Ink Experiment

So I haven't drawn much lately.  Been obsessing over build projects and working.  I miss drawing, so I made myself sit, listen to music, and play with inks.  Recently found a brush pen (which I'm very slowly getting better with), bought a couple new inks and brushes.  This particular experiment was just about learning how to make different kinds of marks on the page, and what marks to use where.

From a GLORIOUS reference of Bela Lugosi in an unused makeup design from 'Island Of Lost Souls' (1932) -  a makeup design that was miles more interesting than what they used in the film.  As the Sayer Of The Law, Lugosi just looks all furry, like a very unkempt Wolfman.  If you haven't seen this movie, I do recommend it.  Wonderfully creepy, with some bona fide horrific things hiding in the subtext.

Coffee-time doodle

Alrighty then.  Personal awfulness and chaotic stress and panic just built-in to this year. (yay!).  Today: car rear-ended, phone broken, friend's son in the hospital, 2 friends in-process for awful divorces, game night cut short(I'm being a crybaby about that one, I know).

GODDAMMIT.


I, and several people I know, could really use a fucking win.  I am full of complaint; my apologies.

Crap

As some things continue to be awful, at least I can paint awkward fake-retro illustrations!  HUZZAH!

practice

Yup, more practice.

Fallout: Australis concept work

My art style has never really qualified as "fast" and/or "loose", but that's what I was trying to channel here.  Maybe 3 or 4 hours total, working as fast I was able.  Plenty that's awful or ineffective, but there are bits of this I quite like.
Fallout: Australis is still a thing in the back of my head...bolstered by Mad Max, it keeps reappearing.  Mad Max, but with ghouls and an invading Imperial Robot Army.   And plasma rifles.

Experiments

I know very little about skintones/color theory, etc. Experimenting to try and figure some things out.

Also a leisurely reprieve whilst trying to recover from a pinched nerve (resulting in shooting pain the length of my dominant arm.

practice

practice continues.  trying different tools than I normally use in Sketchbook Pro.  From ref.

practice

late-night  lightning round, from ref.

Sketchbookin'

Was doodlin' some pulp-cover titles in my sketchbook and then this happened.  please to excuse the spine-fold in the middle.

Goofin' off

So, I finished another paying gig a week or two ago.  October-January was INSANE for me, and my recharge plan is essentially "Play Fallout 4 until collapse.  Wake up and repeat."  It's worked, kinda.

These two are both quick(ish), messy sketches from ref photo's.  Drawn whilst watching the new X-Files & hanging out with my family.  Seems that I'm always jumping between work methods; whole bunch of digital, go straight to pencil/pen/whatever.  Too much drawing, go make something in the workshop.  Too many handmade books, go write something.
I'm pretty lucky that I have the space/time/ability to jump between some fairly disparate stuff, as the mood hits.  One more, that is not 40s/50s:

Also building a Fallout 4-related item.  Will update after I get some problems solved.

Goofin' off

So I made this one doodle, then I decided to paint it up quick, then I decided to give it some additional elements, then an x-wing helmet, and then it's days later and I've done 20+ variations.  Why is my brain wired for oddball serial projects?!

This is all in a single file; each element is on its own layer so they can be mix'n matched.  3 or 4 of the images above are just weird combinations of elements from different characters.

I know.  My brain is weird.

Practice

Just completed another rpg-map gig which means it's time to draw something other than terrain, if only to remind myself that I can.

practice

practice stuff, from reference.

...and now for something completely different...

This spring I've been working on our workshop - drywall, paint, and building workbenches.  I am not a handy fellow, so it's been a comedy of errors the whole way.  Any time not spent on drawing/MWMag has been spent in the workshop for the last couple months.

So as soon as MWMag went live on kickstarter, I started a new thing in the workshop.  I've always wanted a 1950's-working-man's version of Mjolnir (yes, really).  I've seen so many amazing builds made from EVA foam, and i had never worked with it myself.  There we go: new project!

I decided to make the entire thing outta foam...this is basically one huge block of it.  Used some styrene tube I had leftover for interior support.  Photo above is the pieces before assembly.  The striking surfaces, the main block (2 pieces), and the handle are all separate.  Handle has styrene rod running the length of it, and the foam of the handle continues into the main block.

Cut channels into the two halves of the main block with a dremel, then packed in some apoxysculpt (air-cure putty/sculpting material.  Cures solid, great stuff) before final glue.  Added cross-supports to the styrene rod...this combined with the apoxysculpt means the handle will not be moving inside that foam block, either side-to-side or to fall out.  What I didn't plan well was the handle support rod....the styrene is too flexible, and there's space inside for it to move.  Makes the whole thing wobbly.

Basic assembly - handle secured, striking surfaces and main block permanently attached.  As with so many of my projects, this is all an experiment, and there isn't a single angle on this that is correct.  But it has the right sort of look, so I'm still pleased.  As a bonus, I now understand how to correctly level and square my hand-me-down bandsaw.  Viva la progress,

I added a collar ring at the handle/main block juncture, added a handle extension on the top of the block, and heat-pressed a manufacturing logo on the side.  Had a custom rubber stamp made of my design, worked out...okay.  I'll be changing some things if'n I do this again, but it's great for a first attempt.

"Brokkr & Sindri MFG" being the foundry of the two dwarves who made mjolnir, naturally.  Please excuse the scorchmarks...heating this large an area was a bit of a challenge.

Two light coats of watered-down pva glue followed by two heavier/thicker coats, followed by 320-grit sanding, followed by specific planes getting multiple heavier coats to fill gaps (where the 1/2 inch-thick layers of foam began to separate from heat), and here we are.  Have some more planes to recoat, then will follow with another fine sanding, cleaning, then a few layers of plasti-dip and paint.

practice

unfinished stuff

I really have been working.  Life has been trying to get me so as always, I'm drawing/painting my way out of the hole.  Lost a few weeks along the way, but that's to be expected.  So.

All of these are in-progress, btw.  Top is a a straight copy of a pulp cover for practice (and to decipher that style of painting), then a bit for some fake advertising, then yet another Monster Women piece.

practice

calling it done(ish)

lots more I could refine, but I'm calling it.  This was mostly an exercise in painting  fabric, but i do think I did alright with pose.  Is it weird that I really like how I painted her feet?

Yeah, that's weird.

practice...

quick paint for lighting

in-progress

...and here's something in-progress. Jut a few hours in, lots of refining to go.