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

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

People of Stumptown

...and various other locations where coffee is consumed.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Drunken Color

step 1 : scotch
step 2 : fuck around

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Monday, October 22, 2012

Rendering class...

I got a free paintover from Slide today.  Lena showed me that "sexy" can always be taken further.  So awesome!




Saturday, October 20, 2012

'Normal Nachos' -- a figure drawing tutorial

Hop over to Babe Lab for what, I believe, is a solid tool for understanding limbs on a very basic level!



And yes, that's a Dorito.  Just trust me on this one.


leftover skull

Friday, October 19, 2012

Sock Girls pt. 3

Still trying to come up with ways to "clean" really rough roughs -- doesn't work! Gotta just spend more time on the drawing, then stick to it like crazy. btw -- funny how you can totally tell what I cared about spending time on (face, boobs) and what I let go by the wayside (everything else).


skele-study cntd.


bar sketching - 10.18.12


Thursday, October 18, 2012

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

deathdrawing log - 10.17.12

I found out tonight that, from memory, I don't know nearly enough about the skeleton. Gonna work on that.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Art Ethics ~ an essay

"This above all: to thine own self be true." ~Hamlet Act 1, scene 3

Not all of us are artists, but most of us (the non-psychopaths at least) have ethics, values that steer our actions and help us live the kind of lives we want.

Without ethics there are no guidelines -- no "moral compass" -- meaning every option, beneficial or harmful, can be explored.  

KILL, RAPE, STEAL : We know these acts produce harmful outcomes, so we avoid them.

ENCOURAGE, PRAISE, PROTECT : We know these acts produce beneficial outcomes, so we strive to embrace them.  

And so, in the same way aligning our behavior with our ethics benefits our lives as a whole, aligning our ARTISTIC APPROACH with our ethics can benefit our art as a whole.  Deviation from our ethics creates an undesirable contradiction.

Make a list of the things you most value in life.  Compile them over a week or two, as they occur to you.  They can be as broad as "beauty" or as specific as a trait you admire in a friend, such as "generosity."  My list, for instance, reads like this :

wit - decisiveness - articulation - playfulness - humor - thoughtfulness - grace - honesty - fullness - authenticity - simplicity - spontaneity - compatibility - courage - liveliness - lyricism - sweetness - intimacy - tact - drama

Now, think of ways you can apply each of those values artistically.  What makes a drawing "witty?"  How can a painting be "lyrical?"  What is a "courageous" sculpture?

If a piece of artwork sits well with us, odds are it's in alignment with one or several of our values.  If a piece of artwork sits poorly, odds are it's in some way contradictory.

Our artistic issues, more often than we realize, go so much deeper than surface mistakes like proportion and anatomy; they upset our very core.  Once we identify what that core wants and act from it, we will begin to produce artwork that satisfies us.

One morning, in a lifedrawing session, I was struck by a desire to draw the model from the top of a staircase.  I thought getting a different, aerial perspective would be beneficial to my study.  I moved my seat from its position (mere feet from the model stand), to the lofty platform, and went to work.  Right away, something felt wrong.  I was suddenly removed from the group and the model -- a voyeur.  The model I'd drawn from the stand felt very close and personal -- staring right down the barrel of the leg.  The foreshortening created lots of dramatic overlaps.  The facial expression read clearly.  The model I drew from the staircase was, by contrast, flat and anonymous.  What bothered me most wasn't my drawing -- my proportions and anatomy were accurate enough -- what bothered me was that, in the pursuit of novelty, I'd lost the intimacy I so value.  Without knowing it, I'd gone against my core.  

Values can be thought of as interchangeable pieces rather than a set framework, so your list will never be complete.  If you admire another person's values, you can incorporate them -- try them on as one would try on clothes, to see how they look and feel.  Keep the ones that fit; discard the rest.  You can't begin to act on a value until you know its yours.

The word "ethics" comes from the Greek "ethos," or "character."  What artist doesn't wish their art to posess character, or, more precisely, THEIR character? γνῶθι σεαυτόν  -- "Know thyself."  The closer we come to knowing ourselves -- and the ethics that drive us -- the closer our art will come to revealing our true character.

SUPPLEMENTAL : My friend and coworker Glenn Israel (who, in part, inspired this essay) was able to supply me with a handy flowchart for determining whether the values we hold are, in fact, ours, and what to do when we discover they are or aren't.  Thank you for this highly useful gift, Glenn!


Virtual Art Director

Björn Mes and Jeroen van de Merwe, from the Netherlands, made a free app based on this worksheet I did for Thumb War.  Nice job, guys!

Travel Sketching


Autodestruct Playlist - Feb-October

Godspeed You Black Emperor "Allelujah!  Don't Bend! Ascend!"
Mono "For My Parents"
Balmorhea "Stranger"
Epic 45 "Weathered"
Caspian "Waking Season"
Hammock "Departure Songs"
Lights Out Asia "Hy - Brasil"
The Flashbulb "Opus At The End of Everything"
John Tejada "The Predicting Machine"
Kid Koala "12 Bit Blues"
2 Fingers "Stunt Rhythms"
Bong Ra "Monolith"
Demdike Stare "Elemental"
Clubroot "III - MMXII"
Burial "Street Halo / Kindred"
Lorn "Ask The Dust"
The Host "The Host"
Plug "Back On Time"
DJ Food "The Search Engine"
Quantic & Alice Russell "Look Around The Corner"
The Herbaliser "There Were Seven"
Squarepusher "Ufabulum & Enstrobia"
Otto Von Schirach "Supermeng"
Venetian Snares "Fool The Detector"
Last Step "Sleep"
Sepalcure "Sepalcure"
Machinedrum "Rooms Expanded"
Blockhead "Interludes After Midnight"
Yppah "Eighty One"
Bonobo "Black Sands Remixed"
Ulrich Schnauss & Mark Peters "Underrated Silence"
Jonas Munk "Pan"
The Cinematic Orchestra " In Motion #1"
Hilary Hahn & Hauschka "Silfra"
Keith Kenniff "Branches"

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Spartans on the brain...

343 Industries will be shipping Halo 4 in a month, so it's safe to say my work has been drifting in a more tech-laden direction.  Here's a page of helmets I did in a meeting and toned later to practice lighting.  They're not official Halo designs -- just the stuff that accumulates on my clipboard during Powerpoint presentations.  Call it "fan art."


Friday, October 5, 2012

Sock Girls pt. 2

For my Life Coach!




1997

Justin Oaksford inspired me to post one of the earliest things I ever did for a video game company.  It was this thing.  This...multi-vaginaed octopus.  Clearly, standards were lower back then!


Thursday, October 4, 2012

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Coffee Peeps


Sock Girls pt. 1

My friend Sean has this thing for slutty, athletic women clad only in shoes and socks.  So now, whenever we get lunch, I draw him one.  Here's the first batch all colored up.