Joker

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Joker is finished...I did several test sketches which I'll try to post later...but they were a bit too goofy...I thought a snail fit the Joker well because of the eye stalks comparing to the joker hat...

The number cards will be pretty easy (plus the back design) and I will have to tweak the face cards to make sure the layout measurements are all the same...I've been contemplating doing more of the face cards since there are usually two variations of the king, queen, and jack...I actually even thought about doing 4 differing designs for each but that might take longer than what I have...from sketch to finished product it is taking about 10 hours.

I actually contacted a POD company that does cards and they sent me 10 decks for each paper/plastic stock they have. There is one more company I want to get some samples from to see what their quality is...but I might actually have some decks made. Since I'm not a major card producer the cost it a bit more than what I would like...depending on what stock you use there is a minimum order of 25 to 100 decks at this company but they seem pretty reputable...the other company has a really limited printing stock but cost is much less...so we'll see. I printed out really large versions and of course like them more, but nobody is going to play with 17 inch cards...too hard to hide them up your sleeve...

IF:Focused

"He might be just a tad TOO focused on his problems..."

Jack of Spades

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I finished the Jack...On the Queen I had gold trim around the heart under the Q...on the King I didn't. I think I like it better without the gold trim but doing it either way is a relatively easy fix...

Now I have to get the Joker and an Ace completed as well as the back design for the card...Joker is sketched out...back of card is in my brain...possibly using up the last space of my remaining two brain cells...after that it will just be a matter of tweeking placement to ensure consistency of the letters and symbols...



This was my initial sketch...



Of course during an after school meeting I decided to play with the design a bit and came up with this...

Queen of Hearts

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Second in the card series...tried to capture a bit of the personality of the Praying Mantis female...you know...killing and eating their partner...queen of hearts indeed...

King of Diamonds

Been a while since my last post...as I've been trudging through the giant pointillism dinosaur...and the Holidays...and it is time for the students to start putting the final touches on their portfolios...so no Illustration Friday or play time for me for a while.

Usually during the year the students design a playing card. This year's related teacher had the students design a single card...so this year I upped the project...students had to design the King, Queen, Ace, Jack, and Joker along with the back...again, another project I wanted to give a shot, especially after seeing the samples in the September/October Communications Arts mag...and since I haven't had a chance to do something out their for a bit I've thrown my hat in the ring.


I did the sketches for all the cards but know if I show them all I will be never finish them because something will blow up or I'll get attacked by a herd of jackels...or something...I'm trying to break free from the iron grip of Freehand, which I will again tout as superior and quicker than Illustrator in a lot of ways...but I know that Freehand is a lame duck program just waiting to die...PLEASE ADOBE...put the freaking bezigon tool AND the 'cut and past inside' function into Illustrator...

And with that...the finished card...


(click to enlarge)

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

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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

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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.

Pointillism Triceratops

This is one of the things I got accomplished over the summer. Like my Oviraptor, I think I'm going to run some test prints and hit a couple with watercolor and see what kind of mess I can make. I did all of the comp work for my Dimetrodon pic but haven't gotten around to getting it started because I actually began doing a large Styracosaurus drawing in graphite. And of course I'm really slow on that because school has officially started and I've went doodle crazy here and there.

IF:Wrapped...Great Moments in Break-Up History

"I just ran into your wife in the hall...she told me to tell you she's leaving you for a younger man...something about you being too wrapped up in yourself lately..."

IF: Impatience

"It may be a while...Turtle just went in a couple of hours ago."

IF:Exteme Body Modification for a 10 Year Old

"But Mom I took a bath last week..."

IF: Things not to say on a pirate ship...

"Well back to the kitchen to slice some potatoes...you know what they say about idle hands..."

IF: Shaky

"The Feds told him the case against the mob was shaky without his testimony...I guess Pinocchio's nerves just got the better of him and he went into hiding..."

Dimetrodon Head Study II

This drawing took less time and I liked the results a lot better...although I have to admit every time I look at it I get a hankering for Doritos...Hopefully now I can get on with the larger version...

Sometimes You Just Have to Call a Terd a Terd

While preparing to do a large scene I thought I would do a head study of dimetrodon and use colored paper...things seemed to be going along okay but at points I would stop and say to myself, "This sucks..." There are times I've weathered the storm and things would turn out okay...but this is one of a couple of drawings that when I look at it I just get mad because of the massive way in which it sucks...I could point out all the ways in which it sucks if you want...or you can just roll with it...Like one of my college professors said...sometimes you just have to be brave enough to tear it apart and start over...so after I cut out the eye...the one part I actually like...I believe this is going to be a campfire starter...hopefully it burns better than it turned out...so I started another head study to help get back into the flow of actually beginning the big picture...

IF: Worn Out

My first year teaching when summer came I was chomping at the bit to get started again and the time couldn't go by fast enough...one of my coworkers said, "Give it a year or two and you'll get over that..." The past few years immediately after graduation I've tended to disappear a month or so before getting back into the participation saddle. Teaching, if done correctly (as opposed to smiling behind a desk and just drawing a paycheck), can be one of the toughest jobs on the planet...so by the end a lot of teachers are pretty worn out...and it takes the summer to recharge your batteries for another year...I would have never guessed all the work involved until I became involved...but the pain is worth it when you see students that really care about their future...or at some point get it and start caring...and then go on to great things...

So between the end and school and now I've been busy and out of circulation (kids, fishing trip, cow bird pest control, sleeping, family reunions, moving to a new apartment, painting (not the fun kind...walls)...So here's to being back and catching up on everyone's work!!!

IF: More Great Proctologist Humor....

"So...have you 'cracked' the code yet?"

Dimetrodon Head Study and Maquettes

While working on my efforts for a large scale dimetrodon drawing I decided to try working on toned paper for the first time. I'm doing a headshot and was surprised to see that the toned paper seems to eat up colored pencils pretty quick because of the paper tooth but it isn't leaving the particles all over the place that seems to happen when I work with illustration board. I usually have to brush every few minutes but at this juncture I haven't brushed a single time and have seen no ill effects! I also thought this would give me a chance to get the prismacolor bug out of my system because I was wanting to do the scene in graphite...What has happened unfortunately I have now planned on doing a super large version of a head shot of some sort of dinosaur...I say unfortunately because I know it is going to destroy a lot of pencils in the process...plus I'll be working on the graphite scene at the same time...but perhaps doing two really big projects at once will keep me motivated...





I made some maquettes and had some trial and error issues...I started with foil to just get the mass of the body. I was really concentrating on the pose...I used to have a couple of different monitors (a savannah monitor and an asian water monitor) and I remembered vividly different ways they would posture themselves depending on the situation...


Then I overlaid the foil with sculpey...Mistake number one...I should have started with wire in the foil and set the arm screws first. It didn't make that big of a difference because I knew the maquettes were rough...if I wanted to make a detailed model there would've been lots of cracks I would've had to dealt with. I then got toothpicks and cut them in a manner that would give a good sail...sails seemed to vary depending on which skeleton I looked at with regards to shape and how they laid.I was smart enough to pre-press holes for the toothpicks...an even better solution would've been to use wire attached to a wire frame...a couple of former students showed up and one of them had some leftover wire which she donated to me...Thanks J-PO!!!




I wasn't happy with how the back laid out because it seemed too straight at this point so with the second one I made a bit of correction and then went back and adjusted the arch on this one with some additional sculpey...the other problem I ran into...the fingers were fragile and while I could use foil to protect parts from over-baking eventually the items started cracking slightly...instead of doing all for legs at once and baking I was afraid I wouldn't be able to stand the item...so I did one leg then baked x's 4...

IF:Meanwhile...Back at the Nudist Colony...(Parade)

"There she goes parading around the house with her clothes on again for all the world to see...I wonder if she's ever heard of curtains..."