Be An Artist

Take a little time to draw something yourself while you're here. I've added an online painting widget to my blog (On your right, just below "About Me."). I found it on Widgetbox. You can draw, paint and save your masterpiece. Then you can print, link or embed it on your own blog, website or social networking page for all the world to see and critique!

Have fun!

Link: http://offtype.net/image_4917854348564.gif.html

Calibration

Sometimes you discover that you're not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Today was one of those times for me.

My primary monitor died on a me a while ago. I've been using a smaller, spare monitor since then. Shortly after switching monitors, I began to notice that the colors in my digital paintings that I was seeing on the new monitor was not translating well when viewed on other monitors. It was especially noticeable with the darks. I chalked that up to the spare monitor not being as good as my old monitor and tried to work around it by using different color palettes.

It struck me today, I had been so bummed after losing my good monitor, that I had forgotten to calibrate the spare! A few minutes of testing and a custom scheme later, the problem was solved.

More often than not, I've found its the little things that get you!

Portraits

Of all of the things that I draw or paint, I think portraiture is my favorite. I enjoy the nuances of the face. I tend to gravitate mostly towards females, but I'll use a guy as subject every now and then. I'm not wedded to any particular style or genre. I'll do realistic, fantasy, cartoon and the occasional manga inspired portraits. There are several artists who I feel have influenced or inspired my work, but I think I'll save the "who and why" for future posts.

The first painting, "Karyn," is an older piece, done in 2002, and one of my favorites. I remember refering to a tutorial by Roberto Campus as I was painting it.

The next painting, "Marilyn," was painted in 2007. I was trying as much to capture the "essence" as I was the likeness.

The Wolverine piece is basically a study in light and shadow. It was done in early '08. The grayscale piece, also from early 2008, was a study to see how much information I could convey by using less detail.

Comics

A while ago, I was asked to come up with a comic for possible publication within a monthly magazine. I had about a week to go from a blank page to a fully realized strip with sample art. It didn't get picked up, but it was a great experience to focus my creativity in such a way.

I initially thought about doing the comic in a tradition line art style, but decided to go in a painted, illustration style (Kind of a poor man's Norman Rockwell sort of thing.).

The working title for the strip was called "Patents Pending." Here is one of the sample gags.

Drawing Day 2008 - Drawings 2

Digital pencil and eraser.
Created for Drawing Day 08 - http://www.drawingday.org

Drawing Day 2008 - Drawings

Created for Drawing Day - www.drawingday.org
My first drawing of the day, a cartoon pencil.

Unfinished Works

Like many artists, I have a boatload of unfinished works. I'll start working on a piece and slowly lose the enthusiasm that I initially had. I've decided to go back and finish some the better pieces. My goal is to finish two paintings per month from the "abandoned" pile. I'm setting my first goals low so that I'll have a better chance of success and to give myself a chance to get into this new routine. I hope that consistent effort in this endeavor will decrease the number of pieces that end up as unfinished, increase the number of finished work and help me to maintain focus.

This is the first painting from the pile that I plan on tackling.