Thing-a-day.com

So I’ve been working with my friend Elliot on a web design project for the last couple of months. We actually just recently put the site to bed, more or less (link) and we were thinking it’d be fun to do more projects together. Elliot is a terrific graphic designer, and is apparently much better at obtaining clients than I am, although he doesn’t have my technical knowledge or experience. And so Elliot has apparently lined up three more large web design projects for us to take on - although it will admittedly be mostly me taking them on, as Elliot will be focusing on his thesis. And I told you that story so that I could tell you this one: today we named our partnership: “Up In The Sky Design.” We’re pretty excited about this. I wrote my master’s thesis on the design of Superman, and we’re both huge comic book geeks. I spent much of today fiddling about with a logo for us:

Threw this together in 20 minutes or so. Didn’t get around to any more serious projects today, as I was caught up in paperwork, and then merry roleplaying with friends. Happy Valentines Day!

Why, god, why?

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It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to do a figure drawing session. So when my former dept head of my illustration program invited me to sit in on a drawing class with the students, I was pretty excited to do it. I had forgotten how much I need it, and hadn’t realized how stiff and lifeless my drawing has become. I decided within the first hour that I want to use life drawing as the center of another project I’m working on. Maybe I’ll start in on that this month, if I can set up a model session or two. Anyway, here are a small selection of my work today, poses ranging from less than a minute to a full ten minutes. I feel good that I still barely know what to do with that much time. It means I haven’t forgotten everything. Maybe my favorite part was when we were asked to tape down two pages to the floor, draw four tall boxes in them, and then draw four poses, using charcoal on the end of a three-foot dowel, first with our right hands, then with the left. I had done the exercise before, but this time I felt like I had an amazing amount of control, and drew just what I intended. Doug is a terrific model to work with too, he is super bendy, and at the end of class he did a few poses with this crazy spooky aluminum wolf-head mask from South America, and a loincloth. I did hit kind of a discouraging slump in my ability in the middle of the afternoon, but I think I pulled out of it again.

This is the honourable Mr. Krampusz. He’s been led to believe that you’ve been having some difficulties with your disobedient and willful children, and he’s prepared to make you a very reasonable offer.

Also, I finished that massive portrait project I’ve been working on. Here is the full image plus some detail pics, since I spent a lot of time making all the wee fiddly bits look nice.

I hoped to finish this piece by today, but got caught up in cupcakes and covenants. Don’t ask. Anyway, this is a portrait I’ve been working on for some weeks, of my character in the Ars Magica roleplaying game we’re doing right now. I haven’t done a full fantasy illustration in a little while, so I’m doing this to keep my portfolio at least kind of current. The character is a Islamic sorcerer living in thirteenth century Spain. This is still very much in progress - there will eventually be a beautiful Andalusian countryside out the window.

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Over and over again, I’ve tried to commit to doing more drawing, to creating a simple doodle or something every day. Because I need it, and I want it, but I am a flake. Like a box full of flaky things. Okay, enough self-flagellation. This February I’m drawing somethin’ every day. I make no promises whatever to this drawing being anything that anyone will wish to see, these are for me - I will make public my meandering pencil meditations because it holds me closer to being the kind of artist I constantly dream of being.