gonna study a caricature artist tomorrow for some better hatching technique since i feel mine is sloppy, check it out, I think it'll help alot to make it more sophisticated what I'm doing, his name is thierry coquelet
aight, spent some more time on the sketches today, one from hampton, and actually one from imagination (the girl). The landscape is a study of Espen Olsen Soltervik, gonna study a lot of his work as time goes on.
aight, so i did a buncha thumbnails today to try and get my ass in gear. I heard mrs. Zoe Robinson on the One Fantastic week show today and I decided I'd contact her for a portfolio review, so hopefully I can get some good insight on what i need to do.
I know these thumbnails ain't great, but I didn't have much will to work today. I kinda freaked out last night realizing I'm almost 4 years in with my foot on the gas and still not broken in the industry. So uuh, we'll try to sort that shit out, got a lotta questions to ask her, hopefully I'll get the chance soon.
Haha I'm closing in on 100k Sketchbook pageviews, cool! That's a lot when you think about it ;)
Anyways, so I've set up a portfolio review with Zoe Robinson tomorrow, and hopefully that will go smoothly since our time zones are different and I always expect the worse lol.
But yea, didn't draw at all today, so here are some sketches i did studying some caricature artists.
I went out today and bought a guitar amplifier for 120$, a Peavey Viper, nothing special. I used to want to be a musician before discovering the art world (still kinda do), and before that, a writer (still kinda do.) So I'm still in contact with my best friend who kept pursuing guitar and he showed me this guy named Marshall Harrison, who is probably the most technically skilled guitarist I've seen. Better than Vai, Malmsteen, Becker, Friedman, Satriani, Buckethead, all the greats, and maybe even Shawn Lane...
I used to really be serious about guitar, wearing it around my neck and playing while watching TV like the great Van Halen did; sculpting the landscape of 80's guitar music. But seeing this guy Marshall Harrison inspired me in a different way, he reminded me of Kim Jung Gi. Just a maverick, in a world of his own. Someone who's soo good, that they have a kind of cult following and their work doesn't really reach the masses. There's something just so noble and fascinating about it, and this comment left on this video really got me going.
Someone asked him in the comments if he watches TV while playing guitar and he said,
"yes. I love watching hours and hours of tv WHILE practicing, noodling, and even sometimes composing. I composed a helluva piece while watching "Patton" with George C. Scott."
And I thought fuck man, his whole day is just playing and that's so cool. It's like what I do, but he's even more into it. He just never puts it down because he loves the craft so much. I wanna be like that. Just have fun doing it so much that I can't put it down, then awake again only to do it more. Learning everything at a fun manageable pace, and never putting it down. That's how you get into the league of the greats is being sustaining on that passion. Something you just do like breathing. And eventually you become the greatest ever, and the fame might or might not be there, but who cares, you're the illest eva.
I just want to be good, I don't care so much about jobs or anything, just being good for the sake of pushing the boundaries of human ability. There's ultimately no one I want to work for as a dream, just being that good; it's a never ending journey. See for yourself, it could inspire you: If you don't play guitar, I promise you, the stuff this guy's doing is nothing like even what the "greatest" guitarists are doing.
Noice updates, I've also been considering getting into writing myself actually, did a few blog posts and writings actually been very therapeutic for me, plus my end goal is to make manga art so getting into writing stories could be beneficial to my art as well when I think about it.
you should link some of your guitar stuff sometime I'd be interested to hear it :D.
Really like the crow piece dude, great design on the chick, can't see anything to critique, you're too gud man haha.
I was also in this band as a drummer for while. I was filling in till they found a new guy. (I'm on drums on the last two songs) https://giger.bandcamp.com/album/giger-live
Thanks man! But I ain't that good lol
Dev: My man glad you like it, thanks! And it went very well actually!
Sooo the talk with Zoe today was really eye opening. She actually doesn't think i suck! She even said some of my stuff looked "lovely." So, basically my biggest issue is that my art doesn't have a narrative, which is essential in illustration. I got sucked into the world of drawing a cool dude looking cool for the sake of looking cool. And I know you guys might like the raven lady, but she made a good point that it looks like two different paintings in one, and neither of them connect. Like the only reason she could tell she's a witch is by her costume. There's no reason why she's sitting there with a raven, as they're not interacting. She said the witch looked like a "bored model" as if that was my reference and well, she was right.
She said my best pieces on my artstation was Ori, Mazlin, and the skull. They have the most narrative in their expression and feel the most compelling and relatable.
She reccomended I read more stories and highlight the things i find visually stimulating in them. She picked the Lovecraft story Dagon, since I mentioned i enjoyed his works. So i went through and read the two page story again and got a hell of a lot more out of it this time. I got some ideas for the composition of one like, he's getting caught carving the primitive markings on the stone in a dynamic looking up shot, the other where he's standing and terrorizing the man lost on the island with his size near the rock. The other is a kind of odd idea, since at the end of the story, the narrator believes the creature followed him to civilization and is about to enter his apartment before he jumps from the window and commits suicide. So I liked the idea of this weird amphibious creature opening a hotel room door, since that sort of thing is a bit eerie and sparks a lot of questions to anyone who might realistically see hat scene unfold.
Im gonna sleep on it and see if I can think of any other ideas. Gonna try to do this a lot more, just read somethin and draw it. And Zoe's a great help, I highly recommend getting a review from her if you feel stuck, it's not expensive, and she's super sweet and experienced; not once did I feel bad or like I was some hopeless loser.
Today I learned the importance of thumbnailing, and it really made me appreciate the skillset with gesture I had built up from niccolaides. Sooo, yea, the first two things are thumbnails the third was a sketch I fleshed out before doing those thumbnails and the last is what Zoe and I decided to make as the final sketch.
You can also thank Donato Giancola for his cool use of toned paper in his sketches and what not that I am totally ripping on
Wah! So much new stuff and i have only been absent from your sketchbook for a week. You have a great work ethic :) and i love those last sketches. Idk they just look so cool and loose but also sharp at the same time
Noodle: Huahaha Thx, I try to post erryday to stay busy! I think it might be the way I draw the pencil when I draw, my reckless style might turn into something cool one day ;)
Got a LOT of cleaning up to do on this tomorrow haha
See that rock on the left side? Yea, I painted that by hand, yep no photo textures, just brushes I'm prouder of that than anything I've painted in a while, a goddam rock lol. Used no photo textures on this whole thang; proud of it. It's almost done..
So, did some thumbnails today and man I'm really starting to enjoy them to my surprise. It's like, how cool of a story can you tell with little BS stickmen or whatever. You entirely have to think about what makes a scene cool without detail or anatomy and it's all in story telling mayne.
So I'm gonna do some more Lovecraft stuff and see how long I can avoid drawing Cthulu lol. This last sketch is inspired by The Dream in the Witch House, and is featuring the horrible old lady and the disgusting rat known as Brown Jenkins. I had this idea of these kind of floating candles behind them that are blurred to hell, but it took a lot of thumbnailing to decide that. I also took a picture of myself and transformed it into a scary old witch. Wasn't much work since I'm so goddam ugly lol.
Yea, gonna tighten this up tomorrow, maybe start painting it. we'll see; Oh and some boring anatomy studies from Ramon Alexander Hurtado (I think) for the face and Hampton for the figure.
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