Shaking off the Rust

Slowly but surely, my drawing chops are returning.

 

Lawrence of Arabia

charcoal pencils on toned paper

14x16

moving in a new direction

It's been a very long time since I last posted to this blog. While I was away, I was busy doing some commission work, as well as just dealing with the rigors of my 9-5 job.

Now, I've reached a point where I am feeling the call to do more figurative work, with (hopefully) a healthy dose of fantasy thrown in the mix. Inspiration for this new move (which is actually more of a return to my old art desires) has come from many different directions (Jeff Lafferty, Miles Johnston, Annie Stegg, etc), and I have jumped in with both feet.

At this moment, I am in the beginning stages of several different projects, including a personal tarot deck, a long and complicated graphic novel, and a commission piece for a friend.

Unfortunately I have become incredibly rusty. My sketchbook is loaded with horrible drawings that look nothing like the person they are meant to portray.

After getting past my initial panic, I decided to just keep going. That the only way to knock off the rust was to get back on the horse and keep riding. So, that's what I've been diligently working on for the past several weeks. I finally produced a drawing I liked. This is Saladin from one of my favorite movies "The Kingdom of Heaven".

pencil on vellum

I'll likely be posting more movie/fan art drawings as I continue to work on getting better and faster with figurative drawing.

Halloween fun

Well, this happened for Halloween.

Just a little something

Drawing rubber duckies is my latest obsession. I don't really know where these crazy ideas come from. I try not to question it. It's better to just go with it, and get it out of my system. Got a little fixated on some Star Wars fan art. Original and prints available here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/darkkristallized?ref=si_shop.

I'm baacck!

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I posted last. I've been busy working on my self published children's ebook, which has no place on this particular blog. But now that's done, and I plan to do more drawings that I can post here. Very soon, I will also start working on a graphic novel idea that has been germinating for 6 months or more. Can't wait!! In the meantime, here is something new (with a back story of course).

As I was deep in the weeds on my kids book, I received a facebook message from Ryan Davis, asking me to contribute to the artists section of his latest graphic novel The Velvet Garden. I was shocked and confused, and I couldn't help but wonder if he had asked the wrong person. Maybe he meant to send that email to someone else. But no, he really meant to send it to me (I still expect him to tell me it was a mistake). 

I struggled for quite a while trying to decide what I was going to do, and when I finally figured that out,  I struggled to find time to actually complete the piece. However, after completely finishng the kids book, and opening an Etsy shop to sell the original work from that, I FINALLY finished the drawing. Here it is. Of course there are things I don't like about it, and want to change, but I have never been the type of artist to work something to death; I generally know when I'm finished with something. So here it is. Enjoy! Comments are always welcome.

Long time coming

I am happy to say, that I have finished a new piece. I am a little disturbed to add that this is my first finished piece in more than a year. The last piece was an interpretation of a fairy tale done for an art order contest.

Considering how much I have been sketching the past 6 months, it seems impossible that I haven't done any pastel work in almost exactly 365 days!! That being said, here it is.

I believe the original sketch was done in October. I wasn't really planning to go any further with it, but in early April I came across it in my sketch book and and idea started to develop. Still, it took a very more weeks before I was ready to take it to finish.

This was roughly between 12 and 20 hours of pastel work (not entirely sure because I rarely document the amount of time spent on something). I'm pretty happy with the results, though I have noticed that I frequently use a red orange/violet/yellow orange color palette. I'm determined to make the next piece pink or blue green. Maybe both!

...

Not much going on here, but still, I feel compelled to post.

There's not much going on because I am busy working to get my first children's ebook done and published!! As a result, my darker side is being temporarily smothered. I have had a drawing request from a friend, so stay tuned. In the meantime, here are some slightly older drawings that were meant to be finished pieces, but have been put on hold for the moment.

This drawing was fun (and yes, I know his eyes are all out of whack). Just messin' around.

This mermaid was a request from a friend awhile ago. I'm not happy with it, so I'll continue to work on her.