The Drawing Board

Link: http://www.sageartsstudio.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=760

Here are the better sketches from July.

Spending more time with markers this month. Still trying to nail down certain expressions and characterizations. Definitely need more time with a model in a structured setting. This happenstance drawing is too infrequent. Still, I'm beginning to see a change in my results.

I found a couple of new pens, and have a really cool one on the way. I decided to drop $25 and order an Ackerman Pump Pen. Perhaps one of the coolest ideas I've seen in awhile. I ordered the one that will accept the Manga G-Pen nibs. I have a stock of those coming in from Akadot as well.

I was recently hired to design a poster for a local Tae Kwon Do school's annual tournament. I did their poster last year, it was well received. This year I was asked to do a dragon. The design included a t-shirt design for one color silkscreen printing as well as a full-color version for the web and for the poster.
 

Read more

A week ago I was approached during my weekly drawing session by a young man who was carrying a sketchbook. He had asked me a few weeks prior if I was trying to be a professional artist. I said no. (I wasn't trying, I just was). He asked if I had any training, classes or such. I said a few. These are smart ass answers, but with a straight face, they are polite and nondescript, which lets me get back to drawing. Most people ask a question, but really want to make a statement about themselves in the process, maybe to see if they're doing ok. This time I humored him.

Read more

Here is a digital portrait I started working on, I'll post updates as I finish the piece. Painter X rocks by the way.

Link: http://www.sageartsstudio.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=721&g2_page=2

I found out this weekend that I have a nickname at the coffee shop: "Green Tea." Not as sexy as "007;" I suppose I am a creature of habit. Speaking of habits, here are the better sketches from June.

I'm up to an average of 4-5 hours of drawing per week (not nearly enough). In one sitting I'll get about three pages of sketches in ink or marker done, then some pencil sketches, and maybe a more involved portrait in graphite or watercolor. I always start with quick sketches in permanent media as a warm-up. No erasing, no going back. I also won't let myself look through what I did earlier when I start. The focus is first on gesture, then on accuracy, expression, and composition

I definitely need to get back to figure drawing, I'm spending too much time working from memory or photographs, not enough time drawing from life. My ultimate goal is to draw at least one hour per day, with longer sessions on the weekends.

Finished this one over the course of three sessions. Still trying to work out the best way to create textures on this surface. I just got my jar of liquid pencil, watersoluable graphite. I'll be trying some new things with that this weekend.

This is a half-sheet from a 9x12 pad. I want to get more familiar with this before I start working on the larger sheets (22x35).

I also just found out that Yupo comes in transluscent sheets as well as the opaque bright white. More money to spend...

Today is truly a dark day. It was announced this morning that a man of profound satire, intelligent humor and subtle wisdom, someone I consider to be a great teacher, has passed. Sunday evening, after reporting of chest pains earlier that afternoon, the comedian George Carlin died of heart failure at the age of 71.

Read more

This is one of two drawings that I did last week. I'm still working on the other portrait, but I will post it soon, because I think it came out even better than this one did.

I am beginning to get a handle on this tricky surface. Particulary, how to layer values to build up a sense of atmosphere. If it weren't so expensive ($9-$18 for 20 9"x12" sheets) I might waste more of it, more often. You have to be prepared to spend some money to learn a new medium.

My next drawings on Yupo will involve lifting and sponged textures as well. I had some interesting accidents recently that have gotten the gears rolling. I also have some new watersoluable graphite on order from Blick Art Supplies. This is tinted and comes in a jar.

The site is back up and everything is now in working order. Thanks for your patience.

I was paging through a National Geographic couple of weeks ago, found an interesting face, tried to do it justice. This sketch is watercolor pencil on 6"x9" watercolor paper. This was a 20 minute sketch.

Beginning Thursday evening, my site(s) and email will be down for maintenance this weekend. Unfortunately that includes this blog. Things will be back to normal as of Monday, June 16th, 2008.

For more information, click here.

A month ago I started playing around with a new kind of paper I read about in an article in American Artist Magazine. The surface is pristine white, absolutely non-absorbant, yet will allow binding by all water media. Further, it's made of plastic, not fiber or paper. The material is called Yupo.

Controlling the paint on this type of surface is tricky. Because the paper is non-absorbant, watersoluable media can be worked into over and over. This also means that layering is a tricky thing. Too much water in your paint and you will begin to pick up under layers, instead of adding to them. Many artists who paint on this surface make use of dripping and pooling paint, using rollers and sponges to create odd textures.

After experimenting with this I had the idea of using watercolor pencil and watersoluable woodless graphite sticks to create drawings, then work back into them with a slightly damp brush. This method can have the control of drawing, yet the expressive qualities of painting. Even after working back into the drawing, creating a layered texture, the media can be erased with a pencil eraser, offering yet more control.

There is a great controversy in the Watercolor Community, over whether or not to allow this type of ground into more traditional watercolor competitions. The question of what is and what is not water-based media is one full of opinion. Personally, I think this type of ground should be allowed.

Although it's somewhat expensive, I think this method of working deserves more research. I have other drawings/paintings in the works, I plan to post them next month.

Link: http://www.sageartsstudio.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=56&g2_page=1&g2_navId=x1a213a03

Here is the next batch of sketches. Again these are the best of many many sketches, still working on certain issues. I hope to have more available in a week or so.

Before you say it, yes, I tend to draw female portraits more than males. I find that the female face requires more subtlety and an accuracy of line, and that's really what I need to work on right now. I also tend to start with a bounding box, or circle, some shape to begin to confine my drawing. That is something that I disregard if the drawing is going somewhere interesting, but I start with to make sure I keep the graphic aspect of the drawing in mind.

Originally posted on www.drawn.ca

By now many of you are already informed about the proposed Orphan Works Act being introduced to the U.S. house and senate. For those unaware, this legislation, if enacted, can effectively undermine and dismantle your existing copyright protection.

Currently, copyright is granted the moment a work is created. This new Orphan Works legislation proposes a change in U.S. copyright that would (indirectly) require artists, illustrators, photographers, and any creative individual to actively maintain and defend their copyright by registering each and every work with privatized registrars. Failure to do so would leave everything you’ve ever created as an artist up for grabs by anyone who wanted to copy, reproduce, create derivative works of, or flat out steal your work since the act defines an “orphan work” as any work where the author is unidentifiable or unlocatable, and applies to both published and unpublished works, U.S. and foreign, regardless of age.

This is completely contradictory with international copyright standards and is ethically, logistically, and financially bonkers.

Read more

Link: http://www.drawingday.org

Drawing Day is almost here. Check out the website for details on how to participate and spread the word. This is a project that is pushing to produce 1 million drawings in a single day worldwide.

One of the biggest problems I've had over the past ten years is finding enough studio space to do the work I want to do. When I was in college I used to do large paintings on canvas. Now it's not that easy. With digital artwork, the studio is "virtual," but with real media, you have to have space for working and drying and storing…

So I've taken to working abroad, either sitting in my truck or at cafe's and bookstores. I try to have something with me to sketch with. In addition to the stuff below I also keep my digital camera with me to shoot reference material.

Last year, one of my students brought me a rather odd hand-woven bag from his trip to Peru last year. It is surprisingly well suited for carrying markers and pens. I currently carry:

Read more

Link: http://www.sageartsstudio.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=21

So last fall I decided it was time to start working on my drawing skills. I took many years off after college, a long period of about 10 years where I was not making what I considered "real" art. Given that all of the design work I had done during that time involved Photoshop and Illustrator, I felt like I lost something.

When I was in college, I had a real knack for gesture, but even then I was never one to draw clean line. So I began to work on it, weekly. I currently average 3-5 hours each week, drawing at bookstore cafe's and coffee shops.

These sketches are from January thru March of 2008. I wasted a lot of paper during this time. My routine is to sit down and start with a bunch of quick and loose thumbnails in marker and ink, stuff you can't erase. Later I might work in pencil, but not until after the first couple of pages.

You can see the rest of this gallery here: http://www.sageartsstudio.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=21 I'll post more recent images next week.

Welcome to my new blog.

I will be posting new drawings and sketches on a weekly basis. Check back from time to time to see what's cookin'.