Commitment Issues

I take New Year's Resolutions really, really seriously. Enough so that they dictate much of my behavior for the rest of the year--I can't break them unless they are proven to be impracticable or incongrous with their intent. I have to be really, really careful about the ones I make, because I will tether myself to them like Ahab's whale. This is why it has taken me until eleven days _after_ the New Year to write the following:

I will update this blog once a week with a complete painting.

Godspeed, me. Other stuff coming down the pipeline: a new CSS website that will absorb and incorporate this material, and actual Archetype pages, thus far the Skunkape of my blog.

Edit: Also, I'll grammar and spell check these posts.

But seriously.

I apologize heartily for everything I just posted.

Please, go vote, but for the love of all that's holy, study the candidates, the nation, and the issues first.

On Transigence

Enough. Life is entirely too short and precious to spend any more of it putting scale texture on imaginary bugs.

I am, for once, not being sardonic, sarcastic, or purposely obtuse. 11:40 PM. A Saturday night. Somewhere in the eighteenth hour of my ever lengthening quest for the perfect carapace, I officially had enough of the bizarre hyper-realist fit I'd nursed on and off for the last several years. At what point, I wonder, did I conflate 'goodness' with 'detail'? I'm not really certain. But, it's weird, kind of unhealthy, and not nearly as satisfying as it once was.

I'm going to be making a turn towards efficiency: the most psycho-symbolically accurate, purposeful use of each form. More planning, less muddled execution. That way, maybe I can get back to enjoying the things I enjoy, leave the house on occasion, and let nature handle the exoskeletons.

Vanity.

Last one for a long, long time, I swear.

Quick! Make something up!

Ignatius Rourke only caused people happiness in life. In death, he must now endure eternity chained to super euphoric glow balls.

Axial Symmetry

I fear I am repeating myself, which is apt to happen when I just noodle in Photoshop for a while. So, after this, something _completely_ different. 

This guy is from the early days of Archetype. His name is Graen, after a municipality in Austria. Yes, my naming strategies are precisely that random.

Timing

I painted this today for a contest that apparently ended a month ago. It's June, Brian. June. Temporal displacement aside, I'm trying to soften the 'black cutout' appearance from my promo pieces.

Diversionary Tactics.

Honestly, I think that robot would hit its own antenna every time it fires its old-timey revolver. Still, I hear the NRA is interested in further development.
Been trying to replace that self-portrait in the upper corner for a while now. This is about as good it's gettin', folks.
Virot, like Hitchcock, prefers to stand in slightly aloof profile.
Toot.
The one on the left was drawn a meager fifteen seconds before the one on the right. During that brief moment, all my volumes went to pot.
Drawing my left hand is much easier than drawing my right.
Whenever my paintings get particularly complex, my sketches tend to get pretty simple.
Using Staedler Calligraph Pen here. Rather like the hair.
My London Guide, an English Professor, called this 'interesting.' She pronounced the quotation marks. I think she just wishes she had a robot.

The Big Chill

Two things:

1) We lost the bid for Costner's logo. This is not particularly surprising, given the studio's stated preference for a competitor's work early on in the process. So it goes.

2) I won't be adding anymore of my Illustration projects to this blog until they're finished, which, by the grim, ineluctable hand of fate will be in two weeks regardless of, well, anything. I may try to post some sketch book stuff in the meantime.

Wish me luck, all. To my illustration comrades:  this will be our finest hour. Or a bunch of pretty okay days, more than likely. Godspeed.

Colonel Kurtz

Found this artifact nestled between strata of ancient projects earlier. Way back in High School, I made my first stab at Archetype, back when it was called Archetype: Precursor, which is sort of a really terrible name for something that isn't a prequel of any kind. This scene contains a really early version of Tapaesan Isuko, right, and his sister, who may or may not have had a name at one point in history. She was later written out of the story for having terrifying hot dog fingers.

 

I am not certain how Tapaesan's hair works. Presumably, he must staple the side bits on.

(the horror...)

Drew Tiny Little Pictures of Skeletons

Actually, no, I didn't. But someone did. Probably they did. Maybe just sang about it.

  

I went to London this Spring Break. I have nothing witty or sarcastic to say about it. I think I've always wanted to get out of wherever I was. Though I'd been across the country and into parts of the Caribbean, I've always travelled with family. London was the first time without that context. It's good to know, definitively, that the world really is much bigger than my small circles.

 

Really, I look at what I draw, why I've drawn, and it's always about the same thing: gaining insight into a wonderful kinds of places I've never been, or in some cases, can never go.

 

I think, if I'm able, I'll make it a point to travel all over when I'm older. And I'll try to keep records wherever I go.

 

There was going to be a picture with this post; it won't load. So the opening quote won't make any sense, really. Don't know that I care.

Water World

Water World was a movie about a world filled with water. It was also filled with Kevin Costner, whose magnanimity has secured for our illustration class the chance to maybe design a logo for his new production company. Maybe. It's called Treehouse Films.  These are my entries, probably.

Happy Valentines Day!

Will pretty girl be Zorbac Valentine?

Narcissist.

The best thing about self portraits is that the model's patience is always equivalent to that of the artist's. Someday, I will learn to draw myself from life without that concentrating pseudo-scowl. And on that day, free delicious cake. For everyone.

Drink + Draw

Drink and Draw is an uncomplicated social formula of two parts. You may aptly guess them.

Also, I'm going to retool this place for awhile until I decide to like it. Please, pardon the mess.

Self Portrait of the Artist as Loius XIV as the Artist

Photoshop, done in this was. And with the airbrush no less. I don't usually rely on the airbrush for much, perhaps because it's a) ubiquitous and b) fuzzy.

 

Apparently, b is causal for a--reality is somewhat easier to project without the concept of the pixel as a discreet rendering unit. It's pretty easy to block in colors and continually refine without the weight of heavy maths.

Also, re: channels. They're like layers. I know this because they're in the layers tab. After a couple hours meddling with them, I've concluded they're also like the televised variety: a gigantic time sink.

That which is this blog.

In short, it's two things: 

1) Classwork

2) Archetype

What classwork means is pretty obvious, the other probably less so.

Many already know I've been working on a series of graphic novels for half a decade or so. That's Archetype. Thus far, after the ill-fated but "educational" draft way back in high school, it hasn't been anything but planning.

But it's been long enough, and I think I may finally have the experience and structure to make it work. I'm sketching out the first issue right now, with an ETA of--well, we'll see. I'll toss out some images from the character primer and some work in progress as it goes along.

Anyway, please, feel free to comment and share. Part of the reason I'm doing this is get ideas on how to improve, so, please, let me know what you think.