A Peek at My Sketchbook

I've noticed lately, that I have a few "go to" poses and expressions, and that to do anything different is a bit of a struggle. I read a lot of art blogs, and look at a lot of pictures, but reading and looking (while inspiring and all...) only take you so far. DOING is what allows us to learn, and to grow.
This first set of sketches are 30 second to 2 minute studies from photos. All of them were done at the Gesture Drawing Tools site, which features Male and Female figures (both clothed and not) as well as animals, and also a handy timer that changes the pictures when the time is up. No cheating, ha-ha-ha! The tree at the bottom, I found on Flickr, using their "Explore Interesting" feature. There's always at least one picture worth spending a few minutes drawing per page. I think I spent about 5 minutes on this one.
The second page are two twenty minute drawings I did at a figure drawing night at the St Louis Artist's Guild. I think I actually spent more like 30 minutes on the left one, refining it during the break between poses.

I was reading an article on Dresden Codak's blog "Indistinguishable From Magic" last nite about the importance of developing a visual vocabulary. Here is a link to the post, because he put it far better than I can. For those of you who only want to read one wordy blog post tonite, he talks about Draftsmanship, Clarity of expression, Style is Grounded in Realism, and Visual Flexibility = Mental Flexibility. The whole article is great, but something he said in the last section really hit home for me:

"Often, being able to draw new things presents us with ideas we’d otherwise never consider. Also, simply being comfortable with drawing more things means you’re instinctively more likely to try new things..."and then he goes on to say"... without an artist having the prerequisite drawing experience, he or she may not get the idea to set a scene in a 17th century pirate cove rather than a college dorm room. It’s not so much that a less well-rounded artist couldn’t draw these things, it’s that he or she is less likely to even consider it, as it’s outside the comfort zone."

So what does this mean to me as an illustrator and dreamer of dreams? Something I've known for a long time, but that I get lazy about. Nothing exists in a vacuum, and without new stuff coming in, new stuff can't go out.



I thought of this clip from the king of queens while I was writing, and the same principle applies. It also serves as a warning. Draw from life, or at least from photos. Trying to learn to draw from a cartoon limits us to just those forms, and without understanding why those forms work, we can't move forward and develop our own styles. Poop in, poop out. Ha-ha-ha!

Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

Daily Life 023: Drawing

A couple of months ago, we gave Abby a spiral notebook to use as a journal. She likes to draw her name, her hands elaborate, multicolored, scribbly compositions... We gave her a sheet of stickers which she happily used to fill the pages of her journal with a fascination combination of neat rows and layered smiley faces, stars and dogs saying "GOOD JOB!". The point is, she draws in the book, and (usually) not on the walls or bills.

Sometimes when shes sitting at the table drawing, I'll get my book out and draw too. Abby will lean over the table, balancing precariously on one foot and ask "What you drawing, daddy?" in her little voice. This particular time I was drawing her, drawing. "You drawing Abby drawing... daddy?" Yes, most answers are repeated as new questions. This is a sign that she will soon be shoving her journal toward me and demanding drawings of cars, or animals, or Shrek. Which results in a mad dash to get down a passable likeness before she turns the page and demands something different.

And you complain that your boss wants stuff done fast?

Self Portrait 38 of 100

Hey guys!

I was trolling around CA today, and was inspired by Flaskpost and some of the design/pattern integration he's been doing in his illustration lately. It also got me thinking about some other artists that I've been admiring for awhile. Sooo.... I had a little more time than normal today, because Amy and Squirtle went out to the city. I decided to give it a go. So I'm not the greatest painter in the world, but that's part of the point too, practice, and trying out some new techniques.
Thinking about it now, I wish I'd made the background darker... Something to remember next time.

Until next time, Take care and be good!
Your friend
Jeffrey

Self Portrait 37 of 100

Hey kids!

So...I gots another one for you today. I'm doing a really terrible job of keeping up on this as a daily thing, but it's important to me to at least get the 100. It's still soooo far off though.

-sigh-

It'll be okay. In the meantime, Ryan was looking at some stuff the other day, and said he would like to see more, um, rendered sp's so with that in mind, I sat down this morning to do just that... I'm still kind of experimenting to find what works best for me. I worked for about an hour and fifteen minutes on this drawing... Pretty fast, really. I wish that I was better able to tap into that speed and confidence at work. I know part of the issue is that I have to answer to somebody else there, but I wish I could get around my desire to not dissapoint him, and just relax. Well... that's something to talk about some other time.

Thanks for looking! Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend
Jeffrey

P.S. I just realized that apparently I've miscounted, and this is actually my 37th Self Portrait. Ha-Ha!

Self Portrait Twelve of One-Hundred

Started this one as a set of four images that progressively abstract. I'm really happy with how this one turned out... looking back to a year ago (or really, more recently than that) I can see a lot of improvement. This is starting to feel like some professional work from me. More focused and what not. Sometimes it's hard to make time for this, but I'm always glad I do.
Thanks for looking, and I'll talk at you again soon... by the way, my internet is still out, so posting is gonna be tricky this weekend.
Your friend
KC

Self Portrait 10 of 100

My internet is down at home, so I'm running a little bit behind in my posts. I was looking at Chuck Mates sketchbook on Conceptart.org, and thought I'd give digital painting a try... Tragidy. It's actually not that bad in the grand scheme of things, but I came up against a wall pretty quickly. I think next time I'll work in grayscale. There's just too many color options in PS, and it's hard to come to grips with a new medium when you have too many variables to deal with.



Take care and be good!
Your friend
KC

Self Portrait Eight of One-Hundred

This little slice of heaven was skewed a bit by the angle of my drawing board. Kind of a boneheaded thing to do, but a good lesson in paying attention to what you're doing. Its ball-point pen, and marker. Relatively usual materials for me, not too exciting, but I feel like I'm getting into the swing of things, and am starting to turn out some drawings that I'm happy with.

This was a retarded post, because I had nothing really to say.

Talk to you tomorrow!
Your friend
KC

Self Portrait Seven of One-Hundred

Okay, like I said this is a little out of date. I did this for an Illustration Friday topic "Scale". I'm not going to explain it, cuz it's pretty self explanatory. I will say, though, that I have perhaps an unhealthy obsession with my weight. I'm not really fat... I know that, but I am overweight, (like the rest of America pretty much) and I'm very conscious of that.

Other than the commentary on my issues, I feel like this is a definite turn in a more professional direction. It's cartooney, but it really feels complete, and more well thought out.
Talk to y'all again tomorrow!
Your friend
KC

Day six of one-hundred

Ugh... I thought this one was pretty okay at first. But I think it was the super-cool background I was reacting to. Boy, what a stinker. This one, though, is illustrating some particular issues. The main one is that I sometimes am just not paying attention. This leads into the other issues. Formulaic drawing (I know the nose goes here, and the eyes are here... let's just do this and get it done.) and using props to say that I got a likeness...

By that I mean that I wear glasses with black frames, my hair is short(ish), I have a large unruley mustache, sometimes a beard, and I have earrings. So putting these props together on a generally egg shaped head means that I did a portrait of me, right?

Really, this is more of what I was talking about yesterday about being professional, and turning out more professional looking drawings. I'll work more on it tomorrow.

Thanks for stoppin' in again, and I'll have more to show and tell tomorrow!
Your friend
KC

Day five of one-hundred

I guess it seems kind of retarded to feel like I gave to do two posts today to make up for missing yesterday... It kind of feels like I'm posting into the void, but I think it's important to stay up with this. And the point is that hopefully people will read it. Maybe someday, I'll actually have something interesting or funny to say. Ha-ha!

Okay. I crammed this one in right before bed, and rushed it so I could just be done with it. On the one hand, that was fine because at least I got it done. On the other hand, looking at especially this one, but also these first four as a set, they seem unfinished, and more importantly unprofessional. Doing it is part of the point, but just doing it to do it isn't going to get me where I'm going. It's like going on a trip with flat tires... You'll get there, but you'll have wrecked rims, and get terrible gas mileage doing it.

I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving (or Thursday for those of you not in the states), and I'll talk at you again tomorrow.

Your friend
KC

Day two of one-hundred

Okay, day two. One thing that I feel like I should tell you, is that these images are about ten days behind. I gave myself a little lead time so I could catch up in case I get behind. Also because I started the project before I had the time to set up the blog. Ha-ha!

Looking back on this one, there are some errors. Most noticeably the eyes aren't level, and the top of my head is a little misshapen. I remember, too, that I started getting restless and distracted about halfway through. I shouldv'e taken a break and come back to it, but I didn't and ended up with a kind of muddled, unprofessional drawing. I feel like the good things about this one are outweighed by the bad.

See y'all tomorrow!
KC

Day one of one-hundred

Hi! I guess since this is the first post, I should say something about who I am, and what I'm doing. Introductions are always the hardest thing, especially when you're writing into the void... Ha-ha! So, anyway, I'm 30, and live and work in the Saint Louis area as a graphic designer and illustrator. Art has been a part of my life for most of my life. Unfortunately, looking back it seems like I had more potential than passion. I always have more work to do, and I need to expand my skill set, and discipline if I want to move forward.

That's what this blog is really about. I don't have the time or fortitude to run through four or ten pages in my sketchbook everyday. But one a day is not unreasonable. There are 100 pages in your average sketchbook. 100 in 100 days. To make things a little simpler, I'll do a set of 100 of the same subject. That way I can narrow down the variables and focus more on what I'm doing.

Finally, I have three goals.
1.Focus and self discipline.
2.More accurate portrait.
3.Freedom to experiment with media, style, and technique.

It feels like I wrote an awful lot there... That won't happen all the time.Thanks for stoppin' in, and I'll talk at you more tomorrow.