Figures

Two more 30-min drawings from my Monday night co-op. I had a lot of trouble making headway on the second drawing in the studio--I'm still not working as fast as I would like--but I got enough information down to do a little touch up after the fact. Face is still wonky and I didn't record any lighting information.

More bio illustrations and a bug

Working on an illustration after a design by Prof. Robert C. Brown. The idea is to tie together two illustrated "vignettes" that tell the story of fuel production from differing perspectives. These are a few of the nine illustrations I put together for the piece. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble tying the piece together into a cohesive whole. I probably just need to spend more time with it, but I'm also worried my paintings differ too much stylistically.


A little sketch for a quilting project my grandmother is working on. She asked for a 'B' with a bug.

More figures

A couple of 30 minute drawings from co-op last night. I like the variety a bunch of shorter poses provide, but I am never able to move beyond a simple line drawing in half an hour. An additional fifteen minutes, maybe thirty would be sufficient for me to put in more interesting varied-line and basic shading. Something to flesh these out a bit more. Or maybe I'm just too slow. Many of the other attendees add tone almost immediately, but I can't stand shading a drawing with bad proportions.

Steamobile

Working on a concept for an illustration depicting two notable relics of the automotive industry. I really have no idea why the steam car isn't still with us today--I'd happily commute to work in one of these! The final illustration will include a fission car on the right from a similar perspective. I haven't yet decided if I want to paint the entire illustration or first draw the mechanical bits in illustrator and then paint in the happy people. My sketch is pretty wobbly, and a couple of mathematically precise ovals couldn't hurt...

Le Petit Prince redux

A first draft cover for a book being written by prof Robert C. Brown. The text is all FPO. I wanted to play around with combining vector art (the planet) with a painted character. Ideally, I'll be able to use a similar style for all of the illustrations in the book. I think I want to give the planet more character, make it bumpier like the "Loomis" planet a few posts down. I also need to add more woodland, push the distinction between cropland and forest, and maybe add a little painted texture to the planet.

A few early sketches (+ a smiling farmer lady & a funky birthday cupcake):

Tiny bakery

Don't tell my employers, but I've been baking like a madman! Last week was another sourdough week, and while my boules turned out nicely my "seeded sour" was aesthetically lacking. The dough dried out in the fridge overnight which prevented the loaves from caramelizing properly during their time in the blazing inferno.


This week: croissants!

Co-op-y goodness

I finally got around to searching the Cities for a good figure drawing cooperative, and found one within minutes! It's in a nearby neighborhood that also happens to feature my favorite food cooperative. So: 2 hours of drawing followed by perusing aisles of turnips and quinoa! What excitement!

I arrived late to last week's session but still had fun. Most of the poses were 10-15 minutes, which was fine for getting back into the figure drawing groove. Unfortunately, my drawing for the only long pose of the evening looked like this


So I've opted not to share it.

Sourdough pizza!

I am obsessed with tasty pizza. Last week, I became so overwhelmed with the work of Peter Reinhart and Nancy Silverton that I decided to develop my wild starter (an offshoot of my mum's Ames colony) into a pizza dough. The results were unexpectedly delicious. Those busy little Twin Cities fungi and bacteria produced a crispy yet chewy crust with surprising sweetness and the slightest hint of acidic tang. Combined with a sesame-parsley pesto, it was a near-perfect pizza experience!

For all you neo-Neapolitan pizza aficionados out there, here's an ECU of the burnished crust:


as well as a bad photo of the porous, slightly transparent crumb:

Coloring book

This little image, inspired by the brilliant Mr. Loomis, needed some color. So I colored it in. The experience made me realise how long it has been since I did a proper painting with my tablet. Time to get busy!

Saucy pot

Holy smokes it's been a long time since my last sketch number. To appease the blogods, and to begin working towards new year's resolution #6, here are a couple of monsters, a cowboy (name that film!) and a bubbly little pot. I'm gearing up for a few largeish (by my standards) projects, and will post progress updates.

Graphite scratches

A few unrelated sketches. I'm trying to work out the kinks, get back into the habit of drawing regularly. A couple more weeks of this and I might feel up to taking on a single, unified drawing. Maybe.