Figure Update 1

That ass...in nupastel.

nupastel.

Watercolor in sketchbook. 

Watercolor in sketchbook.

More to come!

Computer Illustration: Modern Shakespeare

Figured I'd post this before I fix it. Final illustration for Comp Ill. We had to choose one of Shakespeare's characters from a list and then modernize it. I chose King Lear. The gist is that King Lear is figuratively blind to the things around him. He doesnt see that his daughter, Cordelia, loves him more than anyone else, so he banishes her, while his two other daughters take everything from him and end up locking him out of his castle at one point. But through it all, Cordelia remains loyal to her father.  To modernize it, I decided to focus on the theme of blindess and abandonment. So I made Lear a blind homeless man being sheltered from the rain by his daughter.  Very simple and straight forward. I had a lot of fun with the colors. The linework itself could have been a lot stronger, and I've found that if I'm not doing linework traditionally or on the cintiq that I struggle with it a lot. Tablets are fine for coloring/painting but linework can be a pain in the ass. 

Anyways, we had crit and then we have a chance to resubmit our fixed pieces by Monday, so thats what I'm planning on doing. 

Things I'm planning on changing:

- Cordelia's face needs to have some sort of expression, probably sympathetic. Right now she's very mannequin-esque. 

- Might put a tad of warmer light on Cordelia. 

- Make the umbrella spokes more graphic, like the umbrella, probably using the pen tool.

- try a different approach with the rain, more streaky and less dot-like. 

Paintings II

Another painting update!

3 day landscape painting at the Ringling Museum. You can see how much I care about the actual museum.  Seascapes all the way. 

Very poor upload of a 1 day figure painting. Gotta make time to re-scan this one because I'm actually quite fond of it. 

             

Urban landscape: downtown sarasota. 

Another silhouette study at Bird Key.

Sketchbook studies:

 

Reproduction in acrylic.

 Reproduction in acrylic. 

Andrew Wyeth reproduction in watercolor.

 Andrew Wyeth reproduction in Watercolor.

AND THEN I SAW IT

Our final assignment for Illustration was to do a 1 to 2 page comic about anything we wanted as long as it included the phrase "And then I saw it". For some reason I had a really strong urge to illustrate opossums, probably related to the fact that I handle them at the Wildlife Center that I volunteer at. This this what came out of it.

Click here for an enlarged version of Page 1.

Click here for an enlarged version of Page 2.

I did all of the line work and most of the ink washes traditionally and then adjusted the levels in photoshop to get the values right.  This was a ton of fun and I truly had a great time doing it. Great assignment to end on!

Process work and Sketch Detail:

Mama Possum.

Dead Henry AKA Used-To-Be-Alive Henry. My favorite.

Possum Pete, not to be confused with Possum Jack, pictured below.

Concept sketch for Possum Jack. 

Character Spreads: Nü & Syp

Our latest assignment in Computer Ill was to create an original character (or multiple characters) and create spreads that help make that character come to live. We were only required to do one spread but he encouraged us to do as much as we could within the allotted time.  For every spread we had to scan in our traditional sketches and than choose one sketch (for each character) to digitally paint.  This is a two parter and the second part of the project is to paint an 11x17 environment with the characters included.  

Rough Backstory:

The father makes documentaries for a living, but got laid off.  Through the grapevine he hears about a remote island with strange creatures that no one has ever filmed before, but is considered too dangerous to venture.  He plans to go to the island and film as many rare animals as he can in attempts to regain his credibility and his job, despite the warnings.  He doesn't tell anyone of his plan.  He tells his pregnant wife and teenage son, who are not yet aware that he is unemployed, that he is going on a long trip for work and that he will be living on site for a couple of months.  He convinces them to come along with him as a "family vacation".  

The family arrives by boat and the wife and son are apprehensive when they realize how remote and uncharted the land is, especially when they realize that there are natives on the land who they know nothing about and seem to be hostile. They build shelter and live off of their supplies and off the land while the father does his work.  Quickly, the father begins to emotionally and mentally unravel and becomes so immersed in his work that he often does not return to the families' shelter for days. On one of these episodes he does not return at all.  The son goes looking for him and later finds his remains and concludes that he has been killed by a large unknown predatory animal. 

The son and mother panic and try to leave but the natives have sunk their boat.  The two of them live off of the rest of their supplies and then off of the land for as long as they can.  They wait for help, but don't know that the father hasn't told anyone where they were going.  Eventually, the mother gives birth to the twins (Nu and Syp) and dies shortly afterward from complications.

The 15 year old son has to care for and raise the twins himself.  He finds a local plant with a milk-like quality that, to his shock, sustains the twins like a mother's milk would. He raises the twins while trying survive and evade natives and dangerous animals. 

As a result, twins grow up very animalistic and skilled at living off of the land. 

Details of Nü painting:

Red

Our latest assignment in Illustration was to take a fairy tale and change it in some way. For example, we could choose a specific scene and then change the era or one of the characters, ect. At first I was preoccupied with finding a really obscure and bizarre fairy. But I everything I liked was so specific that it didnt leave much room for interpretation. So I decided to go with a generic fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood, and make a themed piece rather than illustrate a specific scene in the story. The whole point of this piece is implied danger. I modernized it and changed the wolf to a man. It's supposed to have a sexual predator type feel, the hoodie obviously representing Little Red, or what used to be her. 

My process was pretty sketchy with this one, unfortunately. I think that I had the most difficulty compositionally with this piece.  Originally, I wanted it to be horizontal, with Red in the background walking her bike down an alley, with the male figure in the foreground. But my professor and I agreed that doing something like this would be a lot stronger and I'm really glad that I changed it. Still, even when the composition was worked out I struggled a lot with execution. For some reason, I kind of got burnt out halfway through the week and I lost a lot of drive and emotion toward this piece. I kind of fell out of love with it halfway through, which is never a good thing. But somehow, I managed to get a little bit of that initial spark back while I was finishing it and working out the kinks. 

Anyways, despite the trouble it put me through (or that I put myself through, rather) I'm happy with the way this turned out. I only wish that I had attempted it in traditional oil, but I think I really brought it back from the depths of the disaster it could have been. 

soul of the sea

ocean landscape in oil on canvas

In the Mountains

Something I've been wanting to do for a while. A watercolor rendition of a beautiful family photo taken in 1918.

bulk sketch update

I finished a small sketchbook recently. Here is most of it in no particular order. 99% life drawings.

...and a bonus piece from a newly started landscape sketchbook. Sailboat in acrylic.