This blog...

...was initially for pieces done on a computer, but has since become a free-for-all. Here you'll find process work (digital and otherwise), sketch pages and studies, sometimes with commentary.

You can see the rest of my work here.

Remember kids : if you can't make pretty designs, at least make pretty lines!

-Paul

Monday, November 30, 2009

Speedpinup

This one's super-lazy, but I'm trying to get back on the ball after a few days of not drawing.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

WI trip - sketches

There's nothing like cabin fever for bringing out the filth! These were done on the airplane to and from WI and at the parents' house, semi-covertly. Big comp!



The heads with the red stars denote where I was looking at a hairstyle magazine (love those things), but the rest is, as you can probably guess, off-the-cuff. I find I get better, more dimensional poses when I lay in some form of gridded subdivision. If Loomis advocated "informal subdivision" than this is "super-informal subdivision" -- the idea of which is to break away from up-and-down compositions by introducing angles.



These color bits were done today, back in Austin. I was fussing with gradient maps to see if I could quickly get something finished looking over some hurried roughs. I shamelessly plugged in colors from hentai pics and photos, and just grayscale-painted it. My friend and colleague Toph would surely call this a "dirty trick" as it "let the computer make choices for me", but if this is what it takes to get me interested in rendering, so be it. I can hear Toph murmuring disapprovingly under his breath.

No shortcut is a substitute for good draughtsmanship. Even so, boredom MUST be kept at bay! I'm going to try to refine this process -- which I'm treating as a sort of training wheel exercise -- and make the values punchier and the edgework less selection-y.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Sexy Scarecrow / Dat Ass / expectations

The difference between these two pieces is that one was done with a lot of planning, second-guessing and on-and-off production, and the other was done on a whim with very little stopping (one afternoon).





Sexy Scarecrow is the better idea, but I had such high hopes for it. There's nothing particularly groundbreaking about the porno shot, but since that's all it was supposed to be, I'm more pleased with how it came out.

I'm all for breaking down thought processes that result in stronger work, but there's clearly a balance to be struck between premeditation and pure impulse. I seem to work best if I rip through the majority of a piece in within the span of a day or less, otherwise I lose the plot and am unlikely to pick up where I left off. My brain's moved on.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Pumkin Jam 3

Megaprops to Alex "Rhino" Voroshev for keeping the jams coming.



Turning the stem into a topknot/ponytail is a stroke of genius. And I'm embarassed that you beat me to Slimer pumpkin! This makes me want to do a Jabba The Hutt-kin with a little Salacious Crumb-kin. And hey look, Obama pumpkin! Topical!

Too damn fun. Thanks, Rhino!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Friday, November 13, 2009

Sexy Scarecrow - progress

A thumbnail was selected and refined digitally....




...a penciled version was done with straw-ier hair.



She's scare-crowier now, though I think I'm going to do a third pass. Lost some good stuff from the thumbnail, the cat needs to look more braced (scared?) and plus I just don't care for the hand treatment. Also, the angle on the swing makes it less readable.

I ditched the pumpkin, too.

And on a somewhat related note...

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Pumpkin Jam 2

This batch of pumpkins comes courtesy of Tobias Frank. We're going to keep this Halloween business going through November!



Beautiful work, Tobias!

lifedrawing log - 11.07.09

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Sexy Scarecrow - thumbs

Commiting to a thumbnail is tough. It's like monogamy when what you really want to be is a swinger.



The end result will be : scarecrow girl on a swing with a kitten in her cleavage.