Going on a QUEST!

Wait a minute...
Look at your watch, calendar, sundial, ect.
I'm posting AGAIN!

I've been doing some gallery work in my absence from the blog here and figured I'd share some of that here.

I always liked to imagine that the hero was just whistling the tune while, he marched about on his quest.

About a month ago I was involved in the second installment of a Video Game themed show in Brooklyn called 8Bit & Beyond 2.  I'd been involved with the first show and was happy to be invited back to participate.  After much deliberation I figured I'd draw inspiration from my very first 8bit RPG.  Dragon Warrior.

I just remember hours of grinding levels, and listening to the over world audio looping infinitely.  certainly, a favorite of mine.  Aside from illustrating some lovable Slime Creatures, with a nod to Akira Toriyama.  I also tried to work in a bit of music, because the games soundtrack is pretty great.

I'm relatively happy with how the image came out too.
It's a similar process to how my Hellboy image was made a few months back.  However, things went far more smoothly during this artworks execution due to some much needed simplification in my workflow.  Hell, even a few things that seemed like mistakes at first wound up lending a nice texture to the finished image overall (seen below).

A Warrior Wandering Whilst Whistling Within the Overworld.

Looking at this image again has me thinking about playing the game again sometime soon.
I sorely miss playing a good RPG.
 
Hope you dig,
P

A QUEST FOR CANVAS...

I usually draw on printer paper, and haven't bought an actual sketch book type BOOK in some time... Above you'll see part of the reason why I don't buy so many sketchbooks.

True it may not be Archival quality but, I kinda like drawing on things that are more disposable (recyclable) so that I don't feel possessed to hold onto whole books of drawing verses weeding out some good sheets from a stack of sketches.. Keeps the artwork ephemeral.. Personally I really need to work on filtering out the Keepers from the discard heep in my work. I do a lot of sketching.... Doesn't mean I should keep it all... Am I right...
Here's a rough sample of some random scribbles on the brown bag with a touch of photoshop..
Hope you dig... Happy sketching,
P

P.S. One thing I didn't mention in my brown paper flyer is the fact that having a mid-tone work surface of brown lets you work light and dark too... So you can get additional value studies into every drawing.... Very cool!..

Belated Efforts...

Last Friday was the birthday of Singer/Songwriter Regina Spektor. Happy Belated Birthday REGINA; if your lurking on the blog. I really dig her music and her voice, and figured she'd be fun to do a caricature of. I found a great photo of her online, I guess her voice allows her to make some impressively large mouth shapes. I didn't manage to pull this image together in time for last Friday. However, I'm putting it together for today's post, with the intention of hammering out a few other projects ... Furthermore I'm attaching some progress of the image so you can see how I hammered it out..

Comments and Feedback are Very welcome..
Hope you dig...
P

Rodin Study...

Hey all,

Since my most recent visit to Philadelphia at the beginning of last month I've kinda wanted to paint images of some of my artistic influences....Heck I'm even making one of those INFLUENCE MAPS for myself. But, in Philly I was treated to a visit to the RODIN museum. Its, a few modest rooms that boast the greatest volume of his work outside of France... VERY Beautiful stuff...I've always had a deep respect for Sculpting, and the craft and skill it calls for... So, I painted a few versions of Auguste, and didn't like any of them.... So, feeling like I needed to give it one more try...I found new reference... and took one more crack at it...which made....This....


I'm kinda happy with it, but would still call it a study rather then a caricature mainly because I feel that I fall short of the exaggerated features that most GOOD caricaturists seem to have... I focused more on my process and worked on a grey background. Building up the sketch and darks and then working on into highlights and details....CONSTANTLY NEED TO REMIND MYSELF TO FLOP that IMAGE....make sure its not looking too skewed or funky...


But, for now its a complete study and I have a few more on deck that I'll try to share with you all...Hopefully they're all making me a better artist, for the effort...
As always thanks for stopping in...I hope you dig...

P

MPG: MODIFICATIONS PRESENTED GRAPHICALLY

So, I just stuck a new showpiece in the mail today....and its on its way out to Philly where it will hang in the "Japanese Pop Culture show" Held at Brave New World comic shop during the month of august. This is not the whole image...I'll share that in a few days... Instead I wanted to share a part of the image I though was extremely successful, in my eyes....
I don't usually use photoshop purely for photomanipulation. But, I tried to step out of my comfort zone and use these tools to make something that was Graphically appealing... This also gave me the chance to flex some of my newly acquired halftone and benday dot techniques, in an image...
I was a big fan of the Manga which this Car played a role in... (can you guess what it is?) and remember this being my dream car during my middle school and early high school year.. It was nice to reconnect with that when I was making this image...I don't draw car too often, for a guy who was born in Detroit....But sometimes you just gotta...

1967 Shelby Mustang Cobra GT500 FTW!!
Hope you dig it..Finished image in a few days!!!! WHOOOT!

P

Mucking about in Muck.

Here are some more fiddle dee dee frescos...minus the plaster, and the talent maybe..
They where both quick sketches and they are like minded in the way I drew them.

Hope you dig..

P

Hey BUB, TWO WEEKS POST OP!

Super Mutant Healing?...

Naw, But I wish i had it right now. I'm two weeks out of surgery now, and though things are better then they where just 14 short days ago (when there was a three inch hole in my side) I still don't feel like I'm back to some state of normal.

I drew this a few weeks back whilest eating with some friends. Its a fiddly little Logan Sketch that I slapped a little color onto. But the funniest part is, I grabbed the image after I'd rendered it and played with some filters on it. I was doing this to make a texture layer to pull my colors together, and it actually wound up making this cool little graphic version that still reads as Logan.

Well, I'm gonna keep healing.
Hope your all well.

P

DOO WHOP, UP DOO!

Yeah....She wasn't my prom date...
But, I would've liked that.

Also you can see what the mess of lines looked like before I carpet bombed it with photoshop colors.
Hope you dig.

P

HALF-FORMED...

Here it is without the little framing element.

Man, Drawing Quasimodo like characters is fun for me....
I really Like abstracting anatomy..
Dunno how this one pans out with the color So, lemme know..
Here is a before and after.


P

WHOOOOOO ARE YOOOOOOOOOOOOU!!!

Who is this wildhaired Rocker?

So, I am staggering back into the realm of caricature just for the sake of relearning better visualization skills, exaggeration and just, feeling out better painting, with Photoshop. Most of the inspiration for this new attempt at painting and process is credited to the work of JOE BLUHM of http://joebluhm.blogspot.com. he is really great, I'd dig the chance to meet with him pick his brain and possibly do some drawigns.
This work was 100% photoshop cover to cover and took a few hours here and there... I am pleased with how it turned out and am seeing room for improvement. I would dig some feedback if you got some, I am gonna push for better blog traffic here now.

Much love to you all,

P

Go FIGURE

HERE is a fine woman from Figure drawing last week.
She was a really wiggy combination of BJORK and AMELIE.
You can see what I did along the way.

P

Cloister

Hey all,
I hammered out this rough drawing at the Cloisters, NYC recently. I am not much for sketching interiors but this inspired me to work on that shortcoming.
I hope you dig.
For the finish I wound up making some snazzy photoshop brushes to get some of the effects..



P

Sshtuff.

These drawings have nothing to do with anything.....Just some drawings.


Thanks for stopping by the blog.
P

Pumpkin' Frank.

IT'S ALIVE!!!!

So, Like I said I am working out the odd drawing to give my Father "Del" some ideas for pumpkin carving this year. Here is one I will actually send him.... the black areas would be caved out and I might suggest that he only gouge out some of the stitching on his neck and head to keep it sturdy.... The hair highlights might be a bit dodgy but, I imagine that my father'd probably make whatever I sent him better. Cuz, he's just awesome like that.

Happy Halloween advances to you all.

P

Far East Beast.

I was doodling some ideas for a pumpkin carving late last night....

I miss carving the mystic orange melon, and my father asked me to churn out some rough ideas that he might carve... so that we could have the finest pumpkins on the block back in michigan. I remember taking great pride in the act of carving the stuff.... good stuff.
SO here is a doodle that I would never ask my father to carve.... unless we built a dremill tool to scribe it all out. I would probably render some of the pumpkin surface with shading or sculpting so that i didn't have to weaken the pumpkins structure too much.... I like it though.
doodle:

doodle plus me fooling about:

Thanks for having a look. Best wishes on your Halloween costumes kids.

P

Lars on Holiday..

TGIF KIDS!!!,

Lots of new stuff on the blog...I think am getting a second wind as autumn winds into winter.
Here is the rough doodle and the finish with color from something that distracted me yesterday. I tribute this to my friends out there who aren't working and those who are soon to be on the breadline with me... I salute you all.
Rough:

Lines:

Finish:


Please check out other recent posts....LOTS TO SEE.
THANKS AGAIN FOR STOPPING IN, AND FOR LEAVING ALL YOUR WONDERFUL FEEDBACK.....YOUR THE REASON I KEEP BLOGGING.

much love,
P