2010: The Slow Start

What can I say? There has been very little art for me to show in the past several months. My job at the newspaper has not given me many illustrative opportunities, and I've taken on a second job that has absorbed most of the time I have used in the past for personal artistic creation and exploration.

This making-a-living thing can be tedious!

And yet, I am not down-- quite the opposite. I have hopes! In the spirit of the "new year resolution"-- wherein one's resolve is more often than not exposed as whim, (and my resolve is even more suspect, indicated by the ghastly tardiness of this year's perjury)-- I am pledging to draw more. That's a good start, right? I find that the more I draw, the more I want to draw. I believe I simply have to get back into the habit; once I do, I cannot be stopped-- at least until the next slump!

2010 is a sloth. 2010 is aging quickly, for I see that February is upon us. And January? He hasn't done much. January has slept in. I will try to tweak the nose of February as he arrives and see if this month can rouse itself and go on an adventure.

Above. Pencil doodles done at work, next to the phone over several days. Inked with a felt-tip pen and painted in P-shop in the morning on my day off.

The End

.

New Years Illustration Part 3 of 3

Here is the final, as seen in your Bay Area News Group newspaper on the 28th of December (2009.) I pulled a switch on the chair dancing character, turning him into a her. I don't know why-- maybe I was gender-matching the writer, Jessica Yadegaran. I didn't do that as a conscious decision, but I have done that in the past.

Here is Jessica's excellent story. (Link has expired)

After "inking" the rough in Illustrator, I took it back into Photoshop and colored it. The inverted cat I sketched in at the last moment, just because the spot looked bare. Both cats were inspired by my two feline pals, Mr. Riggs (23 lbs., fond of resting on the ottoman) and Quincy (20 lbs., often found in the lower-most pose.) 

Looks like my post-count dipped a bit this year. That's disappointing but understandable. I've taken on a second job, and the time available for creating artwork for myself has been crushed. I do hope to fix that in the months ahead.

*     *     *     *

So long 2009, you malodorous wretch. Hello 2010, take off your shoes and make yourself comfortable. Here's a cup of coffee and a donut. There, isn't that nice? Let's just relax for a year. I'll put some Jelly Roll Morton on the Victrola/iPod and you can kick back in that soft chair and read some comics. There. This is how it should be. No sudden movements, please don't touch anything, and we'll get along just fine.

The End

*

New Year Illustration Part 2 of 3

As I mentioned in the previous post, this illustration pertains to a story about avoiding the crowd scene for New Year's Eve. The rough I posted was a painting done very quickly in Photoshop. It was an effort to nail down shape and content, and I didn't stray from that first brainstorm as I pressed on, as seen in these two examples.

...I switched from a Photoshop-painting to Illustrator-inked drawing to make this a cleaner, easier to read cartoon-style presentation. I tend to go light and fluffy and easily digestible for my newspaper work-- it seems to go over better and I don't have to worry too much about perplexing the readers. I also prefer not to distract overmuch from the text, as a consideration for the writers.

...I don't want to give the writer anything to worry about when I work with them. I understand it could be jarring to have a hideous cartoon or painting sitting next to your carefully crafted story.

To Be Continued...

...

New Year Illustration Part 1 of 3

Here's the rough for an illustration I'm doing for work. The story will say, "Hey, it's okay to stay home for New Years Eve. You don't have to get dressed up, get drunk and kiss other drunk people you don't know!" Although that sounds like it could be fun. But the idea is, "You can stay home and have a good time, too!"

Alas, my New Years Eves look more like this illustration, only without the festivities. Actually, I'm usually 10 winks into the needed 40 by the time the old year fizzles and the new one pops. It's been so long since I was awake for the changing of the year that I've forgotten what it looks like.

Maybe this year. Looks like it could be fun!

Blah. Heads Again.

As I keep mentioning, I've been too busy to draw. It's been MONTHS since I've done anything of substance for myself. I doodled a few heads in October, scanned them, and they've been rotting on my desktop ever since. Once in a great while I took a moment to stain one with color, but only tonight did I completely fill them in.

I was going to write a short blurb for each head, perhaps inventing a name and brief history for each of these fellows, but it might be months before I'd finish that chore. So, here they are. Such as they are.

Pencil, pen, ink, photoshop!
.

Sad Holiday, Part Two

Here's the finished version of Monday's post. I've had a terribly busy week; a week chock-full of misadventure, misfortune, anxiety and calamity. Due to these troubles I missed a couple of days at work and had very little time to complete this project.
...Fortunately, my deadline had a little wiggle room and I was able to get a few hours at the very end with which to tidy this up and make it presentable. It's not nearly what I had been hoping for in terms of craftsmanship, but-- to be honest-- that rarely is possible in my profession anyway.
...Jeez, am I whining today? I think this picture is making me sad.
...Created in Photoshop, with a touch of Illustrator for the patterns on a couple of the colorful papers the characters are set upon.

...

The End 
...

Sad Holiday, Part One

Here's my preliminary doodle for an illustration that will run on Wednesday. It is to accompany a story by Most Excellent writer Laura Casey about dealing with grief and loss over the holidays.
...For the initial concept, I thought "A collection of presents, all of them opened except for one." That seemed like a sorrowful idea to me. In order to inject a little more information and empathy into the thing I decided to use toys as the gifts, and have the gifts themselves emote and gather around the one unopened package.
...It probably won't be easy to read on its own, but buttressed by the story I think it might be pretty effective. Doodled in Photoshop!
...Final tomorrow!
...

To Be Continued...

...

L.L.A.P.

Here's a Preview cover I whipped up for work a couple of weeks ago.

...There were plenty of photos for the event, but they weren't quite right. I took a picture of my hand and did a quick trace/draw. I did a fairly careful painting of my hand and progressed about 1/5 of the way with that; then I decided it was ugly and opted to go with a more graphic treatment.
...I ran that crappy cutout filter on the original picture of my hand and used that as reference to paint from.
...There wasn't much time for this project and I responded to some quick art-direction by email over a weekend. Artist and page designer Jennifer Modenessi dropped in the text and made it look better than I thought it would.

Drawn in P-shop!

The End!

...

What the...?

Again, it has been a long time since I've posted. Busy with my job, busy with my other job, busy with chores and busy with visitations.
...Here I am, trying to start this up again. Alas, I haven't done anything new except for a small collection of head drawings (surprise), but here's something a little different.

This is... well, I have to idea what this is. I did it-- years ago-- I kinda remember it, but I couldn't tell you why. It has to be one of my first digital paintings. There is a very transparent glazing building up of color and layers; something I was fascinated with when I began drawing on the computer. I don't see any textured brushes used here either, so this was done before that discovery, as well.
...No point to it, I'm guessing. It was probably just an exercise in painting with photoshop, back when it was new and exciting!

THE END!
.

Art Slump

Yup. Art-slump. What can you do?
...First, you have to realize that you're in one. Done. It's been over a month since I've worked on anything not job-related. No drawing, no painting. It's not easy to recognize that the slump has smothered you.
...Keeping a sketchbook, or a blog can help. For example, today -- as I boarded the internet for more job-related activity -- my blog appeared in the window. Oh look, I thought, I haven't drawn anything since early September-- and that was a pitiful little doodle. Crap. I should do something. Perhaps another pitiful little doodle.
...I created a photoshop document, and stared at that for a second. What am I going to do? I'm too busy to do this.
...It is dim outside. The early morning in the shadow of Mission Peak is cool and gray, the sun will not bite the tops of the trees for another half-hour. Across the street walks someone wrapped up in a thick coat and heavy pants. He has a backpack that hangs off his back and a gigantic shoulder bag. He appears to be delivering papers-- they don't deliver them that way anymore, do they?
...I sketch him quickly, but he is gone before I figure out how to draw the shoulder bag. Quick color job. Ta daa.
...Now, I can begin a new art-slump.

The End

...