Gaucho

Did this as a quick clone (color tracing) on my new tablet. I am really digging on Painter. I may have to purchase a full version.

Got a Tablet

This is my first drawing done in Photoshop with my new Wacom tablet. I am really getting into this--computer+draftsmanship works for me!

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.

Colored, Logo'd X2

Just wanted to update with a roughly colored and logo'd version of the Sikorsky.

Re: Fuel Bloc Logo
Here is the bloc logo you see on the fuselage and tail of the craft. The Fuel bloc is basically OPEC with Britain, and if the book were written now it would likely include Venezuela. I used red and green because a vast majority of middle-eastern countries use those colors on their flags. I like the tiny crescent moon in the top of the oil drop, very subtle nod to the Islamic.

Re: Craft Deco
As I mentioned, I wanted to go with a subtly camouflaged color scheme for the vehicle... something a country in a standoff would use for a non-military vehicle, but if hostilities were to break out it would serve well in that purpose. So I used some of the bloc colors (see the Fuel bloc logo, above).

The Planet Jem is stationery in relation to its sun, so the sky glows red-orange like a heat lamp. So it's a no-brainer to use red (which keys off the bloc logo color) for the undercarriage. The foliage on the planet is greenish, so I used that on the top. If I return to polish this up a bit, I might do some more broken color fields on the top. It's a fun challenge for a graphic person to design camouflage that doesn't look like camouflage, not to mention in a different color spectrum.

For some reason I thought if this happened now, a smart government would get have schoolchildren create artwork to add to the vehicle deco. It would be a gesture of goodwill and good morale for the colonists, but the hidden purpose would be to make a mottled arrangement of the art that would serve as camouflage if it became necessary. This may be an interesting story element to include, which would bed down some of the details that arise when you expand a novel into a visual medium. It bothers me when there is no nod to that in adaptations.

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

Sunday Painter

Art Lesson: Getting Your Painting Chops Up after a long hiatus.
Today I'm humbly breaking out my oil paints. I probably should sacrifice a chicken or something, my last paintings (over a year ago) went well, but they were mistreated (I left them at the School of the Art Institute--and my school ID has lapsed). There is likely a muse of visual art who has got a rusty switchblade tucked into her toga, just for me.

Taboret: Make an inventory of your paints, brushes and other supplies, which are usually stowed away in a tackle box or other shameful coffin in a misused corner.

1. Order your tubes, I like to go from warm to cool. Earth tones, white, and mediums have their own areas.
2. Do likewise with brushes and palette knives, according to size.
3. Start a rubbish bin to throw out any dried out paints or miserable brushes. While you're doing the inventory and painting, you should write down what you think you'll need to continue being a productive painter after your return to the fold.
4. Perform whatever organizational rituals you're comfortable with.

Easel and Pallette: Set yourself up for a no-stress study.

1. Tape off some canvasette or whatever you like to paint on. Maximize real estate with one big piece or separate into little vignettes. I usually paint with a medium-value ground, today I'm letting myself be lazy.
2. Pour off your mineral spirits into a glass. If you haven't painted in a few days (or many months), all the pigment will have settled to the bottom of your spirits container. You can swish these mud spirits out with newspaper and toss it. I like to draw out my lines with it, so I keep it around. It's like recycling.
   
3. Pick a sampling of brushes that will work. I picked one thick, one medium, and one teensy.
4. Squeeze out a useful range of paints onto your palette, after you've designated your real estate for your mineral spirits and mud spirits (from #2.) If you know exactly what colors you're going to paint with, use what you think, but err on the side of inclusion, because squeezing out paint is a bit of a buzzkill in the middle of painting. If I am painting monochromatically, I'll use white, and burnt sienna and ultramarine blue, which you can combine to make a rich black. If I'm painting in color, I use those plus cadmium red, alizarin crimson, windsor yellow, pthalo blue, yellow ochre. You don't really need much else to paint with a general color range. I have many others in my box right now, and I wish I could trade them for more of the basics that will soon be empty.
5. Pour out a little bit of Liquin or whatever medium you're using.
   
6. Locate some paper towels near your work. They are the only thing keeping my hands from turning every other color of the rainbow.
   
7. Have some relevant subject matter nearby to paint from. I had a Burne Hogarth book (Drawing the Human Head) that I've been paging through. But I also had some sketches nearby, they work. Or a familiar object. It's good to have a subject that you've got in your spatial memory. Don't sweat this one, but having stuff nearby helps you not stress about it in the middle of a painting.

Painting Tips:

• Paint away, while you try to regain the logic that you work with. Don't break your own rules, though you may likely be impatient to. With oil paints, remember to paint from thin to thick, gradually decreasing the amount of medium you add to the paint. It is basically impossible to put thin paint on top of thicker paint.
  
• Recapture your ability to mix color. Sometimes it helps to paint color swatches only. Or, if you're diving in and trying to paint something, you can pre-mix a color range.
  
• Don't worry about the whole picture. If you do get irritated, try to identify specifically what's not working for you. Then try to fix it. This is where the learning comes in. If you do this each time you have an issue, you'll get better quickly. The only other way is avoidance. And unfortunately, you can do everything else here and paint each day, but if you don't identify and tackle your problems, you'll be in the same place. It is likely why you put down the brush in the first place. And I'm familiar with all that.
  

Vagabond Garb

Some quick studies of clothing for the character art project.