Doodling

Doodling generally results in faces or birds...

Character prototype for new story

When I start a new illustrated story, I usually make sketches to set the style, especially the character's face.  For some time I have wanted to incorporate a Poser character in order to maintain the facial proportions and have a more consistently recognizable character.  Even though my character in 'A Book of Complaints' is generally the same person, her look tends to change with my whim, and my habit of constantly changing the way I draw the same objects and characters.  Using a Poser character as an armature ensures the proportions are the same, so that my character's nose doesn't become to large, or her eye doesn't end up near her ear, which almost always happens when I draw freehand.  This is really just an excuse to use Poser for something, and it will be interesting to see if I can restrain myself.

The other experiment is with a new tool, using a tapered brush (a G or Maru type) instead of my usual solid marker lines.   The fourth face is done with the brush, and reminds me of the time I used to sketch with a Sumi brush and ink.

Thoughts on carving

This afternoon I worked in the studio, carving a frame with lines of movement that reflect the small painting it is intended for.  The vectors of the painting continue onto the frame.  When I carve, I use my small Japanese gouges like pens, making deliberate strokes that follow the vectors and contours of my design.  The texture created forms an intricate 3D crosshatching and shading effect, separating edges the same way a pen or pencil line does.

Digital thought

Painting digitally is quite liberating.  Nothing is fixed, as on paper, and anything can be changed or fixed.  There is no preparation or waste of materials.  You are free to dabble, scribble and muck around, perhaps doing those ridiculous but exciting things we always hesitate to do with expensive materials.  You can create a little thought in an ethereal format, ready to be sent out in the world or nowhere at all.

Gauguin Diamond Lace

The variations of lace fascinate me.   As I knit, my eye follows the links and holes, and my fingers feel the texture.  A delicate web emerges, light and dark.

Hemitrope

A hemitrope is a twin, either of two persons or things closely related to or closely resembling each other.

My long association with desean has been a constant exchange of ideas, images and materials, connected by passion, playfulness and a persistent artistic path we share.