Sprinkler Park

I had fun with the colors.  I learned about masking sections.  I had trouble with the proportions and the facial expression.  He was much more happier in the photo than in the drawing.  I spent approximately 35 minutes on the drawing.  Still can't contain myself to just 2 minutes.

This was actually the second drawing as I had almost completed the 1st drawing and then accidentally used the bucket coloring tool, which naturally erased the whole thing.

A Day at The Beach

Here is another life study from a trip we took several years ago.  Here I was trying to quickly incorporate some simple value study and again a quick sketch (30min again).  I'm having trouble letting go. So this is probably worth while activity.  I like the pose.  I think I captured the essence.  However it is hard to tell he is on the sand.  I should have placed the ground shadow to anchor him better.  I just noticed that.  The proportions are better this time.  He actually looks like a baby who isn't sure of the sand.  Second life drawing attempt and I'm happy with the progress. ... 2 down 9,998 to go.

Life Drawing

So here is my first attempt at life drawing from a photo.  I struggle with the proportions, but I'm getting the hang of the Wacom.  The idea is spend no more than 2 minutes capturing the essence of the image.  It is not suppose to be complete or even good.  So how long did I spend... 25 minutes.  Ok, so I broke the rule right off the bat, but I have a hard time not obsessing over the details.  I'll work on the time thing.  The most important thing is I came to play and it was fun.  One down 9,999 more to go.

What Happen To Creativity

In my own true fashion, I publish one post, declared I'd change the world and then.... I got sick.  Apparently, my mind was ready, but the body was shocked to hear the news.  The result... lack of creativity and motivation to do much of anything.  I'd feel bad about it, but this endeavor didn't have a time frame tied to it, and I need to keep a balance.  Sometimes that means there isn't much punch left when the day permits you to work on these things.  Well, I've spent to much time explaining and not enough time showing what I've been doing.  I go my printer hooked back up so I can scan my drawings.

I started with a perspective exercise.

It's simple and in 1 point, but I wanted to understand how to draw blocks in a circle.  I figure this way I can draw from multiple angles with comfort.  O.K. this was really the second drawing, but it would flow better if I had done this one first.  Here is the first drawing

This was from a tutorial on airplanes from "The Gnome Workshop".  I'm thinking about getting an ellipse template so I can draw circles in perspective better.  The key to this drawing was the ellipse.  The main line was derived from the minor axis.  Pretty cool.  Everything else was extrapolated from the center line.  Not bad for a first attempt.  Seriously, this was my first attempt.  The right thing to do would be to draw about 2 dozen of these airplanes.  Unfortunately, that hasn't happen yet.  I got distracted with animal anatomy drawing.

See where the box thing came in handy.  Essentially, the tutorial talked about forms having too much information for us to remember.  Simplifying the form eliminated this problem.  As a result, Hips of an animal can be thought of a box.  The torso an egg, and the head as an egg.  Throw in a few perspective lines and I've stared a basic form of an animal.  The hips are always suppose to point down, I'm told.

That is about it.  I've looked at a lot of art and various technique over the past several weeks.  I wish there was more, and it is really hard to not judge quality, progress....  but I had fun and I did it when I could enjoy it, not force it.  Until next time.  Cya!

Play Ball

Goal: Follow the tutorials of The Gnomon Workshop to see if this left brain person can become an artist.  Each week I plan on posting my progress, the good, the bad, and the in between.  Now to be fair, I come from a long line of very talented artists.  So maybe i have an advantage, but anyone who knows me, knows I am a math, computers, and science guy all the way. So why do this?  I like the idea of it.  I get excited.  I get nervous.  Maybe it goes no where... and that's o.k..  To try something without expectations..., just do.  So here goes everything and nothing at the same time.  Oh, and it my first blog post too.

So here is my first piece of digital art work that I am posting.  It's a ball.  A nice bright, shining ball, I hope you agree.  Yes it's off center and that drives me nuts, but I'll just say I'm making use of negative space.  The steps to make it shinny were relatively straight forward.

1. Grey background...check
2. Plain old red circle... no problem
3. White patch on top was hard to get the lines cleaned up
4. Bounce light on the bottom was hard to do, until I discovered opacity settings.
5. Glare around the edges was hard for me to get the circular motion right
6. Shadow only to 4 attempts.  Again the opacity setting takes a while to get use to.

Science of the day:  Sharks have up to 3,000 teeth, but usual 500 teeth at any point in time, in 2 or 3 rows.  It was a question Isabella asked and I was curious too, since I didn't know either.