Today I drew for a family reunion for a couple of hours.
Here’s a commissioned gift caricature done for the fine folks at Rolls Royce, Indianapolis. One of their engineers was going home to England, specifically, Derby.
I’ve been watching Star Trek since the 60s. Seen every episode of every series and every film multiple times. When it became known that J.J. Abrams was going to “reboot” the franchise by redoing the Kirk/Spock/McCoy era I was not pleased. But then I was not pleased when ENTERPRISE came on trying to do a prequel to the original series. (I won’t go into how many ways they messed that up!) Also realizing that the last few films utilizing the Next Generation cast fell short in both creative and box office results I decided I would wait and try not to pre-judge this new attempt. We saw it Saturday in a small theater that was nearly full at 10:30 AM. (And as an aside from someone who knows Star Trek like a lot of younger Jedi-wannabees know Star Wars I can tell you that the best Star Trek has always been their alternate universe/timeline stories of which this movie is the latest.)
I liked it.
When you boil it down to essentials that’s all that matters, I
enjoyed the movie and may even pay to see it again – before the DVD
release, which I may also buy.
I won’t go into a detailed breakdown of the film since, as I write
this, it’s still the movie’s first weekend and I don’t want to spoil it
for anyone who has not as yet seen it.
I will however go into a few points of relief and very slight irritations;
I liked all the new cast.
Scotty was always my favorite character in
the original series and even though Simon Pegg looks significantly different than James Doohan I really enjoyed his portrayal and will
look forward to seeing more of him in the next film, if that happens.
(More Scotty, that is – I’m sure there will be a new ST 2)
Karl Urban is a great new Bones and I
really admire how the writers gave us McCoy’s backstory in one clear,
concise passage of dialogue as he and Kirk met one another.
I was really hoping the Corvette in the
Chasm scene from the trailer was one of those sequences that was shot
for the trailer and would not be in the film.
In the trailer I was irritated by seeing
the Enterprise being built planetside. The design of the ship just
isn’t aerodynamic enough to get into orbit, but the scene passed so
quickly in the movie that it didn’t bother me so much. I was already on
board by then.
I was really pleased to see that this was
not Kirk and Uhura as I had inferred from the trailer. The relationship
they give Uhura is sufficiently weird but not as weird as this would
have been.
I’m not going to overthink this movie experience. I realize that for a film to succeed in the mass market today it has to move fast, be thrilling and funny and blow up lots of things. I’ve read internet complaints that there is no substance to this movie, that it’s just a thrill ride. If I want more than that from Trek I’ll watch the new digitally enhanced DVD season sets of the original series I just bought. When I want a good thrill ride with old friends (with new faces) I’ll go back to see the new Star Trek film!
Another day at the Indianapolis Art Center, Sunday afternoon open model studio. Today was somewhat unusual in that for the first time in memory I completely ignored the model and didn’t even draw the other artists in the room. I knew who today’s model was and I knew I wasn’t all that interested in drawing him. Nothing at all against the model, he’s an excellent model, you’ve seen him on this blog many times. Many, many times. And while I acknowledge and understand the benefits gained by drawing from life, no matter how many times one has drawn the same person, there is always something new to see. And training the eye to accurately reproduce the distance between parts of the body, etc. to accomplish a pleasing result and a representational drawing or painting of the figure is invaluable.
Still, I ditched it today. But I didn’t ditch the class. I thought about it, but I didn’t. I took some photo reference of a British actor I’ve intended for a long time to caricature.
Why go to the class to do drawings I could have just as easily stayed home and done? For company. Social interaction. (On a limited scale, but that’s just me - I’m not that outgoing a person - never have been.) Many call it Fellowship. That’s a term that gets tossed out at church regularly. But I go to the IAC for my jolt of fellowship. In the general sense I get it from the 20+ other artists that sign up every session because we all share the love of drawing from life and the desire and need to hone our varying level of skills. More specifically I get it from another artist of similar desires and goals as mine. Scott Story is a comic book artist who publishes his Johnny Saturn comic on the web and as printed comics and graphic novels. When I’m sitting near Scott and I feel the need to lean over and whisper “I feel like I’m channeling Carmine Infantino today!” I don’t have to say anything else - he knows exactly what I’m talking about. He’s a little younger than me (but then these days I’m finding more people like that than the obverse!) but we share a common knowledge base of comics, films, TV and popular culture in general. We also share the knowledge of the pitfalls of being an artist. Today he asked me if I ever had days where I felt I just didn’t know how to draw. I responded with, “Not quite to that degree but I sometimes think of my ability to draw as a super power and there are days when I’m closer to the kryptonite!” Scott, and his lovely wife Benita, go to the Art Center on Sundays, and as long as he does and I can, I will.
Enough sentiment - this is Christopher Eccleston, the ninth Dr. Who.
Saturday evening I drew for two hours at a fund raiser in the downtown Westin Hotel.
This time I was invited to display my portrait and commission caricature work at a table where I was drawing the attendees.
I took my lovely wife and she took the photos allowing me a little more time to draw.
Thursday I was at the Indianapolis Convention Center drawing for Bucher & Christian in their booth along with Bob East. Thanks to Goofy Faces for booking me into this event.
I was pleased to be asked back to be a part of the second annual “Head to Toe” house party, this time put on to raise funds for breast cancer research (as well as to have a good time!).
This was an unusual booking in that a lot of the attendees had been there last year and gotten drawings of themselves, so this year the hostess suggested they bring photographs of others (people and pets) that they would like me to draw. Therefore I spent more time drawing from photographs than life. It allowed me to spend more time on each piece and gave me some interesting challenges (thanks Caidan!). When possible I photographed the photographs from which I was working, although for a few of these I was working from the back of digital cameras!
Guinea pigs, courtesy of Chef Caidan!
From the display on the back of a digital camera.
The hostess’ Papillon.
Today started out beautifully sunny and warm but by the time I went into the Art Center at 11:30 the sky was completely cloud-locked and by 1 we were listening to rain pound the roof with lots of thunder and lightning. Dirty weather didn’t affect the quality of the poses and the drawing.
A 15 minute pose, using the side of the large 2b lead to mass in the shapes using broad areas of tone.
Got the back but luckily the lighting provided a very interesting area of abdominal musculature that caught my interest.
Saturday I visited the local art supply store and bought a selection of thin line markers and a set of gray PITT brush markers. I used the grays to model the face, then added the bold outline. Paul McCall tries to do Adam Hughes, without the boobs and less than totally successful!
An early Easter party in the clubhouse of an apartment complex in South Indianapolis.
A short but busy booking Monday night at the Westin Hotel in downtown Indianapolis. There were 10 artists there drawing for a corporation annual meeting.
I know there are only nine pictured here. Karen Kovitch was also there but this was taken after all the people had been herded into their dinner and we were packing up. Karen is from Bloomington and had an hours drive to get home so she was already gone.
I don’t know about the others but I seemed to get mostly groups from 4 to 2.
In February I was contacted by Troyer Foods to do some studio caricatures and to draw at their next trade show in South Bend, IN. The studio caricatures would be displayed during the banquet and the trade show. The theme for the show was rodeo/old west, hence the WANTED poster format.
About a week after completing the WANTED posters and shipping them it was time to drive to South Bend for the live portion of the job. I drew Monday night at their banquet.
Then the next day at their trade show.
First class of a new session. A familiar model.
15 minutes, 2B lead.
25 minutes also 2B lead.
When my side of the room got the back I whipped out some clippings from my old celebrity morgue file which I brought for just such an eventuality.
They were calling him Obama-Spock after this drawing.
To much flash!
Our furnace went kablooey last night (actually the igniter module
finally died). We spent the night at a nearby hotel. I’m now waiting
for a repairman. This is what the well-dressed work-at-home artist
wears while trying to stave off frostbite!
The space heater is about 3 feet behind me. I feel like I’m on the terminator of the Mercury - hot on one side, frozen on the reverse. Can’t get a space heater under the desk, too many cords and cables.
At the Horse Track associated with the Indiana LIVE Casino in Shelbyville, IN.
Open studio drawing started up at the Indianapolis Art Center about 2 weeks ago. I scaled down from twice a week to just Sunday afternoons this time. Results to date.
It’s always a good idea to practice hands!
And, of course, I revert to type.
But then, next week, I snap back and pay attention to the model!
Don’t know why - I just decided not to tone the shadows, rather I lightly outlined them. To me it looks like a silver or chrome statue. But that’s just me!
Here’s a step-by-step of a fun commission I just finished. I won’t go into why but the gentleman who commissioned this job wanted his family drawn on donkeys. He specified 3 donkeys for five family members. So I drew up this first sketch.
When he saw this he said he wanted all the donkeys facing forward. I pointed out that that design would obscure most of the bodies of the kids. Turns out he was just trying to make it easier on me by limiting the number of donkeys. So I added a donkey. He also mentioned that he was a fireman and could I change the ball cap on his head to a fire fighter’s helmet. And the daughter had won some karate trophies so I switched her breaking boards to holding the trophies since I had good reference for them.
The basics of the family were approved so I started firming up the drawing on the donkeys. All this work was done in Corel Painter X using the largest WACOM Intous digital tablet. I use different line colors on separate layers to differentiate between stages of the sketches on into the finish.
Here’s the line work for the whole family. Each on their own layer.
The client was interested in getting a print twice the size that I am able to print on my Epson 2200 printer so I tried to work with a file that was 360 pixels per inch and 22″ x 34.” I knew I couldn’t work with the totality of a file that size so I split each donkey and rider(s) into separate files for inking and painting. But the larger file was not to be. As I was working on the mustache of the Dad I would draw 3 or 4 hairs and sit and wait until the computer caught up with me. I had to reduce the file size to my usual 11″ x 17.” But, I sent out a sample file (the Groomsmen project) to see how that standard size file would look doubled in size. It looks fine, no degradation of line or color.
These are two of the separate files.
After completing all the family members (after five tries to get the baby’s face right - the right photo reference finally arrived) and doing the beach background it was completed and the regular size print and CD were delivered.
The large print is in the works.
Be it Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanza, Festivus, Winter Solstice,
Clean Out
the Closets-mas
or whatever, here’s hoping it’s a great day!
