Findings from the Inking Laboratory

Today's challenge was cars and motorcycles.  I'm getting a little better at creating "mechanical noise", and there's really no easy way around it.  You just have to build up a vocabulary of mechanical looking jargon and figure out where you have to place it.  You can build this vocabulary much easier when inking and painting than graphite, and im not really sure why yet.  Possibly because the mechanical noise you create just becomes a grey mess.

Another thing I need to practice is not to get too zealous.  The inks on these should be a bit more blank, and I have to stop myself from trying to shade with cross hatching.  Shading on mechanical things should be done with screen toning (especially if it's surface color, shadows could be done through cross hatching though).

A few more useful tips to consider:

-Be patient.
-Cannot stress enough, do not use a dip pen when using a ruler.  The ink bead gets under the ruler and ruins the drawing.
-When drawing long lines, spin the paper around so the line is consistent with the arch of your arm.  It's nearly impossible to draw a clean line if your drawing a long curve that bows towards your own elbow.  Spin it around so it bows away from your arm, and use anatomy to your advantage!
-You should know how to draw wheels without stencils (with graphite), but just use stencils when inking
-Microns seems to bleed much less than Sharpie felt tip pens
-Be patient

I still have to work on getting better at drawing wheels.  I have a few stencils, but they're never the right size/pinch to draw the wheel angles I want.

Next episode, we shall have people ON vehicles!

Gettin' in the Groove

I'm starting to get the hang of this whole inking business.  Some things I've learned:

-Don't leave ink out for too long, it gets too thick, and won't come off the pen.
-Ink seems to behave more predictably when it's a bit on the humid side
-Microns seem to be more reliable for crosshatching and drawing mechanical things (esp when using a ruler)
-Adjustable curves and rulers are awesome for drawing cars
-Ease out lines with some light hatching.

I think my problem from before was that I wanted each stroke to be perfect.  Honestly I'm liking my lines a lot better when I'm slightly off the mark the first time.  I didn't think you could "work in" a line with ink, but it's actually a bit more forgiving than i thought.

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In unrelated news, I rode my scooter today.  Got it all the way up to 43mph!  That may not seem like a big deal, but on a 50cc, it's a feat!  I'm glad the weather's been clearing up so that I can ride my scooter again.  Summer time is truly here!

Speaking of summer time, I remember I made a post last year around this time.  I remember this post quite dearly.  It was a bit of an artistic breakthrough for me.  It's around the time I decided on a direction i wanted to go as an artist, and this was the first painting I did in that vein.  If you don't remember it, please take another look.  It's not one of my most popular paintings, but it's very precious to me.

Inkin' Around

Well, as you all may know, I have more free time.  A lot less income, but more free time is still always a welcomed change! I've been meaning to brush up on my inking for a long time (no pun intended).  For the most part I've been trying to figure out what my favorite method is.  I tried these new fangled brush pens, but they seem to be no good.  The dried ink isn't stable enough to withstand the eraser. 

I've been rockin' the dip pen, micron, brush, and sumi ink combo, and that seems to give good results.  The ink dries stable enough to just rub an eraser over it to clean up all the graphite.  The pen is manageable, though I'm trying to relax more when I use it.  And microns are just easy mode for cross hatching. 

Also trying to familiarize myself with this adjustable curve.  It makes drawing cars waaaaay cleaner, and easier to hold a steady line. 

You'll be seeing more of these!

Memorial Day Speed Painting

Had a surge of productive energy this morning.  Thought I'd try out some speed painting. 

A bit of an update on my life:  Sadly I've been laid off from my job at 38 studios.  This got me thinking about my career.  I've been trying to be as versatile as i possibly could as an artist.  Leading me to work in many many different styles.  I'm going to try to use this opportunity to try to work on my own style a bit more.  I'm going to try to find a place to work where i don't have to bend my style opposite to how I want to progress as an artist. 

Also, I'm going to do a comic.

So stay tuned!!!

Office Madness

It's sure been a long long week.  The one good part is that I had a lot of energy to spend on painting.

I'm very happy how this painting came out.  It's super messy, but that's great!  I hope I can keep this momentum going.

5/23/2012 WIP

   Working on some more sketches!  Been quite stressed lately, but the upside is that whenever I'm doing poorly mentally, I seem to do much better artistically (lol, sigh...). 

sketching at work

Thought I'd share a quick sketch I just finished!

Taking a break from this painting...

I'm going to take a break on this painting.  This painting has just frustrated the hell out of me as i worked on it.  Parts of it I like, but there's just something about this painting that i just don't like.  I'm going to work on other paintings, but hopefully when i come back to this one I'll figure out exactly what i don't like about it...  Enjoy it in the mean time!

5/13/2012 WIP

Oh good heavens, this painting is taking a long time.  I want to say I'm about 50 percent at this point.  I hate it when i get ideas for new paintings before I'm done working on the current painting!

5/9/2012 WIP

Slowly chipping away at this one. 

5/7/2012 WIP

 
This drawing is a total mess at this point, but I gotta keep motivated, and keep posting!

As some of you can see, The blog is going through some redesigns.  I've been trying my hands in animation, so I thought I'd show that off a little bit.  Nothing's at 100% yet, so keep visiting, it's just going to get better!

Alley Cat

My painting appeared in Digital Artist Magazine!

I did this painting a couple months ago and had completely forgotten about it!  I was honored to do a cheat guide in this issue of Digital Artist Magazine.  I got to put down in writing how I think when i try to compose an image.  Give it a look!

This painting took a long time to complete, but was really fun to work on!

4/23/2012 WIP

Been chipping away at some of the many projects I've been working on!

This one's going to be part of the blog redesign project (that's right!  I haven't forgotten about that just yet!)  I got some specific plans for this one that I'm not going to go into right now, I'll just hint at the fact that I've been dabbling in some GIF animations, and I want to flex my muscles in new territories.  Stay tuned for the real fun stuff down the road with this one!

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I've converted my wall to a drawing board.  And I have some more ambitious ideas for the drawing board, but this is just a test run I thought I'd do real quick.  It's taking a bit to get used to drawing upright again, but it's great that I can engage the drawing in a more physical manner.  I can move back and forth, and use my entire arm to create lines, and that is definitely fun.  Also, seeing anime type drawings at this scale is always a bit unusual, and I like to use scale to my advantage.

I've decided that I'll be streaming again.  I'm trying to decide what days to do it, but one thing's for sure.  The drawing board will be a frequent guest on it!  I just have to figure out the logistics of it!  I draw super light some times, so maybe this will teach me to work more boldly.

Also in the works is a small game project I'm working on with my buddy Leo.  I've worked with him during my stay at Harmonix.  He's one of my favorite people, and he's a blast to work with!  I'll be posting some of those works as well, so stay tuned!

Some updates on what's going on

I've posted about going to and coming back from Korea, but I've been pretty absent from the blog since.  So here are some updates on what's been going on!

I've been swamped with work every since I got back.  It's gotten to a point where I've made a laundry list of things that need to get down, and I've barely even made a dent in it.  My father has asked me to do some product illustrations for him, which is impossible for me to refuse, seeing as he raised my pitiful ass.  So there's that, and a slew of other projects I need to get done before I get back to the fun paintings I so love to do!

Anyway, I've atleast had time to rearrange my room a bit so i can do some larger drawings.

I've cleared off the entire drafting table to make room for a nice diptych, and also...

I've made space on one of my walls so i can draw some really big drawings as well.

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For those who are in the competitive fighting game community, you might know a little legend from the third strike days.  His name is Dr. Sub-Zero.  AKA John D. Rockafeller.  This guy was one of the main reasons I decided to join the fighting game scene.  He really convinced me how fun and interesting it was being part of that community.  He was incredibly funny, and charismatic.  I found myself hypnotized and allured to this quirky community, and I have to thank him because I met some great friends indirectly because of him.

I found his old old podcasts through gootecks (whose podcasts taught me a lot about the technical aspects of fighting games), and I was sad that he wasn't active anymore.  Well, after years of waiting, he's back!  He's being doing Live podcasts again, and they are hilarious!

This is basically a long winded way of me saying that I ended up doing a design for him!  And I was super happy to do so! 

Hey, if you ever get the chance, tune into his show!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI1HSdEwV-c

 

Busy busy!

Sorry about the hiatus, everyone!  After I got back from Korea, I had to take care of a bunch of stuff before I started cranking out the drawings again.  I promise I will be posting more soon!