Gritty Kitty - scratchboard portrait

Here's a new commissioned pet portrait of kitty 'Columbine', thanks again to Pete ( @GunGeekATX ) who's awesome dog Clyde has graced us with his likeness previously on the blog.  Full-disclosure, I've never met either of these animals in person, but I feel like they'd be my pals if I ever do.  In fact, I've been meaning to post the colored version of Clyde's portrait, so here you go!

I'm having fun becoming more comfortable with scratchboard, and noticing the different aesthetic that it offers in comparison to black ink on white clayboard.  My scraper tool is a much finer instrument than my pens of choice, so the level of detail coming out on scratchboard is a different beast entirely.  Less cartoony, I'd say, for better or worse.  The challenge, I find, is in reaching a satisfying level of white value in the drawings.  This one is more successful than the previous cats in that regard, although I am fond of the shadowy gothic feel of a darker scratchboard.  One of these days I promise I'll do a colored scratch piece, wouldn't that be fun?


EDIT: No time like the present right?!

Gritty Kitty ain't so pretty, but it's really thick
It fits my catbox, oh so snug, it always does the trick
I love to pour it on my toes, and squish, and squish, and squish
It ne'er offends my tender nose like a smelly fish
It's texture is a joy to me, it's just as smooth as silk
It makes my little whiskers twitch
It stays crunchy even in milk
I may not be the President, I may not be the Pope
But as long as I have Gritty Kitty, I shall never mope.


... Ren & Stimpy anyone?

Custom Drawn Pet Portraits

If anyone needs gift ideas this Mother's and Father's day, consider a personalized drawing!

Based on your favorite photo, these 5"x7" drawings are a unique personalized piece of art for friends and family on any occasion.  Framed and ready for display on the desk or wall.

Just provide me your favorite digital photo and a couple weeks' lead time.

5"x7" - scratchboard / pen & ink

$110 (cash, check, or paypal)

Spray finished and framed.  FedEx shipping.

Email to Inquire

Cats con Crows - scratchboard pet portrait

Today's drawing is a scratchboard portrait of my dear friends Kyle and Christie's cats Spyder and Maverick.  As we're all fans of crows, it seemed fitting to replace the couch from the original photo with something more ominous.  Now I find myself wondering, who's the predator and who's the prey?!

Since we last spoke I've created a new facebook page, so stop by and say hello!  It's a little easier for me to make minor posts there with images and links, so if you happen to be stopping by the blog and wondering where the action is... well, now you know!  The new page is also linked to my twitter, so that gives you a couple added ways to keep up.  

Something new I'm doing via facebook/twitter (but not here on the blog) is to provide links to exciting things that I'm finding... other creative themed blog posts, tutorials, and anything else I suspect would benefit or interest you guys.  Despite all the distractions that the iPad brings, it does offer some fantastic methods of directing you towards relevant articles while cutting out the fat.  I highly recommend the ZITE app, for customizable content that updates constantly.  Most of my links are coming from there.

David Lynch Portrait Illustration

click to see detail

Here's the final scan of my David Lynch scratchboard portrait.  I found myself taking a different approach from last week's Stephen King.  Rather than scratching with a heavy hand and the intention of making bold white shapes, I opted instead to very delicately mark the surface with small lines that add up to a lot of gradual tonal shifts and a softer focus.  It's a slower process, but one I enjoyed quite a bit and plan on exploring further.  


I spent some time in photoshop testing red velvet curtains in the background and some eerie coloring throughout, but couldn't decide if it benefitted the image enough to justify.  Sometimes it's hard to beat a plain old, bold black and white drawing.  Although admittedly, seeing the small version below I certainly don't mind it.  Who knows, maybe I'll keep tinkering with it.  


The scratchboard itself is an 8"x10" and took two or three hours in preparation, and maybe seven to nine of actual scratching.  Here are some thumbnail sketches and a color test...

Stephen King portrait pt2: Scratchboard

Somewhere along the preparation lines I decided my Stephen King piece might make a nice scratchboard, and thus afford me a good opportunity for self-challenge.  I'm always more comfortable laying black ink on a white surface, but given the light source in the image, it seemed appropriate to 'draw in' the light by scratching white into the black scratchboard surface.

After reworking my photoshop roughs with the blacks filled in, I had a pretty good sense of where I wanted to take it tonally.  It was both a blessing and a curse to have so completely refined the image in the rough stage, because I found myself both challenged to continually improve the final scratchboard, as well as frustrated to have set up certain expectations that were hard to let go of in the rendering stage.

In some ways I find the digital mockup more satisfying, whether due to the spontaneous handling, the smoother edges of the photoshop brushes, or the way I ended up handling the lighting on the body itself.  I'm almost tempted to do a second final drawing, this time drawing in black on claybord.

digital mockup

Stephen King portrait pt1: thumbnails and roughs

I've always been inspired by creative individuals with a dark slant in their work, and having read Stephen King books from a very early age (perhaps too early?), I thought he might make a good subject for a new portrait.

At first I was thinking well within 'the box', imaging an over the shoulder shot of him working at his typewriter, perhaps with a glimpse of his iconic Dark Tower through his desk window. But in making thumbnails sketches, I quickly realized this approach lacked much dynamism or even any real concept... certainly not capturing the man's dark genius and obsessive, insane prolificacy. Somewhere along the lines early on, I don't remember when exactly, I shifted gears and started working on compositions of Stephen, typewriter gripped overhead, ready to crush his readers (or in my case, the viewer).

 I wanted to challenge myself in a number of ways (perhaps too many at once!). First, I thought it would appear more menacing for him to stare down at the viewer, which required that I work out an upward angle that foreshortens the figure. In my recent sketchbook work, I've been concentrating on better figure construction and breaking the bad habit of firing right into the rendering stage without getting the proportions planned out first. The second challenge would be to support the menacing vantage point by lighting him from below, giving the drawing an eery horror vibe. Both the upward angle and the under lighting were tasks that I lacked much experience with, so the stakes started high.  And all the while I knew that the largest challenge would be recognizably capturing the celebrity's likeness.  After a few google image searches, I had identified what I felt to be Stephen's defining facial characteristics.  Dozens of awkward and mostly unrecognizable characatures then followed.

kind of funny in their own way, but still way off

getting closer...

Finally I had a promising sketch in front of me.  I wasn't feeling the concept of Stephen popping out of a book (see below), but I liked the figure and face enough to based a larger rough drawing on.  I scanned, traced, and reworked the composition digitally with my wacom drawing tablet in photoshop, ultimately reaching a version that I felt confident I could transfer to scratchboard for a successful final rendered drawing.

promising thumbnail, minus book

final rough

To be continued!

Happy BlogPatrick's Day!

Happy Saint Paddy's Day everyone!

I wanted to include some thumbnails and roughs for the above image, showing how I went through a couple stages of small pencil sketches before scanning, blowing it up, and then inking using a Pentel Pocket Brush pen (a new tool for me!).  This was both a material experiment and a procedural one (as I typically use technical pens, plus I tried inking the image backwards).  Doing it backwards was a test in keeping myself objective about the line quality and composition after staring at the roughs for so long.  I fumbled with the brush pen a bit, but that's all part of the learning process.  Finally, the inked 9x12 drawing was scanned and colored in photoshop.  As always, feel free to click-to-enlarge.

sketchbook tests

super-rough

cleaned up rough

9x12 inked drawing

drawing lots of drawings!

Sorry for the lull there!  I need to make a better effort to make small posts here on the blog, not just wait until I'm loaded up with things to say (or at least get some twitter posts going to fill in the gaps).

I was sick this week, which kept me firmly planted on the couch with a pencil in hand.  I spent almost the entire weekend in the apartment which isn't typical, and left me feeling a little nutty, but which I felt was necessary to kick my cold... especially in preparation for traveling with my sister to Arizona this week!  I can't wait to see the landscapes, and hopefully find a few minutes to sketch the crazy rock formations!

So while I was holed up this weekend, I spent quite a bit of time working on the non-flash version of my website .  It's almost there, and once I launch it I'll be really excited to check it out on a friend's iPad!  They say flash is terrible for portfolio sites if you're really trying to attract new work, so the redesign has been a necessary evil.  But fortunately I'm learning a lot in the process.  I still have no idea what I'm doing, code-wise, but I'm learning how to lay out a website in Illustrator and Photoshop, which I think will be really good for me in the future.  (I'm also rediscovering my love for animated GIFs, taking me back to the college days of BigDumbAnimal.com).

I also discovered some fantastic drawing tutorial videos by comic artist Dave Finch, who can seriously draw like a fiend.  So I'm working on tearing my bad habits down and rebuilding my drawing ability from the ground up, really focusing on the construction behind the figure.  I plan on buying a new sketchbook and filling it with egg shapes (heads) and various assortments of cylinders (limbs).  I also came to terms with the fact that I seriously could not draw females... A clear sign that I was not constructing my drawings well.  I've already seen a lot of improvement after just a few hours of work.  Which brings me to tonight's session of Dr Sketchy's in Dallas!

Tonight's theme was Circus Sideshow, and we had a rockin' model who was gorgeous, held excellent poses, and was covered with some pretty wicked tattoos (sorry, I was focused on the figure, not the skin, so you won't see those in my drawings).  But in the last example you'll see my 'theme incorporation' of snakes, lion, peanuts, etc.

not such a bad lion out of thin air, methinks!

Figure Drawing at Dr. Sketchy's

I checked out a new art destination today, Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School -- the hipster equivalent of a live figure drawing class.  Held monthly at a bar in downtown Dallas, it's cheap to go draw and free to show up for drinks (but those cost money of course).  It had been too long since I'd attended a figure drawing session, and high time I got back to it.  They played great music, fed us valentine's cupcakes, and our model was excellent.

Here are the modest highlights, looking forward to improving next month...

 

While there, I met a couple of illustrators who work full-time and freelance for ReelFX, a Dallas special effects and animation studio.  The company does outstanding work, as do Sarah and Erin.  I hope to be more like them when I grow up!  

Talking to other artists I'm realizing how badly I need to:

A) make up some business cards 

B) register a more professional website address than BigDumbAnimal.com

C) design a version of my website not built in flash.  It slow to load and no one on iPad or mobile can view it.  That said, if you're reading this, thanks for being a pal!

Crows & Twitter

First off, I'd like to invite you to follow my Twitter posts.  While I tend to use the blog for more formal posts (finished pieces, generally), I do use Twitter a bit more frequently to post doodles, sketches, and other work-in-progress drawings.  So to keep up on what I'm doing, head over to My Twitter Page!

Today's drawing is of, well, as you can see... crows!  

On one hand I suppose crows might be considered cliche or low-brow.  But alas, like skulls, there's no denying their strength as gothic, otherworldly icons.  I might attribute my fascination with them to watching Hitchcock's The Birds as a white-knuckled child.  In any case, those of you who have read my book Stressed Out West: a nervous wordless graphic novel know that crows aren't anything new to my work... just something that's been lying dormant.  I've had the itch to get back to drawing them, and I suspect this might be the beginning of a new body of work.  Again, many more crows are up on my twitter page.  

Happy snow-day to those of you in North Texas!

Commissioned Pet Portrait

Today's drawing is a commissioned portrait of Clyde the boxer!  Thanks Pete!

I've must admit, I'm really pleased with how this one turned out--specifically on the shading in the fur.  As I've mentioned in the past, one area where I've been striving to improve is in refining my hatching technique.  I really admire artists who appear to have total control over every line, whereas I find it's easy to get a little haphazard.   

What I found is that by layering same-directional hatching in lieu of perpendicular cross-hatching, the resulting patterns look more intentional and eye-pleasing.  In this case, where the shading simulates the directional fur growth, it makes sense that crosshatching wouldn't be as appropriate a method.  Other textures, such as fabric, may benefit more from the crosshatching, where the lines would represent individual fibers woven together.  I'll have to experiment with that later.  

Here's a before and after...

   

and a pair of work-in-progress shots...

 

MeMom&Sis / intro to Drawing as Meditation

While I'm doodling and debating the direction of my next project, here's another family portrait for you to check out!  


Despite what the dark background suggests, this was actually drawn black on white (not scraped out of a black scratchboard).  While it would certainly seem easier to scratch this out of a black scratchboard than fill in the black areas with pen, I've always found the process quite enjoyable.  It becomes a meditative process for me to shade to near black, and always with the aid of music (except, of course, when I've gotten so zoned in that I forget to pick the next album on my ipod or flip the sides of an LP).  In fact, I've just ordered a copy of an old book on the subject... Zen of Seeing: Seeing/Drawing as Meditation by Frederick Franck.  Admittedly, I've never heard anything about it other than the Amazon.com reviews, but that's where a quick google search took me.  I feel so strongly about the hypnotic/meditative effect of drawing, that I really wanted to learn more on the subject and figured why not check it out?!


Fingers crossed, and naturally I'll tell you more about it once it arrives and I get to spend some time with the text.  Oh, and happy New Year to you!

Stunt-Double Family Portrait

You know when your favorite action star does a triple backflip off their motorcycle, landing perfect in position to kick mr. bad-guy in the groin... but before they cut to the close-up and witty one-liner, you notice their eyebrows were too bushy or jaw a little too square?  ... telltale signs that the studio tried to fool you with a stunt double, but didn't quite mask it in the editing room!

I'm calling this my family's stunt-double portrait because, in one way or another, each of us looks a little off.  I learned an important lesson with this portrait, in that a 5"x7" board is a little too small for me to really nail the details on a medium shot.  Each of our heads fits into about 1 square inch, which I found makes it really difficult to make adjustments and accurately re-produce the details.  One millimeter off in the drawing could be a whole half-inch in the person's face, which is why those of you who know us may notice that we're a little pudgy, maybe with a goofy smile or a lazy eye.  

Not that it's all bad, there's something kind of endearing about it!  You wouldn't necessarily expect a drawing to look more lifelike than the photo it was based on, so long as you can capture something true about the person in the process.  I haven't decided what exactly I've captured here, but it certainly made us all laugh!  

Moving forward, I'll make an effort to use a larger board when drawing more than two people from waist up.

Happy Holidays to all!

Dog Portrait... yep, another!

 


Today's entry is a custom portrait of my boss's dog Hank!  I would tell you what kind of dog he is, but I don't actually know.  I've only ever seen photos of him, though I imagine he's quite the genial dogfellow... and if you're really on the ball, you might find his name hidden in the details!  Here's the original...

I've really been enjoying these mini portraits lately.  They give me a chance to let go of any conceptual concerns and just practice my techniques... mostly shading styles.  While not necessarily my best drawing, this was another great opportunity to experiment with line work.  The photo I was working from was a bit low-res or had a soft focus, so I had to tinker and invent some of the values and textures rather than copying them directly.


My favorite details are the highlights on his skin folds and background shading.  
I've been wanting to play with a background like this for awhile... not the bones specifically (although I do like them quite a bit!) but the parallel lines that break and fade at the edges.  

I see a lot of this shading style from some my favorite illustrators (R. Crumb, Patrick Arrasmith, and Mario Zucca to name a few).  Their clean, refined use of line is something I find quite elegant and really aspire to.


I may someday find I'm able to get this effect by simply lifting my pen to break the lines (as these guys most likely are), but for now I'm enjoying the flexibility of claybord for laying down lines and then breaking them with my scraper tools.  Claybord also allows me to reintroduce highlights, which I'm not likely to give up anytime soon.  


My automatic tendency is towards a more haphazard crosshatching style than my idols, but I'm going to continue working towards that nice, controlled use of parallel lines.  I may even try drawing something soon that sticks exclusively to parallel shading in lieu of the perpendicular crosshatching!

Self-Portrait with Sister & Snow

Today's drawing is a 5x7 self-portrait with my sister Lauren!  


Based on the photo below, I used micron technical pens (.35mm & .5mm) on claybord with scratched highlights.  I tried a few different things with the background but wasn't really happy with the direction until I decided to shade it black.  Once it was mostly filled in, the thought occurred to me that being a holiday photo, it made sense to throw some falling snow into the mix.

 

It's been awhile since I've done a realistic self-portrait... always weird staring at yourself for hours on end, wondering "What's wrong with this thing... my drawing or my face?!"