Imaginary still life

Another late night post. Playing with markers and pens. Just generally having fun.

Reclining woman

So my thing lately, is to copy images I see. Not to claim them as my own but to study light, composition, color theory... I'm enjoying it a lot. I need to do this on a daily basis and keep posting.

Fierce Women

I decided to finally go back and use some of the pictures that I'm collecting in my Art Reference pinterest board.

I'm still struggling with getting myself creating more art. So I'll keep posting and hopefully that'll inspire me to keep producing.

Color studies 2: Prince of Egypt

Continuing with the theme of color studies I did a marker rendition of a color study that was used for the movie "The Prince of Egypt" by Dreamworks. I remember watching that movie and being amazed by the level of animation produced. I had at that point begun to become jaded by Disney animation and feeling that all those proclamations of "animation is dead" were true. This movie blew my mind and remember thinking "Disney is back" and then "Holy S#!% this isn't Disney!". I was blown away and pulling out this art of book after all those years just reinforced that idea. The art direction in this movie is amazing and more films need to be made with this level of dedication, details, and love.

Sorry to gush. I was really impressed.

Going back to color studies, I was using my limited palette of handy Copic markers. I usually try to buy a limited palette of them to carry with me. I sometimes feel having a full palette makes you lazy. Not think of how colors are created, how they look next to each other, how they can create different moods. I'm trying to think more about how I use color. I'm obsessed. And trying to draw my own subjects sidetracks me. I'm happy with the way this came out.

Midnight skull

Playing with markers again. Enjoy.

Marker Environments

Having fun with shapes, shadows, and colors. Keep working it.

Fond memories

I did a quick colored sketch of a brightly redheaded girl, with blown out features. I did not, on me, have the right shades of red to show off the beautiful unnatural tones of her hair, but I did what I could. After which I scanned it in with at a handy massive office copier and realized that it had been blown out even more. So I tried to color correct it in Photoshop some (the image on the left), and thought it still didn't capture what I loved about the original piece. That being said I took a photo of it using the camera on my phone and you get the image on the right. Neither of which do the piece justice, but it's what I got.

I feel as if she is remembering a happy moment in her life, so that's why I named the post the way I did. That was not, I believe, the intention of the original photograph, but I obviously like mine better. I still feel as if subtleties of the original piece are missing. The soft tones of the watercolors contrasting with the brights of the marker in the hair aren't readily apparent in either case. But maybe I'm just in love with my own piece, and well, someone has to be. That's ok, though. As long as I don't start believing that I can't improve. As long as I continue to aspire to add new skill sets to my work. There will always be new techniques, new materials, new ideas and images to design. As long as I never loose the will to keep striving, I'll be OK. Don't you think?
Either way hope you enjoy.
PS If you want to see the original photograph click here. 

Detail: Twisted Sister

 

Here is the close-up version of the Twisted Sister. Here you can see the hands and torso. I hope you get why I say that the head on the other page is better. Just gotta keep going!

Twisted Sister

 

I saw a drawing, possibly painting of a slightly deformed but cute girl with a crown and I was smitten. But as always I wanted to make it my own. I twisted her more, made her screaming (hopefully) more visceral. Added a touch of color to spots. Is it perfect? No. But I feel my hands are getting better, and the grotesque aspects of the drawing, position, image are much more present. I did not want this to be cute. The scream and the neck I feel are better in the lower left hand side of the image, but the body and torso are better in the colored side. Maybe another try in a couple of days, based off these sketches and not the original, can make this even better.

Late night robot girl:

A quick sketch in marker. Hope you like it. I do!

"Weekend" sketches

I did these two over the last 2 days, but didn't get a chance to put them up until now. Found an old ziplock bag filled with markers and I'm trying to keep myself limited to just what's in there. Sometimes placing limits frees you up more than having all the freedom in the world. Don't you think?