gasping... but not depleted totally...

I had to throw this down on paper before I hit the sack. The thumbnail/gesture plan is on the left, to kind of entrench what the figure is in my head, whilst the figure on the left is a bigger idea of what I wanted. I sort of leave it open as I don't like to be too concrete and rigid, or else I won't add things that may add to the piece and therefore, may leave it pretty stale and rigid.

At least for me...

I've been obsessed with the face, so I draw as many bits of it as possible, kind of systematically putting together puzzle pieces.

Then I do the mouth, because it fits with the chin and the face.


To round it all off, I do a general figure study or compilation to make sure I'm getting the anatomy down pat. I haven't felt at the moment right now to make a 'big' picture, since I'm data mining features.

More gemmage.

>
Another study in a certain style for a ruby.

I decided to expand upon it, since I felt confident enough to try another gem that was NOT in the study and do it in the style of the other studies I've done.




As you can see the reference is a bit hazy, however, I did clarify and darken the study image.

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. Other than working on some in-depth studies, I've just been fighting some fatigue. The flu's been going around and I hope that it's just general tiredness than anything else.


Did some studies, I seem to get the mouth and nose just right at the moment. What I mean by that is I draw it, then it seems to come together right, instead of some off-kilter wierdness that makes me go, "Huh?"



Did a cartoon study of me. I've been experimenting to kind of simplify my facial features, but NOT anime. However, I like how this is going.


Another drawing put together from parts of people I observe.

I've been feeling a tad under the weather the last couple of days, so that is why I haven't been posting much . What I hate about being sick is that I just feel tired for a period of time, but I'm not sure that it could be just work or just I need to go and get things set by my massage. It could very well be either of those things, but instead when it happens it happens. So, I took some oscillococcinum and boy that was good. Even though I'm not at 100%, I'm close to 89-90% back to par. However, I guess what kind of is a kicker is when my drawing fragments and nothing is coming together even though I've done it successfully before. I should see that coming so that I can take the necessary precautions. I hate being sick.

So it came together anyway. :D

PS: Oscillococcinum tastes like sprinkles, but they dissolve real fast though.

Here are a few sketches I like to do just to see how my grasp of anatomy has gotten.

Not too bad, at least I see improvement on how stuff, "fits" together.

I did a couple of self-portraits last night. I would say things are coming together as I was just tired.

I seem to be tired, then energetic going mad, then tired-per week.

It's a happy cycle. :D

I guess I used to be so worried about fitting stuff together, that it would mess me up. Well, I'm not so worried as I just have it is something that I need to do if I can today. And you know, it seems that it gives me the best work.

Today, I was obsessed with noses.

Sometimes when I behold a certain body part, even though it seems simple enough, the fact is that you have to draw the shape around it sometimes in order to get it right. If you notice with mouths, they are surrounded by muscle and just skin. This may sound redundant, but I found today that if I draw a circle around the intended mouth, then I can mirror the shape inside and it will look right.

I especially like the one of the infant, the other one in pen was to just see how I could line things. Also, I liked how the placement of the chin muscles would work as well.


I started today also drawing young women. Every person has a stage in life where the look differs, but the person is still recognizable. Plus, I wanted to get the expressions down as well. The eyes were kind of my bane as well.


Another challenging aspect is faceted gemstones. You may think that they are all geometric and such, but to be honest, there are two things complicating it. Both of them pretain to the aspect that the item itself is faceted. First of all, you have to see how the colors bend and such, and sometimes the discernable pattern is not really there. Secondly, they're faceted and displayed as such to show bright points. But oh my lord, what bright points they are, plus varying other colors, AND you got to keep them crisp.

Aye yi yi. My brain is so tired. XD

Sorry for the delay in pictures, but Google has been having server errors for some reason. I've been trying to contact them directly, but it's taking its time. However, I've joined Conceptart.org and established a sketchbook there along with crits and such. I'll provide the links and I'll try to update as soon as I can.

Grrrr....

Sorry I can't post right now. I'll try later.

Blogger/Google is experiencing a server error. Argh.

apologies.

I didn’t post yesterday due to the fact that the whole block had lost power from the early evening till sometime during the night when I was well asleep. I’m making it up for now and hopefully will essentially ‘double post’ (Hahahahaha) when I am able.

I can’t believe how much GDC made me tired. It was kind of a sloggy fatigue where I was fighting off just general weariness, of which puzzled me, since I’m not the hard-partying type and I do try to get in 7.5-8hours within my day.

BUT. It seems that one of the banes I have to contend with is Photoshop.

I drew an initial study of Cleo here, a preliminary to flesh out an idea and I wanted crisp, clean lines. What drives me nuts is that Photoshop, especially CS3 loves to anti-alias virtually everything in the world until I want to scream. (I know it’s always done that, but I wish there was a centralized point in the General Options/Preferences where you could set a blanket settings and maybe tweak one or two of the Tools.) Also, I’m messed around with brush hardness with the basic default brushes, but no go in the Pen tool function. One of my friends that gets the crisp lines suggests that I start off in Illustrator and import. I may try that, but I shall continue on in my research to find the crisp line. I feel like I’m on a religious quest of something…

I guess kind of like Caine in Kung Fu, except it feels more like ‘Boot to the Head’ at times.

Well, good thing is that I’m over my fatigue, I’ve been drawing in earnest again. I’m getting rather obsessed with feet and legs, but still working on hands and arms.

I wonder if Michelangeo was like this? He was certainly hardcore, so was Vincent van Gough. I can sort of relate to them in personalities as well. Nah, I’m not saying I’m just like them, because they have reached a level I one day hope to attain. I guess I sort of need to inherit more of their ‘madness’ of sorts.

I did draw a kitty, to kind of loosen it up for a bit. I think I’ll color him. I don’t know I felt sort of contented when I drew that. Maybe I’ll experiment with the lines in Illustrator.

Wow, looking back, I still have more work to do, but I’m looking really forward to it. I think you learn focus is not single-minded but a sort of an all-inclusive feeling towards a goal and staying on track does not mean immovable rigidity. That will make you die in creating and make the whole workload more galling and burdensome. You just have to let it go. The zen and religious masters had it man, just let it work and let yourself go.

Basically, don’t forget why you started in the first place. I think it sort of started where I liked to do it. I forgot it along the way and it clammed me up. I was in haste to ‘get it done’ rather than take my time and learn.

Here are some of the different styles I've been experimenting on. Even though I'm happy how these are going, I must push myself more and more to be better and better.

After my nap. :)

One of the things I have been doing when I've been working on a project, is that sometimes I put on a track and just listen to it. I guess if I'm contemplatively melancholic or melancholically contemplative, or it just speaks to me. Sometimes I put several to mostly one on repeat.

I just switch to another gear and do abstract stuff like this. It's to sort of clear the air in my head to give the other bit a rest. It's sort of cool not knowing when it comes out.