lifedrawing log - 10.26.11

The guy next to me had his headphones at max volume and was whimpering like a Skeksi. There was really no polite way of bringing that to his attention, other than maybe saying "That's quite a tune you're carrying. Been lobotomized recently?"

Model was great, though. I'd drawn her before.



I asked the group what they considered their lifedrawing "sweet spot" to be, as far as duration. I told them mine was 15 minutes, because it's short enough to keep me focused, but not so long that I fuck everything up. Was surprised to hear two people say "5 hours", the explanation being "We're painters." 5 hours! Guess that's why I'm not a painter...

I realized that I do lifedrawing the way some people do yoga. It's this meditative thing that simplifies my world, relieves tension and keeps me fit. Ommmmmmm....

lifedrawing log - 10.22.11

In this morning's session I had a moderator challenge my stance on tangents being a bad thing, saying that, in the case of surrealist painters, planned tangents can actually lead the eye though a composition. The thinking was also, "If you're going to have one tangent, have a WHOLE BUNCH OF THEM." Balthus was used as an example. I still don't quite see the merit.

lifedrawing log - 10.19.11 / 10.20.11

Don't bother clicking on these. They don't get any bigger.



Here's an amusing anecdote from last night's session (below): It was the model's first time modeling so everything was new for her. About an hour in she mentioned that, whenever she'd make eye contact with an artist, their gaze would instantly drop -- a sea of heads bobbing up and down, up and down, and she had the power to control them. "It's like playing whac-a-mole!"

I can't speak for every person who attends these, but I suspect the main reason we shyly disengage from such intimate encounters is that we feel it's a little overindulgent. The less we avert our eyes, the better results we get, but there's always this knee-jerk sense of propriety and reverence that prevents us from being blatant oglers. I like this, actually. I like that I still feel as if I'm in the presence of divinity. That I'm not quite worthy. The moment I become clinical about this is the moment I should give it up.

Find The Design

A few months ago I was asked to do a talk at a local concept art workshop. My last talk, "Thumb War", dealt with the iterative process one goes though at the beginning of a project, using little pictures to communicate big ideas. I felt my new talk should pick up where "Thumb War" left off, discussing what happens AFTER a thumbnail is selected -- the fleshing out part. More than a year had passed, so I also felt I should incorporate new things I'd learned, new philosophies I'd embraced.

What follows are the notes and crude visual aids I created to give this talk, which I titled "Find The Design." I hope you like it!

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Every company I've worked for has had a buzz word -- some catch phrase to describe the things they wanted done, and how to go about doing them. At Raven it was "Bluesky up some ideas." i.e "The sky is the limit, so go nuts." At Vigil it was "Make it diesel." Everything needed to be crackling with energy; nothing could be weak or second-rate. At Blizzard I constantly heard the phrase "Let's chase that." Everything was chasing, chasing, chasing.

It's a trap!

Firstkeeper, bless her Russian-ness, graced me with a matreshka of her own. It doesn't have Admiral Akbar on it, but it has the next best thing : boobs! I think the artist is trying to warn me that, though pretty, women are in fact dangerous alien predators bent on devouring the souls of men. Was that it, Tamara?



Look for Tamara at BlizzCon this year...she'll be the one hunting demons with twin crossbows.  <--Not even making that up.

lifedrawing log - 10.15.11

Scroll for pumpkins!

I like this new vertical format...

Video!

Hicham Habchi, aka Pyroow, stitched together this amazingly high quality video of our collective adventures in Morocco. What a tremendous gift. Thanks to all!


Tangier-Chaouen Drawing TRIP from pyroow on Vimeo.

Hicham is the guy chillin' in the lower left corner of this photo. Sunglasses.  Cigarette.  Hat.  You don't see him in the video 'cuz he was shooting it.

travelogue - Chefchaouen, Morocco

I took oodles of pictures here, but this one neatly sums it up.

This trip would not have been possible had it not been for my gracious host Kalen Chock [top, center], his flatmates Edgar Cardona [right, arms outstretched] and Daniel Garcia [left, rear] and his friends through the Deviant Art community, who came all the way from Ubisoft Casablanca to help us around Tangier and this amazing mountain city.

Here's a bonus shot from Madrid, just prove I was there...


...along with the oddest thing I saw in Plaza Mayor.

People I've seen recently...

lifedrawing log - 10.08.11

Rio Pt. 2