Sock Puppet

One of the projects to help students learn the creative process as well as Prismacolor use is to design a modified sock puppet. Last year I whipped out some quick roughs to show them examples of how to take the basic form for a hand puppet that would actually work. While I guess they fall more into the line of hand puppets I didn't want them to lose the basic underlying shape of the hand in their designs. This year I was bored watching them, and needed a break from my pointillism project, so I dug my sketch back up and completed my own.

New Styraco Pose

New pose with frill adjusted...Still some minor adjusting that needs done...and will be adding back in the birds from the first attempt...in 22 minutes I will put down the first pointillism dot as I can go ahead and work on the head region...then it'll be like jumping off a very high bridge towards a concrete base...all downhill and scary...

IF:Music...Sweet Sweet Music...

I've missed the cut for band twice now...Granny always said this was musical fruit so I'm hoping it will give me that little something I seem to be lacking...

Skull Study

Another skull study from my roost as students were working...this ballpoint pen is a bit 'stiffer' and requires a bit more pressure to get it to 'flow'...the good news is I found my super sketching 'Navy' pen distributed by our local visiting recruiters. I thought I had lost it and even sunk so low as to go to my supervisor's secretary...I mean administrative assistant...and swipe...I mean borrow...hers...she forgot to inform me that hers had run out of juice so it turned out to be a long trip for nothing...

Styracosaurus Pointillism

My graphite styraco was unacceptable for a variety of reasons...I redid the pose and while waiting to start afresh I did a quick pointillism head shot...one of the difficulties I have when doing something really large in graphite is the need to keep going back and adjust the values...and I'll often erase a few times trying to get a texture to look right...trying to strike the balance of too much detail vs. overworking...at some point it becomes overwhelming and I take 20 years longer than I want to. So the debate has been if I should do the large new styraco in pencil, which I think would look sharp but drive me insane at some point, or to do it in pointillism...at least with pointillism when you make a dot it is there...no going back...and adjustments can still be made but for some reason it seems to take less work...and is almost like therapy in a weird Chinese water torture sort of way...and it does tend to lend itself to dinos without worrying so much about the 'texturing' troubles pencil drives me to at certain points...If I had space I would just take up oil painting again and solve all the world's problems.

IF: Unbalanced

The other clowns wondered if Ted was really cut out for the job...sure it was tough to lose your first balloon dog...but nobody else had ever went through the trouble of a burial...

Sometimes you just have to call a terd a terd part II

The more I worked on this the less happy I became...it was rather draining because things weren't turning out regardless of what I was trying. The head frill area wasn't 'turning' properly and seemed to be running too flat...the pose seemed too stiff...I noticed when I first laid it out that I had forced him onto the format...a bit too cramped...media use had some planning issues that I found out after the fact...

Of course there are some things I like...the idea...the area from behind the eye all the way to the beak...really like the eyeball and beak...a couple of the birds...while there might be some potential I just realize I'm never going to be happy with it...so I bit the bullet...I started over again so that I can take what I learned and really make this work...I might cut this up and save the good parts...but I know attempt two is going to be much better...and it'll get finished much quicker...which is a good thing since I already have the next idea sketched out...

IF: Blur

Pencil J. Pencil...further proof the life is but a blur. You lived well these past 3 weeks...you were kind, humble, always did what was asked of you...but now...your time is done.

I drew a face on my eraser...he too is a friend. And every time I go to erase something I stop and see the look of horror on his face. Do I REALLY need to erase that line? What could I do better next time so I can keep him around longer? I find that people often abuse eraser privileges...especially at the start of an artistic career. I mean we could draw general to specific and really keep that nice sketchy feel...but too often we are overwhelmed by a need for perfection in the beginning and start hammering out details too early...and find ourselves making mistake after mistake and in the quest for perfection end up with something dull and lifeless...misproportioned...awkward...items not placed well in the composition...value sets clashing...and we drag our poor eraser friends out...sure there are times to erase...it isn't a capital offense...but if we spend more time drawing and less time erasing wouldn't the world be a better place...and our eraser friends would perhaps be around a little longer...and they would thank us...

IF:Skinny

Skull

Just a quick sketch done while students were doing their sketches...nothing like a good sketching pen...

IF: Fast

IF: Frozen

"I said freeze his ASSETS...HIS ASSETS!!!"

IF: Flying Legends Revealed

The real reason he was called the Red Baron...for more laughable revisionist history, visit the latest batch of public ed history books...

Meanwhile...at the meeting...

About a month ago I had a meeting with some fine folks from a local college...of course I doodled the main guy and several of the attendees were watching...and they started snickering off and on which kept disrupting the meeting...I had to set up a mini-blind because I wasn't going to stop drawing and they weren't going to stop laughing...so when I went to the meeting last night and introduced myself they went, "Oh you're that guy that drew _______." So of course I stared drawing last night and got the one non-art guy...he was just the note taker...and I sat at the end like a leper in a way so that I had no peepers...because this meeting looked a bit more official...we had a large wooden desk with plug-in ports...and they were serving sliced fruit...

Triceratops pointillism w/Waterolor

I finally came through on my threat to add watercolor to this...don't make me make threats like that again...

Styraco Update

(click to enlarge)
Got some more work and adjustments done...at least now I have a better feel for how I'm doing the body although I will have a lot of value adjustments to do...which will be a 1000 times easier than the head...kind of makes me wish I had done it first...still a lot of work to go and I again feel better about going really slow...and as all my friends say...I am in more ways than one...I made several adjustments to the birds that are vastly improved over what I had sketched in to begin with...looking forward to finishing it sometime in the year 2097...

Facebook

I know I'm a bit late on the 'facebook craze'...but I need every chance I get to have a laugh plus it seems easier to keep up with some of my friends...so I took the plunge. I don't necessarily get the 'twitter-like' updates that some people post..."I am eating a pickle...tune in for the next thing I do..." but mostly because I don't see how people have that much time or energy...but I do see how many of the networking services aren't bad things and can actually save time...

That being said my initial profile pic was the standard "Jimmy Nuetron Head silhouette'...I immediately received complaints that the pic looked nothing like me...So I downloaded a pic (I've never taken a good pic...of course there may be a reason for that) and I got some heat because it looked too much like me...so I did this doodle to get the best of both worlds. It doesn't look like me because I hardly ever wear a tie...and if I do I forgot how to tie a real one a long time ago so I use the clip-on...and second my arms aren't nearly that hairy...but everything else is pretty much in line...

IF:Germ

Remember when 14 year old boys used to chase 14 year old girls for smooches and you would hear screams of "Boy Germs" or "Boy Cooties"...maybe someone should try and reinstate that fear...

Styracosaurus in progress

(click to enlarge)
This one has been a bit slow going...but I've had to take breaks and come back to it several times and make corrections. It is also the biggest item I've worked on...I think the full sheet is 20" by 30"...anyway it takes up most of my drawing table. I've got all the general areas figured out I just have to fill it in...the plan is a full body shot half-way submerged in water with tick birds getting a free ride...the really tough part will be doing the reflections and background...and then going back in and adjusting the values...the one mistake I made...I tried out using carbon pencils for some of the blacks...which worked well...but I only switched to it after I found out that the ebony pencils were still not getting the darks I wanted (partially because of the reflection factor). And of course the carbon doesn't really want to stick into the graphite areas where I had already lade down the blacks because there is no tooth left...

So while I read all of the good points to carbon pencils (the molecules are more uneven so when you lay a patch down they don't reflect light as graphite does....graphite particles are more even and lay down 'smoother' which acts in a way as a mirror...) So while I love the rich blacks I know I have to be careful with using it...and in the future plan better so I know where to use the carbon pencil and where to hit the graphite...

IF:Recognize the pattern Bruce!!!

I was watching the old Incredible Hulk show the other day on Retro TV...my newest favorite channel with such classics as the Rockford Files and the A-Team...and mulling the word for IF when something hit...The show, like many, has a distinctive formula although like many shows of that time it is much more obvious.

Bruce walks down some road...sees a good looking lady in distress...stops to help out...and then it all goes haywire...there is always some bad guy after the good looking lady...Bruce always gets cornered by some street thugs at some point...they beat him up a bit while he begs them to stop...and poof...you have the Hulk. You would think at some point...since Bruce hates to become the Hulk...that as he is walking down the road and sees a hot chick (no offense ladies) broke down he would stay on the other side of the road since nothing good ever happened to him the other 2,527 times he stopped to help. Or perhaps, so as not to completely over-ride his altruistic nature, he would only stop to help moderately to homely looking women...apparently the mafia never has any interest in those types...or the elderly as I personally witness a lot more of those folks trying to change flat tires than I see swimsuit models. Or better yet he could stick to hiking paths and try to help out animals in distress...they tend not to join gangs or want someone dead to get inheritance money...plus they have a fear of humans naturally. Throw in the radiation smell...not to mention some questionable hygiene issues from walking cross country...and I think he would be fairly safe.