MFA Sketches

More sketches from the life drawing at the MFA.

The second face from the left is the model; the rest are other folks that were also drawing.

"Train Guy"

A sketch of a person I saw on the platform at Ashmont station, waiting for the next train.

He was first leaning against a pillar and made this cascade of strong horizontals that caught my eye.

Nominally, he was dressed in: boots, jeans, a t-shirt, a pea coat, a knit cap, sunglasses and a scarf - a list of items other men were wearing on the train as well, almost exactly - but his presentation was extremely different and unique.

I was not surprised to see him on the train later reading an issue of Vogue; he put together his outfit rather deliberately.

This kind of casual, everyday character design is impressive to me.

MFA Sketches

I don't know if this is a new program or not, but I attended one of the weekly life drawing sessions that the MFA now hosts on Wednesday evenings. It was really great!

Some two minute sketches:

Then, as tends to happen for me, I was bored of the model and started drawing a couple of the other artists around:

These are shown in the order made: this guy sitting right next to me was very intensely focused and slumped forward, and then a few seats from him was a woman with incredible posture. Then I drew the model's face. Then lower I started to sketch an older woman who stayed bundled up the whole time like she was still outside.

The event was awesome, but yeah, the actual seating isn't so hot. People had nowhere to put their drawing as they worked, and you had these flimsy little foldout seats - so there was a lot of slouching and slumping and odd body language from the artists.

"Macie"

~30 min sketch; made during Thanksgiving at a friend's, while waiting for dinner.

This little old grandma Shih Tzu was there being cute and quiet the whole night; I don't usually like this breed, because I associate them with yappy toy breeds, but she was a very sweet dog.

"O HAI"

Just took in a new cat at home; feline politics is tricky business!

"Caldonia"

Couldn't sleep - pushing pixels against insomnia!

"Bozo"

Picked one of those previous face sketches to continue a little further, digitally:

Faces

Some things :) Also a couple little bitty pachyderms, because why not.

"Centaur" and "Mermaid"

These are two images to help me get back into the mood for finishing a comic I'd started a while ago. It involves a centaur and a mermaid, and so.

~8"x8". pencil.

~5"x9". gouache.

"Red Jasper"

~5"x7". gouache on chipboard.

Something I made to show students tomorrow: an example for painting on colored surfaces; in this case letting the surface be the middle tone for the subject.

Faces

Here are some sketched faces. I started to paint over one digitally.

That bottom right face is from a character I depicted back in 2007 when I was learning about digital painting. That older image was a self-assigned exercise, so I didn't finish it beyond the parts I was most interested in rendering.

I sketched the face from memory, and got some of the details wrong, but recalled the main design idea.

Thinking about digital painting stuff; sketching and moving pencil work into digital.

Sketches

After work I met with my friend who also teaches and we went to campus to hear this talk that was being held.

We got there an hour early and sketched in the cafeteria for a bit. I drew a couple students, then drew The Yellow Kid.

Watercolor is a lovely tool to use with sketching. And I enjoy portraiture very much.

Catching up

Here's a bunch of stuff I've made that I've been meaning to upload. In no particular order:

A couple faces made when trying out drawing into my iPad:

A random object I made as an exercise. I made the black outline shape first as a scribble. Then I carved into it with the eraser tool, and rotated it a few times to help see the possibilities. Then I finished it as a solid, describing the interior features:

A preliminary sketch for something still in progress:

Some sketches and gestural stuff from attending the monthly Dr.Sketchy's life drawing sessions. I sometimes draw the model, and sometimes draw the other people attending:

Other model stuff:

Some logo stuff for friends:

A spaceship, meant for an alien witch! So it's sort of a mix of a broomstick and a shuttlecraft:

A 30-min sketch of The Masque of The Red Death:

Another 30-min sketch for a robot thing:

I was commissioned to make a custom bookcover for a Kickstarter project, the person who gave a enough money to qualify received an image of their choosing (so this isn't my imagery/character design, etc):

And some furry stuff, made as illustrations for a convention booklet:

"Variants"

digital.

Combined the silhouettes of a horse, a couple fire hydrants and a smoking pipe; then I worked into the result to get some different designs.

Model sketches

Here's some stuff from last night at the Quincy Art Center's weekly model session. The model kept moving and squirming, so I gave up trying to do anything figurative and made a couple portrait sketches. Then I got bored with that and started drawing some of the other attendees.

Object A

Trying an exercise with shapes.

1. I made a random shape in black
2. Carved into it with the eraser
3. Rotated it a few times to help see possibilities
4. Picked one and finished it as a solid object.

I'm participating in a collaborative project with a few MassArt juniors to put together a simple alphabet and counting book.

Just due to the way the things worked out, I was assigned the odds and ends of the A-Z alphabet and the 1-10 numbers. I have Y, Z, and 10.

I took Y is for Yeti (on a Yak), Z is for Zebra (zooming with Zucchini), and 10 Fish!

Each of these is 10" x 10" in gouache.

Here we go!

The set of images put together looks really great. I can't wait to see how it comes back from the printers.

Gutman Library Opening

Hey folks :) So last night was the opening for the faculty show at the Gutman Library.

James came by and was kind enough to mug for the camera and help eat food and small talk; it was nice.

The show will be up until the end of October.

"James"

So I have a painting hanging in the Gutman Library, in Harvard Square. It's part of a small faculty exhibition from MassArt, and it will be up for a few weeks.

The Gutman Library is on Brattle Street, on your way out of the Square. It's about a block further past the Brattle Theatre, on the right. Location on a map.

The image is a portrait of my friend James. I hung the piece before I had a chance to document it with a good photo/scan. So, I'll have to do that later when the show comes down, and I can upload the image properly.

Meanwhile, I took some photos with my camera.

Here's the painting. It's 16"x20", and made with open acrylics and gouache:

Here's a view of the show, and where it's hanging. You can also see some of the other faculty work, they are all so good!:

Plus, the view from outside:

From the sidewalk on Brattle Street, you can see the pieces through the window at night.

If you find yourself in Harvard Square, walk by and take a look :) Or just, y'know, go inside the building and see the stuff up close.

Art Stuff

Haven't been keeping this up, but I have been keeping busy.

Here's some stuff:

"Dwudley" 8" x 10". watercolor, gouache, acrylic. Made for a friend of mine.

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"Model" ~10" x 11". gouache, watercolor. Observed from a two-hour pose. I didn't get the model's name.

The painting group I was a part of ended shortly after this, ah well.

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"Matador" digital.

Some character design work from an illustration project I'm in the middle of.