Meat House

[Doolio]

meat is in da house!:)

i think understanding things is important - as is raw work, hence no life study or traditional piece remains unused by your brain in one way or another. you can be sure about that. stuff like "oh, the skin does x color-wise when illuminated by a lightbulb" will remain in your head forever.
the only real downside - which i have learned the hard way - is when you get into life drawing "more than you should", in other words, when you let it be your sole course of action and then you get more and more comfortable etc.
that's why i can produce a semi-decent looking oil painting of a referenced "girl and the window" type of stuff from a model but can't draw a sunflower from imagination that is better than some elementary school kid's:)

[clockodile]

Amazing sketchbook, it is inspiring to see so much life drawing, and I like how you use nature in your imaginative work. The butterfly illustrations a great too -though I don't use traditional paint really, the analysis notes were interesting to read.

It is cool to see someone interested in scientific illustration too (who doesn't just stick to palleo-art - as cool as it is, there is so much more). It makes me want to reread "Field Notes of Science and Nature".

[meat]

Hahaha, Doolio, when you need to draw sunflowers from imagination, I'll lend you a hand. Nobody's perfect in everything!

clockodile: Thanks! I want to incorporate even more nature into imaginative work, like I saw some folks did over at CA.org's creature challenges. So far not much success. I used to love all things dino as a kid, a whole lot, but I won't go into palleo...There are a lot of illustrators doing other natural science areas out there, and their works are really cool too!

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Some outdoor sketches with a local artist group. First time going. I do wonder if doing any of these are useful though. The material itself (watercolor) was unfamiliar and half the time I'm fighting that instead of thinking about composition, or atmospheric fading... just getting stuff down on paper and trying to make them look like more than blobs of paint with some sense of depth. So they're not even feel-me-good sketches. ... I suppose if you're struggling with something, then there's stuff to be learned, and it's just the question of relevance. In this case, it's relevant, whatever it was.





This was meant for the last Bloodsport, which I didn't finish on time, of course. The usual, inexplicable fear, and the seemingly unbreakable bad habit of grinding 1 design with all the slowness and tunnel vision of someone in denial... I will be much happier fellow if I can one day conquer this odd behavior of avoiding committing to non-job, self-motivated-deadline projects like these.

Quickly about design, Persian-influenced design desert monster hunter, and the monster is based on Roc bird of the 1001 Night Tales.

[Triggerpigking]

Hey! Nice sketchbook Meat.
Shame you could'nt finish the bloodsports, those designs look pretty interesting.
Also cool to see so much traditional painting,(personally that stuff is way to messy and time consuming for me, I usually end up with half my room splattered in more paint then the canvas :P).
Also really like them creatures you did from plants a while back.
Wish I could make some suggestions or critiques but i've got nothing just keep up what you're doing man :).

[meat]

Triggerpigking: Thanks for the encouragement man!

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Been physically away for several events from cat sitting to week-long art volunteering (again), to religious camp to GNSI convention. That convention trip was like nothing I've ever done in my life. People were so open, so sharing, so passionate about what they're doing, and so eager to tell and show you how they do anything you asked about to make you grow artistically too. They didn't show the slightest sign of worrying about competition, instead, they were all so eager to have another brother and sister in the field and at their level. They were people who not only have entire libraries of scientific knowledge in their heads, but also great passion for making beautiful art that can educate and impart information. Great learning experience and exercise. Boulder is beautiful.

Here are cat sketches from cat-sitting:




Sketches from Wild China and Skyrim in between volunteering before going off to camp:



Lucky sheep painting commission that actually paid (first time!):





Airplane doodle:



The only sketch from Boulder conference due to absolutely busy schedule:



Color pencil testing on different surface and solvent, with Pan Pastel. Haven't time to write down the notes on each test from memory yet:

[Lyraina]

If you want to be able to commit to self motivated deadlines, I found having someone to hold you accountable (i.e. a friend you told that you would do this or that project and who you have to tell if you failed..) can help. Or trying to convince your brain into thinking that community challenge xyz really is important for whatever reason (like imaginefx for exposure?). That said, I do like the amount of work and research you put in your design, and even if you don't finish, you are still honing your visual library and design skills. Would have liked to see the outcome of those sketches though, especially the monster exploration looks really interesting.

The cat sitting sketches are really cute :) Congrats on the paid commission! Looking great!

[meat]

If you want to be able to commit to self motivated deadlines, I found having someone to hold you accountable (i.e. a friend you told that you would do this or that project and who you have to tell if you failed..) can help. Or trying to convince your brain into thinking that community challenge xyz really is important for whatever reason (like imaginefx for exposure?). That said, I do like the amount of work and research you put in your design, and even if you don't finish, you are still honing your visual library and design skills. Would have liked to see the outcome of those sketches though, especially the monster exploration looks really interesting.

The cat sitting sketches are really cute :) Congrats on the paid commission! Looking great!

Lyraina: You're right on that. You're also very kind to really look and find something good to say for encouragement. Thanks for that!

For a long time I didn't want to trouble my friend when they know I've been real sloppy outside of work jobs (on job I'd skip food and bathroom to make sure it's done right and on time). And most of them aren't interested in what I do. I will try to ask people from online meetup group if they'd like to "spot me" or "belay me". :D

[clockodile]

Congratulations on your commission! I like your cat sketches too, you caught all those different poses really well - lively, and they are very recognisable as distinctive 'cat' poses (if that makes any sense). The horse sketches on the following page are looking good too, nice construction to the head, and plenty of energy to them. (Also I have got to get around watching Wild China some time.)

As a sort of addendum of Lyrainia's comment about deadlines, one tactic I have found can help with getting finished work out is breaking it up into mini-deadlines/time nuggets. For instance "Thumbs in 2 days, sketch and value in a 5 days, colour comp in a week, painting in 2 weeks". But fitting your own pipeline and time frames of course. It might not be for you, but I thought I'd mention it since I find it makes projects less intimidating.

[meat]

Thanks clockodile! Wild China is visually quite impressive. I was watching it on big screen while cat sitting so it was all the more impressive. The cuts are all short, so you'll have to be a fast gesture drawer. Or download it, and pause it on your screen.

Your tactic sounds like what a friend uses for doing marathons. That'll require more advance planning, which is good and I want to practice doing that kind of planning too. Now I just need to find people to belay me. I meant to ask today during a sketching Meetup group, but forgot!
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Not much art this week, mostly doing typing and paper stuff. Live frogs and clownfish@AMNH, and plein air boats on Hudson river:






Trying to do another 3DS tutorial:

[Jaik]

Dude, your painting has gotten HEAPS better since the last visit. But..painting on a red background? HOW ARE YOUR EYES NOT BLEEDING IN A POOL OF JELLY ON THE FLOOR???

Are the boats done plein air or from a pic?

[meat]

Dude, your painting has gotten HEAPS better since the last visit. But..painting on a red background? HOW ARE YOUR EYES NOT BLEEDING IN A POOL OF JELLY ON THE FLOOR???

Are the boats done plein air or from a pic?

Thanks Jaik! I'm actually not feeling or seeing the improvements. The sheep/goats are from photo reference and the red bg was a requirement from client. I think because it's actual paper, it's dim when seen at an angle on a desk, and it's not reflective either, so it wasn't bad to stare at.

The boats are plein air. The French one keeps spinning in circle so it hasn't any details, and it quite deformed.

[Lyraina]

Lol, that frog looks so grumpy! :)

The boats are really cool, especially the first one. Do you plot out perspective or rough shapes before going in with a pen and colors, or are you freehanding that?
I'm doubly impressed by those, since every single outdoor sketch including architecture or straight lines I tried so far was an utter fail :P You make it look really easy!

[meat]

Lol, that frog looks so grumpy! :)

The boats are really cool, especially the first one. Do you plot out perspective or rough shapes before going in with a pen and colors, or are you freehanding that?
I'm doubly impressed by those, since every single outdoor sketch including architecture or straight lines I tried so far was an utter fail :P You make it look really easy!

No a lot of planning. As soon as a spot looks like it has nice perspective tools (eg. a row of wooden pillar), and looks nice, I grab a seat, frame the view with my hands, then go straight into painting. I make more decisions while I paint.

Plein air involves more gut decision due to time limit. You practice image planning when doing slower, deliberate studies at home, then when you are faced with time/location limit, your planning becomes a fast, reflexive mental process. It's good practice to do something that makes you work fast where you cannot access reference. Sort of like studying in medical school then going out to be a field doctor in disaster zone, drives home what's really useful and how.

The first one I drew first with a waterproof pen. Second one I painted straight away without drawing, and added the pen lines last.

Here's irony for you, Lyra. I hate drawing buildings and anything hard surface, because it's hard to draw free-hand straight lines consistently for me. Straight edges are easier to make with a brush since the paint covers up the wiggly part, whereas drawing over a wiggly pen line just makes the line messier. Sometimes a blob of paint will suddenly look like a convincing building once you added a few details with pen at the end - some windows, a sign, a lamp, etc. I'd like to believe each time I do a building/hard surface, I'm slowly getting better until one day I can draw a damn cathedral. Try to enjoy challenging yourself. We all used to as kids, we can get back to it. But don't challenge yourself about stupid stuff like stuffing 24 dumplings in your mouth, or draw an entire sketchbook full of unmentionables.

By the way, do you get Faber Castell pen cheaper because it's made right there in Germany (no shipping)?

[Lyraina]

Thanks for the explanation and for letting me pick your mind all the time! :) I guess the straight lines (and lines in general) will get easier with time as well, as it is with most of those things ...

I have no real comparison what Faber Castell costs in other countries, but I do have my fair share of pens, pencils and stuff from them (along with other German and international brands). Did you know there is a (like, 200 year old) brand that sells pencils, pens etc as well called LYRA in Germany? ;) That said, Faber Castell is amongst the a bit more expensive alternatives here, but for the quality it offers it is still very affordable.

[meat]

Looks like FC is on average double the price here in the US without sales. I asked around about LYRA, and it seems some people use it and rate it above FC. If I ever visit Germany I'm going to raid art supply stores! Forget about castles and black forests and white sausages!
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...man I need to stop being chicken, and do some imaginative stuff. With full background environment.

Restarted that gift painting this week. Gave up on originality since all my photos suck, and ref'd one of the post card I bought with minor alteration...



Central park. Very difficult curvy architecture to do by eye. Measuring is still important when plein air. Hard to remember where to NOT paint so to leave white paper for light. Note to self: bring opaque gauche white.



Slug-pace progress on same 3Ds tutorial, now featuring ugly preview diffuse with invisible displacement.

[clockodile]

Those frogs at the AMNH look great, excellent variation for angle/pose.

Really liking these watercolour plein airs too, the shape control is steadily improving - especially on that bridge! The way the boats came out with the pen over-sketch is a nice effect too, and it adds a lot of information as well. Speaking of working with buildings and working up detail, I am reminded of Sargent's watercolour sketches - the paint is applied super-loose on a lot of them. The way you speak about building the detail on that (and indeed, looking at a couple he must have drawn over in pen or pencil too) actually helped me understand some of the process. And of course, his observation of light is spot on.

[Fedodika]

Hey meat, awesome stuff! I really think it's cool and unique what you're learning how to do, especially learning to paint the old fashioned way, looks like fun :). Keep doing what you're doing definately looking forward to more!

[JyonnyNovice]

Hi Meat, your goats and sheep painting is really beautiful, yea man, it's a great painting! Your coloured pencil stuff is looking nice too.

When you do plein air stuff what kind of kit do you take with you? I love outdoor sketching and want to try it in colour but don't know what kind of colours or brushes to get.

[meat]

Clockodile: Sargent’s an artist I deeply admire, and I saw an exhibition of his watercolors once. He used only 2 colors, and yet capture Venice’s light on all sorts of surface beautifully… another great artist who does great watercolor sketches is Andrew Wyeth. His sketches are very different from his detailed paintings. I was taught to always start big blobs then work my way down to small details, work the whole image equally and always keep it in balance.

Fedodika: Thanks! Traditional is fun to do, though I do wish I can translate it more into, and do more of, digital. Will keep doing more.

Jyonny: Thanks mate! Here’re the basic gear I take to plein air – water brush, pocket palette, hardback sketchbook/pad (so you can hold it again palette, or palette against it), water-resistant pen (Uni-ball eye micro, Sakura micron, Faber Castell PITT, etc), a brim hat or sun glasses (prevent squinting from sun blast). Extra stuff if you know you have space to set them up – camping stool, a setup of some sort to hold an umbrella over your canvas so you see better (wet surface reflects light too much when not in shade).

I don't use pencil so I don't spend time erasing.

Camping stool: http://www.amazon.com/Texsport-15160-Fol...853&sr=1-3

[EDIT] Article with photo of field sketching - much more comprehensive than my post here, so do look at it: http://www.johnmuirlaws.com/field-sketching-equipment




...sorry it's really dirty. I need to respect my tools more and clean them.

[JyonnyNovice]

Woa! Thanks for all the info Meat! I'm excited to get some of this stuff and try it out!