Sunday, October 26, 2014

Week 9 - Art

Title: Windrunner
Size: 8 and 1/2 by 11 inches
This piece portrays my attempts to recreate the style of William Joyce while illustrating one of my favorite books (Words of Radiance).

For this week's drawing, I was supposed to draw something from my imagination. At first I thought that was overly vague, but it allows quite a bit of freedom. The problem was trying to decide exactly what from my imagination I wanted to draw. I finally decided on Kaladin and Syl. (I think I probably illustrate them too much). 

It occurred to me last week that there were quite a few parallels between Kaladin and Nightlight (from Guardians of Childhood), and so I decided to try illustrating Kal after the style of William Joyce. So Kaladin is drawn like Nightlight and Syl is drawn like the moonbeam.

I'm really happy with how they turned out! It was super fun to try and get the right blend between looking like either character. Also, the moonbeam's swirls of star dust translated quite nicely into a skirt, although drawing them was an interesting challenge. ;)

Overall, I think this picture was a success. I think that later, if I have time, I'd like to go back and add a background, but for right now, I'm pretty happy with this piece.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Week 8 - Art (Part 2)


Title: One Point For You If You Can Guess What I Love
Size: 8 and 1/2 by 5 inches
This piece portrays how receding lines can be used in a one point perspective drawing.

Oh, I haven't done one point perspective in so long! Coming back to it feels like returning to a sport you haven't played in a while, and you just have to stretch and start playing. It really was fun to try and get all the letters to line up just right. :D

I know that anything involving straight lines really isn't one of my strong points, but it was certainly an adventure to try and get things to still look like themselves while still following the rules of perspective. I think my shading certainly could have been smoother, but I figure this picture was for practicing perspective, not shading. ;)

Week 8 - Art

Title: Growing Cliffside
Size: 4 by 8 inches
This piece portrays a Chinese painting of trees and mountains.

I'm not quite sure how I like this piece. It was fun to try and draw someone else's style of drawing, but I feel that I didn't quite capture it completely. I like how the picture turned out looking slightly abstract, but I still think the lines should have been a bit... crisper.

Monday, October 13, 2014

Week 7 - Art (Part 2)

Title: A Swirl of Pits and Stacked Grass
Size: 17 inches in diameter
This piece portrays the unity of nature.

This piece was especially fun to make because of the movement the materials created (for me). I couldn't just pick up a pencil and go. If I wanted straight lines, I had to go look for lines, grab them, bring them back, and repeat when I didn't get enough. One of the things I love about doing 3-D art is that, when I finish, what I remember is the movements of making it. 


When I think about a drawing I've done, I remember using my pencil: drawing the outline, shading the edges, or something like that. But when I think about making, for example, a pile of grass, I think about about picking the grass, slipping the pieces on top of each other, and seeing what my stack looked like from inside. That's one thing that always makes me at least a little sad when I finish a 3-D piece. The inside is gone, lost from human eyes. The feel of wet clay or the the excitement of getting two pieces to balance just right without falling over is gone once the piece has been fired or immortalized by photograph. It sometimes feels almost like the life has been drained out of it.


Anyway, I'm pretty happy with how this ended up. I think it looks pretty good, if I may say so myself. Of course, my mind, sculptures are all about the movement of creating them, so I really don't ever know quite how to respond when I finish a piece. ("Do I just let it sit there? On the shelf? ...But can't I do somthing with it?"). ;)

Friday, October 10, 2014

Art - week 7


Title: Fruit from Shinovar
Size: 8 by 9 inches
This piece portrays the texture of a strawberry.

Here is half an hour's worth of staring at fruit. I wasn't sure if I could spend the whole half hour on a single strawberry, but I somehow managed it. Hooray! These guys have way more texture than I thought, so it was interesting to try and show the idea of a strawberry's texture without going through grid art style and making every square centimeter exact.

This actually turned out way better than I expected. I wasn't quite sure how well the texture would end up, but it actually looks like a strawberry. Who would've guessed? My one problem was that the strawberry I was drawing from was really narrow. You may wonder how that would affect the drawing, but because it's so narrow, it almost looks like the shadow is part of the fruit itself.

For anyone wondering about the title, it's in reference to the Stormlight Archive, where strawberries only grow in a distant country called Shinovar. It's a bit random, but I've been trying to make my titles less direct, so calling the piece "A Strawberry" seemed a bit too straightforward to me. ;)

Monday, October 6, 2014

Week 6 - Art (Part 2)

Title: Megumi Wiley, Owl and Moth Logo
Size: 5 and 1/2 by 8 and 1/2 inches
This piece portrays my attempts at trying to make a logo and use negative space.

I think this turned out better than expected, but I still feel like I could have done a bit better. I feel like I may have sacrificed a more easily read "M" for an owl head that looks more like an owl head and less like a "M" (And the face shape is reminiscent of Magneto's helmet. Is that just me?). And the moth! I don't feel like quite I did it justice. In my sketches, it looked both more a moth and an "i". Oh well... Overall, though, I think it came out fairly well. You can tell that it's an owl, and my "W" looks like a "W". Hooray for that, I guess. :)

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Week 6 - Art

Title: Thinking Back a Few Years
Size: 11 by 8 and 1/2 inches
This drawing portrays a bit of what my old house was like. I haven't lived there in... What, 6, 7 years now? Weird. This piece tries to capture a bit of what I remember about living there.

My first weekly drawing with color!

This one I just wanted to try and show what I remember (You can read my prewriting here), so I made the lines a bit rounder, more carefree, and not as exact and perfect as I would otherwise try to capture. Memories (at least mine), are never exact, so I tried to play with reality a bit in this piece. Then I added some crayon for flavor. I love working in crayon. For this piece I was just filling in a few shapes with color, but seriously guys, crayons are fantastic. Also, the quick, textured strokes of color add another dimension of childishness for me. I rather like the way this all came together. I was a bit unsure about the style, but I think it turned out fine. :)

Week 5 - Art (Part 2)

Title: Agents of Shield
Size: 16 by 6 and 3/4 inches
This piece portrays the cast of Marvel's Agents of Shield (well, all but Skye and Ward. They're a work in progress.)

I decided I should probably put this up, even though my artist senses are screaming "NO! It's not finished yet!" I figured it will probably take a while to finish, so I should just post what I do have. Here you go.

What you are looking at is the result of around 20 hours of work. I'm quite proud of it. My favorite is agent Simmons (on the far left). The sizing of this turned out really weird, so it's on two pieces of paper. That's why there's a big shadow before the last 3 columns...

Hopefully I will get the rest of this finished soon. :D