Babe Lab tutorial update - silhouettes

red as a fox

roller derby + notepad + sharpie

This was my second roller derby experience, and my first in Texas. I didn't understand what was happening half the time, but it was clear the Cherry Bombs mopped the track with the
Rhinestone Cowgirls. These ladies had some crazy-deft moves, and I was fortunate to have gotten a seat where I could draw their gestures. Sketching has a way of making sporting events tolerable.  So do hot pants.



Here are some fun names I jotted down. You can tell which ones caught my eye because they're hyperlinked.

-Lucy Cannon
-Missy Carriage
-Bully Jean
-Truckstop Trixie
-Kate or Die
-Veruca Assault
-Dee Toxin
-Honey Homocide
-Rice Rice Baby
-Dusty Double-Wide

Tech Boner

Not sure why I didn't catch this earlier, but my pal Derrick Hammond has been making some serious headway on his Hellchick 2.0 model.

The coolest thing about Derrick's approach to this is that it's not a verbatim copy of my old concept; he's actually designing, modifying and improving as he goes.  He has a feel for detail distribution, plane breaks and depth variation.  I have immense respect for 3D modelers who are artists in their own right.  Kenneth Scott, Vitaly Bulgarov, Djordje Cakovan, etc.  It's a pleasure knowing all these guys, because they get it.

Thanks for the tech boner, Derrick -- gets me excited about doing dark scifi again.  Now finish her!

Silent Hill Homecoming

Pyramid Heads need love too.

Today raked me over the coals.

Decompression sketch...

self analysis

How we draw says a lot about our personalities, much more than what we draw ever could.



For instance, this is me :

-impatient
-habitual/safe
-stubborn
-wants all the fun, but none of the work
-often frustrated by outcome
-longing for simplicity
-searching, searching, searching
-restless

What I want out of the experience varies.  One day it's a spiffy drawing that I can be proud of, the next it's catharsis.  A diversion.  An exercise.  A gift.  The question is always "When do I ease up (selfish/recreation), and when do I decide to give it a little more elbow grease (selfless/sacrifice)?"  Must each effort walk that line between fulfillment and drudgery?  Seems that way...

expression scrap photos

Mirror shots of me and my balding-ass head. Gonna use 'em to draw demons, suspicious people and the deluded.

lifedrawing log - 05.25.10

A curious thing : The model was running a little late (getting stitches removed from her leg, the poor thing) so to kill time, people from the group were alternating as clothed stand-ins. You could run an entire session like this, just with your friends, a lamp and an egg timer.

Toph

Random : Here's me with the legendary Toph Gorham at Vigil's summer BBQ. Toph is the master of rivits and floor grates and tank treads (and Starcraft 2). He'll draw any of you digital fucks under the table with the same #2 pencil you practiced your ABCs with, and he'll do it without cheating. Bitches better realize.



Look how he towers over me like a titan.  You can see the difference in our personalities by our respective hand signals.  Toph : "Hey gang! Everything's super!"  Paul : "BREAAUUGHHRRHHRHHRRHHH!!!  KILL!!!  *foam*"

meeting head

Giving lots of head in meetings. Must be why they keep me around.

lifedrawing log - 05.22.10

Another Naked Lunch session in the bin.

Decided to post almost everything, so you can enjoy my misfires.

Hit the comic shop on the way, and was totally blown over by Rafael Albuquerque's art in Vertigo's American Vampire. I'm not even especially into vampires. The dude just draws great, expressive faces that ooze character. Speaking of character, Brandon Graham's King City #8 also hit stands...can't stress enough how clever that comic is.

Bonus silly faces...(one of which I noticed is still my avatar, d'oh!)

If you can't occasionally take time out to make faces in the mirror, you're taking yourself too seriously.

'Nother quick page...

More scraps from the table...

...trying to assemble fragments of last portrait from memory, with some subtle embellishments. Trying my best to retain.

portrait 16

lifedrawing log - 05.17.10

portrait 15b

This was sticking in my craw all day. I felt I cheesed out on the expressiveness of the thing I did this morning. Felt it deserved a revisit, if only a brief one. I feel better already!

portrait 15

Autodestruct Playlist - late Spring 2010

***Hammock "Chasing After Shadows...Living With The Ghosts"
Manual "Drowned In Light" [Darla]
Flying Lotus "Cosmogramma" [Warp]
Architect "Consume, Adapt, Create"
The Panacea "Chiropteran" [Position Chrome]
Bluetech "Love Songs To The Source" [Interchill]
***Carbon Based Lifeforms "Interloper" [Ultimae]
Electrypnose "Magnetic Memoirs" [Goa]
Man Machine "Reintegrate" [Ovnimoon]
Chromatone "Wasabi" [Nano]
LOUD "Free From Conceptual Thoughts" [Drive]

V/A "Sick Music 2" [Hospital]
V/A "Made of Dawn" [Blue Hour Sounds]
V/A "Elysium" [Synchronos Recordings]
V/A "Idiosynth Trickery" [Faerie Dragon]
V/A "The Mandala Mirror" [Celestial Dragon]
V/A "Montemapu Festival" [Ovnimoon]

***excellent

Sketch scraps

For all sorts of reasons I'd rather not go into, it's been a rough week. Sometimes the pencil needs to move even when the brain isn't budging. And so these conversational doodles are born.



I like to pin these as reminders of what happens when I don't come to the table with a plan. My hope is that all the artists I amire create reams of these but opt never to show anyone.

lifedrawing log - 05.10.10

Poured out a 40 oz for Frazetta at the bar afterwards.

Milenko Tunjic on Babe Lab

So, wow...here's a honkin' (and humbling) interview with the mighty Milenko, freshly pinned!



Man, this guy cracks me up! So damn fun.

For a terrific mom!

Happy Mother's Day!



Mom has a much warmer, energetic look than what I've captured here, but therein lies the challenge.

lifedrawing log - 05.03.10

Back on the saddle after a week's lull.  Funny how rusty you can feel when you stop for even a little bit.

portrait 14

Tried to see if I could get one of these studies done in 1/2 an hour after lunch. Had this new automated technique I thought would work. It didn't. Ah well. Guess there's no shortcut to awesome.

Creeping color in...

Not surprisingly, I was eyeballing 'netporn for this, but as I get more hep to value relativity, color relativity becomes less difficult.



...Think I'll aim to do more of this kind of thing and see what doors magically open.

drunken heads

Carlo Arellano gave me a facial.

Art stud Carlo Arellano showered me with an eyeload of info on facial color banding, just for Babe Lab!  It's fairly easy to swallow. 



This is the second of (I hope) many more guest tutorials to be featured on Babe Lab, the first of which is owed to Austin's own Tiffanny Varga. If I've spoken to you about doing one of these, I'm going to continue to poke you until you're red and raw!  I may even resort to crass sexual innuendo.