An Abundance of Ideas: Art Post with Inspiration

I’ve been absent for a few weeks, and they’ve been a bit busy.  The good news, though, is that I’ve been doing a lot of sketching.  That means that this is going to be largely a post consisting of iPhone pictures of those sketches, a bit of commentary, and a few bits of inspiration and what ifs.

I’ve been looking through my copy of Brian Froud’s Goblin Companion – a book that I’ve had for years and years now, but never really browsed through.  Some of the sketches below are inspired by Froud’s work from the Goblin book, or else they are copied from the book to try to improve my technique.  I’d like to think that I’m learning bits and bobs of technique from the books I’ve been looking over recently.

Several of the sketches are faces and costumes that I’ve done from memory, and yet others are inspired by the works of Justin Gerard(whom I mentioned in an earlier post).

Another great artist that I’ve just discovered is Paul Bonner, who does fantasy illustration of the best sort.  He just did a very long guest post on the Muddy Colors blog, describing his process on a wonderful painting that features dwarves and a great big upright beastie based loosely on a musk ox.

Direct link to the blog post here:  http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2011/09/guest-blogger-paul-bonner.html

And now the big bunch of sketches:

…uploading images to WordPress is a pain in the butt.  Anyone have a faster way to do it?  I hope everyone enjoys the art post… I’ll try to be back sooner next time, so that I don’t have to go through such a lengthy image-inserting process again.  Whew!

Gorey and Kenn; Line Art Inspires and Terrifies.

I have mentioned both Don Kenn and Edward Gorey on this blog before.  In today’s post, I thought I would share a few images from both artists that show the details that go into their art.  In my attempts to illustrate images inspired by these two artists, I’ve found that the intricately detailed line art is actually harder than it appears at first.  Your lines must have a consistency that fits with each other line on the page, while at the same time creating dimension, shadow, distance.  In short, the entire image is dependent on lines, instead of more conventional means of composition.

Gorey illustrated a number of children’s books that he authored himself; most are incredibly short and have been gathered into several collections, the best-known of which are probably Amphigorey and Amphigorey 2.  He passed away in 2000, and was, among other things, known for his fondness of cats and the New York Ballet; at one point in his life he attended every single performance of the ballet for several years.  He often wore heavy rings and fur coats, and was a bit eccentric.  The following images will hopefully showcase his art well.

 

Don Kenn is a Scandinavian artist who does most of his work on Post-it notes.  The illustrations largely represent hidden or not-so-hidden terrors near oblivious people.

 

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:

The Kilted Perspective

I touched on this a little bit in my first post, but I thought I would revisit the topic again briefly in today’s entry.  I’ve been wearing my kilt regularly for several months now, and it’s become another garment to wear, instead of something unusual to put on for special occasions.  I don’t feel odd about wearing it outside anymore.  I do still have days like today where it’s easier to put on a pair of pants.  But for the most part the kilt has become a part of my wardrobe.

I still get comments and questions about the kilt, which I don’t mind at all – I’ve found that I really like answering people’s questions.  I had a woman in Whole Foods ask me about irish stew and colcannon a few weeks ago.  I think she assumed that because I was wearing a kilt, I must be Irish/Scottish, and therefore know the particulars about that cuisine.  I answered as best I could, and I hope her irish stew turned out well.  A gentleman on the bus asked if I wear the kilt due to my religion.  And today someone suggested that I should be at the Georgia Renaissance Festival.

Every reaction I’ve had so far has been positive, except for the teenager months ago who yelled that I should go back to Scotland.  I like to think that by wearing the kilt and letting people ask questions I can improve their knowledge about the garment a little bit, and bring a better understanding of other cultures.

Utilikilt actually has a referral program that I’ve thought about joining, but the way their description is worded on the website makes it a little hard to understand exactly how it works.  From what I understand, if I refer someone to the website using a specific URL associated with me, and that person ends up buying a kilt, I get a certain commission off the sale.  Which might be worth it just to eventually acquire another utilikilt.  They’re incredibly comfortable, and even the Workman’s model that I have is wearable in summer heat.  I believe that the standard model is a slightly lighter fabric, with fewer pockets.  If I were to get another utilikilt, I’d be looking at both the Workman’s model and the standard model, which are both offered in a decent number of colors.

When I first saw the utilikilt online I thought it was interesting, and I did want to get one to try on, but I never imagined that I’d be practically living in it.  I can see why people like wearing non-pants garments – the extra air circulation definitely helps on warm days!  It’s much like wearing shorts, except that it’s a skirt.  For men.  A very manly skirt.  With rugged pleats and pockets.