Thing-a-day.com

Wow, apologies… I fell behind a lot. I have been working, as I’ve said, but with all the homework, the shifts at the library, the running to and fro getting course packets and supplies, going to gallery shows… I haven’t had time to scan or post anything. Even now I can’t scan enough to make up for the lost days, but, I’ll show you some of what I’ve been doing anyway! I feel bad about not being able to keep to the schedule — I wish this took place over the summer! — but more than anything I’ve loved looking at everyone else’s work. It’s inspiring and all that cheesy stuff. But really, it’s fun! So I guess what I mean is that overall I don’t feel bad, even though I couldn’t keep up.

Anyway, my first illustration assignment. We were supposed to do something entitled “Our Little Secret” and my violent brain went instantly to domestic violence. I tried out a style I’ve never done before — I went into detail about this on my personal journal so I will spare you the tirade of excuses! Anyway this took a while, about 15 to 20 hours, over the course of a week…

Click here!

I will tell you the comedy option though, which is that he’s just making fun of her because she’s too stupid to put makeup on correctly :C So she like. Smeared her forehead with lip gloss and overdid the eyeshadow. Hurr.

Aaand here’s some of Monday’s figure drawing, in vine charcoal on 18×24 biggie sketch paper.

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Two

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Four

Five

Tomorrow I get to see Adrian Tomine! WOOO

I’m behind, sorry. School is stressful. Here’s some stuff I’ve been doing!

[media: vine and compressed charcoal on various papers.]

My roommate’s tits (this, uh, has nudity in it)

Attempting to draw a skeleton in the same pose
(the pelvis looks way too big because of the angle at which I took the picture!)

Lamp thing

My first week of class is nearly done… getting adjusted is tricky, sorry.

I was going to post some classwork I did today in Illustration II, but… it wasn’t actually that constructive.

Since I’m behind, there’s this weird thing I doodled on my new sketchbook. Whenever I get a new sketchbook, the first thing I do is a drawing on the cover. This time it’s Miss Pelvishat and her magical meat machine, with some kid in his butterfly bootie pjs.

The material was this weird rough canvassy shit that was impossible to draw on :C So it looks awful. I bought the sketchbook at my school’s store — it’s Cachet, which is my preferred brand, but like I said it’s weird and canvassy and not smooth and boardy like I like, plus the color is kind of bizarre and there’s this funky awkward magnetic foldy-over thing.

But, then the day after I went to Utrecht and they had my favorite type! With the smooth boardy surface and nice brown color and black elastic band thing. I thought it had been discontinued. So what I’m trying to say is that this particular sketchbook — I won’t be using it until I fill up my new favorite type. Which still needs a cover doodle. So expect that in the next few days.

As for my today thing-a-day, it’s super cheap. Excuse me. Like I said I was going to put up classwork, but I’d rather do this, since I’m proud of it in a dorky way.

I was going to go work at the library today when I realized that I might suddenly mid-shift have a need for painkillers. So I decided to take some ibuprofen tablets with me, just in case, so that I wouldn’t have to leave or cause a fuss. I didn’t want to carry them loose in my pocket, though. I looked all over for a plastic bag, but I couldn’t find one.

So I really quickly threw together a little sachet made of a Kleenex tissue and some masking tape. Then just to make it awesome, I drew a little Akira pill on it! Here it is.

Lame, I know, but I love Akira so much. Now the next time I need to take ibuprofen, I can do it in a really dramatic post-apocalyptic way! I’m totally going to rip open the tissue and pop them in my mouth and go “THEY’RE JUST LIKE CANDYYY” like Tetsuo does. Aha, okay, I’m done.

First day of spring semester! Naked people today. Last semester I drew in pencil. But this semester I’m going to try using more charcoal. I think this will be beneficial!

When models slowly shift positions during a pose, it makes me want to kill them.

I’ve done figure modeling, so I know that it’s difficult, but come on! It’s pretty much the only prerequisite for the job. I don’t care if a model is hot or ugly or obese or super-skinny or 18 or really old, they just have to hold still…! Please! Gossiping about models is what art students do in their spare time, you know. We have pet names for all of them. Like “pedostache” and “Jesus tattoo.”

Yep.

I think I probably give people huge butts and long legs even if they don’t have such a thing :C The thing I have the most trouble with is the proportion of the head to the rest of the body. That and I’m still working on good principles of shading. I love linear styles, but I think mine is too linear and I should learn how to be more painterly. :C That’s how my efforts are directed during school.

[media: vine charcoal on 18×24 canson sketchpad.]

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

Woah, I am sorry. I did the flying thing again today, except in reverse. I missed a few days but I promise I was drawing, I just haven’t had time to scan or post. My spring semester starts tomorrow and it’s hectic getting everything in order. It’ll be even worse in this coming week, but I will try to be on top of things!

Just a random queer sketchbook page today. Things will be more rushed from here on out, unless I cheat and post my assignments as things-a-day, haa.

[media: sumigrip .7 mechanical pencil in cachet sketchbook.]

Click here!

First off, thanks to everyone who has continued to leave comments! I really appreciate it. It is always bolstering (?) to know that people enjoy what I do. But! If you don’t enjoy what I do at all, I would appreciate your comments also! I like to hear reactions to my work, whether they be positive or negative.

Secondly, well! A missed day, and then today I’m an hour late? There’s got to be some explanation, right? Well, yeah. I went on break yesterday and spent all day doing the flying thing. You know, you wake up and get all your luggage and go to the airport and wait around for hours and then you fly out and then you’re in the air and then you land and then you wait around some more and then you take a shuttle and then you’re home. It’s exhausting. I hate it. But! I did sketch on the plane. For all my intense hatred of the whole flying experience, I love the view. I always get a window seat. It makes the nausea worth it, kind of?

But since I’m at home now, I have no scanner access. So that whole sketching on the plane thing — you must take my word for it.

I did do something for Valentine’s Day, even though there were some hitches. My parents changed internet providers, so I can’t figure out how to get wireless on my laptop. So I hooked up to my tablet to my old desktop. — but there’s only Photoshop Elements on this computer! What the hell? All the hotkeys are different! You can’t do selective coloring layers! Or make layer groups!

While I’m on break, I’ll only be able to post digital stuff. I’m probably going to be taking it easy, maybe making some dumb livejournal icons, or digitally coloring Akira scans. I’m also going to be playing a lot of Earthbound but that is not relevant to thing-a-day.

Anyway, I hope everyone had lots of love on Valentine’s Day.

[media: wacom tablet in photoshop elements.]

Click here!

I got to see Persepolis today! It’s been about a year and a half since I first read the wonderful graphic novel. The movie is really neat visually, I’d recommend it.

While we were in the theatre, it started snowing and we walked all the way back through piles of snow. That somewhat inspired me to draw this when I got home. I had to rush it, and I wish I could’ve refined it more, but oh well.

Tomorrow, though, I get to fly home for five days — to Florida, where it’s about 70 degrees. I never get over the shock.

[media: 02 and 005 micron and 1 sakura graphic on strathmore vellum bristol.]

Click here!

edit: I wrote this at 11:00 and hit save instead of publish. I’m so dumb. :C

Sorry, I didn’t draw today. Tomorrow I have to give my final presentation in my Nietzsche & Schopenhauer course! So I’ve been working all day on that, and I think I might wind up working super late into the night. I’m giving a presentation on Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru, which is a fabulous film that I recommend to all. I will be making a case for a certain Nietszchean spirit in the movie. I’m not concerned about my argument. I am, however, concerned about talking in front of the class! I hate stuff like this! I always stumble and fumble, and then looking up to see everyone looking concerned/bored/amused just makes me stumble-fumble even more. But, I did it once before, so I can probably do it again. Wish me luck!

For my thing a day I superquickly whipped up a little title-thing. I’ve been taking screencaps of the movie to use in my presentation, so I superimposed two screencaps (of the main title and also an x-ray shown in the film) and then supplied my own title and added a few layers to tint it up a bit. I like to mess around with colors in photoshop, but since the film’s in glorious black-and-white I didn’t have much opportunity. Which is all for the best since I must get back to work! Yeah!

Click here!

Emergency post!

edit: Phew! Okay, I posted with no blog component just so I could get it in at 11:58. It’s probably pointless to be anal about the time, but, oh well. Now that it’s posted, I’m editing to write.

I was busy today and sort of neglected to think about Thing-a-Day for quite a bit, so I rushed this. I couldn’t even think of what to do. I shouldn’t have done a self-portrait because I’m always bothered about getting it right, it always looks off, so… well!

Anyway. THRIIILL as Sophia gingerly dips her feet into the icy cold waters of INK WASH and then runs away like a little sissy. The whole point of ink wash is to be spontaneous and fluid and expressive, but, as I say, I’m always in — this — this mood. This intense no-fun mood. Always with the looking and the peering and the getting-so-wrapped-up-in-details that I neglect the sort of — the health of the work. I can’t relax! But I am trying to move towards relaxation as a goal in my work this month. And yeah, I’ve been looking like a fruity teenage boy ever since I got this haircut. I daresay I look even more feminine in this painting. YEAH anyway everyone should see Hotel Rwanda, it’s a good movie.

[media: .7 sakura sumogrip mechanical pencil and yasutomo sumi ink in cachet linen watercolor sketchbook.]

Click here!

Uuu okay so I was going to go to open drawing this morning, but — I got to bed very late. I woke up too late to bother going. Fortunately, my roommate happens to be a professional figure model, so I made her hold still while she watched Penn and Teller’s Bullshit, and I drew her legs.

That’s all there is to it!

[media: .7 sakura sumogrip and .5 papermate protouch II mechanical pencil in cachet sketchbook.]

Pose 1

Pose 2

Soomi asked me to draw her. So I did. :B

I kind of had to rush it near the end. I was going to do more, like, mini-vignettes, but I had other work. I don’t like drawing digitally, it feels off.
[media: wacom tablet and photoshop cs2.]

Click here!

I’m about to go watch that Tales of Earthsea film directed by Miyazaki’s son or something. This afternoon I was kind of lazy and just broke out my paints and dicked around for a bit. I’ll work my way up to something more serious.

[media : micron 02, graphic 1, windsor & newton gouache and watercolor in cachet linen watercolor sketchbook, scanned and edited in photoshop cs2.]

1. Ocarina

2. Nosebleed

3. Sad Llewelyn in ballpit

4. Llewelyn eats a burger

Uuu this afternoon I went to a comic store and bought this comic by a girl who graduated from my school. It was pretty awesome so you should check out her blog and her website! Okay?

Still more random shit because I’ve got to work on finals until next Tuesday. Sorry, I suck :C I’ll try and paint tomorrow though!

[media: micron 005, 01, and 02 on in Cachet sketchbook, scanned and edited in photoshop cs2.]

Click here!

Just random stuff today. Super-messy cityscape I rushed to do before the sun went down, and Kazuo.

[media: 1. micron 005, 01, and 02 on Strathmore bristol, scanned and edited in photoshop cs2. 2. digital sketch in photoshop cs2.]

1. Character sketch

2. Cityscape

Not a lot today, just some messy sketching :C Finals are coming up.

I checked out a book on rings the other day. Today, I sat down with it and read it through. It was really very interesting. I had to design some rings for a character from this comic. I was going to do two rings: a signet ring, that is, a ring used for stamping wax, and a poison ring, that is, a ring with a pillbox compartment for storing poison. But, today, I only had time to do the first. I’ll do the second some other time, maybe this month.

Did you know that signet rings are traditionally worn on your pinkie? Now you do :B And did you know that carnelian is a stone traditionally used for signet rings because it doesn’t stick to wax? Otherwise, you need to oil the stamp.

Hurr I sort of messed up the hand. And while I was starting to draw his head, I failed to predict that it would collide with the two band designs I’d sketched above. So it looks like he has a pair of horrific miniature tiaras. Oh well!

[media : micron 01, micron 005, sumi ink, watercolor, and gouache in cachet sketchbook (note to self: only do water-based media in a sketchbook meant for such things :C), scanned and edited in photoshop cs2.]

Click here!

First off, thanks everyone who commented on my other posts! This wordpress thing doesn’t really allow you to respond to people in comments, does it? Oh well.

Yesterday a friend asked me out of the blue to go take Argentinian tango lessons with her. I was going to say “No! I can’t dance! I’m afraid!” but then I thought, well, it’s February, fuck it. So I went with her today, from 1 pm to 2:30.

It was really stressful! I was trying super-hard to enjoy myself and relax, but, the thing is, everyone there knew how to tango already… or, if they didn’t, they’d done ballroom dancing, ballet, salsa… I have never danced in my life! Except for a summer of ballet lessons when I was like seven. And that doesn’t count. Plus, I get kind of freaked out when I have to deal with a large number of strangers. — but fortunately my friend was there, so that helped.

For a first lesson, it was pretty basic, too. We spent a while walking in circles around the room to get the feel of the rhythm, then we did this weird thing where you stand in front of your parter without touching them, and sort of… stare intensely at their clavicle? And by doing so, you try and sense what they’re about to do. It’s all about picking up cues and so on.

So we sort of rocked back and forth and then stepped back and forth and then stepped all around the room. Very exciting! Unless you fucked up, as I did from time to time, and then you run into people. Which kind of makes it even more exciting. I kept apologizing profusely to my partners. I couldn’t help it! I was very flustered. To their credit, they were all very sympathetic.

Will I go to the next lesson next Sunday? Hm, I don’t know. I’ll consider it for a week. It was kind of fun, but, on the other hand, when I learn things, I really really need to go at my own pace, or I get stressed out and then I don’t make any progress.

I also did a little drawing thing. About an hour to draw, an hour to color. I didn’t mean for it to be involved at all. Actually I intended instead to draw about my tango experiences, but that didn’t work out. I had also wanted to gouache — but — I will try to do that tomorrow instead.

Anyway, it’s just this character from a comic I’ve been writing in small chapter installments that don’t really go in any kind of chronological order. She’s — um — she was found fully formed rolling around in a bog by these small optimistic gnomes, and they brought her back to their ziggurat and worshiped her as a deity and fed her plums and cucumbers all day. And she’s ambivalent about it. Sorry the coloring is all sloppy and bad! I hope future projects will be more constructive.

[media : micron 01, micron 005 in cachet sketchbook, scanned and colored in photoshop cs2.]

Click here!

Well, I spent only an hour and forty minutes at open drawing, instead of the full four hours, but hopefully I’ll work my way up to it, week by week… I was a bit out of practice and it shows. Every week I’m going to try to use a different medium - pen, watercolor, ink wash, white conte on toned paper, charcoal…

But this week it’s kind of plain. There were ropes hanging from the ceiling. Tomorrow I’m maybe going to try gouache for the first time in a few months!

[media : sakura sumogrip 0.7 mechanical pencil, cachet sketchbook]

1st pose
2nd pose
3rd pose
4th pose
5th pose
6th pose
7th pose
8th pose
9th pose
10th pose

Oh dear. Scrambling to meet the deadline on the very first day… that’s not the best sign.

Okay, I went over the limit on this one. By more than a bit. I apologize! I got into a weird mood about it. It definitely won’t happen again. I’m going to force myself to relax about it, definitely! From now on I’ll have fun and avoid stress.

Tomorrow, there’ll be naked people! Till then, I hope you enjoy this mini-comic. Good luck to everyone!

[media : micron 01, graphic 1, and mystery pen my friend brought back from China .5mm on Strathmore vellum bristol. scanned in hp scanjet 2200c, hastily edited in photoshop cs2.]

Click here!

During January, I promised myself that I’d go to the thrice-a-week figure drawing sessions offered by my school. That didn’t happen, so I’m going to try to make the same resolution for February. So hopefully every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, I’ll have sketches of naked people.

On the other days, I’m going to try to balance between minicomics, random doodles, life drawing, experimenting with watercolor and gouache, digital sketches in Photoshop or Painter, and hand-drawn type. I’ve also resolved to practice playing ocarina daily, but I don’t know if that’ll make it up here. Maybe I’ll try some cooking too. If I have any particularly exciting dreams in February, then I’ll write them up.

I have Wintersession finals in the start of February, then a week-long break, followed by the start of spring semester… as such, I’m going to really make an effort to not stress out too much about this. That doesn’t mean I’m not taking it seriously, but, if I worry too much, it’s going to affect my schoolwork. I have troubles with anxiety when it comes to artwork, and I really want this to be a constructive project, so… I guess I just need to find the right frame of mind. I think it’s good to be fairly lighthearted about this kind of thing!

So, good luck to everyone.