Pointillism Stegosaurus

I finished this item up a few days ago...I had done some head sketches a while back but didn't really like how they had turned out. A stego head isn't nearly as exciting as some of the other dino heads out there. So the trick was trying to find a way to make a rather boring 'why do it' sketch turn into something that pulled off halfway decent. There are a couple of small things here or there I'm not happy with but I like the redesign much better. Now I have to figure out how the new printer works so I can run some of these on card stock and throw in some color....

IF: Public Ed:Almost Time to Surrender

Click it until you can read it...

IF:Dusty

Inservice day...which meant meetings...which meant checking IF and cutting loose...we actually had lots of good discussion today...I had another 'art person' grouped in which meant we could go on the offensive vs the other 30...they never stood a chance...

IF: Chicken

Click to enlarge to enjoy the full glory and fine craftsmanship....carefully developed by artisans with over 100 years of tradition in the kilns of northern ireland.

Pig Maquette final...maybe...

The final painted pig...I ran into a couple of problems that diminished the quality of the paint job...besides my lacking capability...that always goes without saying...so if you are reading this and know some insights, please clue me in. I had many panicked moments wishing I had just left it unpainted...and part of me still feels that way.

First thing I did was spray a primer down on certain parts. The primer never really dried all the way...I thought it might have had to do with the humidity levels but after placing it at multiple locations it still remained tacky. I believe people usually use acrylic when painting sculpy but thought I might have better luck trying modeling paints.

After waiting for it to dry I went ahead and used spray paints to set base coats...which those too after over a month are still a bit tacky. Not tacky like wearing a 1970's type shirt to a formal dinner event...but not dry tacky.

I painted individual parts with the small bottles of paint, which some are dried and some not.

Finally, because everything was glossy I threw on some flat clear-coat hoping to knock the sheen down a bit...and hoping it would help it to dry. I don't know why I thought that...but I think it knocked parts of it down a bit too much. To restore the shine to eyes and teeth I slathered on some gloss nail polish clear-coat.

So I guess it is kind of done...now I just have to see how many months it takes to dry and then figure out where I'm going to put it.

IF: Deja Vu

Click image TWICE to enlarge big enough to read...and then after you laugh you can pretend to be offended...

Pig Maquette Process

Previously I showed a process that we did to create sock puppets...this year we turned them into maquettes...


Started with just a basic wire structure (in the background you will see "Bridge on the River Kwai"...a classic if you haven't seen it...)


Threw on some foil to get the base shape (Batman Beyond...a cheesy futuristic Batman done a few years back with low rent animation)


Got a couple of glass marbles and painted some iris and pupil areas...


Glued said eyes to the structure...(Bert the Conquerer...that was the episode where they used a four-wheeler to make a giant human slingshot.)


Slapped on some sculpy and started to add some detail.


Started dealing with the lips and baked the tusks separate so I could mold around them and keep them separate...leaving them unbaked made it impossible to form a lip around...(Something on DIY network...too bad I don't own my own home to practice tearing crap up.)


More detailing (WVU football game...they actually won that one...)


Added some ears...(Bonanza...)


Gave him a collar and tie...(And more Bonanza)


Front view...(and even more Bonanza...I think that was the episode where someone got kidnapped and someone else was going to be wrongfully hanged while one of the guys was being nice to the recently widowed woman with a daughter...)



Arms baked separate!







And finally pieced all together before a final baking...

Coming up....the tragic story of painting...

Out with the Old

Recently moved and in doing so I went through my pile of work...and like any good spring cleaner would do in the middle of winter I evaluated to suckopotamus factor on several of the items I thought I wanted to save. Not that I didn't learn stuff from the hulking pile of pooh...but I just hated them...and I'm sure as I look at other items I will delete them too...there is only so many times I can look at some of the things and say to myself "what was I thinking"...I mean I know everyone produces a junker now and then...and when you're 'sketching' or just fooling around with compositional items that it happens because of problem solving...but these item were intentional...just not intentionally bad...so like a penguin purging its gullet I trashed a bunch of stuff...


styracosaurus head in pointillism...burnt...I found out that trying to do pointillism on a smaller scale wasn't working for me...for a head 10x15 seems to be the right size...but the small size looked just goofy and sophomoric...when I compare it to my first effort it is clear the severe drop in quality...



my triceratops hunching on it's back legs...used to scrape barnacles from a canoe...I worked bigger but the details were smaller...and that tree...I tried to make it look like bark had been stripped away from a larger herbivore...I don't know what happened...but I know once you start with a plan using ink and dots it had better work cause there ain't no goin' back...I like parts of the tree...I like the pose...but it just doesn't pull together...maybe with some watercolor? Maybe if I had stuck with graphite...maybe if frogs had wings....the really funny part is someone begged me for this picture...but I couldn't stand the thought that years down the road they would let it slip that it was my work...I have enough bad work that I didn't trash with my name attached.




This item that I am STILL working on (it is taking forever) looks less cartoony and if I don't screw it up along the way I might feel better about it...provided the illo board doesn't turn to dust. But again it seems like a much higher quality.


Of course this even had its own special terd origin...thankfully the illustration board was thick enough that it protected me during a ninja attack....but I'm equally as grateful the work died in the process...




This item I did as an exercise with regards to a description based on the chupacabra...I liked the idea but hated the results...I was just trying to throw in some landscape to get it done...and it shows...



The head shot I like much better...but mostly because of the chicken...that may be my finest chicken drawing moment...it almost makes me want to draw another chicken...what happened to the full body picture? Dog scoop...if you know what I mean...



And who could forget this monstrosity...which I swore I would cut the eye out and bury the rest...and I did...



After doing this junker I managed to pull out this one...which made me infinitely happier...



Then there is the grandaddy of them all...



I really had good intentions with this...it was a really neat assignment based on using a whale skull that was found and people were trying to guess what it was...but once I got the figures done I was hoping to do some background work...maybe if I had tried to jazz it up into a pop-work piece of art then I could have made it into something classically bad...you know...like a good godzilla movie...instead it is just bad bad...and it sat in my closet looking at me with its awkward stare of disappointment, begging me to put it out of its misery...so I did...I used it as a sled on a half mud-half snow hill...


This colored pencil item made me much happier even without dinos...seemed to be much better planned and complete...

The good news is that I think I've grown...I got to explore some different media and found a couple of things I like to do, so it wasn't entirely a waste. Here's to a new year and to hoping that as long as we're still around that we all get better and more honest so that we can grow. Looking forward to more inspiration from those around me and the hope that I will get better with perseverance and hard work.

IF:Resolutions

Happy New Year!

Finished Dino

Finished it up...and corrected a hideous anatomical error with the back arm..

Dino Sketch

The sketch that preceded the colored pencil one I'm working on...

IF:Prehistoric

Close to being finished and pooptastic lighting conditions for the picture...but white death is descending on my little corner of the world and it is almost midnight so we're going with it for now...

Attendance Award?!?!?

Our school does a weekly attendance award and this year they even got a 6 foot tall trophy to pass around. Each class that wins it puts a little something something to make their mark...automotive put a spark plug...criminal justice their shoulder patch...Physical therapy wrapped one of the columns like a broken leg...architecture engineering design did some sort of plastic spiral thing around a column...so what did we do?

I did a dragon carrying off a maiden and sheep...it is very symbolic...but I haven't divulged the meaning yet...my students are trying to guess...so far they have that they are the sheep...now the question is if it will get past the no-fun police that sometimes pop up as being too 'outlandish'...you know...should've just put a paintbrush or pencil on there...but that top area was begging for a dragon...

Dino Update

This one is really slow going but it has to be. Too quick and I'll mess up because it gets mindless after a while. I've been adding in the background and then will work on the water. After that I will have to go over the entire item a final time to get values adjusted. Between the off and on of this I've got about three other projects I'm hitting...a hand puppet maquette I'm 75% finished with...a t-shirt for a guy at school that I just started...and plans for some more Illustrator work to help hone my skills as I try to (still) switch from Freehand...which again makes me want to strangle Adobe for not incorporating the tools that are BETTER from Freehand or at least selling off Freehand so that someone else can let it live...

IF:Sneaky

The worst monster of all...one that steals candy from a babies...

IF: Eat your peas and then afterwards...

It doesn't matter what the 'afterwards' is...parents know this...that's why you always get the most of the worst...you can't do it..."You didn't finish em all this time...maybe next time you'll get that pet unicorn/dragon/giant robot."...if a parent feels like doing something they don't care if you eat anything for a month...there...I'm a whistle blower...kids know the truth...

Hog Hand Puppet Process

We are about a week into the process for the hand puppet this year. I did the complete process myself to try and give examples of what expectations were/are.


Because I knew there were a set number of thumbnails to do I gridded the page off for the format. And because I knew that all the puppets had to fit a hand I started of sketching the hand shape in each box. This enabled me to have a starting foundation and to help ensure some consistency. As I always try to say... a little work in the beginning and smart planning now saves a lot of heartache later.


The next step was quickly filling in details. The point of thumbnails is to try different things and to visually problem solve. They should be clear enough to see what is going on but they aren't hanging in a gallery. Some things work...some things don't...but variation is the key. I keep trying to reach them with the fact there needs to be variation and attempts at drawing things with different styles. Sometimes they get locked in with "there are only so many ways to draw something" after 3 or 4 thumbnails...but this is never true. There are endless ways to draw anything without losing the character of the starting animal...look at how many different ways people have drawn rabbits and ducks.


After they get a thumbnail approved they move on to the rough stage...if their thumbnails are weak and more development needs done we will do mini-roughs...bigger than thumbnails (usually 1/4th of a page) but not as big as the finished product. This was the last of the three roughs that I did and probably my favorite...once again proving the general law that your first isn't usually your best.


This was my second rough.

This was the first...at first I really liked it...but now not as much...

The next step will be doing the maquette this weekend and next week we will be doing a final in colored pencil.