Today I went electric at the open model session at the IAC. That is to say that I hauled in my laptop and a newly acquired used fairly old, but still serviceable (after I paid to have WACOM fix it) Cintiq to try some digital drawing/painting during the 3 hour session.
The five 2 minute warm-up poses.
A 15 minute pose, these are all done using Painter X (I tried Painter 11 with the software patch but it crashed before the poses ever started so I went back to the workhorse version 10).
25 minute pose. Using the oil paint brush and the blender brush.
Another 25 minute pose, same brushes.
A 20 minute pose, this time using the conte crayon brush and blender (I like the blender, it’s like finger painting without the mess!).
I had one more but I fell prey to the old overwriting plague. Lost my train of thought and just hit SAVE when I should have used SAVE AS and renamed it.
And of course me being me, for the last attempt I did a quick caricature of one of the artists across the room.
For the past few years I’ve been creating a calendar to send to some of my clients, family and friends. The clients get the version pictured below which is shamelessly self-promoting, including banner ads at the bottom of each month showing examples of the various work I do. (The family version has no ad banners but lists all the family birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) Knowing what I like in a calendar I designed this for maximum note taking space in each day block. It is printed on 12″ x 18″ sheets of 80 lb. white stock, printed, hole-punched, coil-bound and fitted with an aluminum bar hanger, personally bent to shape by yours truly. Very much hand-made from start to finish.
While I’m on the subject of calendars here are photos of a project I did this year, creating fun caricatures of fork-lift trucks for NMC, Nebraska Machinery Corporation.
Friday night I drew at a large holiday party in a private residence. This will be the last of the pre-Christmas parties mainly because I have stuff of my own to do to get ready for Christmas! Merry Christmas to everyone reading this, Here’s the photos;
This was a fun, somewhat challenging commission job. The challenge came in getting an adult head onto a baby body, inside a limo, with interstate signs and Chicago outside the car. Arranging all that material and still have the figure be the focus was the challenge. After I closed in the point of view to give the figure the dominant area it all fell into place. The golf bag and clubs were my idea to fill up the left side of the composition.
I did this one last year for the same client;
Tonight it was Commonwealth Biomonitoring, Inc. at the Propylaeum Tea Room in downtown Indianapolis.
Saturday night I drew for the Ambrose Property Group holiday party.
I’m a gold member of the ISCA (International Society of Caricature Artists) and on the forum there’s a thread where a member posts a celebrity name on their birthday and the members draw a caricature of that celeb. I don’t get to participate very often due to being busy but I wanted to make a special effort to do this actor whose work I like. We recently saw him in The Men Who Stare at Goats which was an enjoyable film.
Saturday night I drew for a couple of hours at a house party.
I haven’t posted anything I’ve done at the IAC Sunday sessions for awhile so here’s some things from last week and this week.
Tuesday I spent a great afternoon drawing at a trade show in the Indianapolis Convention Center for CertaPro Painters.
Last night I drew at the annual awards banquet of the Indiana Minority Supplier Development Council held in the Indiana Roof Ballroom. Here are some of the photos;
I spent a week in Sandusky, OH at the International Society of Caricature Artists, the ISCA. I didn’t take many photographs but many others did. Brian Vasilik, a very talented artist did a video walk through of the “big room” where we all drew, all week, some staying up all night most of the week. It was not uncommon after about Wednesday to find people asleep at, or under their tables, taking a rest from non-stop creativity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3D0oGigzIo
photo by Shay Glover
Sunday evening I drew for three hours at the Hyatt downtown for 1st Resources at the 2009 AgriBank Conference.
The Host, who didn’t get drawn last year, so I did him in color. The number of people signed up and the time I was booked necessitated only black line from here onward.
Tuesday I drew for five hours at the Troyer Food Trade Show at the Sports Center of the French Lick Resort.
Rarely do I refuse an opportunity of drawing a Superman suit!
Monday night I drew for the banquet sponsored by Troyer Foods held in French Lick, Indiana at the French Lick Resort.
(And I finally got my photo mojo back!)
Fifty years ago tonight the Twilight Zone debuted on CBS television.
One of the good things about Facebook is that it can be used to reconnect with people from your past. Ivan Woods was my best friend in high school. After high school we shared a trailer for awhile while we both attended Auburn University. After that staying in touch was sporadic. But thanks to Facebook we re-established communication. Today is his birthday. Happy 55th Ivan! I hope you are aging better than me!
Something different yesterday at the IAC open studio. One pose for the entire three hour session. Our model brought his complete Roman Legionnaire outfit? costume? uniform? Anyway, it’s real, as in real metal, leather etc. so we appreciated him wearing the thing for so long.
Scott Story was forthoughtful enough to have brought his camera so we got some reference photos in case we want to work further on this or take it into another piece.
I may take this to a full size oil if the time ever presents itself.
Friday night I drew for a Sweet Sixteen party in Noblesville, IN at a local park. Fortunately we were under a very nice shelter that had electric outlets since it was drizzling rain the entire time and the sun was down by quitting time. Unfortunately my “cunning plan” to solve my photography problems of the last few bookings were defeated by human error, that is, forgetting to turn the flash on to compensate for the encroaching darkness. Couple that with teenagers that, at the best of times, can’t be expected to sit perfectly still for a photograph then you get the increasingly crappy shots you will see below. Ah, well, maybe next weekend I’ll overcome my photographic shortcomings.
The grandparents, who showed wisdom by getting their drawings done early (photo-wise, at least!).
NOT a remake of “The Mask” just a teenager who can’t sit still!
The birthday girl in the tiara, this is where the shots start to go bad.
I run all my bookings shots through Photoshop to get the most accurate look of the drawings to the subjects, using levels and taking out the color in the B&W drawings to sharpen them. In this way I was able to “save” some of these twilight shots.
Then again…
Now it’s full dark and I’m posting these just to punish myself and hopefully learn a lesson. (TURN ON THE FLASH!)
The parents.
