New Figures

We had a genuine Belly Dancer come in for the session last week. Pretty cool, but the sequins really threw off seeing shapes. I think these turned out alright, though. I'm noticing that I'm starting to get impatient with my drawings. It's really hard for me to concentrate on a hand, the shadows, the hair, or a face, etc. Maybe it's time to switch things up...a new medium, perhaps. Or maybe we need to turn a few lights on in the session room so you can actually see what you are drawing. Yeah, I think that would help. Anyways, just when I think things are coming along, this morning happens. We had a soccer player as a model this morning, complete with ball, shin guards, headband - the whole shebang. Not really in the mood for drawing baggy shorts and shirts, I went for a portrait. Bad idea. It started out okay and got progressively worse. After about 45 minutes, I had to stop, and this is what came of it. It's decent, but I had to stop before I completely ruined it. Looks like someone smeared Silly Putty all over his eyes. Once again, I was getting impatient, and it shows.

More Figure Drawings from Fridays

These are some other figure drawings that have been piling up in my office. Finally got around to it. All are 18x24 Charcoal or NuPastel except the Sepia one. It's 8x10 in conte and white charcoal.

Figure Drawing Dump

These are a few drawings from the past few weeks. All are 18x24 in either charcoal or NuPastel. I personally am a big fan of the 2nd gesture. It seems that if your gestures are good, your drawing is going to stink. The reverse is the same.

Another ZBrush WIP

Here's a new image...finally. I have a ton of figure drawings that I would like to put up, but I haven't had my camera at work to take images of them, so I guess this will do until tomorrow or Friday. I'm really enjoying ZBrush now. I've just barely scratched the surface, but it's really fun. One of the most unintuitive interfaces ever, and I am still getting the hang of it. But I LOVE the layer system in it, and I have fallen in love with the sculpting brushes! Well, There will be more to come.

Figure Drawing Heresy

Well, for the past 10 years, I have been brainwashed into believing that the cardinal sin in figure drawing is to use BLACK NuPastel. Heresy! The only worthy figure drawing medium was Cordovan(sp?) or Bottle Green. All other mediums are worthless. So for the past 10 years, I have mainly used those two. In art stores, I wouldn't even consider looking in the general direction of black NuPastel. It was the enemy, and there was absolutely no way that I would be coerced into using that faulty, lesser medium.

Well, this morning at figure drawing, I grabbed an old box of assorted NuPastel, and lo and behlod, there was BLACK in it!! But for some reason, I thought I might give it a chance. I would rebel against my artistic training and give the black NuPastel a go. I was a bit apprehensive. After all, I would be the laughing stock of the art world, at least in the circles I am in...wouldn't I? But I pressed on. I began with a few gestures. After a few strokes, I reeled in shock. I couldn't have just felt that! There's no possible way! The drawing looked....alright. I drew more. Woah! I had just discovered something amazing. I wanted to continue. It was not conte. It was not charcoal (shudder). It was just what I was looking for. It was glorious.

Well, it may not have made my drawing better, but it sure felt goo to use it. I found that letting go of the training I had received was the best thing for me. I've found my new favorite figure drawing medium. It's NuPastel, and it's BLACK. Take that, Barrett and Barksdale and Smith!!

Friday Figure Drawing

Well, it's been 4 weeks since I last did figure drawing, so getting back into it was hard, but I felt pretty good about this one. I started to fiddle with it too much, so I had to stop before I completely ruined it. NuPastel on Paper - 18x24.

This is my first test at using a sphere and ZBrush 3. Man, the interface is a piece of work. Mudbox is amazingly better, but there are some great tools in ZBrush, and I know this is a tiny thing, but I LOVE the wax shader that is the default. Sooooooo much more to work on. This is about an hour of tinkering not knowing what I'm doing...

Cool new Slideshow tool....

You can do this when you have a Picasa Web Album Account! These are all old drawings, but it's a cool little tool!

My Final Dragon

Well, I got it "done" before the weekend. It was a little more frustrating than I originally thought it would be. Probably poor planning before beginning to paint. Hopefully I'll get it next time.

My new Avalanche challenge entry..

I began this, realizing that it takes me so long to paint something to my liking, that I better post something before the subject passes me by. Here's the original drawing and the first step for the painting:

A new place to vent...

I just started a new blog so my wife doesn't have to listen to my political rantings. Now only those who want to take the time to read them will. But I also hope that it can bring some logical arguments into this internet world of political discussion.

One Messed Up, Beautiful World

Avalanche Challenge Entry

This working-class superhero saves the lives of countless soccer moms one child-calming kids meal at a time.

Friday Figure Drawings - April 27, 2007

Well, it's been a while since I posted any figure drawings. A lot of them have really stunk, so I haven't posted them. These were the better of the bunch, if there are any that are "better", so here they are:

2o minutes, NuPastel 18"x24"

1.5 Hours, Charcoal 18"x24"

1.5 Hours, Charcoal 18"x24"

Goddess of Sky and Wind

This was my late entry into the Avalanche Blog. I actually got really close to finishing it, but then my wife went into labor, and I haven't slept in two weeks. But here it is, in all it's cliche glory. It was a test of painting with Pastels in Painter. I think I like it almost just as much as Ryan Wood's "Washabrusha". I'll have to keep playing with it before I can know for sure.

Friday Figure Drawings - 3/23/2007

5 minute Nupastel on Paper

2 Hr Nupastel on Paper

I'm somewhat satisfied with this drawing, but I found that the hand on the leg was too small, and I didn't have enough time in the pose to redo it, so it had to stick. Other than that, I think it went pretty well. I had to stop at the 2 hour mark before I started noodling it to death.

Animtion:Master Training Disc 3 Now Available!

It's finally ready for public consumption! My latest tutorial DVD is out now and available at my website. This DVD contains over 8.5 hours of training from the very beginnings of animation to character performance with audio, lip sync, and final render. It is for Animation:Master 2005, but could easily be applied to any software system. The DVD comes with all the content you need to follow along with the tutorials. They are all 1280x1024 videos made with the Techsmith codec. Go to my website for more information.

Friday Figure Drawing

February 23, 2007
18"x24" NuPastel on Paper

Figure Drawing Friday

February 16, 2007
18"x24" Charcoal on Paper

Pastel Test

I've always thought my art was a little "slick", so I'm trying to loosen it a bit by using rough media. This was just a 15 minute test in Painter with the pastels...I really like the feel of them, but not the picture too much.

Sketchy, Sketchy

These are totally out of my norm, but I finally have had some time to devote to sketching again. These are really rough, but I think I liked doing them...got the wacom flowing. Man, there are so many great blogs out there, makes me feel totally inadequate and REALLY rusty.

New Figure Drawings

It's been a while since I last posted, with work being crazy and life even more. But here's a few new ones. One is a re-post of a better-quality image. All are 18x24 conte on paper.