Outline

Here is something new I’ve been working on this week. The outline was done with Adobe Illustrator. It started out as a life drawing sketch, a few weeks ago.

I have been working with a group of artists in Los Gatos, sketching live models. I use a pen tablet and software. Lately, my drawings have been getting more abstract.

Sketch

Footnote: I’m on the road. This is being posted WiFi from a hotel room in Los Angeles.

February 9, 2009 #1

These are from a life drawing class, yesterday. They are very spontaneous and I am putting them up because I think they show a change in direction.

February 9, 2009 #3

January 12, 2009 Los Gatos, CA

January 12, 2009 Los Gatos, CA

Some painting from earlier this week. Software and stylus instead of pencil and paper.

August 4, 2008

August 4, 2008

Album 1

This is a collection of drawings done in one session with a particular model. You can leaf through and see various poses. I liked one of the sketches, and did a little more with it.

Digital+Painting

Layers

You have a wide range of tools available to you as a digital artist. I find that various software applications have their own strengths. The sketches were done with Painter. I drew the black outline using Illustrator, because I like the way the calligraphic brush dynamically cleans up my strokes. When you’re working with layers, Photoshop is a great compositing application. You can do color correction, or add a surface texture, as I’ve done here.

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»Zoom this

If you really want to amp up your Photoshop skills, then work through Derek Lea’s June 2008 cover article for Photoshop User magazine. He uses a layered, compositing approach to digital illustrating that produces really impressive results.

Derek’s Blog “There are times when I’m working that I feel like I’m getting away with something. How is it that I can try something cool, have it published, and get paid? I have no idea, but I got away with it again.”

Desktop wallpaper

Here I am working with my own source material, as I try out the techniques. You can zoom my artwork to see the whole thing. Here’s what it looks like on a computer desktop.

Zazzy

I called this one jazzy because it reminded me of Matisse. It started out as a live sketch, that really celebrated the female figure, without being too overtly sexual.

Sketch – Los Gatos, 11-Feb-08

Flirt view 1

Since I have not been to a live sketching class in a few months, I thought it time to take what I have learned, and apply it back to the computer. Specifically, a computer program might start you off with a rigid and perfectly formed "model," but it will take some doing to achieve a naturalistic pose.

Flirt view 2

Yes, but is it sexy? That shadow across the back is not something you’d normally see in a photograph, but our computer model is trapped in 3D space, and the software renders it nicely.

Flirt view 3

There is no escaping the mannequin-like appearance from this view. On the other hand, a live model will almost never look a sketch artist straight in the eye.

Los Gatos. Six minute pose. 26-Feb-2007

A 3D femail figure in self-defense stance

This is a Poser project I was working on before I got too involved with the site re-design. I think the virtual muscular structure is pretty good, but there are obvious contortions when the figure does something athletic. In the spirit of this blog, I’m posting it now, as-is.

Hand with leopard skin texture

Note the animal skin and claw-like hand. Science has been talking about the possibility of “designer babies” in the near future, through genetic manipulation. What I am curious about is whether people will do the kind of genetic cross-breeding depicted here, as a fashion statement.