Happy Halloween!/Sketch-a-day 91

The Tell-Tale Heart WIP

So this was part 2 of the two day all nighter. I slept pretty good last night but I'm still all sorts of groggy. But after classes I did go to barnes and nobles, as tired as I was, and picked up this book called France 360. Totally awesome. Just plain amazing reference material. The pages open up into like 3 foot long panoramics. For the price it's so worth it. Here's a link to it. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/France-360/Jean-Taverne/e/9781435104730/

Back on track, here. I had to do an illustration on the Edgar Allen Poe's "Tell-tale Heart". Really fun assignment but I had a lot of issues getting it off of the back burner and working on it. It's kind of like the mongol piece, I had to edit it quite a bit to meet the deadline, can't miss those, and did the best I could, but this one in particular could use a few more hours, and I cropped off the bottom that sounded good until I drew it. So I'm declaring this a work in progress until i get around and fix a lot of the issues with it. Till then I gotta start cranking away on my Monkey tale I've touched on a few times, and get moving on a Tour de France illustration.

The Mongols.

So, it has indeed been awhile since I've updated. This is mostly due to craziness of my current schedule and not wasting a single scrap of free time I can scrounge up. This is part one of a two part all-nighter. Tomorrow calls for another complete finish. And maybe I'll be able to post it before I fall asleep.

Started this one about 6 p.m. with just a blue line drawing. About 10 hours of work here, and a lot of waiting time as the amount of layers in the file tried to murder my computer. I can't say I'm not pleased with how it turned out in the end, especially for something with such a last minute, nervous kind of deadline over my head. There's a lot I'd like to still do to it, but all of my other assignments are urging me onward. I over heard a senior my freshman year talking about how easy senior year is. I would like to punch him in the face.

Really, really hard.

Anyways, this one is about a battle that the mongols and the french templar knights had oh so long ago. The Templar knights were the only ones who really put up a good fight against the mongols. Plus, Templars are o.k. guys.

Photoshop over Blue Line Drawing 9"x18"

Sketch-a-day 89 90/ 1 Hour Time Limit

Hope blogger doesn't shrink these down.

What we have here are two quick characters from tonight. Technically it's only one sketch-a-day, but I'm so far behind it's embarrassing. Anyways, I challenged a friend online to a photoshop character battle of sorts pretty randomly. Rules were you had one hour to do each character, and then you had to show what you had at one hour. I'm pretty rusty on digital painting I feel like, so I chose greyscale to go a little easier on myself. So here are two "Timed Photoshop Battles". Really hope to do a lot more of these with friends. Just so much fun to do.

Categories are as listed next to the character. I included details, because, I like it when other bloggers post details.

Sketch-a-day 88

Before I get into all my work tonight I decided to fix up this sketch I doodled out in classes today. A potential boxer project is coming up and I was just having some fun with it.

Another weird thing today, I finished up registering for my last semester at CCAD. Feels good. Here's hoping to at least some mild success in the illustration world.

"Wet" "Willy"

So this was a really fun, quick assignment. Goal was to pump out an illustration based on two words, mine were "wet" and "willy". This one started off really scary. The previous night I skipped, what I assumed to be a work day, due to being up for over 24 hours. I took a nap, that turned into impossible to get off of couch disaster. I went into sleep coma, and didn't even get the text from a buddy telling me to get to class and get my words.

It was a great sleep.

So the next day I go into class, a six hour studio class with C.F. Payne. I took everything I could carry, supply wise, as I had no idea what were words were gonna be. Everyone else was given their words and allowed to do research, take reference, along with any and all preliminary work short of working on it once it was down on board. I get to class. No Payne. Panic sets in as everyone else is working, and I really start to feel antsy. It wasn't until an hour later that I had my words. To compound my problems I settled on acrylic and color pencil, a combination I have never truly worked in, and I was utilizing a 2 year old piece of cold press illustration board I had sitting in my closet.

How I pulled this out of my butt, and why it went so smoothly I'll never know, but if I had to guess it would probably have been that nap. It's not perfect but it was done from start to finish in under 5 hours.

Acrylic and Colored Pencil on Cold Press Illustration Board 8"x8"

Type Treatment and Layout for The Undertaker.

This is the second part of the assignment for the "Professions" piece. I was on a crazy deadline for this, and as a result this was done during a completely sleepless time, therefore making me like it even more. I had to do a bunch of self branding due at 8:00 in the morning and this was due at 12:30. So I stayed up all night and did this directly over the text I drew out, just pushing and pulling at it until I got this kind of barely readable but fun thing happening. I wanted something pretty different, rooty, and dirty for it.

Also finished a mini piece I'll post later tonight for the word's "Wet" and "Willy". See ya then.

The Hyena General

This is what happens when I have a short amount of time to do an assignment, and it comes up suddenly on the horizon. Does feel good to have the urge to do a Hyena out of my system.

Mixed Media on Wood Board, Digital 8"x 6"

Sketch-a-day 86 87

Two sketch-a-days from two pages I really like at the moment. First half is a quick life drawing from my Professional Practices class. Maybe 10 minutes of quick drawing or so. Then for the second half of that page instead of doing more life drawing like I should have done, I drew those pirates in some sort of a hostage situation with some sketchy pirate language.

After I ate a bit in class I started the second page after I again asked Alex Lyon for an idea of what to draw and he said: "Titanic Mechanic" which boiled down to guy wit a wrench after I realized I knew nothing about Titanic's mechanics. And lastly, some quick studies for an upcoming Tell-Tale Heart Illustration.

The Undertaker: Is Ready to Under Take

Wrapped up on "The Undertaker" art today. The story here is that he's leading a parade of the dead. I have more textures in this thing than I have ever used on anything else before it. I'm sure you can tell. Definitely a fun one.

Next big assignment is to illustrate an edgar allan poe story. Still flip flopping on what exact story to do but that should be a fun one.

In other news I'm embarking upon an older movies marathon of sorts. Whenever I can, I'm gonna squeeze in my favorites. I just finished "The Great Escape" and I think I'm feeling like "Jeremiah Johnson" to usher in the cold whether. The majority is totally going to turn out to be Steve McQueen movies, but the dude is awesome.

Edit: Toned down the blacks into something more manageable and easier on the eyes.