26 - It's a Colorful world 🎶

Art Exclusive

It has been a while since I have drawn a self-portrait. This is drawn from a reference I took for the Civil War comic I am working on, thus the cowboy hat.

I would like to draw a Chimera for next month’s exclusive, what two animals should I combine?

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Completed

-GUMBO-

This last month I was a member of Substack Go, a month-long workshop on improving your newsletter and expanding your audience. I got to explore some new techniques alongside some other cool creatives from around the world. Our group was called the GUMBO Group. Check out their substacks below and if you like what you find, give them a follow!

Fawzi Ammache Year 2049
Kathleen Smith Kathleen Music
Maja Milanovic Tarantula Authors and Art
Martina Marie Manalo Magazine 43
Melinda HopeMail
Nithya Subramanian Show and Tell
Tatiana Gallardo Brazen Face

-PAINTING-

Last month was my wife’s birthday. This year it was on Two's-day. because it was 2/22/2022 on a drumroll… Tuesday! This painting is based on a reference picture I took of Laura before she went out for a night on the town with her girlfriends.

-CHARACTER DESIGN CLASS-

The students in my Character Design class finished their first project which was a self-portrait. I am really happy with the work they created, here are some of my favorites. (posted with permission)

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Current

-GRAPHESIS-

Whew, it has been a crazy month of Civil War text. One of the two chapters I thumbnailed this month was a trial and so it was HEAVY on the text. Here is an example page so that you can see how full the pages are of dialogue.

I am going to be inking 10 pages from chapter 1 to send with the pitch packet. I will share those next month.

-JOB-

I am still creating Illustrations for the Job project. Here is my depiction of Job 1:20 in which Job has just heard that all he has and loved was destroyed and killed, He tears his robes in distress.

-JP CREATIVE-

I am coloring a comic for Jake Parker, it will be Kickstarted in April, stay tuned for details. Each page can take between 2-4 hours to color. The process goes in several stages

1. Flatting - I place random colors with hard edges into the line art that create easy to grab selection areas

2. Local color - I drop in the color that an object actually is, not how it will be lit.

3. Notes - I send this along to Jake for notes (seen in the margins)

4. Shadows - I use two multiply layers one for hard shadows one for gradients

5. Highlights - I use two screen layers, one for hard highlights one for gradients

6. Color Holds - I add color to the black line art, this often gives a nice glow effect. Consider a lightsaber, it is white with color on the outside.

7. Notes/Approval - I wait for more notes or a thumbs up and on to the next page.

The question then becomes “How do you choose THOSE colors?” Often it just comes out in the process, I knew that I wanted an eerie green glow from the guy in the smoke, and I wanted to foreshadow that in the vertical shapes of the tower. A pinkish-red is a nice complement to that green without feeling Christmas-y and then the rest is pretty much metal and is either warm or cool.

Be sure to check out Jake Parker’s work on his website here and you can see more of his process on his Patreon here

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Upcoming

-BASEBALL DOCUMENTARY-

I was recently approached to create some illustrations for a documentary about a baseball player. I love baseball and the rough cut of the film, of which I have seen a portion, looks great. However, I am super busy, so I told the director, I would love to but I can’t even think about this till April. He said, “That sounds great, we will talk then.” So really and truly that is coming up later, and I look forward to sharing what I can on that project as it unfolds. In the meantime, I hope the lockout ends, here is Soler again.

-1313 ANGLER DRIVE-

I got some notes on my script from some friends. I made a small addition to the story that I think will really help it out. I am submitting this for the Creators for Creators grant, due 3/31 so I need to create 5 finished pages by the end of this month. Here is a sketch I did of the Domovoy in my pocket sketchbook.

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Art Lesson

-3-POINT PERSPECTIVE-

3-point perspective is often used to build cityscapes. It gives a great sense of vertical depth. If your shot is looking down then the 3rd vanishing point is below the horizon line, if your camera is looking up, then it is above the horizon line. If the vanishing points are too close together you will end up with extremely distorted objects.

This is a page from my comic Fear Hunters, the middle panel has a very subtle 3-point perspective grid applied to give a sense of depth.

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Philosophical Rant

Redrawing Photoreal

I went to an art opening this last weekend and the artist Willis Norman talked about how he has become disenchanted with drawing photorealistic and would rather bring some imagination to a piece. Afterward, we chatted for a bit about our mutual disdain for creating an exact copy of a photo.

Hot take: This requires zero talent.

On the left is a photo, the right is a graphite redrawing I did in school. it is purely a mechanical process that can be taught to anyone, whether of artistic inclination or not. It does take a great deal of time to execute this technique. But there is a big difference between drawing from a picture and drawing from life.

I am not opposed to rendering realistically. But I only value it when it is drawn from life. Because then you are the camera, your work is the photo. You as the artist must translate 3-Dimensional space onto a 2-Dimensional plane with acute accuracy. THAT is why Carrivagio, Rembrandt, and DaVinci are masters.

But Anderson, the camera is just a new tool that helps us create better art now. Do you also refrain from using a car and instead ride around on horseback? No.

I use photos all the time for reference, but it is no longer my aim to perfectly rerender a photo. I would rather bring to life my own impression/expression of that photo.

After all, the photo already exists.

And this is the point of my rant: I believe photorealistic rerendering of photographs to be a great tool for study and learning, but it should not be viewed as the pinnacle of artistic success. I urge young artists to push past it toward something new, something more.

Am I crazy and just too entrenched in my own view of art? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Cheers,

&

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If you liked this, please share it with your friends who also like art, and maybe even your friends who do not and you might change their mind!