CROW

Some days you just sit down and draw, had the most marvelous time with this, just a pencil, a kneaded erasure and a sheet of paper.......

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RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU ALL THE TIME

Early on in the last week or so, I came to a passage in my rereading of The Hobbit, it is where Bilbo is up on a limb saving the Dwarves from the giant spiders of Mirkwood. As I was reading I was drawing images in my head and composing a piece to be painted. When I got the chance I picked up my doodlebook and drew out this little rough:

 After drawing out the scene, I kept looking at the piece and thinking there was something oddly familiar about it.  I let it sit a while as I had other things going on at the time, but it was still in the back of my mind as I was for lack of a better word, bothered by the image.

Eventually I got back to it, and sat down with a bit of ink and watercolours and completed my little rough so I could move on to the next phase and get it to the board as soon as I could.

With that done, I still kept thinking "what is it about this drawing that is bothering me?" 

Now, skip forwards a few days and it is the weekend, weather is warmer and time to set up the front porch for another season of porchsettin, so we spend the day getting the porch cleaned and the cushions all aired out, the blinds and the curtains up........it is a nice relaxing porch for settin, talkin, socializin, and doodlin.

After all the work is done it is time to set a spell and as soon as I plop down in my chair ........... I look at the oak tree I have looked at for the past 14 years and my light bulb goes off.............THAT IS MY LIMB!!! I just start laughing as I realized why the image was familiar and bothering me. 

I drew the limb from a tree that has been right in front of me the whole time and just didn't realize it until I sat down on the porch. I walk past this limb daily as I go out our front door, but never looked up or at the tree. It wasn't til I sat down and looked out that everything was in the right order, the angle the perspective and the whole 9 yard that it hit me.

Now, granted I did not draw the limb exactly as it looks in real life, but it is there, it is the influence for my rough. It has been filtered and stored in the back of my brain to finally come out here as the shot needed for the drawing. 

So, the point of this whole long story, is basically to be observant, watch and study everything, you will retain the information somewhere and it will pop out when you least expect it. Reference is EVERYWHERE, everyday things can be turned into the images you need for your fantasy works.

We are all influenced by the world around us visually and  we do store all this information in our heads and are influenced by it subconsciously. There are many, many tools available to us as artists and illustrators that we can glom on to for reference, the internet has become a valuable tool, but we cannot forget about the world right in front of us. Observation is an amazing gift if we just look at the things right in front of us. Sometimes we see it and just don't realize it.

THE PERFECT PASSAGE

Sometimes when you read, there is a passage that sticks with you, just resonates and sort of speak to you......you get it, and in my case I sort of see it, it is there visually for me. 

For me, when I read, I take visual notes of things to possibly draw,  as I a rereading The HOBBIT again, I came to this part of the book:

" he saw all round him a sea of dark green, ruffled here and there by the breeze; and there were everywhere hundreds of butterflies. "

When I read this again, I immediately sketched out this image:

That very brief passage was for me the perfect amount of description to let my mind go to work. It had all the information needed to move from rough sketch to a more detailed image.

So from the initial rough, I went on to a colour image. The following pictures show the progress to the final piece.........

From here, I will in all honesty move on to doing a full on oil of this image.

This piece is done in Gouache on a piece 9 X 12 Strathmore 400 Series toned paper.

MORE PENCIL FUN

Just relaxing the other day and doing a fun little pencil piece..........just to do a pencil piece

JUST DRAW

Sometimes you just sit down and draw. No if''s, and's, or but's...........

Last night was just one of those nights, I was tired, exhausted even, just a long day, and I needed to relax. So, I pulled out a piece of paper..11 X 14, and sat there, and my hand started to idly move about and slowly a shape started to take, well ......... shape. 

The shape turned into a girl sort of crouching and leaning and as I drew, I started to become quite relaxed and just totally into what I was doing, and after about 90 minutes or so, I had a drawing.

 Whilst she is not quite finished, still need to do her hand and left leg, I sort of like her as is too. 

There is something to be said for just drawing, it is an amazing thing. Next time you are tired and need a way to relax or unwind.........pick up a pencil and let your day go and just see what comes out.

She was done on Bristol, with just a 2 B pencil and a kneaded erasure....

Sometimes the simple things are the best things........

DOODLE BOOK COVERS

I had seen a post a while back from James Gurney over on his blog the GURNEY JOURNEY about his sketch books and that he was doing little lettering and painting things on the covers, the post was about lettering or sign painting, I am going to post a link as soon as I can find it..........but after seeing the post, I thought " WOW!! what a great idea " and said to myself " Tracy, you should do something on the fronts of your doodlebooks so that you can sort of tell one black book from another "

Well some time went by, and with that still in the back of my mind, I bought a little acrylic paint set, and sat down with my latest book and since I am in a Barsoomian mood and have been doing a lot of Mars concept pieces, I decided to paint a Banth on the cover. 

The set I bought came in a little plastic case, and I can use the inside cover of the lid as a palette, and the colours are pretty much the same as more core group that I use daily in my oils, so all was a go. 

I have to say that just sitting there in the living room watching the tele and leisurely putting the paint down on this was a total joy, no pressures, no deadline just sort of painting to be painting. 

PENCIL FUN

It is pretty much well known that I love the pencil, it is the King Daddy of  all the media for me, and sadly, I rarely use it except to do roughs, and doodles, but every once in a while I have the opportunity to just sit down and play........here is one of those moments from this past weekend.

LIZARD QUEEN

14 X 17 

pencil on Bristol

$50.00

YES FOLKS......... IT IS WORK

In the not too distant past ( yesterday ) I had someone come up to me and say, " man I wish I could do what you do, just sit down and have a drawing or painting......what you do is so easy "

BULLSHIT!!! 

  ...... sorry for the explicative, but  guess what, it ain't all sit down and have yourself a drawing!!!

There is a little bit of work that goes into what we do, yes sometimes we do just sit down and have a piece come to us:

 

...with this pencil piece, I was sitting on my front porch  enjoying the morning and drinking my coffee, and I KNEW I wanted to d a Tarzan like image with an ape....that was all I had in mind when I did this,  I started to let my pencil move randomly, and started working on the ape..... on the back of this are the first attempts of the ape, he changed position on this side and the drawing came to me.

These are the things that never really get seen, the prelims and roughs. ALL the little hoohahs that go into the final piece that everyone sees.......the final piece is work but it is not all the work, even as we or at least I am working on the final image, I am still editing and trying to improve the piece. 

Below are some examples of  the roughs and the finished piece......

With all art, the piece starts with an idea or concept.........it is not perfect, it comes out, and then gets worked on. There are a lot of behind the scenes and extra features that go into the making of an image. If one piece was feature movie, and you got the bonus disc with the "making of" features, you would see that like making a movie, the making of a drawing. or painting....has a lot more into it than just "draw" or "paint".

When you look at a finished painting for example, you are seeing HOURS of work just in the painting.....and that does not include the hours spent in the beginning of the piece.

And to let you in on a little secret.............most of my favourite art to look at are the roughs and prelims......the raw energy and unrefined idea, the thought process of what will go into the piece and what will be left out..........for me those are the cool things.

O.k., that is the end of my rant, but there is work behind everything, and even a drawing and painting, and nothing is ever as easy as it looks.............

IN PRAISE OF THE MIGHTY PENCIL

I  personally cannot say enough about this amazing tool. It is the King Daddy of all the media in my book and I shamefully do not use it enough. I love what can be done with it...........whether it be a simple sketch or doodle.

the beginnings of something else like an ink, watercolour or painting.....

or the full on in your face drawing....................here is the ol' boy at work, and yes he is a work horse, do not deny the might of a pencil or what can be done with one. It is where every great work of art starts, and in a lot of cases ends. Drawing is the foundation of all the arts.

Hooray for the mighty pencil.
...........................................................................

( I also just found out my camera has a video option, so look out.......this is the first of more to come )

IN PRAISE OF THE MIGHTY BRUSH PEN

It is well known in my circle of friends and family that I am a sketch-a-holic, and cannot and will not go anywhere without something to draw with or on, and when I don't I will draw on anything I can find when I start  twitching and jonesing for a quick doodle. The other day my wife and I were out and about running errands and taking care of some business things together, and honestly in some cases I would prefer to wait in the hall or waiting areas rather than go in, she would do likewise, so I didn't feel too bad about it.

I have a really cool bag of stuff  that I carry for extended trips and a commando kit for other times, and most  always something or other.

As I stated above...........I come prepared for these moments of solitude and waiting by bringing things with me to occupy my time........I.E. .... a sketchbook, and a few choice tools of the trade.

In the above picture is an HB pencil, a mechanical pencil ( also HB ) an erasure pen thing and on the left is the Mighty Brush pen!!.

This wonderful but awkward looking thing is a brush pen, the bulbous part on the back is a big 'ol reservoir and can hold any liquid you want. I have mine filled with black ink ... although I did water mine down a little so I can have some greys .... and get black if I go over the areas again. The tip is a really cool fiber that retains a sharp tip for fine lines and will spread out just like a brush to get broad strokes as you need.

This little fellow has become a major part of my sketching and doodling arsenal. He is honestly at this point invaluable, for as I sketch out things I will go back and use him to darken and delineate various sketches that might actually develop into something more  as you will see below.

These little guys were done on the outing with my wife while I waited around at one point, and will eventually be an ink drawing that has to come out soon. As you see some have been highlighted with the brush pen, mainly to define the lights and darks. Spotting my blacks this way ultimately helps me to find the form and basic shapes I am looking for. The rest will follow as I refine the image, but doing things in this way will give ;me a very quick idea of where I really want to go.

With my brush pen, I can do it on the go, and not wait until I get back into the studio and get out my ink and brushes, a very handy tool. if you don't have one, I would strongly suggest you look into getting one.

I usually buy mine at CheapJoes.

SNAIL GIRLS

For those of you who are on my Facebook you are or maybe aware of my on going SNAIL GIRLS  drawings, but for those of you not on FB with me or are unaware of the series I am going to recap a little bit. ONe day I sat down with my sketchbook and doodled out a little thing of a faerie riding on the back of a snail sort of like  bull riding at a rodeo, I like it so much that I found a small piece ( scrap ) of paper that I had lying about and quickly did an ink thing of it:

....and here she is, the "first" Snail Girl. I believe I drew her in 2010.

At some point in the past year I was sitting in my living room ( aka Studio B ) and had messed up a drawing that I was working on, and as I sat there tore it up as usual, but then as I was sitting there looking at the torn paper, I drew a girl talking with a snail:

It was a fun thing to do, and I liked the image, for me it was sort of innocent a girl talking with a snail. After I a while I did another and another. All were done on torn sheets of paper of messed up drawings, and as my collection of Snail Girls grew I decided to keep the torn sheets of paper and have them on hand for the purpose of doing Snail Girls, this envelope sits by my chair in Studio B and is there ready and waiting for the next one to appear:

Here is an example of the approximate size of the drawings:

...and a few more closer images of the girls as well as an early family portrait:

As I continue to do these and looking back at them, I realized there is some sort of conversation going on between these two friends, and in realizing this, it became all the more important to me to continue with this until the conversation was over. At first it was for me about getting the body posture right, balancing the blacks and whites to where one did not over power the other, but now it is more about keeping the friends together...........sort of silly I know, but I like it.

I have to mention that all the drawings are done to the shape of the paper and not tearing the paper to fit the drawing, that would be cheating. The shape of the paper helps to determine what is being said in the drawing. The more of these I do, the more intense the conversation becomes in trying to find a posture or pose that I haven't done before..........who likes to repeat themselves in a conversation.

At the top of this I posted the "first" snail girl, well in cleaning out some things and trying to tidy up the place I found this:

This is the actual First of the SNAIL GIRL images, she was done in 2004, six years before the other First. As you see in the first to images the gals have wings and are in a sort of ironic action pose...........bull riding a snail and surfing on a snail, just something that leans towards my sense of humor, but as I went on they changed, no wings and more of an equality between them.

Anyway, this is some of what comes out in the evenings as I kick back and chillax to end my day. In the next few posts, I will be going to put up a few of the pieces that come out as I wind down and relax in the evenings before going to bed............or on the nights that I can't sleep and get up and try to get sleepy.

STICK PEOPLE

I know you're saying to yourself.............THAT IS NOT A STICK PERSON!!! and you're absolutely right. but how I got to this image was through a construction of a sort of stick figure. I was recently asked to to an image based on It's a Wonderful Life's  drawing of George Lasso's the Moon, and since this is one of my all time favourite movies, this image is burned into my memory. As I sat down with my sketchbook to draw out ol' George, the key thing to this image was his posture. He HAD to have that schlump, and as I started to work the pose,I realized that to get it right I had to break things down to their most basic structure....the stick man:

The outline drawings are the first attempts at getting George's posture right, and as you can see I started to break it down into more basic components of the structure.............STRUCTURE  is a key word too, it is what we are built on, it defines and dictates where we bend and how we move....... so for this to work I went to the internal structure or framework of the body.... a simplified skeletal structure or a stick figure.

 Now some of you are saying this is not  how I draw a stick figure...................most people think of the stick man as this:

As artists we sort of do a more detailed if you will stick figure based on the rib cage, pelvis and head.....the limbs are really the only sticks:

As you can see the rib cage is sort of a cylinder and the hip structure or pelvis is sort of a barbell......a wider barbell can be used as female and narrower as male.... the dots at the end of the stick represent the joints and an oval like thing is the head, the little blob at the bottom can represent the hands or feet.

This little fellow is not new..........Andrew Loomis used a slightly more elaborate fellow than what I do and just about every artist I know or can think about has at one time or another used someone similar to this guy. In Bridgmans books he used more of a blocking system which as you will see further down I used in getting to my final image as well.

The Block man is wonderful in establishing the planes of the figure and helping to map out shadows and musculature in a basic way.

Block man also gives you a whole lot more surface area to see how things can pan out.... he is a cool dude.

In the doodles to the left you can see the page in which I arrived at my George figure. Here you can see I used the stick man as well as a version of block man.

In this I initially drew out the pelvis and to achieve mys schulmp.....I set the ribs back away from them and not linearly on top where they would usually go  ( this is the little fellas at the bottom of the page ). I then used block man up top to sort of see a more solid form and from there I drew the final George.





So as you can see..............the Stick Figure is not really a lowly creature but really an extremely useful little guy. He can help you to find a position, or specific posture, he can help you to define movement and perspective. He is a work horse.............

..................................you can even draw a stick horse ( bottom of the page )

 So, whenever someone says to me " I can't even draw a stick figure" I really can see why at times. The Stick Man is  a cool dude and someone I come to rely on a lot at times.

Ya'll should get to know him if you don't.

A little bit of INK-site into my process

The other day I received a few pages in the ol' E-mail for a Werewolf story that I was asked to do some illustrations for, and thought to myself, this would be a good time to go into a bit of my process for doing the pictures. There is no surprises here, or any ground breaking information, nor any divulging of any secrets.....it is read and think..........or at lest in my case read and doodle out what pops into my head as I read.

Any way, as I said, got a few pages of text that contained scenes for the illustrations and I printed them out to read. I know you don't have to do this and can read the words right off the computer screen, but I am really sort of old fashioned and like having paper in my hands. I also like to tote the things around with me and get to them as my schedule allows. If it is nice, I like to  sit on my porch and do this, or in some cases if  I have an appointment I carry them with me and do it whilst I wait. 

{ The pages were really good for me and the way I like to work as well, there was detail, but just enough to give me the impressions of the illustrations, but also not so much as to limit what I see .......... I will work with whatever is presented me, but really like this combination and the freedom of interpretation }

The printed page also allows me to doodle right on the page as I read.............

........I am pretty sure there are programs and what not that allow you to do this as well, but like I said........I like paper in my hands.

So, now I have my initial doodle and idea down on the PAPER, I move onto a more "tighter" rough and play with the composition more if I feel the basic idea needs improvement ( or if I am told to by an AD or whomever I happen to be working for at the time ).....

... in the above photo I took my original idea and played with it some more. In this case I wasn't totally happy with what I jotted down, it didn't quite "feel" like the scene to me, so I played and felt I had it in the bottom thumbnail  and proceeded to move on...

The two doodles in the boxes are the ideas I went with to move onto my inking .... (I will talk a bit about the other two in a few when we scroll down to it) ........ the bottom one is really fairly close to the original concept I scribbled onto the page with the text, and as you may notice the other has changed from the initial rough to more like the secondary doodles. From here I went on to do a bit of inking.........

... and ...

..........so I was really happy with the drawing and the inking of the second picture here, but still felt something wasn't right with the top one.......not too bad of a drawing in itself, but really sort of sucked when I looked at the She-woof I did just after, so I went back and re-read the text and found a clue...

( CLUE )

... once I found my clue, I went back to my paper and did some more sketching...........remember the other two drawings on the page.....

I moved the thing from her wrist to her waist sort of like my clue said, rearranged her on the page and bingo, I had something I liked better and felt right as well. 

So now that I am feeling better I drew out the image from the bottom left onto a piece of bristol and have my pencil ready to ink............

.......which we'll get to later, but until then that is my process, and as I said there is nothing ground breaking in it, just good basic reading and comprehention and translating what I read into a picture....ILLUSTRATION!!!