Food Bloc Satellite

This is a satellite that the food bloc puts up late in the story, one that has onboard missiles to destroy the satellites of rival factions. I want to revise it with missiles mounted externally.

Here's the food bloc logo. I wanted it to be continuous tone and colorful to contrast with the other blocs. The bottom of the f stalk is supposed to be a shadow, I think to help that be clear I am going to make crop rows stripes on the field mounds.

Thumbs Up

Another image from "On the Bottom." I realize why I love these photographs--for the most part there is no background, it's all white haze*. After I finished this one, I told myself that if I had to do it again, it would be better to try and compose the elements in a separate drawing first, or as an underdrawing. So much is left to the imagination, in the murkiness of the old photo, it makes it a little too easy to just improvise your way through it. But with complex scenes like this, one doesn't have the visual imagination and visual memory to pull it off with technical finesse. Better to think like you're recreating the scene anew, rebuilding it from the foundation, than trying to slip one past.

*This makes me think that for any image with a complicated background I encounter from now on, I should plan to separate the background and foreground into separate drawings. I have the technical skill to composite them together afterwards, so why not take advantage of this to make my tasks manageable. Working in layers is always a good idea.

Bare-Butt Ugly Helicopter

In the middle of this drawing I was reminded of middle school. At that time I was playing Shadowrun (a futuristic book-based role playing game), mostly by myself, but occasionally at school. I liked developing new players, weapons, and vehicles. I was also playing Car Wars, another paper RPG, at that time. For one game or the other, I had designed a custom vehicle for the game, and had done my best to make a very crude drawing of the vehicle in what was then Aldus Pagemaker. Even the best computer artist at the time could not have got that program to produce a good drawing (it was really more for page layout), and I was far from good at that time. Anyways, I've got this crude print at the top of a stack of papers at study hall in school when I'm playing one of these games with friends. Some older RPG type-guy comes over to observe us, and he notices the rendering. He says "Man! That is butt ugly. That is bare-butt ugly!" Of course I made the excuses offered above, which doesn't seem to soften his disdain for this particular piece of art.

Got the basic drawing down before my brain overloaded. In my mind, to be perfect perfect perfect, I need to show the camouflage and faction logo (see last post). But I decided to stop and scan while I'm ahead, because I feel like I could ruin the drawing by doing either of those. In reality, that's not really that likely, especially since pencils have erasers. But that doesn't stop my mind from worrying.

The reference I used is from Sikorsky's web site. This is their X2 prototype, a helicopter with two main rotors for lift and a rear rotor for forward propulsion. For my purposes, it works because it looks so sleek and futuristic, and of course bare-butt ugly, like all things functional. It will do for now.

RAF Hudson

I'm psyching myself up for a vehicle drawing that I'm going to do in a few minutes. I drew this to get in the technical mind-set. On wartime planes, I love camouflage logic: showing a sky grey color on the bottom, and broken ground colors on the top, all jiggy jaggy, with necessary flags and emblems that stand out. Then during peacetime they repaint everything to geometric and simple.

The helicopter I'm going to draw in a few minutes is a sketch for an adaptation of Frederik Pohl's novel Jem. It's about rival factions on earth that each put several colonists in competing camps on a new planet. Because they're not technically at war at the beginning of the story, it will make for an interesting hybrid of civilian and military deco for the helicopter.

I'm also realizing that I haven't found my sweet spot with vehicles. On various projects I've sketched plenty of them, but I haven't found what it takes to put the finish on them. Figure drawings have an elegant way of drawing me back in, engaging my interest so that I can leave it at a good point. I look forward to slaying this dragon today.

Commander Ellsberg

It's grey and rainy in Chicago today. But I should be okay, because I started off with another cool image from the book (On the Bottom, by Commander Edward Ellsworth). I love the pose--I think I'll be drawing from this book for awhile. It would be cool to adapt it into a graphic novel or game.

Chief Torpedoman with Ellsworth Torch

It's been awhile since I've posted. And a good bit since I've drawn. I have spent the last few days playing silly computer games. They are hopelessly addicting to me. They fire off some neurons that have no other outlet currently. And my eyes are killing me. It's really stupid.

I just made myself sit down and draw something. I realize that if I am to be serious about having professional draughtmanship skills, I must let my passion match my drive. Yes, art, design, games and books are work that require dedication. But they are also something to be passionate about. So I need to draw things that stimulate me, and be satisfied as much with doing a good job as doing something interesting to myself. I guess others may have this connection in their brain, but I needed to manufacture it.

So for now, what could be a cooler subject for a drawing than a diving bell suit? I botched the proportions and it's really not much of anything, but it comes from a good place. My reference was an old book about a submarine salvage operation, with really cool photographs. My wife found this treasure when out on a thrift store run this week.

Ellen Page

Vagabond Garb

Some quick studies of clothing for the character art project.

Alternate Villain: Jason Isaacs

This guy looks more evil. He's probably mad about his hair being colored in photoshop.

Art 101: Steal from the Rich

Art Lesson: When you don't have a model, use a famous actor to develop a character likeness. I'm using Daniel Day-Lewis here as a villain prototype. And I'll be the first to admit this is a bad picture. My chops are rock bottom right now.

Drawbacks:
- They can't be posed in any position, in any lighting, in any outfit, with any expression.
- Halfway through a successful project you may wish you had started with a model.
- Sometimes when you recognize the actor, it skews your impression of the character art.

Advantages:
+ No hassle of finding and booking the right model.
+ They have free, easily web-searchable images than can be traced, drawn, and cobbled together to create new character art.
+ You can find images of them at different periods of their life, and with their famous and non-famous relatives, which is useful material for character development

Robed Figure

Studying robe/cloak drapery for some character art I'm working on right now.

from: The Family of Man

Drew these while enjoying a Chai outside our local supermarket.