lifedrawing log - 02.27.10

Even after I paid for Saturday's session, I still didn't believe I had a right to draw this model. It's not the kind of thing you can place monetary value on. Now, had my drawings done her a scrap of justice, maybe I'd have earned it.



There was the usual pre-pose squabbling. Our moderator was kind enough to let us vote on whether or not to have her hair tied up. To me, this was a no-brainer. I can't even get into the mind of an artist who wouldn't leap at the opportunity to draw this kind of hair. It was a gift.

Crabby Pants Pastel out-nickpicked herself yet again. "Your fingernails were pointed down more before." Yes, because you really can't trust your lay-in drawing at this point. Because you haven't, in your 104 years of life, figured out how to draw a hand from memory. Incidentally, there's not much to remember. People have two wrists. They bend in certain ways. People have ten fingers. They bend in certain ways. Oh, and hey, if you forget any of this, LOOK AT WHAT'S CLUTCHING YOUR PASTEL STICK YOU HOPELESS DINGBAT.

Exorcising Demons

I kicked the year off by doing a demon a day, as warmups for work. While I can't rightly post any of those (as they were done under Vigil's roof and may potentially be used in Darksiders 2), I *can* continue the practice independently. So here are a few from last night.



Sometimes you just gotta draw demons, no matter who you're drawing 'em for.

pose exploration

Killin' time on the couch with my clipboard, letting the space on the page influence (dictate?) the next pose...like a puzzle...a sexy, sexy puzzle.



I need to foreshorten my legs more. I have apprehension when it comes to foreshortening arms, legs, trunks, feet, hands...foreshortening in general. Putting that on my to-do list, along with "make heads smaller" and "stop breaking necks."

The thing that's hardest about drawing girls is obscuring stuff. You feel like it's all good enough to be on display, but showing too much actually hurts the pose. Gets stiff and/or inplausible. Plus, even with a nude, something ought to be left to the imagination. Gotta be choosy and let your audience fill in the gaps.

lifedrawing log - 02.23.10

No drama...just drawings.

From Pencils To Pixels

My bosses talk about game development from adversity, realistic pitches, iterative design, the origins of Vigil, Darksiders and more!

Not to be confused with Star Wars Galaxies' "From Pencil To Pixel" (singular).

A snippet of conversation...

Wendy : I don't understand why you always draw penises coming out of their mouths.
Me : It's like a double-dong.
Wendy : Then why is there jizz coming out of it?
Me : That's supposed to be saliva.
Wendy : Well it's not reading as saliva.
Me : Can you go now? I get really embarassed when you watch me.


Slapped some color onto one of these just to remind myself how. I can only seem to get into coloring stuff when my art metabolism slows to a crawl. Or when there's boobs involved.

lifedrawing log - 02.20.10

Upper right : While Jurassic Park was in the bathroom, I was able to stealth-capture one of his abstract masterworks with my cell phone camera. Kinda says it all, doesn't it? I'll bet when someone gives this guy a delicious cake, he uses it as a doorstop.



Crabby Pants Pastel, an old lady who's a dead ringer for Mama Fratelli from The Goonies, protested that the model had "changed the pose" after inhaling deeply. We were all of two minutes in. I had to laugh audibly, and the model shot her a vicious look I wish had remained. Crabby Pants Pastel is famous for the line, "We aren't drawing porno." I forget the exact context, but the model's vulva were most likely visible. Obscene!

Later, to see how much I'd absorbed, I tried redrawing the pose. Wound up breaking her in a bunch of places, but eh...a few things stuck. Not much point in going to these things if you can't retain anything.

Pixel Painting

Tonight I reduced the resolution and worked small, which will sometimes coax unpredictable results and help me not get so lost in the daunting, digital wilderness.

I could have noodled this all night, but I'm more interested in ironing out a process. Some people have this down pat. I feel like I've been neglecting it.

CG Channel Interview

This was filmed during my Thumb War presentation at Gnomon Live Workshop last summer.

You get to see my twiggy, childish frame flailing around and hear me talking with a slight lisp! Imagine a less composed version of this, and you'll have a good idea of what I'm like in real life.

Lots of Vigil plugs in this. Sellin' the brand, sellin' the brand!

Special thanks to Editorial Director Matt McCorkell for piecing this together.

Autodestruct music review : Broken Note

Review - "Terminal Static"

Interview

Thanks again to Headphone Commute for letting me pry into the lives of great musicians.

lifedrawing log - 02.15.10 (I attack weakness.)

Hand making contact with foreshortened face = double-hard.



The vibe the model was putting off was "defeated" or "Christ, I can't believe I'm doing another sitting pose." The drawing near the center where she's slumped conveys this better than the rest.

When the 2 hour session wrapped, the room erupted with strange applause. "Yay [model's name]!" someone behind me squealed. "Yes," I replied under my breath, "Yay for sitting there." My friend Matt, clearly unaware of my jaded attitude at these things, chided me. "Don't be a dick. They're just saying thanks."

On one hand, he was right. The model showed up and did her thing, and as sitting poses went, it had a good amount of character. But really? Applause for a pose where every limb was pretty much completely at rest? You might as well applaud a bowl of fruit. "Way to stay in that bowl, fruit." Now if that bowl of fruit got up and did a handstand or some cartwheels (as this model has practically done in the past, it should be noted) -- yes, applause.

A girl to my left came early and set up an elaborate painting station. A phalanx of supplies was splayed out, ready for action. The model showed up, got into position and -- oh no -- the girl packed up all her shit and took off. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt this time and assume something important cropped up (30% off sale at Michaels), but I'm betting dollars to donuts this is what went through her head : "Oh, unkind fate! I don't have a particularly good view of the model, and now there's nowhere for me to relocate my cumbersome art fort. Guess I can't be creative now."

Yes, I'm a dick.

trees + babes

This crap's been piling up over the past few weeks. I'm not going to attempt to justify it. It just is.





So much for ArTracker, huh?

lifedrawing log - 02.13.10

Today's model was spunky and full of sarcastic quips, so of course The Powers That Be put her in a near-catatonic pose for the duration. What a waste. The drawings I did that look the most natural are the ones where I deviated from what she was actually doing and relaxed her into that padded backdrop. In all, I'm non-plussed with my performance, but what else is new?



Today I'll introduce another character in our rollicking cast. His nickname is "Oshkosh B'Gosh", for his trademark overalls. Think "Super Mario" minus the gloves. An architect in his 50s, he sports a curly black mustache and a green cap, which I guess would technically make him Luigi. Oshkosh B'Gosh lives by an art school joke I heard from one of my officemates : "If you can't make it good, make it BIG." To give you an idea of what Oshkosh B'Gosh thinks is cool, take a sheet of paper the size of a TX road map (or, in some cases, an actual TX road map) and fill half of it with the model's upturned head -- the more unflattering the angle, the better. Add train tunnel nostrils the size of avocados. Can you see gray matter behind the sinuses? Good. Now begin to arbitrarily fill the features with bright colors, making sure the eyewhites are ABSOLUTE WHITE, and use this exact same value to do the highlights in the model's DARK BROWN HAIR. Stop drawing once you're throughly repulsed, or until time is up.

I was explaining to a newcomer, who asked if I do illustration, that my goal in these sessions is to create from the model. To sit and record facts is to become a secretary taking dictation from a superior. Eff that. When I wake up at 8AM on a Saturday, drive 25 minutes and pay a fee to attend one of these things, I'm going to call the shots. The newcomer said the he prefers doing still lives of clothing and other "more traditional" gallery work. "That's cool" I said, lying through my teeth. The drawing he was slaving over was, unfortunately, only traditional if sucking is a tradition.

One more account. An artist friend of mine who works at Junction Point has (thank God) started attending. He does admirable work and makes good use of his time. His drawings show an actual thought process. But -- dun-dun-DUUUUUNNN! -- he does them on a laptop. Digital art to an older generation is like the monolith to the apes in 2001 : A Space Odyssey. They flock to it, their puzzled expressions a mixture of wonder and apprehension. "Might this glowing box be the key to our evolution?" their internal monologues ask, though what they say out loud is, "That's cheating." or "That's sooooooooooo amazing." or "Is that Photoshop?"*

*Response cheat sheet : "No.", "Not really." and "Actually, this is Windows Media Player. I'm just watching a movie of someone drawing while I swirl this robo-pen around in my asshole."

Tree Envy

I have a sudden fascination with trees. Maybe it's because my pals Toph, Dan and Justin have been kicking ass with them lately, and I can't stand to see them having so much fun.


The one in color is a mangrove cluster done with ref, but the rest are all just winging it. I tend to to draw them leaning to the right...wonder if that's significant...

Oh, who am I kidding?

This is what you're here for.



A few random guns from yesterday. If you're ever in need of a confidence booster, draw stuff in profile. Though it doesn't look as nice as deep perspective, it's easier and faster and people get it.

Autodestruct music review : DJ Hidden

I recently reviewed DJ Hidden's "The Words Below" and interviewed him for my good friend & music afficionado, the always-savvy Headphone Commute.

review :
http://reviews.headphonecommute.com/2010/01/20/dj-hidden-the-words-below-ad-noiseam/

interview :
http://reviews.headphonecommute.com/2010/01/20/two-and-a-half-questions-with-dj-hidden/

It has nothing to do with concept art, but DJ Hidden is one of my biggest drum'n'bass heroes, so it was a big deal for me. Thanks and love to Headphone Commute!

some color experiments

Gotta do this more often. Maybe forfeit a lifedrawing session here and there and buck down until it becomes easier... Develop stroke economy...

Plug : Girls On Top!

My overseas homie Matt Dixon has a new book for sale of all his lucious lady-types.

Buy, buy, buy!

lifedrawing log - 02.06.10 9 (more venom)

3 hours of drawing. During the session, I had to yet again explain that what I was doing wasn't cartooning, but rather taking careful inventory of things I knew to be true of the pose we were confronted with. "But you drew it with a 'style.'" Well, yes. Style takes care of itself. The point is, when I leave the room, this pose is now in my inventory, and can be reproduced and/or manipulated at will. Try doing that with your 'fine' art, dipshit.

To add insult to injury, some old bat rudely shhhhhhhhhhhhhhed two of my industry friends for softly discussing digital art technique. Because, you know, you need total radio silence to do a single, shitty pastel.

We were also treated to another abstract masterpiece by a guy I like to call Jurassic Park (because he looks like John Hammond). This clueless, sweatpants-wearing fucker spends the 3 hour period producing a drawing that consists of 6 wiggly lines. Occasionally he'll leave his little supply-cluttered workspot (you need a lot of tools when you're a fraud) and go "measure" the figure with his thumb, looking at it all quizzically, like he's on the verge of some major breakthrough. Then he goes back and pulls out one of those bendy french curves and uses that to make a 7th line. Holy shit. What genius.

Alpha Concept Artist : Nick Southam

My hetero lifemate, fellow Vigilite and personal whipping boy Nick Southam has pinned some of his brilliant Darksiders art. He's got oodles more, so go pester him to post it! God knows I've tried...

From The Archives - pt. 2

Bugs!!!

lifedrawing log - 02.01.10

Saturday



Today



Duuuurrrr! I'm making cartoons!

It's been another one of those days. Silver lining : had a beer with some of the Lightbox boys after tonights's session. Thanks for being cool.

From The Archives - pt. 1

Here are some drawings from a bygone era. In this particular batch are lightning-based creatures. More strangeness to follow!