IF: Clutter

"Fashionable Clutter": Mixed Media: china marker, pencil, ink, collage, gouache, watercolor, acrylic.

IF: Memories

October 1994: digitally colored pen and ink drawing layered onto a scanned acrylic ground.

IF: Routine (Flight), CD Cover Mockup

Routine Flight: Pen and ink on paper, scanned, digitally colored, layered on acrylic painting that was also scanned, type added digitally.

My entry for this week's Illustration Friday topic, Routine. The text got a little squishy when compressed since the original is 2200x2200 pixels.

IF: Detach

For this week's Illustration Friday topic "detach".


And one more within the same theme.

Experiments in Style and Liner Pens

Just a quick entry to post a little experiment to see if the raw line + graphic style of the canned series would work with my figurative stuff. I think it works just fine. Now I'm thinking my girls should have some arms so they can hold cans, bottles, etc. Maybe they could even stock some shelves.


Also, the image above is a short demo of microns vs. prismacolor liners under the solvent based chartpak markers. As you can see the prismacolors hold up much better than the microns. I've done other tests as well with watercolor and acrylics and the prismas always come out on top.

Moto-Vation

Yes, I know very well that's not how you spell motivation. It just looked better with the two o's design wise and I liked the play on words. Anyway, this is my first un-can can-type illustration. I am really having a wonderful time with this and I have so many ideas right now. I feel very "moto-vated".

Ah man! I totally spelled caffeine wrong. So much for the whole i before e thing. Oh wait... it's after c. Damn. (edit: fixed it.)

Canned!

So inspiration came knocking as I was drifting off to sleep last night. Illustration Friday recently ran a theme called "canned" and I caught a glimpse of the "pick of the week" for that theme: an illustration of canned fruits (which I really dig). And I thought to myself "what else can be canned that can't really be canned?". A strange thing to ask oneself I suppose, but I was looking for metaphor and such.

I wanted to can up intangible things. After some sketching and a fun batch of brainstorms the series of illustrations seen here is what came out.

I didn't actually look through all the illustrations on IF for the "canned" week, so maybe this has been done. Oh well. It hasn't been done by me. (EDIT: Okay, so I looked. There were a couple of "canned intangibles", but none of them looked like mine. I'm kind of gald I didn't look before because I wouldn't have wanted to be influenced by someone else's design. I like mine as... well mine.)

I think this is only the beginning of a bigger series and the beginning of more illustrations done in this style. When I look at them I feel good. I like what I see, so that's going to be my motivation.

I also plan to do some large scale canvas pieces in this theme which I think will just be plain enjoyable. I only hope I can get those nice flat graphic colors right. Or maybe I will opt for some texture. Who knows? The best part will be letting it all come together in that magically organic way.

Details (because process/technique should never be kept secret): All cans were hand drawn with prismacolor fine liners then scanned into my computer and digitally colored. Want to know how I add color with the computer? Just ask and I will fill you in as best I can. Be warned, I suck at tutorials.

Three Bees: A Re-make

I decided to play around with an old piece of line art that I scanned in a while ago. I think I dig it.

Details: hand drawn ink (can't remember the pens now but I'm betting on Microns) then scanned in and digitally colored.

IF: Sail

For some reason I'm finding a lot of work challenging lately. I think I'm still narrowing down my style... which can be frustrating and somehow restraining. One moment I'm not sure what I want to achieve and the next I am eager and ready to work with a million and one ideas in my head.

I think if I could have chosen a profession for myself I would've picked something a bit more consistent or at least less motivated by emotion. I wish I could be those artists that are all about technique and mechanics. I'm just not that kind of artist. For me it's all about moods and feelings and dreams. And being that kind of artist makes it hard to do anything else. I have to make art. It's not a choice.

Details: Hand drawn in ink (prismacolor liners 0.05, scanned, digitally colored.
Illustration Friday: Sail

IF: Garden, Chartpak Markers, Etc.

Here are a couple of Garden Girls for Illustration Friday's topic this week: Garden. I really like the color combos and line work. As always I love me some feedback and welcome your opinions. Read below for more info.




I went out and made an investment in some Chartpak AD markers. There is nothing else like them out there. The end results are really great - hardly any noticable strokes at all. Just be prepared to get a little high while using them. I can typically stand the smell for a little bit but lately I have noticed a distinct belly ache after using them for too long. That could be due to a recent battle with the flu though. Bottom line: If you're easily offended by smells then these are not the markers for you. Stick with Prismacolor and deal with the dried-out-marker-stroke-look. If you can tolerate something smelly for art's sake then Chartpaks are the way to go.

The line work is done with Prismacolor Fine Liners. I love them. They are waterproof - and really are waterproof - plus they hold up against the solvent base of the Chartpaks without running or smudging. Nice! They come in about half a dozen colors and all the standard fine line sizes. I prefer the tiny .005 over anything else. The illustrations above have some blue, green, and brown - all .005 line widths.

Oh, I tried the recommended marker paper as well - Beinfang Graphics 360 - and I'm not crazy about it. I have been using archival, bright white copy stock instead which these two pieces are done on.

Edit: Beinfang seems to be a great drawing paper. It takes ink without bleading and is transparent enough to trace with. I'm just not thrilled with how it handles the Chartpaks. They seem to make the paper more transparent then it already was - almost a glassy, vellum kind of thing happens to it.

Random Illustrations

These don't really apply to any of the Illustration Friday stuff lately so I thought I would just post them here for the simple sake of sharing them. As always, feedback is welcome and appriciated.

On the new art front... I've got an idea for a new series that I am really excited about. Yeah, I got a little bored with the angel thing. I may revisit it again but right now I am inspired to do something else. Oddly enough the inspiration came from a samsonite disply at Macy's. Sketches to come soon.

IF: Another Tale and/or Legend

Yet another image for IF this week. It's inspired by images of Indian (Hindu) female deities and the idea around the possibility of them being everyday women. I'm calling this one everyday Shakti.

IF: Tales and Legends

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is Tales and Legends. So yeah I went with the cliched myth of the mermaid and twisted it a little in an effort to make it my own.

I'm just not sure how I feel about this one. At one moment I like it and the next I really don't. I just can't seem to find the look I am trying to acheive. Ah well... practice makes perfect so I am back to work. Feedback is always welcomed. :)

IF: Plain

The Illustration Friday topic this week is plain and for some reason my head went straight to bagels. Or I guess they could be doughnuts or something. Anyway, the ink drawing came out okay but I am still playing with the color and texture after the scan. Still trying to get the hang of my new graphics software.