Is it the pinnacle of nerdiness or the zenith of dweebery?  Whichever it may be, I was it last night.  On Thursday, Septermber 9th, from 7 until 10 p.m. I sat alone in my room and drew a dragon.

LIGHTNING BOLT!

I began by sketching out my beastly friend very roughly using a Photoshop airbrush and my Wacom tablet.  After my evil eyed Eragon was generally laid out, I switched to the dodge and burn tools.  This allowed me to focus solely on the lights and darks of this malevolently mouthed menace.  I have found that using the dodge and burn tools can sometimes create a shiny, almost slimy affect.  Perfect for creeping creepers and dripping drool.

LIGHTNING BOLT!

Click to Enlarge and Check out that Drool

Once I was satisfied, I set my lascivious lizard layer into multiply mode.  This let the white parts of my gray-scale gargoyle become transparent, essentially making my dastardly drawing into a 21ist century coloring book page.  I began digitally painting with absolute freedom, knowing that my black and white rendering was solid and would hold the picture together despite any ham-handed coloring.  One thing to watch out for when working in multiply mode, is that your highlights will dull out as you fill in those glowing whites with color.  To counteract this problem, I simply added another layer on top called highlights, and airbrushed those shiny moments back into existence.  This was especially important in the eye, teeth, and all that glorious drool.

*Doesn't my dragon look like the long lost child of a buzzard and an alligator?  That must have been quite the romance.

Turn on the Blue Light

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I worked up a quick digital painting of a kid in some sort of mysterious glow.  No real concept.  I was just playing with the blue light from below. 

All in all, this isn't terrible for an experiment.  I like some of the forms (particularly around the brows) and some of the lighting effects.  This could serve as a nice preliminary sketch that could be taken much further with a little pre-painting research.

A Quick Watercolor Sketch

As it so often seems to do, life intercedes (or is it interferes?).  I have been, and will continue to be incredibly busy for the foreseeable future.  While I have to acknowledge that my art output and ambitions will be slowing down due to some important obligations, I will not be giving in or up.  I will continue to post on this blog while working my way toward the life I have always wanted and have been working for since I could hold a pencil.  There are no roadblocks insurmountable, only detours.

That said, I suspect that my posts will be briefer and my artwork more of the sketch variety.  My hope is that the new "quick and dirty" Made of Lines will prove to be even more fruitful and satisfying moving forward.

This weekend I worked up this quick watercolor sketch.  Clearly I was thinking of my Despereaux digital painting.  I have been looking at this sketch all weekend, reminded of the wonderful vitality of the watercolor medium, and its storytelling potential.

Onward...