styracosaur in progress

(click to enlarge)
Taking forever but I've been doing smaller projects here and there to keep from going crazy...this is probably the biggest item I can remember doing and to top it off using pointillism doesn't help the speed factor...If you start placing stuff wrong or mess up a value patch you're pretty much in a world of hurt...90% finished with the dino...birds are all pretty much done...In a week will be starting on the really tough part...the background...then it will just be a matter of value adjustments...I still have to finish out darkening the back area from the back leg down the tail and finishing the tail tip...

IF: Double Dipper???

"Madam, you are clearly mistaken...this would be the third time this particular chip has entered the dip in question...

Pointillism Triceratops

(click images to enlarge)

Finished this about a week ago and have been busy working on a couple of other items. I worked smaller (15x20) than some of the other pointillism attempts which made it go quicker (I just finished 90% of the detailing on my styraco and now must tackle the background...and I've been working off and on on that for months)...but not sure if I'm happy with the level of detail. Usually at this point I would run some prints and then paint it in watercolor. At this time I have no printing option that would allow me to print it to scale and do this...and printing it smaller would probably not be too good because of the detail issue. So I have to debate if I want to try the one shot deal on the illustration board...



I tried to post the image and for some reason the central area comes up blurry...so I posted a close up...

IF:Breakfast

They Never Made it...pt II

I was sketching out a plan to get back into oil painting a while back...this was the start...space limitations in my apartment unfortunately ground that one to a halt...one of these days lol...seems like I am stuck with colored pencils, graphite, and pen and ink for a while yet...

Non-traditional Pose

A sketch trying out a non-traditional pose...used it to create another pointillism item which I'll show in a bit. One thing Gurney talked about in his blog was 'trying something different'...not only can you have fun with educated guesses on appearance but dinosaurs and had to do all kinds of things other than fight or running around trying to eat each other...

Robot

Another project we do as just bit of a creative exercise is creating a robot from something around the house. I started a sketch of a robot based on system controllers...I didn't get around to finishing the base but believe I'll vectorize him at some point...but it won't be tomorrow...because I'm heading to Cedar Point for a Wednesday rollercoasterpalooza at the best amusement park on the planet...then when we come back hopefully I can finish up two of the three big drawings I've been doing over the past few weeks...and start a few more...summer is fading fast...

Pan Head

During the year we talked about themes for playing cards and the importance of references. At this time Gurney was doing posts with regards to creating a Pan figure and he too was discussing the importance of drawing from life and doing studies even when creating imaginary characters. Even when it feels that characters have been 'done to death' it is still possible to create something unique, especially when paying attention to detail of life subjects. Gurney brought in skulls, human models, and I believe even animals. There were lots of different solutions to the problem proving that there is always something new that can be done even if at times it takes a little digging. These were a couple of head shots I did trying out a few different takes.

IF: GiAnt

I think we're gonna' need more spray...

They never made it..part I

This started out as a meeting sketch...I still have the image of what I wanted to do...


I even started making more refined character sketches...

But as what happens sometimes in life I got sidetracked...I've done a lot of pics since I started wanting to do this...and at some point before I die I have plans to finish this out because I think it would turn out pretty nice. I think I got caught up in trying to figure if I wanted to do it in pointillism, graphite, or colored pencil. That issue has killed several projects and caused me to restart others...(example...the styraco which I have been working on pretty diligently the last few weeks and will give updated pics on later...started it in graphite and then got disappointed in several things and switched to pointillism.) I get excited looking at the sketch and beat myself up a bit for not following through on it..but I'll get to it eventually. If someone would donate 20 acres of land and build me an art studio I'd even get back into oil painting...heck, I'd probably even give them the picture for free...

The missing text...

Finally able to sit down and draw for the past few weeks...been quite the hectic summer...I had posted a project from back in my college days but the text was MIA...I stumbled across my portfolio original and had to scan it in for posterity...It was one of my favorite projects that we did...we had to design an 8-panel CD insert plus an advertisement for the project. We were working on some mailers at the same time and I spent so much time working on this I did a very mediocre job on the mailer...I received a great compliment from the instructor though...he said it turned out so well he was automatically lowering everyone else's grade a letter...those were the days...