Yello,
Thanks so much Rotohail. I LOVE surreal art and am very glad you see that and the Heavy Metal influence. The warthog with the hanky was a lot of fun to create. So glad you like him and Rex and Molly too.
Adding color is something I've just gotten back to more recently and feel a bit rusty but agree it adds a lot!
You are spot-on about the change in my sketchbook. This year I reconnected with my niece and her kids and thought about them as I sketched and ended up printing out and sending them a lot of my new sketchbook stuff to color. It's very cool you picked up on that change.
I used to do some inking and got outa the habit. I know what you mean about punching up the blacks—which I find difficult to do with just graphite pencil. There's so much I always want to do.
LONG ago I tried water color but wasn't very good at it. Maybe I should give it another go.
As far as traditional media: I think my interest grew out of doing a lot of digital art and feeling like I wanted to create something tangible. That, and I get a LOT of requests for real-world portraits etc—and working with traditional media helps keep me sharper for that.
Thanks so much for your comment and encouragement. I'll stop by your sketchbook to see what you've been up to asap.
Leo Ki: I definitely have stories in mind but haven't yet gotten around to putting anything together or making panels like you do.
Thanks so much for your elephant pic comment. That one was fun and I think my nieces and nephews did like it. ☺
The astronaut guy was just something from my imagination and also a mash-up of several reference photos I had.
Yes—most everything I do now is kinda from that surreal point of view and usually has some kind of symbolism attached to it. In this case it's kind of related to modern technology turning humans into machine/humans. Kind of my take on what Lubomir Arsov does without his mastery.
Thanks again.
darktiste:
I agree so much with your advice. Thank you.
I'd just learned how to make those brushes and things got away from me as I painted that one. ☺
Have you see the Blaise tutorial on making and using them? His technique totally mirrors what you wrote about using fur brushes and I'm afraid I got off into the weeds.
Your observation about the teeth is very good. The reference I used didn't have any of that — so I added what I thought looked right—but hadn't considered what that would do to the teeth.
BTW—that wolf is AMAZING!! Is that one of yours??
Thanks again for all the tips/advice!
--------------------------
Here's a few new pics and some old stuff from the archive.
Start with new pastel pencils.
This one was created after I saw the animation X-STORY
I've not been much into anime—but loved X-Story and when I sat down to draw it had made an unconscious impact on me.
Saw a photo of Celine Dion and her neck looked like a giraffe's (well almost) and I knew I had to try my hand at a caricature of her featuring it along with some other symbolic elements thrown in as well.
One of my first recent efforts with the pastel pencils. This one is kinda wonky but I kinda like the character.
Has anyone else seen the previews for Arctic Dogs? The character designs look like Tracy Butlers but I don't find any reference to her on iMdb etc.
The back muscle study Fedodika referenced
That'll do it for today. I'll check in on everybody's threads soon.
Thanks again!
Oops. The final pic was supposed to come above my close but I don't know how to move it up.
It's a digital study of an old pic of a guy watching beer being poured out during prohibition. Wonder what he was thinking.....
Thanks so much Rotohail. I LOVE surreal art and am very glad you see that and the Heavy Metal influence. The warthog with the hanky was a lot of fun to create. So glad you like him and Rex and Molly too.
Adding color is something I've just gotten back to more recently and feel a bit rusty but agree it adds a lot!
You are spot-on about the change in my sketchbook. This year I reconnected with my niece and her kids and thought about them as I sketched and ended up printing out and sending them a lot of my new sketchbook stuff to color. It's very cool you picked up on that change.
I used to do some inking and got outa the habit. I know what you mean about punching up the blacks—which I find difficult to do with just graphite pencil. There's so much I always want to do.
LONG ago I tried water color but wasn't very good at it. Maybe I should give it another go.
As far as traditional media: I think my interest grew out of doing a lot of digital art and feeling like I wanted to create something tangible. That, and I get a LOT of requests for real-world portraits etc—and working with traditional media helps keep me sharper for that.
Thanks so much for your comment and encouragement. I'll stop by your sketchbook to see what you've been up to asap.
Leo Ki: I definitely have stories in mind but haven't yet gotten around to putting anything together or making panels like you do.
Thanks so much for your elephant pic comment. That one was fun and I think my nieces and nephews did like it. ☺
The astronaut guy was just something from my imagination and also a mash-up of several reference photos I had.
Yes—most everything I do now is kinda from that surreal point of view and usually has some kind of symbolism attached to it. In this case it's kind of related to modern technology turning humans into machine/humans. Kind of my take on what Lubomir Arsov does without his mastery.
Thanks again.
darktiste:
I agree so much with your advice. Thank you.
I'd just learned how to make those brushes and things got away from me as I painted that one. ☺
Have you see the Blaise tutorial on making and using them? His technique totally mirrors what you wrote about using fur brushes and I'm afraid I got off into the weeds.
Your observation about the teeth is very good. The reference I used didn't have any of that — so I added what I thought looked right—but hadn't considered what that would do to the teeth.
BTW—that wolf is AMAZING!! Is that one of yours??
Thanks again for all the tips/advice!
--------------------------
Here's a few new pics and some old stuff from the archive.
Start with new pastel pencils.
This one was created after I saw the animation X-STORY
I've not been much into anime—but loved X-Story and when I sat down to draw it had made an unconscious impact on me.
Saw a photo of Celine Dion and her neck looked like a giraffe's (well almost) and I knew I had to try my hand at a caricature of her featuring it along with some other symbolic elements thrown in as well.
One of my first recent efforts with the pastel pencils. This one is kinda wonky but I kinda like the character.
Has anyone else seen the previews for Arctic Dogs? The character designs look like Tracy Butlers but I don't find any reference to her on iMdb etc.
The back muscle study Fedodika referenced
That'll do it for today. I'll check in on everybody's threads soon.
Thanks again!
Oops. The final pic was supposed to come above my close but I don't know how to move it up.
It's a digital study of an old pic of a guy watching beer being poured out during prohibition. Wonder what he was thinking.....