Archive for the ‘drawing’ Category
‘Trychfil, Servant of Death, and a Hapless Grub,’ pen and ink, brush pen and Sakura Microns on Bristol Board, 6″ x 9″
Trychfil is the servant of Death and takes the form of a large mantis like insect. In this image, Trychfil has come to take a poor grub to the underworld.
‘Ysbryd, Prince of Animal Ghosts,’ pen and ink, brush pen and Sakuras on Bristol Board, 6″ x 9″
Like a lot of people I like films, literature and art that tell the stories of dark heroes. I wanted to figure such a hero in one of my pen drawings, so the above drawing is about Prince Ysbryd who roams the animal underworld. I think pen and ink is a great medium for creating darker images.
I may have been inspired to go darker after reading the great article on Camille Rose Garcia in the March issue of Juxtapoz. The interview with her is good and she talks a little about her process; her explanation of her characterization process is briefly explained, but very interesting.
Angie and I also saw two rather dark movies both of which I would recommend: ‘Memory of a killer’ and ‘North Country.’ ‘Memory of a Killer’ is a Belgian crime-thriller that tells the story of Angelo Ledda, a vigilante style dark hero (see Wikipedia reference). Angelo is an elderly hit-man suffering the onset of Alzheimer’s who takes on a hit job that prompts him to turn on his employer. The characters are somewhat typical for this genre, but they have enough twists to become compelling. To find out more about “Memories of Killer,’ visit www.imdb.com and to find out more about ‘North Country,’ visit www.imdb.com.
‘Brethren and Ms.’, pen and ink and Sakura Microns on Bristol Board, 9′ x 6″
These pen and ink drawings are coming together a lot faster than my paintings and I like the change of pace. When painting, I usually get to a point where my original colour intentions just don’t seem to be working so I begin to paint over large areas. From this re-paining the paintings start to come together. With the pen and ink drawings though, my process is more straightforward. The pen and ink drawings start with an image and narrative in mind and then I draw a scene in pencil with characters and props derived from my sketchbooks (although for ‘Hello Sunshine‘ I couldn’t wait to do the preliminary pencil sketch so I drew it all in pen in one go…it was sort of like a big adrenaline rush). This image, ‘Brethren and Ms.’ started as a very similar looking image in my sketchbook, as seen below.
After setting the composition and roughing the outlines in pencil I lay out the major forms in a small nibbed pen (size A-6) working from top left to bottom right so as not to smudge any wet ink. Then I go over some of the lines with thicker nibs (size A-5 and A-4) and after this stage is dry I then add detail with both the A-6 nibs and 0.1 and 0.5 Sakura Microns. At the detail stage I usually just make the detail up as I go along to retain some spontaneity.
Sometimes I like the instant gratification of finishing something quickly. At times I don’t really want to paint because I don’t feel like working 3 days on a painting. Usually when I feel this way I still work in my sketchbook, but now I can also create finished pen and ink pieces which feels different than working in my sketchbook. I find that the more I create the more I want to create. When I stop it seems that there’s a certain amount of inertia or something that begins to build up which makes it harder to start creating again. Anyway, if you’re like me and sometimes like to read inspirational article’s to help get you going there’s a good article I read by Keri Smith that talks about recognizing our weaknesses/limitations and how to turn them around into strengths. You can find the article at www.kerismith.com.
Even prickly monsters like tea…
I finally managed to enter this weeks Illustration Friday (and get something new up on my blog). I really enjoyed working in pen on the piece for ‘Hello Sunshine‘ so I decided to create another pen and ink drawing. Instead of simply using Sakura Microns, I used pen and ink to create more line variations with different sized nibs.
This piece is 6″ x 9″ and was created with Higgins India Ink and pen, and Sakura Microns (for some of the little fiddly bits).
In the photo below, you can see my collection of nibs.
Have a good weekend.
We moved and are all settled in again. This is the final move before we move again in the autumn. Say what you will about Ikea, but their furniture is really great for breaking down into small, moveable bits and it made our move a lot easier (though it was still stressful). One thing that is always good about moving is that it forces us (me) to pare down our (my) stuff. I have more things than Angie as I tend to be a bit of a pack rat and sometimes keep things for sentimental reasons or because I think something will be a good resource for a drawing etc. For example, I have a small, but growing, collection of dead insects and insect bits that I have found on walks. During this last move I tried really hard to be ruthless about my possessions and got rid of quite a few boxes of stuff. I did get to keep my insect bits though.
During the move I listened quite a bit to the Super Furry Animals, a brilliant Welsh band who even sing in Welsh. When I was listening to them I started to put images to some of the songs and decided to create one of the series of images in a comic strip format. These images go along with the song, Hello Sunshine, off the album Phantom Power. The images were drawn with Sakura pens on Bristol Board (2 boards, at 9″ x 12″).
Here are the lyrics to Hello Sunshine by Super Furry Animals:
So hard to say goodbye
Meaning it today
I’ve said goodbye before
Leaving you alone
By the sea
So hard to say goodbye
Hello sunshine
Come into my life
In honesty it’s been a while
Since we had reason left to smile
Hello sunshine
Come into my life
I’m a minger
You’re a minger too
So come on minger
I want to ming with you
In honesty it’s been a while
Since we had reason left to smile
Hello sunshine
Come into my life
You’re not so innocent
You’re a disgrace to your country
If you fled a million miles
I’d chase you for a day
If I could be bothered
Hello sunshine
Come into my life
To learn more about Super Furry Animals, visit the official website at www.superfurry.com. They also have an informative entry in wikipedia, that can be found at www.wikipedia.org.
I finished my graduate school applications and ended up applying to four different places. I struggled for a while with my artist’s statement, but received some great feedback from my brother and Dad — so thanks you two! Also, thanks to my gorgeous Angie for all your support too (and for watching the Brother’s Quay with me)!
Anyway, Angie and I are moving again tomorrow (*groan*), so I probably won’t be posting anything until the end of next week. See you all soon.
Also, above is a drawing of my brother. I drew this some years ago in a medical school morgue surrounded by cadavers. I had the brilliant idea for a painting and somehow managed to convince my poor brother Allister to sit in the morgue with me whilst I drew him as part of a study for my planned masterpiece.
I’ve been busy with college applications so I thought I would post something old.
My Dad has always drawn and when we used to go on family holidays my Dad and I would sometimes draw together. The top drawing is my dad’s drawing of Dorsington Manor and the second drawing is my version. I think I drew this when I was 11 or 12 years old. Anyway, my dad and I sat on the lawn together with our rapidiographs and sketchbooks and drew the manor. I loved to draw with my Dad and always tried to copy his meticulous style (with varying results).
The photo on the bottom left is the manor and the photo on the bottom right is me as a kid painting.
This is PopBot from my digital sketchbook; created in Illustrator and Photoshop. I wanted to work with simple shapes and areas of flat color.