crafts crafts crafts

So I'm really enjoying book arts as a Materials & Process class. I have been making some books to sell at Noel Night along with the CCS Papercraft Society merch and these are covers I've worked on so far:

I've also got some great sheet music pamplets and other book binding materials through the Detroit Public Library. :D really nice stuff to take apart for book arts:

A couple weeks ago, I also stopped by King's Used Bookstore down near the Taubman Center and Wayne State's Police Station. Got some 80s GQ's and some comics:

I gotta work on stuff in Fig 2 and other classes, so the next post will be awhile from now.

fig 2 painting and etc

So I've been late with updates but here is some stuff from Figure Illustration 2 that I've been working on these few weeks.

Sketchbook stuff (sorry these are crap camera shots, will scan better images later):

1. Process work for my Wyeth mastercopy (sketches, B&W studies, color study, thumbnail, charcoal study, lineart, underpainting):

N. C. Wyeth's Boys of King Arthur illustrations are really cool, but have a wide range of color. With my limited palette of titanium white, yellow oxide, red oxide and mars black, it's weird to go by the tone of the piece... color swatches ahoy! the "dirty" earth tones are difficult right now.

And an in-class from last week I actually like:

Harry needs to dress as Santa sometime. The "Surfin' Santa" from those beach ads, to be more specific.

some stuff from sketchbook

so I'm really jazzed about Fig 2... here are some head shots from my sketchbook.

painting completed!

This was a really good experience for me as the summer ends, as a callback to more serious, finished artwork. Also feels good to get frustrated with it, as I did this whole week. Chrome is hard to paint (lighting it is also evil). Also tried to be more "stylized" in this piece since he asked for a classic pin-up inspired girl... but with some attitude. I still need to work the attitude part, I need to draw more expressions, get loose with exaggerations (anatomy needs to be either tighter or looser). The pose is also slightly weird, as in, not naturally weighted- perspective is off on the body as well as the shoe, even though you can sit on your hand in that position, its not really relaxed/sexy (note to self: examine what makes something sexy)...... there are a lot of things wrong with this piece. BASICALLY SOME LEARNING HAPPENED HERE.

Overall, my eyes and hands are tired, crampy, etc.... it feels good!

It goes in the mail today, hopefully my friend will like it.

Gettin' Her Done!

still working on the painting...

Here are the progress shots from today! If I put my mind to it, I can get this done by Monday. I fudged the skin a bit somehow and I'm still searching for the best grill to base my design off of. So far, it is a great experience to try to do classic cheesecake with a little twist. Right now, the trace looks a ton better than the painting but I think I always reach a point in the middle where I hate something. Doesn't everyone?

Also I figured out how to use ustream and I did a broadcast today while I was painting. I will be broadcasting briefly tomorrow evening after 7pm. Catch it here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/magicdanish

painting for a friend

I only have a shot of the rough on trace paper.... but this is going to be awesome. As mentioned in a previous post, I am doing a psychobilly themed pinup for a friend of mine. It took lots of tries to get the roughs to look right, and its not the last one I'll be doing by a long shot. I also did several poses for this idea, but it wasn't getting that "tough cookie" look I needed. Drawing sexy ladies is hard, as I struggle with more stylized linework (I tend to go for super representational, gritty stuff). It still bothers me how unrealistic the curves and limb lengths are... but pinups are exaggerated.

I also need better refs for hot rods and classic cars.... change the hair..... fix a lot of stuff.

Psychobilly is a combination of punk, rockabilly, and some others... (visually) highly influenced by punk/goth culture and Betty Page.