Sketch Bomb. Wherein I Show Art and Muse

The past week or so has been filled with sketches and ideas.  I’m still trying to improve my skills, and that means drawing as much as possible.  Unfortunately, there’s always the interwebs, and that means distractions galore.  I spend a lot of time on Etsy, the Regretsy forums, miniature wargaming websites like Privateer Press, and illustration/art blogs.  However, I still have some images to show in today’s post.

I’m finding that I can get a little bit more work done when I’m away from my laptop altogether, and so I’ve occasionally been heading to Panera Bread in the early mornings to grab some coffee and sketch.  My wife often works an early shift, which means I can be at Panera from about 6:30 to 8:30 or 9am, when I catch public transit back home.  Panera Bread is a great venue, because they allow free refills on their coffee, and a small coffee is less than two dollars.  I’ll grab a coffee and then drink maybe 2 or 3 cups total over the time I’m there.  Not too bad, and right now it’s the only little pleasure I’m allowing myself when it comes to treats.  I know a lot of people grab coffee/lattes every day before work, which seems like a crazy amount of money to me, but I feel like $2 every week or so is worth the quiet sketching time.

What I’m currently working on is a storyboard for an idea I had regarding dwarves.  I have a few small thumbnail sketches worked out, and those will be posted below.  I’m playing with the idea of a greedy, out-for-gain group of dwarves holding a town hostage by blocking off the only exit roads.  It’s just a basic idea for now, but I’d love to explore it some more.  I’m not sure what direction I’ll take the final pieces in.  Karl Kerschl does a webcomic called The Abominable Charles Christopher, and he inks his works and then adds grey toned washes in Photoshop.  I lack Photoshop or a scanner, so I may have to do everything on paper.  We’ll see.

For my Etsy, I’m toying with the idea of doing some Halloween-themed items.  Unfortunately, everybody and their grandmother is jumping on the same scheme… which means it might be hard to jump out of the pack and get noticed regardless of what I do.  I did get a bat in a creepy mask painted up, and that will probably get photographed today.  I also have another small crooked house in the works, with a new roof design that I managed to stumble across on Pinterest, on a kid-sized gnome house.  I’m going to paint it up in fairy/dark colors and list it soon as well.  The hand-cut tiles look really great on it.

And now…. pictures!  Enjoy.  :)

Dragon*Con Musings: Pre-convention Thoughts

I’m not sure I’ll be able to attend Dragon*Con this year – I’ve been wanting to go for a really long time, but have never been able to make it to Atlanta to attend.  This year, when I’m actually living in Atlanta, I can’t afford to go.  Oh, life.

I’m glad that the convention happens here, because from everything I hear it is one of the biggest, best, most incredible conventions for gaming, fantasy, sci-fi, etc that you could imagine.  Thousands of people flock to Atlanta every year just for a chance to attend Dragon*con, and who can blame them?  I have heard from some friends of my wife’s that they attend every year and just walk around in costume to see everything and everyone.  I’m not sure they even buy tickets or passes.  If that’s the case, I may try something similar, and attend without attending anything.

I feel that a lot of the products I make for my Etsy store would work really well for convention attendees – particularly the dice bags.  I make each one with a belt loop, so that you can carry them around without having to hold them or store them in other bags/pouches.  The double drawstring lends itself to a tight closure, which I feel is important – it not only keeps your dice safe, but also your other small change and loose items.  I have a variety of colors, but would be very open to custom choices – just talk to me!  If anyone is interested, email me at greylikestorms(at)gmail.com or convo me on Etsy to discuss other fabrics.  It’s not too late to get your stuff in time for Dragon*con, and I’m always happy to use a faster service than USPS.

I’ve also got a costume shirt listed that I feel is timeless enough to work for a variety of costumes, ranging from the late Renaissance to the early 20th century.  Steampunk, anyone?

For the curious, my Etsy store can be found at:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/greyedout

A Mixed Stew

The last few days have been busy; my wife had a four day weekend off at work, so we spent as much time together as we possibly could.  On Wednesday we picked up some farm fresh milk and pastured eggs, and on Saturday we attended the Sandy Springs Farmer’s Market.  The market runs every Saturday from 8:30 to 12:30, and is located in the parking lot of an old closed Target on Roswell Road.

It was pretty great to see everyone out and about even though the day started off rainy and overcast.  Thankfully, the temperatures were down, and walking around outside was comfortable.  This was my first farmer’s market experience, and I enjoyed seeing the variety of vegetables and products on sale here.  We picked up a bunch of the best peaches I’ve ever had, some giant zucchini, some leafy greens, and a pastured chicken that will become dinner for us tomorrow night.

The Sandy Springs Farmer’s Market website:  http://www.sandyspringsfarmersmarket.com/index.html

After reading several books on real food we’ve been trying to adjust our diets to that lifestyle – eating vegetables that are in season and organically grown, getting pastured eggs when we can, and going for grass-fed meats.  That’s meant a lot of salads over the past week , which, it turns out, isn’t that bad.  I’ve been making a great salad dressing that’s tasty and simple all rolled into one.  There isn’t even any measuring involved!

Simple and Tasty Dressing:

olive oil

white wine vinegar

spices to season

honey

mustard

Take a bowl and add a splash of the vinegar and olive oil.  I think a 1:2  vinegar to oil ratio will probably work best.  Try to go for enough liquid to coat the salad leaves, but not leave a pool of dressing when you’re done with the salad.  Season to taste with salt, pepper, etc – dill works well – and add a tablespoon each of honey and mustard(Dijon works really well).  Take a whisk and whisk your dressing until everything has been incorporated into one smooth liquid.  Add your salad leaves to the bowl and toss until the greens are coated well.  This dressing depends a lot on personal taste, so feel free to experiment with the best ratios for everything.  

On the illustration front I’ve been doing more anatomy studies – I inked a pig’s skull and a bear’s skull from the Cyclopedia Anatomicae, and both turned out well for first attempts.  I did them in my Moleskine, which I’m finding works very well for these inked sketches.

Considering New Directions

This should be subtitled “An Introspective”.

The past few months I’ve been listening to many episodes of the Drawn Today and W.I.P. podcasts, both of which are focused on fantasy and sci-fi illustration and narrated by groups of illustrators themselves.  I’ve always been partial to podcasts while I paint or sketch, rather than music.  It’s one of the few times that I can listen to something and absorb the material without being distracted.

Recently I’ve been considering making an attempt to become an illustrator, and by recently I mean over the last few weeks is when I started considering it.  Giving it thought.  Analyzing, very loosely, some of the pros and cons.  I graduated with a degree in technical theatre with a costume design emphasis, and while I didn’t get a fabulous grounding in the arts, I feel as if I’m at least a small step ahead of the curve thanks to costume and theatre design courses I’ve taken, and sketches I’ve had to do for projects.  I’m not nearly as well-versed in the art techniques as someone who solely focused on getting a fine arts degree, but I’m willing to learn.  I also believe that I can work on costume design and improve my costume illustration skills at the same time as non-costume illustration.  After all, says my brain, costume design feeds into fantasy illustration, and my progress toward freelance illustration work certainly would benefit from costume design opportunities.

I talked with Kathryn about the idea the other day, and she agrees that there are many ways that the two careers can go hand in hand.  I’m glad I have her support in this.  It’s not going to an easy road, but I believe that hard work will pay off, and that art and illustration is a skill that can be learned.  From reading the Drawn Today, W.I.P, and Muddy Colors blogs, I’m noticing a trend – that inspiration is everywhere, and that reference is OK.  I do need to work on drawing more, every day regardless of whether I’m feeling inspired or blah or under the weather.  I won’t improve if I don’t. And the number of subjects that I need to work on improving is almost mindboggling.  But at least I’m aware of that.

I’m going to be trying to update this blog more regularly, and even if I’m not able to post about cool places to be in Atlanta at least I’ll be trying to do some art posts every week.  I don’t own a scanner, so for now I’m taking pictures of my sketches with my wife’s DSLR.  You’ll be able to get an idea of where I’m going and how I’m progressing, and what techniques I’m working on.

A few examples of recent sketch work.  I’ve got a long way to go… but it should be a fun trip.

And a small painting of the skeletal hand that I did today:

A Bit of Whimsy

I’m not usually one to call out other people, but I found a few awesome things tonight, so I thought I would share before bedtime.

The first is a shop filled with magic, art, and whimsy.  You should all check it out.  It’s called Art by Kristin Kemper, and can be found here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Kecky?ref=pr_shop_more

The second is a shop focused on spiders, spiderwebs, and other little creatures that crawl.  It’s called SpiderwoodHollow, and it’s all about the arachnids.  Take a look here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SpiderwoodHollow

That’s pretty much it for today.  I finished another drawstring bag, this time created from a fabric with keys printed all over it.  Also, I plan to draw more(again), since I need to catch up on my drawing and want to improve my skills.  I recently stumbled across an artist’s Tumblr post, in which he states several important things that he wishes had been taught in art school.  One of the tenets was “Draw awesome stuff and put it on the internet.”  I think I’m going to try and strive for that… and with daily sketching/drawing, I should see improvement, and so will you(if you keep reading my blog, that is).  I’m going to try to draw every day, snap a quick picture or two of my sketches(no scanner, alas), and post them here and on my Tumblr.  Which can be found at thekiltedgerman.tumblr.com

Here is that drawstring bag with keys that  I mentioned above.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/74678012/the-key-drawstring-bag-by-greyedout

Thoughts from Places: Piedmont Park

On Tuesday I took a trip via MARTA and headed downtown to a place called Piedmont Park.  It was cold, and windy, and wearing my kilt probably wasn’t the best idea in the world.  The trip to get there isn’t fast, but it’s relatively easy once you know your way around downtown Atlanta.  The MARTA station is very close to the theatre district, and the Woodruff Arts Center and the High Museum of Art are also close.

All in all I had perhaps an hour at the park, and I didn’t get to explore all of it.  We had a cold front the past few days, and the day I chose to adventure in the park it was probably around 60* F, windy, and chilly.  It looks like a great place to walk and run, and they also have some baseball and soccer fields, from what I saw.  I strolled for about twenty minutes, and then found a park bench so I could sit and write for a bit longer, before I had to find my way back to the train station to make my way home.

The park looks large on the map, but that could be deceiving – one runner passed me several times as I sat and wrote.  It was a fun trip, and I’ll probably go back a few times when the weather is warmer again.

I’ve also decided to start drawing again, because I need to in order to improve.  I’m calling it a Drawn365, a drawing(or more) per day, and I’m going to try to upload them here.  They will probably also show up on my Tumblr, thekiltedgerman.tumblr.com  - so keep an eye out.  I’m interested in seeing the improvement over time.  Here is the first sketch, based off an old man’s picture.

Free Comic Book Day 2011

Yesterday was Free Comic Book Day.  For those who may never have heard of it, Free Comic Book Day is an event that many of the comic publishing companies and comic shops around the world participate in.  It’s intended to introduce new people to the world of comics, as well as bring new material to current comic book readers.  Many artists put out special FCBD editions of their work, in smaller, “sampler” formats.  I think it’s  a great idea, and I had been wanting to attend a FCBD for many years now, but had never had the chance because my Saturdays were usually busy.

Yesterday morning, Kathryn and I headed out to find our local comic shop, down Roswell Road.  Roswell is one of the roads that seems to pass through 90% of Atlanta, and it runs from up in Roswell all the way down to somewhere in the southern parts of the city.  The shop that we ventured out to find is called Teahouse Comics.  We found the shop after a little bit of difficulty in trying to figure out how to reach the shopping center that it’s located in, and arrived just a few minutes after they opened at 10am.

A note on Teahouse Comics:  it’s pretty awesome.  The employees were all super friendly and welcoming and excited to be part of FCBD, and the store was clean and well-lit and well stocked.  Definitely impressive.  I wanted to go mainly for the FCBD Mouse Guard edition, which I snagged shortly after coming in.  The shop was still pretty empty, which was nice, and they also had a sale going on for 20% off graphic novels, 30% off back issues, and so on.  Kathryn and I got our free comics, and she picked up Sandman volume 4.  I also grabbed issue #1 of the Mouse Guard: Black Axe series, which I had been looking forward to for ages.

Then, after checkout, we learned that comic shops are dangerous places for Kathryn.  She had spotted an Absolute Sandman: Death volume on the top shelf in the shop.  I haven’t had a chance to read Neil Gaiman’s Sandman yet, but I hear nothing but praise for it.  The Absolute volumes are normally $99, but the 20% discount applied, so after tax it came out to $85 – too good a deal to pass up.  Both Kathryn and I are highly in favor of supporting local shops whenever possible, so we both felt that it was a pretty good bargain.  That’s one of the reasons I always try to support the local game store, even if I’m just buying a coffee or a few vitamin waters on Warmachine night.

We headed home, both satisfied after our comic shop adventure.  I know that if I get the chance I’ll be frequenting Teahouse Comics again, and even though the chance of someone from there reading this entry is probably pretty slim, I want to say thanks for a great experience.  Customer service and friendly employees are important, and I couldn’t have been more pleased.

The Haul