Illustration Friday - Garden

The topic this week is Garden. I "dug" deep for this one and found it "buried" in my sketchbooks from the turn of the century (it just sounds cooler that way). Hopefully you can appreciate the "fruits" of my labor. After letting this topic "bug" me, I finally remembered this piece.

Sorry for the puns. I'm feeling kinda weird right now.

- ink over a pencil sketch

More hand studies

Yet more hands. All were done with pencil. I kinda like this little exercise. I always despised hands, but I never really took the time to try and understand them. Rest assured kiddies, kittens and daddy-o's, there are more phalanges, tarsals and metatarsals to come!















Not too bad. I'm a little disappointed with the index finger. But overall, not too bad.












I tried to just place my hand naturally on my knee and see how it works.


I just watched the movie 3:10 to Yuma and got the gunslinger/western kick.

Illustration Friday - Leap

Another entry for Illustration Friday. The topic was "leap" and the first thing I thought of was an Airborne Ranger. I kept seeing this image and was reminded of the movie series "Band of Brothers" on HBO a few years back.

I'm not completely happy with the details (the left hand seems awkward, the boots could be more realistic) but I am happy with getting the picture in my head transferred to paper.

Now I have something to reference if I want to pursue this piece further.

It seems as if I have turned a corner, creatively. Almost as if I have been able to take a mental picture and make it real...something that can be seen by everyone...a portal directly into my creative cerebral cortex. Something that until recently has been a bit of a challenge for me. I seemed to rely on models heavily to inspire the piece. Instead I feel that the piece inspires the models and references that I use. I can put the idea in my head and completely see everything and the complete layout. It is only a matter of finding the right reference for the details (hands, feet, face) and plugging that into the mock up of my creation.

I don't remember what cerebral cortex means exactly or what part of the brain it refers to, but it sounded cool. Right??

-pencil, 9x12"


NEXT!!

Studies and ideas

I did some drawings around Valentine's day. I would like to create a series of illustrations for each season/holiday throughout the year. That is the cherubesque figure as Cupid.

I also need to work a lot on drawing hands.
I have made a conscious effort to improve my interpretation of how I see hands and how the actually are. I read somewhere that the hands hold so much emotion that to not draw them or to generalize them would be doing the overall drawing a dis-service. I think that would be similar to drawing a face with out lips or eyes. You loose the whole emotion and expression of the moment.