Busy Monday & Cat Claws

/

Busy day at work. Today the new groups started and I now have triple the clients I had last week. With the new work load, it’s a struggle to keep work life from impinging on family life, and on the little time I have to keep my book alive. I should look at the bright side of the picture — I have a job.

About the book…there are days when I don’t think of it. That makes me sad. Today I looked at my most recent work and realized that the cat would be more menacing if we could see her claws. Once again I sketched from imagination and came to the realization that I really need to use reference material.

Concept Art: A Tiny Sailboat Blown Out to Sea

/

I drew this scene from imagination. It’s my idea of what a tiny sailboat would look like when it’s being blown by a powerful wind. As I drew it, I realized that I have never seen a sailboat in a powerful wind, except in the movies, and yet I was convinced that I was doing great job. However, looking at my effort now, I promise myself that I’ll look at many reference images tomorrow. I’ll search for “sailboat leaning.” I’ve been depending on DuckDuckGo for my image searches, but I’d be better using Pinterest, where I can stand on the shoulders of the millions of users who’ve already scoured the web for sailboats.

Alfresco Art Club, May 31, 2020: It's About Your Perspective

/

Today’s art club challenge was to do exercises to improve a problematic technique. This challenge is intended to get us out of our comfortable groove. I decided to sketch a walking figure using a bird’s eye perspective.

Lately I’ve had to confront my lack of perspective drawing skills as I try to draw a downward perspective of a character walking in front of his friends as he guides them into the jungle. So far I haven’t got it right.

Today I began confidently by drawing from imagination. My drawing looked awkward, so I and finished by drawing from a reference photo. I definitely should have started by drawing from reference.

Learning how to draw perspective

Learning how to draw perspective

The Overflight (over the border wall) from another perspective

/
overflisht_2_blog.png, perspective, sketch, concept drawing, Photoshop, Kyle brushes

Today, with newfound confidence in my Inner Artist, I decided to re-imagine the Overflight scene from scratch. I got out pencil and paper and practiced drawing flapping butterfly wings. Drawing wings in perspective is really tough. I tried to do it from imagination, but that didn’t work. Then I remember reading in James Gurney’s Imaginative Realism that he sometimes creates models of his characters and poses them in the positions he needs for his paintings. Tomorrow I’ll make a 2D version of Buddy’s wings to see what they really look like when they’re curved upwards.

Dec 31 Is The Publication Deadline for “The Jaybird That Jumped Down A Chimney”

/

It will be a miracle if I publish my book tomorrow. I have a lot to do in one day: I have to proof read the book, correct any obviously screwed up images, run the cover image PDF and body text PDF through Ingramspark’s validator (and that may take 24 to 48 hours to get a result), and who know what else I’ll have to deal with. If it doesn’t go down they way I’ve planned, I have a Plan B, which is to publish the book on New Year’s Day.

I did watch a helpful video about publishing using Ingramspark. It was a good video — it relieved my anxiety about going through the labyrinthine publication process. I send my thanks to Alexa Bigwarfe of WritePublishSell. Alexa, you rock!

I started the day by drawing a burro from imagination. I drew on the iPad using Procreate’s Pandini brush (it’s in the Inking collection). After I drew this character study, I regretted that I had done it digitally — I should have drawn it using pen and paper in a real sketchbook. I feel that digital drawing is insubstantial and ephemeral, while ink and paper anchor me to a place in time and space. Digital is gone when the iPad’s battery is drained, or the electricity goes off, or the web site is hacked, or the ISP goes out of business. I love technology and gadgets, and I use my iPad every day, but for art, Technology doesn’t complete me. In the future I’ll be doing my art work in traditional media as much as possible.

I don’t know this guy’s name yet, but I know that he’s small but strong, and he’s kind and gentle.

burro_from_imagination_blog.png burro, children's picture book, character study

Cover Image Revised...Again

/

Looking at yesterday’s sketch got me to thinking that there’s no way that Jimmy Jay’s going to jump down that chimney without injuring himself. He needs a better line of action, a nice line that makes him look like he’s diving rather than looking like he’s going to plow headfirst into a brick wall. So, I thought I’d better try again. Here’s my second attempt. I think the second attempt is telling me that I’d better make a third attempt.

Drawing a diver from imagination is harder than I imagined it would be. Perhaps some reference photos of divers would help.