picture engineering: the art blog of Rendez Padgett

figure drooring

2012-02-08T08:02:00.001-08:00

Playing around with some gouache and ink in my toned sketchbook. I like some of the effects I achieved here, but I'm going to keep working with it to see what I can do to push this into my toolbox.

Year of the Dragon

2012-02-06T15:29:00.001-08:00

Latest 2-pager for Richmond Magazine. This one was about the Chinese Year of the Dragon coinciding with the political candidates racing toward the election. The AD Steve Hedberg initially wanted a more daring illustration with the candidate's heads adorning dragon bodies, but once he saw the sketches, he decided it was too "creepy". So I reworked the sketch to a rough version of the final you see here and got the 'green-light' to go ahead. The political candidates I was asked to showcase were Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican George Allen. Instead of human heads, I went with the Democratic Donkey and the Republican Elephant as heads to the dragons. Thanks to Steve and all the guys at Richmond Magazine for keeping me busy!

Here's my initial "creepy" concept sketches.

Sketchbook Avalanche

2012-02-01T06:46:00.001-08:00

Erykah Badu Portrait

2012-01-04T12:32:00.000-08:00

Portrait of Neo-Soul singer Erykah Badu. Charcoal, Pastel, Ink, Gouache, and Digital.

Tom Waits Portrait

2011-12-29T18:05:00.000-08:00

Portrait of multi-instrumentalist musician, actor, and Satan Mr. Tom Waits. Graphite, chalk, ink, and digital.

sneak preview at a w.i.p.

2011-12-20T12:35:00.000-08:00

Here's a sneak peak at the second installment of my Au Courant Orchestra drawings. Really focusing on simple values and shapes and resisting the urge to render my drawing into submission.

Dead Dogwood Awards

2011-12-11T17:35:00.000-08:00

Here's another piece done for Richmond Magazine. The "Dead Dogwood" awards are silly stories that have taken place in Richmond during this year (think humorous "Darwin Awards" for the entire city). This collection of stories was really fun to try to incorporate into a single image. Enjoy!

Here is the approved sketch.

Black Magic Woman

2011-11-27T10:57:00.000-08:00

Did this one with charcoal, pastels, and photoshop. This one is inspired by the mystique of "gypsy" and "flapper" women.

Figure Drawing: The Quest to Draw Human Beings Being Human

2011-11-26T12:51:00.000-08:00

Did these drawings at the Norfolk Drawing Group and a portrait drawing group I sometimes attend. New finished artwork coming soon!

au courant orchestra

2011-11-23T14:12:00.001-08:00

Here's the final version. Thinking of making a series based on this, and handling each piece with different mediums.

Work in progress-(au courant orchestra)

2011-11-17T19:17:00.001-08:00

Here's a sneak at what I've been working on lately. It's graphite, ink, and touches of gouache on illustration board at this stage. Still establishing values and defining things, but I'm liking where it's headed. Sorry for the bad resolution, I shot it with my iPhone camera. More updates on this one to follow!

Foodblogs/Self Proclaimed "Foodies"

2011-11-07T22:04:00.000-08:00

This is the image that went to print.

These 2 images were fleshed-out ideas for the article, but ultimately they weren't used.

I did these images last month for Richmond Magazine. The article was in their humor column about an avid food blogger who proclaims himself and his cohorts to be "foodies", but really they only hit the cliche restaurants (olive garden, TGI Fridays, etc.) and enjoy fine dining accoutrement such as box wine. The Art Director wanted to see what kind of a character I could come up with to fit the story, while working with some loose and splattery pen and ink work with minimal color. I wanted to make the character seem not so much like a snob, as much as an oblivious guy who fancies himself a critic...but has zero merit. This assignment was a really fun curveball to work on.

Oh, and here's the initial character ideation sketches for the "foodie" protagonist. Enjoy!

Rockin' Out on Monday

2011-09-29T19:03:00.000-07:00

Pretty hilarious article I Illustrated for Richmond Magazine about how if you wait too late to show up to the Richmond Folk Festival, you may be the only one left partying. I had an awesome time working on this one. Played around with digital and traditional elements. Enjoy!

Digital Portrait

2011-09-21T20:40:00.000-07:00

Still working with digital life drawing, this time a portrait. I haven't abandoned traditional drawing tools, I actually have some decent figure drawings I did the other night using Nu-Pastels and toned paper. However, I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy working-out my digital muscles. I've wanted to push this medium and make it a more solid addition to my repertoire, just as much as the traditional tools.

Another Attempt at Digital Figure Painting

2011-09-06T21:59:00.000-07:00

Had a lot of fun working on this one at the Norfolk Drawing Group tonight. Enjoy and feel free to leave comments, critiques, rants, or wisdom.

Foray into Digital Figure Painting

2011-08-02T19:41:00.000-07:00

Tonight was our painting session at my weekly figure drawing group. Even though I stayed up late last night priming canvases with every intention of doing a traditional oil painting... just before I left to go paint, I changed my mind and decided to grab my laptop and Wacom tablet. Low and behold, I actually had a blast. I tried approaching this as I would if it were a traditional oil painting by making and keeping my marks. I kept my edges in mind and tried to not render the details to death. I was keeping the wisdom of David Leffel in mind when making my marks. To have each stroke be a statement describing something and let it stay. I worked on only 1 or 2 layers and didn't undo anything. Hope you enjoy!

More figure drawings and a portrait

2011-07-28T16:26:00.000-07:00

More figure drawings with NuPastels and a recent portrait.

Recent Figures

2011-07-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

20 minute pose

10 minute pose

40 minute pose (two 20 minute poses)

20 minute pose

10 minute pose

20 minute pose

10 minute pose

3 hour pose

Here's some figure drawings and a 3 hour figure painting that I've done over the last couple of sessions here in Norfolk. The poses range from 10-40 minutes. Since I'm no longer in school it's been good to find a place where I can still get some figure studies done. The drawings were done with nu-pastel on toned paper (canson), and the painting is oil on canvas. Feel free to comment. Take care.

Synesthesia

2011-07-05T12:19:00.000-07:00

Did this piece for my friend's in the band Synesthesia. They wanted some original art for their new merchandise/promotional materials. This one is mixed media: Graphite, Acrylic, Ink, and Digital.

Rock Bottom Deals (Richmond Magazine)

2011-06-09T11:23:00.000-07:00

Here is an illustration I did for Richmond Magazine for their Real Estate Section, about how first time buyers have the upper hand in the real estate market. This one was really tough because it went through a lot of changes from the initial job description, to the sketch, to the final. The article originally was going to be poker themed where the new home buyers were "holding all the cards", but the Art Director quickly felt the idea of the story wasn't clearly coming across. So, the article got a complete ideation overhaul and was changed to "Rock Bottom Deals". Also, they wanted me to be aware the fact that most of these deals are coming by way of foreclosures on current homeowners, so needless to say it was a sensitive subject to illustrate. So below are my thumbnail sketches I sent, from the original poker theme to the final approved sketch. Even though this one was tough I really enjoyed the challenge, and the people at Richmond Mag are always great to work with. Enjoy! Comments Welcome!

Initial "Poker" themed sketches

Final approved sketch

Final execution.

Quick Spot for Richmond Magazine

2011-05-17T07:51:00.001-07:00

Did this quick spot for Richmond Mag about a month ago, which means it should be out now. This was something they needed as a quick turn around, while I was simultaneously doing storyboards for a film project. The Art Director wanted something fun and almost "logo-like' for their "Sexy Seafood" article, about how the positive benefits of seafood outweigh the negative factors...making fish the alluring "bad-boy" of the meat world.

Did this in photoshop.

Louis C.K.

2011-04-29T21:02:00.000-07:00

Mr. Anthony Hopkins

2011-04-22T21:08:00.000-07:00

Graphite, Ink, and Photoshop.

Illustration for Richmond Magazine

2011-04-15T08:05:00.001-07:00

Here's the illustration done for Richmond Magazine about the long waits at local Richmond suburban restaurants. The Art Director wanted an image of a frustrated mother waiting for a table with her children. He wanted the image to not be taken too seriously and be fun, so I chose to handle the image completely digitally instead of my usual rendered approach. I thought rendering the figures too much would give the piece a solemn feel.

Below are the thumbnail sketches I sent the Art Director. He went with the close-up of the mother holding the child. I then did a final sketch which was approved, with one suggestion: to slim the mother down a bit to match the physique of the woman from the supplied reference I was given. So I did for the final.Final Sketch
First round of thumbnails

Mr. Mos

2011-04-01T00:22:00.000-07:00

Portrait of musician, actor, and MC: Mos Def.
Graphite, Acrylic, and Digital on Bristol

Lord of the Flies Variant

2011-03-31T12:55:00.001-07:00

Here's a variant cover for the Lord of the Flies assignment I did a while back. This was one of the other sketch ideas I liked while going through the ideation process and I wanted to see it fleshed out. On a side note, I just bought a brand new scanner so I'll be updating this blog more frequently now.

and now for something different

2011-02-17T22:33:00.000-08:00

Private commission for some great friends of mine. They had their bathroom renovated and hated the wooden access door to their hot tub, so I painted it for them. My friends are both huge fans of marine life so I thought it would be fitting to paint an aquatic scene. I made sure and put all their favorite sea creatures in the scene. Did this with acrylic paint. This was a lot of fun to say the least.

yet another self portrait

2010-12-20T14:17:00.001-08:00

Did another self portrait to experiment with traditional and digital elements. I feel like I'm on to something, but I'm not quite there yet. Stay tuned for some more finished art and sketches!

Portfolio/Branding

2010-12-06T21:03:00.000-08:00

Here's my portfolio thus far with my promotional material. I still need to make a nice holster for my business cards and post cards on the inside. Gotta thank Josh Graydon for screen printing my logo design on the front of my portfolio case.

Lord of the Flies

2010-11-30T17:55:00.000-08:00

Always wanted to do my own version of this book cover. It's basically a graphite drawing with FW and Sumi Inks, then scanned and finished in Photoshop. Barron Storey and Sam Weber are both illustrator giants that have done amazing images for this classic book. I wanted to challenge myself and see what I could bring to the table. Enjoy! (Below are some of my ideation thumbnails for this piece.)

The Sirens of Titan

2010-11-10T00:27:00.000-08:00

Final

Final Sketch

Thumbnail Sketches (all 10,000,000,000 not shown)

Here's my tentative final for the book "The Sirens of Titan" by Kurt Vonnegut. I also included some of the the thumbnails I scribbled down during the ideation process. The final execution is mixed media (to say the least): graphite, acrylic, acrylic gel medium, oil paint, and photoshop.

silhouette sketches

2010-11-09T11:48:00.000-08:00

Playing around with some silhouettes to break the monotony of rendering. Stay tuned for an update of my most recent project, an illustration inspired by the Kurt Vonnegut novel "The Sirens of Titan". It will be complete with process work and final execution.

More Figures

2010-10-26T10:46:00.001-07:00

Did these last Spring in my Advanced Figure Drawing class with Albert Epshteyn. They are both from live models and are graphite on Bristol Vellum.

Sketchbook pages

2010-10-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

Final Attempt

2010-10-18T22:02:00.001-07:00

Final tweaks to my book cover assignment. Graphite, acrylic, and digital.

Self Portrait

2010-10-14T19:29:00.000-07:00

This is graphite and minor digital color on 5"x5" grey rives for practice. I think next time I'm not going to use paper with that amount of texture.

Second Attempt

2010-10-05T18:13:00.000-07:00

Got rid of the confusing "Ghosted Face" on the left and redrew the head of the monk. Still have some more corrections to make before it's finished, but here it is as it stands right now. Graphite, acrylic paint, digital

First Attempt

2010-09-26T21:04:00.001-07:00

Early stages of my book cover for the novel, "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter M. Miller for my Senior Portfolio class. I'm sure a lot is going to change before it's finished.

Figure Drawings

2010-09-24T23:35:00.000-07:00

Back to School Sketches

2010-09-14T11:45:00.000-07:00

Seeing as how this is my last semester, I guess it makes this the beginning of the end of my VCU sketches.

Latin Acoustic Improv

2010-09-03T14:30:00.001-07:00

Playing around with a variation of a Latin Song I used to know.

Brave New World

2010-07-24T22:52:00.000-07:00

summer sketch update

2010-07-16T22:12:00.001-07:00

First sketch offerings of the summer. Trying to keep the energy of the illustration academy up. Stay posted for more finished work and of course sketches.

Illustration Academy 2010

2010-06-28T09:52:00.000-07:00

Here's my work from this summers illustration academy. By far one of the best experiences I've had, not just as an artist. I got to work side by side with some of my biggest heroes: Sterling Hundley, Robert Meganck, Doug Chayka, Josh George, John English, Jon Foster, Anita Kunz, C.F. Payne, Jason Manley, our interaction via the web with the Kansas City Chapter, and not to mention all the artists from around the globe that I had the privilege of working beside for 4 weeks.

^This was a 20 minute head study of fellow artist and friend Charles Valsechi, for Doug Chayka's alternative portrait assignment. It was done in oils on Strathmore 500 illustration board.

^This was Chris Payne's assignment, simply called "conversation", in which we had to come up with a scene interacting with 2 characters.

^This was for Jon Foster's young adult book cover assignment. I chose "Lullaby" from Chuck Palahniuk, in which parents are unknowingly killing their children with this nursery rhyme, that actually is an African culling song for those who are deathly ill or infirm.

^Here is Anita Kunz's assignment, Conceptual Portrait of a famous person. I did John Belushi. I wanted to show him in a light that was different from what we immediately remember him as. He was a big, wild, and volatile comedian and actor. All of the images I could find had him acting goofy or in character. I wanted to show him as he would look after his performance, when the joke isn't funny anymore. My feeling was that for someone to be that animated and in need of attention, there must be more going on under the surface.

^This one was Robert Meganck's alternative assignment: Illustrate the lyrics to the Tom Waits song "What's he building in there?". I did this with ink and acrylic and it had to be black and white (I technically used unbleach titanium white for the background so it's totally legal!).

^I did this one on my own, just taking the opportunity to play with paint and get feedback from my heroes. Just for fun. It's oil on board 10"x10".

^Again this was for fun. I did this one because the first day of the illustration academy we all saw this place right down the street and I couldn't pass on the opportunity to paint it. That's pretty much my reasoning for doing it. oil on panel 6"x6".

Meta For War

2010-05-23T08:31:00.001-07:00

Here is my final for my Sequential Imaging class here at VCU. It's titled "Meta For War" and I guess you could call it a mixed media piece(?). It is oil paint on 5 cradled panels (each 6"x6" in size). The other squares were filled with actual military ribbons, brass, and pins which I acquired from a fellow art student and retired Army vet Joe Sullivan. I bought the flag and learned how to properly fold it, and also bought the dogtags (which bear the name John Doe). I made a frame out of 1"x2" select pine, then stained and sealed it. I added a black curtain to fill the frames I knew would have the military ribbons, pins, etc., then I put a wooden backing on it to give it some structural support.

With this piece I really wanted to combine the idea of chess and war. I've played chess for a long time and have always liked the idea of it being a game born out of tactical military approach. I knew early on I wanted my final piece to be set up like a chess board, so the painted panels and the objects on black backing I thought played that up pretty well. I also wanted this piece to read as 2 narratives that parallel one another. If you follow the progression of the game, it mirrors the progression of the John Doe soldier. I tried using the black knight as a protagonist through the chess paintings to help keep a cohesiveness so it would read as a story. I tried using unusual angles in the paintings to sort of play with the idea of the scale of the chess pieces and how they are normally perceived. The military pieces were set in a way to hopefully read as a chronicling of a soldier's career from entering the service, to retirement/death. The dogtags indicate the soldier entering the service, the pins indicate the training received, the brass and patches show what company he was with and that he saw combat, and finally the bars and folded flag indicate the end. As the soldier's story ends, the chess pieces arrive at checkmate.

This was a challenging but fun piece to work on. I got to break out of my comfort zone a little and actually build something in combination with my paintings.

2010 Juried Student Exhibition @ The Anderson Gallery

2010-05-02T23:22:00.000-07:00

^This was my piece that got into the show this year. It's called "(mis)anthropology" and it's oil on 24"x48" birch wood panel.

^Mr. Josh George staring contemplatively.

The show was really well curated this year, and all of the artist's had great work to show. Congrats to everyone that got chosen to exhibit. Thanks to the VCU Communication Arts faculty and everyone that stopped by to check it out.

Also, I have a ton of work waiting to be posted, it's just that most of the work I've done this semester has been too big to scan so I'll need to take some hi-res photographs. But before I can do that, I have to get my hands on a decent camera since mine is garbage.

sketcheries

2010-04-10T13:27:00.000-07:00

been busy with various projects..but for now here's some sketches. keep an eye out for some finished work coming very soon

sequential boxing

2010-03-23T13:56:00.001-07:00

here's a boxing sequence I did for sequential imaging. we had to show a 3 step process from 3 different view points, totaling 9 panels. so I did a jab, cross, uppercut from boxing. these were done on 6"x6" bristol with ink and acrylic. thanks to my roommate Ben for posing for me.

the " outside is cold enough to freeze my face off "-sketches

2010-02-16T11:11:00.001-08:00

new year sketches

2010-01-20T14:04:00.001-08:00

digi and traditional

2009-12-23T15:06:00.000-08:00

Trying to stay busy during the break. I'm interning with Robert Meganck at Communication Design,Inc. over the holidays, so I'm definitely flexing my photoshop skills. Also, I'm working on getting better with oil paint too. I'm really enjoying the balance of digital and traditional media right now. Two of the paintings are 2 feet square, and the other is 2x4 feet on birch. The Thom Yorke portrait was my first digital celebrity portrait.

newest pieces

2009-12-08T08:04:00.000-08:00

fall sketches

2009-11-16T08:27:00.001-08:00

in-class lighting effects for photography

2009-11-11T10:33:00.000-08:00

Took these pictures in my photographic principles class. We were experimenting with lighting effects coupled with movement and various shutter speeds.

photography stuff

2009-10-20T22:52:00.000-07:00

2009-10-12T23:54:00.001-07:00

100th post

2009-09-25T19:14:00.000-07:00

draw.

2009-09-16T16:14:00.001-07:00

today's drawings

2009-09-03T22:58:00.000-07:00

sketch update

2009-08-30T12:46:00.001-07:00

celf portrait

2009-08-26T12:28:00.000-07:00

cell phone self portrait for Josh Bishop's Photographic principles class. It's a picture of my face next to the television. I took the photo with my cell phone and then took a picture of the cell phone with my camera. The option displays on my cell phone seemed interesting this way.

2009-08-13T20:35:00.000-07:00

sketches

2009-07-17T07:40:00.000-07:00

the medicine man

2009-05-06T00:03:00.001-07:00

Swine Flu

2009-05-04T23:27:00.001-07:00

Here's a glimpse at my final project in Scientific Illustration. It's an editorial illustration about a current scientific dilemma or occurrance, so I chose the swine flu. I worked off of an initial mixed media sketch in my sketchbook that I really liked and then worked further on it digitally in photoshop. I may tweak it a little more before I turn it in, but for the most part this is what it is going to look like. The image is 5"x5".

This is the one I actually turned in.

Here it is with the symbol returned and some tweaks with the textures and colors.

In this version I removed the giant biohazard symbol because I was worried it got too cluttered with the new texture. The texture is what the actual swine flu virus looks like under a microscope.

This is the original idea I went with.

2009-05-03T10:20:00.000-07:00

haven't yet have vignette

2009-04-30T07:50:00.000-07:00

The top one is an experiment I did to see if I could make a glaze go over ballpoint pen. The drawing itself is from imagination (and is awful). Overall I think the glazing process was successful, but I think I saturated the glaze with too much color and lost some of the form in the original drawing. The nose originally had alot more shape and the glaze made the lips turn out really red. The bottom one is just some random observation drawings piled on top of one another with a play on words.

If you had one more eye you'd be a cyclops

2009-04-28T23:58:00.000-07:00

soca and such

2009-04-24T20:10:00.001-07:00

did these with ballpoint pen. the statue head was a mixed media experiment (w/ notes on how I did it and what happened).

new painting

2009-04-22T00:20:00.000-07:00

Did this on Rives Bfk. It's acrylic done entirely witha palette knife. Got the inspiration from something I did quite a while ago in my sketchbook about "Blind Oedipus Rex" but never got around to making a finished piece out of it.

today's sketches

2009-04-17T19:06:00.001-07:00

What an awesome day to have been outside. I sketched around a little today and went to SOCA's figure drawing session.

I was cutting across campus to get some food and low and behold there was a percussionist stage-cage-thing set up behind the Hibbs bldg. There were 4 or 5 members playing home made percussive instruments like trashcans, coat hangers, and bike wheels. It was so random! I did my best to sketch them in action but they didn't sit still at all, they were constantly changing seats and swapping instruments. Afterwards one of the members came over and asked to see what I had been drawing. He flipped when he saw it and had the other members come over and check it out. They asked if they could have the sketch, but I had some important stuff on the other side of the page so I sent it to him in an email, free of charge. I figure it made us even since they had just entertained me so much with there little stage set up.

One last revision before I turn it in

2009-04-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

added some textures and a bit more contrast. Also I tweaked the colors of the figure as well. hopefully I'm done with this project, so I can move on to the 1.23975498735980 Billion other things I have to finish before the end of the semester.

Honors Studio!...and a Digital Piece!

2009-04-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

Just got the word today that I got accepted into the Communication Arts Honors Studio program next semester. Apparently each of us that were accepted get our own studio space and the class is pretty much self driven projects geared toward grooming us for work at the professional level. I am so stoked and honored to get accepted. Plus a lot of really cool people got into the class as well, so next semester is going to be awesome. Hopefully it will be a positive and a creatively challenging environment. Congrats to everyone else that got in as well. Cheers!

Oh yeah and here is the latest illustration I've completed in Digital Drawing. We had to illustrate a folktale and I chose the tale of John Henry. I tried to do this in an early American style in what I would imagine would make a decent book cover, but I don't think I quite pulled it off. I kept the hard edges on the figure so he would be the main focus, and kept everything else somewhat soft and painterly.

gave him some friends

2009-04-15T21:29:00.001-07:00

in between digital assignments, this fell into my sketchbook

2009-04-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

Geez, with digital drawing, 2D animation, and Scientific Illustration I'm sure getting my fill of Photoshop. Felt like drawing in pencil from my messed up brain.

droorings

2009-04-10T20:58:00.001-07:00

Botanical Illustration

2009-04-10T19:41:00.000-07:00

Did this for my Scientific Illustration class. It was a botanical project in which we had to illustrate a plant/fruit/or vegetable's lifecycle or feeding cycle. We had to dissect our specimens and show how they work from the inside out. I did the anatomy of a nectarine. This is the revised piece with no text (besides the title and the anatomy), in the one I showed for critique I had a lot of little factoids about the nectarine and its origin, but I was told it was too distracting from the image. I did this with watercolor and ink, and the text was done in photoshop.

Fish Organs Study

2009-04-06T10:47:00.001-07:00

Continuing with our dissected specimen studies, here are the organs of the mullet fish. I did this drawing with prismacolor colored pencils and touches of white gouache for highlights.

fish muscle study

2009-04-03T12:44:00.000-07:00

Did this for my Scientific Illustration Class. We have to do 3 well rendered studies of a dissected specimen (minimum of 4 hours per study). I dissected a mullet fish (apparently it's the only fish with a gizzard!). I had my friend Jay helped me with the dissection because he's good at that sort of thing...I would have ruined the fish. We have to do 1 study in color, 1 b&w, and 1 mixed media, of the muscle/fat, organs, and vascular/nerve system all from life or our own photo references. I did this with watercolor.

sketch of the day 1

2009-04-02T20:34:00.001-07:00

Some Fan Art

2009-04-02T01:19:00.000-07:00

I freakin love the show "Dexter". So I felt some lame fan art was in order. Did this really quick with brushpens and fw inks. Watch the show!

watercolor sketch

2009-03-31T20:53:00.000-07:00

Did this sketch as a study for my final project in Digital Drawing. We have to illustrate a folktale and I chose the story of John Henry. I got my friend Jason Nowlin to pose for some reference photos. I'll post the final piece once it's complete.

Recent Sketches

2009-03-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

Oil Rub Drawing

2009-03-30T08:41:00.000-07:00

Did this as a Christmas gift for my friends and never got around to scanning it before I gave it to them. I borrowed it back so I could get a digital copy of it.

finished basilisk

2009-03-19T18:10:00.000-07:00

here's the final version of my digital drawing project. I added the rooster because according to folklore the rooster's crow is the only thing that can kill a basilisk. i worked with some more color and trying to over all make it look like a believable environment.

2009-03-19T00:54:00.000-07:00

I have been drawing and painting so much lately I think I'm developing tendonitis...awesome! Here's a glimpse of my new sketchbook.

out with the old in with the new

2009-03-16T13:50:00.000-07:00

Got 2 new sketchbooks over Spring Break. One is going to be entirely for hand sketches and the other will be more for my life drawing/experimentations. I'm already 20 pages deep in the hand sketchbook, I haven't started in the other one as of yet. Here's a sneak peak at the hands!

Painting in Progress

2009-03-07T08:51:00.000-08:00

Just started on this painting last night. It's a conceptual piece about a couple of things. It is a two-fold statement about the way we are fighting so hard to impose democracy on people who have never known a Western ideological government, and how Islamic women are so persecuted in every way imaginable. So, this is the very early stages of my conception. It's oil on 11"x17" canvas.

the godfather of goodfellas

2009-03-04T12:00:00.000-08:00

Cinema would not be the same without Martin Scorcese!

Doug Stanhope

2009-03-02T18:43:00.000-08:00

Did this with a ballpoint pen and pentel brushpens. No pencils, no erasers!!!

ballpoint pen hand studies

2009-03-01T20:44:00.000-08:00

Almost done with my watercolor moleskine!!

2009-02-28T21:15:00.000-08:00

Got about 6 pages left, so my next post will most likely be the end of my watercolor moleskine (boo hoo) and the start of my next sketchbook (yay!!). Been mostly sketching with a cheap-ass ballpoint pen, and I like it.

Sketchbook Dumpage

2009-02-23T13:27:00.000-08:00

Here's some stuff from my two different sketchbooks. I've been keeping a tiny moleskine for weird creatures and anatomical studies, and my trusty watercolor moleskine for more "appropriate" sketching, whatever that means. I also threw in some quick gesture sketches, because I'm still trying to up my speed.

Basilisk

2009-02-18T23:42:00.000-08:00

Here's the project I'm currently working on in digital drawing, as it stands right now. We have to illustrate a mythological beast from written text as we would perceive it. My creature is the Basilisk: a beast with the head of a chicken, the tale of a serpent, and thorned wings that turns people to stone, poisons/dries up rivers, and creates deserts wherever it lands. I decided to make the Basilisk embody the desert that it creates. I've still got almost a month before it's due, so I plan to really knock this one out of the park. This isn't the best representation of this image. When I copied it to a GIF file, the compression jumbled some of the colors into weird amorphous blob shapes (and they don't look like that as a PSD file). I'm trying to work with a relatively limited palette (Blues, Greens, Red/Browns, no black so far, and minimal white).

Quick Photoshop Concept Sketch (no references)

2009-02-18T00:09:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick photoshop concept sketch for the band Synesthesia (took about an hour). The term Synesthesia is sort of a disorder (not really all bad) where the input to one of your senses gets coupled with a different sense perception. For example, there are some people who claim to see colors when they hear music. Since the band is pretty dark and heavy, I thought I'd give it a darker twist and make a character wear a device that surges energy to the eyes and ears through an apparatus connected to the brain, thus 'force feeding' Synesthesia to the wearer. It's way rough I know, but I figure it's got enough information in it to let them know where I'm coming from and to help me feel-out where they want me to go with it. Any suggestions would be appreciated, but please keep in mind it's rough (I know I need to put the figure in an environment, calm down the electricity confusion, and tighten everything up overall).

a sketch in the life of a day

2009-02-15T00:41:00.000-08:00

Today's sketch that I managed to squeeze in between projects. It's an amalgamation of fw inks and brushpens.

"What a day, what a day if you can look it in the face and hold your vomit"

2009-02-11T23:34:00.000-08:00

Sketchbooking meanderingness.

Been Bizzy

2009-02-02T21:18:00.000-08:00

I've been pretty artistically active as of late. Between my class assignments, a recent commission, and keeping up with my sketchbook I barely have a minute to myself...it's pretty friggin sweet. I've been commissioned to do the promotional artwork for a band called Synesthesia. I'll be posting some process stuff and the final result once they decide on exactly what they want. They've given me a lot of creative freedom so it's going to be fun, and they are an awesome band so..that helps. Well here's today's sketchbook page. Feel free to comment if you've stopped by.

spirit is a bone

2009-01-30T20:45:00.000-08:00

This was a strange piece. I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do, but no real approach. So, I started experimenting with some colors and different inks until I got the general vibe I wanted. Then, I drew in the skeletal fragments with FW ink. I'm pretty happy with it, but I'm not sure exactly what I like about it.

2009-01-28T15:29:00.000-08:00

Couple of failed experiments. The top one is a texture experiment with different inks, rubber cement, a brayer, and masking tape. I don't really even know why I posted it. Maybe I'll come back to it in the future with an actual concept for its use.