Arts and Kraft

A long time ago, shortly after the dinosaurs went extinct, but before these days of high-speed Internets and broadbanded ftp access, illustrators would physically ship original paintings to companies. I believe that paleontologists refer to this time as the Slowassic period, and I assure you… it was horrifying.

Back in those days, if I finished an illustration before pickup time, I would often take my still wet paints and do a quick study on the outside of the shipping box. I thought the shipping guys would take special care with the package if they saw an original piece of art on it. Well, it seemed better than writing fragile anyway. Most of them made it to the editors, but I have gotten a thank you from a couple of guys who worked in the mail room. I will not mention any names.

I always enjoyed working on that Kraft cardboard surface. It's a perfect color for rendering flesh tones, and that gritty paper structure was always brush friendly. For old times sake, I thought I'd pick up a pad of Kraft paper and see if it would get along with pastels as well. Borden and Riley makes a really nice one, 18 x 24 #840 Kraft pad. I found Nupastels didn't get really good adhesion and opacity in the lighter values, so I complemented them with Gallery semi hard pastels and select colors of Schmincke soft pastels. The combination of these three really allowed me to pile the pigment up on the paper. Especially the Schmincke, that stuff is like drawing with a stick of baby powder.

Way too long

At the end of last night’s drawing session, Pat told me that it’s been way too long since my last blog. This was accompanied by an exaggerated rolling of the eyes. Which was very impressive for an Asian guy. So, after a good laugh and mourning the season end of Burn Notice, I told him that I would write a post this morning just for him.

I like it when I get a good female back, and Irene packs good back. Faces are all about details, and that is a battle fought one inch at a time. The front is a symphony of contrasts, and one must try to conduct that beautiful noise into music. The side is a UFC caged fight between the poet and the mathematician, and they both will make arguments of whom is best at handling a particular curve or angle. Each of these areas call on a different artistic discipline and approach. But then you have the back, and it requires all of those disciplines at once. This is not to say that it is more or less difficult, but that it needs a holistic mind to drive your hand.

I think of placing shapes in space when I'm drawing every other part of the figure, and those shapes go from simple to progressively more complex. When I'm drawing a back it's the opposite. I think of removing shapes from the given space, and it's more like uncovering than it is like building.

Burn Notice

The wait is finally over.

Second gear

These drawings are from five minute poses. My approach on these is almost the same for the first two minutes, but I make my marks with a much lighter hand. I also try to take advantage of this stopping point and check and correct my proportions. At this stage the marks are so light that I can just ignore them if they are wrong. The last two to three minutes is all about draping and stabbing in my total values until I run out of time.

The need for speed

I think most of the learning happens in the first few minutes of a figure drawing. These drawings are all from two minute poses. I just observe and make mental notes for the first 10 seconds or so. Then I try to link an emotional description to the pose with a single word. Sometimes it can be as simple as angry, funny, or powerful, but sometimes it can be complex like patriotic, evasive, or inertia. This little exercise converts the act of drawing into storytelling, and this is at the base of everything I try to do.

After that, I attack it with reckless abandon. Sometimes I go more linear and just use the tip of the drawing tool, but other times I'll lay the tool down and try to get every mark the tool will surrender. I never correct myself on the two-minute drawings. This is not about getting it right, but more about discovering what I have a tendency to get wrong.

Angelus dismount

I quite enjoyed this process. It's refreshing to both explore new tools and dust off the old ones as well. Photoshop is capable of such perfect gradients that I often believe there is no longer a place for the airbrush, but that's not exactly true. There is a certain quality to the imperfection of airbrushing that brings life to a piece of art.

We live in an analog world, so I guess those analog tools will always have something over the digital dominion.

Coming in for a landing

At this stage I'm finished with all the airbrush work and I'm starting to push those last details. I did all my airbrush work with acrylic paint, so it's no problem to go back into things with light washes to polish out details. I'm approaching 90% of the highlights with white gesso. It's not very opaque and it has a translucent quality that heightens the color beneath it. Plus it has a great chalky yet buttery texture that is both easy to work with and gives great results.

I didn't put any color on the girls in the background until the sky was fully in place. I wanted to have a little atmosphere between those figures and the subject.