Drgn Sketch

So here's a sketch for an upcoming piece...I'll try and post progress as I go. The final will be a much more involved image with a city night background, lots of neon etc... this is to sort out the posing of the 2 figures in the comp. I'm going to render this with graphite and white pencil on some tones Rives BFK and see how that will integrate with some digital colour.

Also, I've started a flickr account so I can upload decent quality images here... I'm over having blogger crunch my images down to crappy looking thumbnails!

Colour Sketch

Here's a colour sketch I did for an illustration I've been wanting to get to for a while. These always turn out the best when they're rushed... no time to noodle, just broad colour. This one was about 15 minutes one night with a 10 minute tweak session the next evening.

regenerate

Got the cast off my arm last Wednesday...
Here's what I've been working on...it's a bit of an experiment. I started off with graphite, watercolour and acrylic on Rives BFK but didn't end up keeping any of it in the final. I liked what the analogue stuff added but that step needed a bit more attention to hold up for the final. Good to know for the next one though.

Fall Update

So it's taken me way longer to update than I'd hoped for...
Shortly after my last post I dislocated my left wrist riding the Whistler Bike Park... I was ripping down In Deep on my way into Captain Safety, clipped a root or something with my bike, went flying and WHAM!

After surgery and about a week of doing nothing I got back to work and being able to do personal art and since then I've managed alright, fortunately it's my left wrist so I can still hit the hotkeys with it while it's casted. Without the bike riding to distract me for the last 7 weeks I've actually gotten a fair bit of work done...mostly for a really cool short project at work, but I've done some personal work too.

I also just finished reading a really cool book about J.W. Waterhouse. I wasn't too familiar with his stuff before, but I found his myth inspired paintings very interesting in both subject and technique, so I thought I'd pick up the book. I ended up reading it pretty much cover to cover and really enjoyed learning about the historical and social context for his work and his symbolist, mythic, occult and pre-raphaelite influences. He based alot of his mythical work on writings by Ovid, Shelly, Keats and Tennyson. Definitely a very inspirational artist for me, and it's cool to learn more about the history and inspiration for his work... paricularly the symbolist and mythic influences as I think they are a good traditional foundation for where I'd like to see the direction of my personal work go.

I'm still juggling a bunch of personal projects that need more attention if they're gonna go anywhere, but while I was recovering I wanted to work on something fun and straightforward so I worked this new piece up. The original inspiration came from Sabbath's Supernaut,(I've been on a bit of a kick lately) and somehow turned into this...



Anyway, the cast comes off in two days and I'm super stoked. I've got a design for my right shoulder sleeve to finish before November and a few unfinished things and experiments to get to, so hopefully now that it's fall I will be cranking some stuff out and posting work more often.

Boy Soldier

It's been a busy summer... despite just having 2 weeks vacation, I haven't found much art time for actually finishing any major pieces.

I have been working with my wife on a picture book though. It's about a Boy Soldier in Africa and here's a current sketch of the main character.

Thumbnails

I always start out with a thumbnail. Here's a comp of some of my favorites from the last 3 months or so.

Spring Update

It's been a really busy Spring... literally the day after my last post I got involved in what turned out to be a fairly lengthy freelance gig. I was quite a long process and after that project was finished there was a bit of burnout downtime and some rest. I've also been thinking alot about where my personal work is heading as I'm gearing up for a couple of personal projects I'm going to start this summer. As a bit of a break I did this quick piece over a few nights this week. It's no real departure for me as far as style goes, but I think some of the thinking I've been doing about my work is starting to show in a more cohesive, inspired look. I'm figuring out how to represent my themes and inspirations more, where my influences fit in to that and starting to develop more of my own personal visual language.