:saving face:

As stated last week, after thinking I was completed with the latest artwork, I felt that something was not quite right with it. As I also said, I could re-work some pieces forever if I don't stop myself.

Thankfully the model on whom the artwork is based on pointed out what was amiss with it. One can spend so much time with your nose to the drawing table (or computer screen) and not see what becomes obvious later. Definitely one reason why I sometimes have to step away from some pieces for a day or two. And one thing to miss about art school, having other artists' input, which I really don't get much of anymore.

The problem had something to do with the eyes. In the last version they were big and cartoony, which was somewhat by design, as I wanted it to be somewhere between realistic and a cartoon. But on retrospect that didn't work. Plus, while I'm proud that I didn't trace the original photo, putting it on a layer below the drawing in Photoshop showed that the placement of the facial features were off just enough to make it not work. So that was fixed as well. And the model seems pleased.

Still doing research on what I think will be my next piece, one of Kali, but it's more notes than drawings at this point, so nothing to show you just yet. 

I'm still not entirely sure what I believe in as far as anything spiritual or religious, I'm the kind of person who needs hard evidence more than blind faith, but one has to admit, as far as deities go, at least the Hindus are extremely creative. How can you not love a god with an elephant head?

Still have my camera with me at all times. Caught some stormy scenes, one of hopefully many visits to the ocean this summer, and Waterfire yet again (although I skipped it entirely last year). I must have over a hundred shots of the fires reflecting on the water by now, but I still find it mesmerizing.

:neverend:

I believe I finished my latest piece, and didn't take too long on it, which was partially the point. Still waiting for final comments from the model, since she did request it, but I consider it "done enough" for now. That's pretty much the state of any artwork, one could rework and fiddle with them forever.

Actually, looking at it now, I was emulating the shadows of the original photo, but I didn't want them to be as dark. Now I'm not so sure they work this lightly. Oh boy. See? I could work on some of these for far too long. Once again I don't think I could work in comics, couldn't meet a monthly deadline if I obsess over every line.

The process itself went pretty smoothly, though, scanned in the inked lines and colored from there. I'm sure pretty much all of it could've been done in the computer, but I'm still not adept at using the Wacom tablet. Something I need to set time aside for. Like way too many other things.

I'm already looking ahead to what's next, so far the top contender is a depiction of Kali, which has been lingering in my sketchbooks and mind for way too long as it is. The idea I have in mind is not the usual horrific depiction of her. At least that's not what came into my mind, I didn't find her frightening at all. I don't know what that says about me.

Also, of course, need to finish the website. An essential part is to re-photograph the Homunculus dolls for it. I'm also due to make another one of those, too.

:laced:

Continuing to work on the drawing based on a photo I took. The inking part was easy enough, the rest will be done on computer.

The outfit has quite a bit of lacy material and my original intention was to draw it all. I sketched it out in pencil, it looked fairly well in parts...but not well enough. One goal with artwork this year, thanks to the usual lack of time allowed for it, is to not make it more complicated than necessary. So I went back to the original photo and used the threshold feature in Photoshop to get it down to as much basic black & white as possible.

And from there I added it as a layer and combined it with the drawing. Still more work has to be done on it than seen here, of course.

"Cheating?" Perhaps one way of looking at it, but I'm thinking more of it as using whatever process possible to get the work done more efficiently. Certainly it'd be more impressive if I had drawn all that lace myself, and I did make several attempts, but after much erasing I felt that was expending too much time on that part. 

Okay, back at it.

:crossed lines:

For those of you keeping score, my Tank Girl illustration did indeed get accepted into Hub Comics' "She Can Do It!" show. It'll be on display throughout June, and there's an opening of sorts on May 30th from 6 - 8 PM.

I've experienced a fair amount of vitriol over the past few hours upon learning that an alleged artist named Richard Prince has chosen as "his" latest work what are basically nothing more than blown-up screen grabs of Instagram posts. Apparently his addition to each consists merely of adding a comment at the bottom, and that seems to be enough to legally allow this, which infuriates me. It seems that this is nothing new, he's appropriated others' work in the past, but his minor changes have mostly let him get away with it.

What bothers me about this; someone using somebody else's work and creativity and making money on it, with very little effort on their part. I'm sorry but I can't see that as anything else but thievery. Use all the ironic and post-modern tags that you want, but the bottom line is that somebody else did the hard work and he's possibly getting rich off of it. People that actually defend him say that putting your work online means that it's up for grabs, which I say is bullshit. But it's is also a big reason why I'm wary of putting too much of my work on Facebook or setting up an artist page, and part of what is holding me back in my website redesign. You can do all sorts of things to try and prevent theft, but I know even just from my own research for images online for inspiration or reference that all you need to do is a simple screen grab. More evidence that people want their art for free, never mind who created it.

I was amused by the response of one of the victims, the Suicide Girls, of offering for sale the same images that were stolen at a much more reasonable price, and the proceeds going to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties nonprofit focused on technology.

Well, getting back to my own artwork, which to my knowledge has not been stolen yet. I was asked by my favorite model to do a drawing based on a photo from our last shoot together. I got as far as the pencils, but we both agreed I had already done this one better already, so another shot was selected.

Again it's a challenge, one that I'm hoping to overcome, to not make the drawing too complicated and of course learn to draw quicker as well. The new one took only an hour, though there's some lace patterns in the outfit that will take considerably longer.

There's quite a few other concepts that I have started years ago that I'd like to get to this summer, one depicting Medusa, the other Kali. The latter has proven most elusive to pin down, as I'm basing it on a dream, or vision, that I had of her once, and I'd like to do it justice.

:art for nothing:

No word on whether or not the Tank Girl piece that I completed last week was accepted, but I found out that the deadline was extended, which tends to mean that they didn't receive a large amount of submissions yet. Sigh. Well, I'll keep you posted.

I also got an request from somebody through deviantArt asking me to submit a piece I created of Krampus for a book about the same. Which sounds super, but as is too common these days, the "payment" is in copies of the book in question. I did question the lack of compensation, the reply was like "it is unfortunate that there is no monetary compensation, but there is exposure." Ah yes, the eternal "exposure" carrot dangled over artists. I've rarely had promised exposure lead to other interest or work. But, sigh, I'm leaning toward it, mainly because I'm not really getting much attention otherwise, so I should be happy that it's happening at all. Just tired of not getting my due.

Need to get back on the website redesign path. Part of the struggle is making one that would hopefully get some of the attention that I need to move forward as an artist.

:crawling from the wreckage:

Finished! And just before deadline, as per usual. Perhaps that's how I work best, but I hope not.

I had been really frustrated in the creation of this one, which in the end is probably appropriate. Even though I'm a fan, Tank Girl is not the sort of character or woman that I usually draw, and I wanted to do her justice without completely aping the original style. In my research I found quite a few other renderings of her ( and cosplays, I'm pleased to report ), and there were some that tried to impose a cheesecake style on her, but it was an ill fit, in my opinion.

So just trying to get her attitude down was a challenge. And hopefully the body language as well. My first few attempts were a bit stiff. If you've ever seen the original, she rarely seems to ever be in relaxing poses. Unless she's unconscious.

I decided to to do an ink drawing, then scan it into the computer and color it there. I swear I'll progress to the point of doing it all on the tablet, but, the deadline was looming.

I actually think I spent more time drawing the tank gun than Tank Girl herself.

Another goal was to keep it simple, not go overboard with the lines or shading. See, this is a major reason why I never pursued a comics career; look how long I labor over one drawing!

The background in the final piece, obviously not drawn by me, is due partly to laziness and that looming deadline again. The original idea was for some sort of spacecraft wreckage, or a pile of smaller planes. My research for this often lead to some gruesome images, so it was difficult to make light of it after awhile.

To do this in time, I had to pretty much put everything else aside for most of my non-work hours, which again draws attention to the imbalance between work life and real life, and how badly I'd like to change that. I wish that I could survive on part-time pay.

:stagger:

Can't talk, busy drawing. This is honestly taking me longer than it should be.