Trapped Sketches

September 8, 2009 at 1:21 am (Sketches)

Title pretty much says it all.  For those interested, I used a Bic MatiCgrip 0.7mm #2 mechanical pencil in my camel hide sketch book.  I may or may not turn some of these into paintings, there is one that I think will be really nice, but the other two have compositional problems that I will have to work out before I paint them.

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This last one is the worst.  It is like I suddenly forgot how to draw or something.  Ick ick.  Hopefully, if I am feeling up to it, there will be a new mermaid painting done tomorrow to post.  If not, I may do a progression post.  Business has taken away from the painting, and I have some photo projects that I want to work on (especially since I am much weaker in that field than I feel I ought to be).

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Sketches For Sketchbook Friday

July 18, 2009 at 1:42 pm (Book Art, Sketchbook Fridays, Sketches)

Turns out that the technical problems I was having with the camera were, after conversing with my technical advisor (i.e. the Marmot, who owns the camera), operator error.  I kind of figured that was what it would be.  It seems that there is a little button by the view finder that you need to push because sometimes the monitor goes off.  And the light doesn’t stay on like mine does, which gives the appearance that the batteries aren’t working.  All fixed now, though.

So, without further ado, here are the sketches for the gargoyle picture that I am going to be starting today for B and Spacie.  They got two sketches, and chose the top one as the one they want painted.

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and a detail:

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For those interested, these are done with mechanical pencil in my camel skin book.

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Paintings To Work On While Vacationing

July 10, 2009 at 6:18 pm (Sketches)

While going through some art stuff before I left on vacation, I found a collection of animal sketches done on watercolor paper.  Clearly, they need to be painted, and, since they are pretty small in scale, I packed them up and brought them with me.

Here they are:

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I really want to paint the baby elephant pink.  Part of me thinks I shouldn’t, but I really really want to.  So I may.  It is still being debated in my head..

B has named them all, and they are cute names.  Except the name he gave the turtle.  That name was no good, so I nixed it. :)

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Corset Angels

May 2, 2009 at 2:54 am (Book Art, Sketches)
Tags: , ,

I have decided that I want to do a series with corset piercings because I think it is creepy and slightly disturbing and beautiful all at the same time.  So, what better way to express this than to do a series?

I am going to make them “corset angels” because I think it will be a nice contrast with the harsh-ish imagery of the peircing with the soft of the feather wings.  (There is other reasons behind it, but if I go into all that now, there will be nothing to write about as each piece is finished and posted).

Here is the first in the series:

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And, the close-ups.  I am not sure I am going to keep them in masks or if I am going to give them actual faces.  It will depend on how dark/light I want the mood and I won’t know that until I get a few more sketched out.

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Gluttony

April 19, 2009 at 3:55 am (Book Art, Sketches)

The second in the Seven Deadly Sin series.

Gluttony (Gula): the over indulgence/over consumption of anything to the point of waste.

0076And some details:

00540064 I’ve read Dante’s Divine Comedy before, but am re-reading it as it seems fitting to do so.  I may incorporate some of that into the finished pieces, and for this one the refuse pile he is standing in will be much more detailed with food and lost hopes and wasted talents, etc.  There are times that I think the legs are too short, and other times I think it is fitting for the style.  Dunno, I will wait until I have finished all of the other ones before I change it.  I think the hardest one to do will be Lust which I think will be next before I lose the nerve to do it the way it should be done.

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Creep Show

April 14, 2009 at 11:25 am (Book Art, Sketches)

Not all art is light and happy, and, sitting out on my balcony this afternoon, sketchbook in hand, this creepy specimen cropped up.  Not what I had intended to draw when I went out there, I had been planning on doing studies of the blooming lavender and columbines on my patio, but when I sat down all I could see is this guy, so here he is.

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I might do a series with them…

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March SketchCrawl Results

April 11, 2009 at 3:26 pm (Art Goodness, Sketches)

So the Marmot and I drove to Waxahachie this morning and met up with some very nice ladies to do the SketchCrawl with.  We sketched around the county courthouse and in the county Museum (which was small but really interesting).  It was really cold today, though, so my cold weather onset asthma kicked in, making it hard to breathe.  I got my mp3 player in the mail yesterday, though, and it came with 50 free downloads, so I downloaded two albums of Yat-Kha, which mixes Tuvan throat singing with rock and roll.  It is WONDERFUL.

Unfortunately, we only got to stay for about an hour because I had to get home to help my mom cook for Easter tomorrow.

Here are a couple of the sketches I did around the Court House.

0013 0023This one on the left is one of the grotesques from the top of the courthouse, and the one to the right is one of the lamp posts out front.

For those interested, both were done with a mechanical pencil with 0.7 ott lead.  The grotesque was then gone over with watercolor from my dry cakes pallet and pen and ink.  The paper is handmade from Iraq (my brother-in-law brought me back a camel hide handmade book from overseas when he came in on leave).

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2 A.M. Doodles

April 6, 2009 at 4:14 am (Book Art, Sketches)

Insomnia doesn’t have to suck, and, in fact, can be somewhat productive…

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Not exactly what I had set out to draw, but doodle as doodle can.  And look, a whole TWO page spread.  This is what happens when I want to draw but can’t really figure out what it is I want to draw.

Here are close ups of both pages:

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For those interested, I am working in a handmade journal made of hemp from Nepal (got it at Barnes and Nobles), and all works were done with  black Bic Z4 0.7 tip, SARASA 0.7 tip colored gel pens, a red Uni-Ball Vision fine point, and the paint was a Watercolor Wheel by Chartpack that I picked up at a Walgreen’s (it is a four pack color wheel with each piece interlocking into the bottom of the next, very clever, and good to take out and about for sketching.  The colors are pretty good, too).  I used a small 1 standard watercolor detail brush I picked up at HMS when I was going to UNT in Denton (great little art store, I really miss being able to walk to it, but my bank account thanks me) to paint with.

AND, please to note, I finally figured out how to configure this layout so that I can do larger pictures instead of the little ones.  I kind of like the little ones though, I think they are cute, but I also like the bigger ones for seeing detail.  It will be an ongoing layout battle before I decide which one I will stick with (if either.  I might just flip back and forth depending on the picture…)

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Tree Sketch

April 3, 2009 at 12:13 am (Book Art, Sketches)

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Just a quick pen and ink sketch in one of my handmade paper books.  It was interesting to follow the grains of the paper for some of the tree texture.

For those interested, I used a Pilot PreciseGrip with extra fine tip in black.

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Shawl Dancer

March 31, 2009 at 10:22 pm (Sketches)

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This sketch was done in preparation for a series that I am going to do using animals and traditional Native American dances.  This particular one has already been incorporated in a painting (that isn’t finished).  I’ll put up a shot of that one later.

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