Illustration Friday: Run

My submission for Illustration Friday this week: run.

I'm going to forego the obvious and not make any Forrest Gump jokes here. Just not worth it.

It's kinda funny, because I had this sketch already drawn in my sketchbook last week. So what a nice surprise to see that the theme was "run." Was trying something simple with the colors on top of colors here. I used the "multiply" layer effect on some of the legs, but not all of them.

Illustration Friday: Rain

I drew this sketch of a little girl holding out her hand to capture the first raindrop of a storm several months ago. What a coincidence that this week's theme for Illustration Friday is Rain, huh? Nice. I didn't have to think too hard on the concept, however, I did have a dickens of a time trying to find the right color scheme. I went through several iterations, from green, blue, red, etc. At first I had her in mostly blue hues with a greenish background. But I realized that I use green and ochre way too much. I wanted to use colors that I normally wouldn't use. Peach seemed peachy keen to me.

Well, here ya go. What do you think?

Illustration Friday: Dance

Boy, it's been a long, long time since my last IF entry. When I saw that this week's theme was Dance, I just had to do it. Considering that my wife is a dancer and dance teacher/instructor, and I study and draw motion through animation, it was sort of a no-brainer. Funny how Andrea and I both study movement: she in a 3 dimensional sense, and I in a 2 dimensional sense. And I'm not alone in this. Marc Davis, one of Disney's Nine Old Men married a dancer as well.

Andrea and I both share the same sensibilities when it comes to analyzing motion and movement in general. I like to analyze how a leg might take the weight of the body when an arm goes up, and Andrea likes to analyze how that phrase of movement will feel to her body as well as look to a viewer or to herself. Repetition becomes important—we both want to get the movement pattern down right. I love having this to share with my wife. She knows that I won't fall asleep when we go to dance performances. Afterwards we'll go into a long discourse about the show and talk about how each piece did or didn't reach the audience, how it flowed, how the choreographer utilized the moving bodies on stage, how the piece sucked, how it soared, etc. There was a time when we would go to various performances with fellow Moving In The Spirit dancers and their boyfriends/spouses and afterwards engage with great debate about what we just saw. It was both exhilarating and incredibly fun. I miss that.

I love the idea of interaction between two dancers: the mixing and mingling of arms, legs, muscles, hair, fabric, etc. All entangled, fused, coming together to make a whole. With this piece, I wanted two dancers intertwined, in fluid motion. I chose poses that, if you took the two dancers apart, would look like they could stand/dance on their own. But when the two are put together, however, there's electricity. Hopefully you can sense that here.

More Illustration Friday goodness can be found here.

Illustration Friday: E is for Ezra

Whew! Well, after a crazy deluge of traffic thanks to a recent mention on Boing Boing, it's nice to get back to doing what I really love around here and that's to draw and to create. And to participate in Illustration Friday. This week's theme is a rather different one: E is for.... I like that it's a theme that can be so open and be interpreted in any way possible. Nice.

Well, the first thing that came to my mind was E is for Ezra. He's my boy. He's not like any other kid, and I love him so.

He's energetic and all over the place (just ask Andrea). He tromps around the house like Godzilla and is obsessed with balls. With that, can I add that he's got this incredible left throwing arm? It's unbelievable, I tell you. He greets me with the warmest smile and the best "Dad-deeeee!" when I come home every evening. And when I pick him up he embraces me and I immediately melt like butter. I do not want to forget this about him.

Anyway, that's Ezra. He's my boy. And I love him so.

Illustration Friday: Strength

Andrea, even in the midst of the day, when Little Ball of Energy Named Ezra continuously bonks you on your head with his ball (he uses my head as a target, too), you are grace under pressure personified. Strength and beauty throughout the days, the weeks, the months. When I think of Strength, I think of you, dear Andrea.

Illustration Friday: Night

I finally got around to doing an entry for Illustration Friday. This week's theme is Night, and so I thought I'd depict a moment one night when Ava actually got up on her own and went to the potty. See, she's the heavy sleeper type. She sleeps like a log and it's very hard to wake her at times. So imagine our surprise when we hear Ava's sweet little voice call out from the hallway, announcing her next venture. Andrea and I were a bit spooked by hearing her voice at such a late hour because our initial thought was that something's terribly wrong -- this was such an unusual situation. But thankfully, it was a false alarm -- just a trip to the loo in the middle of the night..

And yes, that's me with a beard. I'm trying to grow one right now. It itches like the dickens.

To view larger, click on image to go to its Flickr page, and then click "All sizes."

Illustration Friday: Dreams

Ava asleep. She's one of those perfect sleepers where she looks like an angel while slumbering. I know that this sounds like a typical parent thing to say about my own kids, but it's true. She's so peaceful, so content. Like a small lake at 5 in the morning, smooth as glass, you wouldn't dare disturb such beauty. Like a small treasure that only you know exists and you want to keep it to yourself.

Well, here I share my perfect little treasure with you all.

What is she dreaming about? Only she knows....

Illustration Friday: Reflection

Here's my submission for this week's Illustration Friday, with the theme being reflection. No backstory to this one, just some guy looking around a mirror. Trying something different with the color. I tend to use a lot of greens, and it's so hard for me to get out of that. I still happened to get some green in his hair, still. Oh well!

A How-to on Black & White

As promised, I thought I'd show you guys a little "how-to" on the thought processes for my recent Illustration Friday piece, Black & White. You can add this to your Special Edition Ward-O-Matic files, I guess. Since I did not record my progress when I initially worked on this piece, I tried to replicate the steps here the best I could.

First, the concept. I immediately thought of a film noir scene when I first read of the week's theme, black & white, and so, being that I had recently wrote about Frank Miller's Sin City, I wanted to get real dark and gritty. I wanted to go to both extremes with the tone, from bright whites to jet blacks, from bright lights to sunken shadows. So, what a better setting to convey this type of scene, than in a bar? I sketched this guy out with my red Col-Erase pencil on animation paper on the second try, and then scanned him in at 150 dpi (300 dpi is normal for print and such, but since I knew this would be on the web, I figured there's no need for him to take up too much space in my computer), and tweaked levels to darken the subtle lines. I need as much of the pencil lines as possible before my next stage. (Most of these images are clickable for larger views.)



Next, I want to get rid of all the whites, so I can have freedom in painting and coloring. Where I work, Primal Screen, we have all these Photoshop actions for various cel-oriented jobs, and one of them is a "delete whites" action. I went in and tweaked the action so it would better suit my needs and came up with this: before I do anything, I make a copy of the background layer (the layer your current image is on), and then select the top layer and go under Select=Load Selection... If all goes well, I usually can just click "OK" and all the white is selected in that top layer. I then press "delete," and hopefully all the white in that layer is gone, including half-tone whites. See, getting rid of the half-tone whites is very important as that ugly halo effect will not be present if I just selected the white areas with the wand tool.

UPDATE: I found out that in order for the Select=Load Selection to work properly, the image must still be in "Greyscale" mode. Once you delete the whites, you can then convert the image to RGB or CMYK mode, whichever you prefer.



After deleting the bottom background layer, I add a new layer and place it under my image. I then click on the transparency lock for the top layer, which I now call my line layer. This will allow me to color only the line itself, and nothing else. Nice. Okay, so originally, my idea was to have a big diagonal black shadow run across the entire image, with only half of our friendless barfly visable. But as I am working on it, I realize that I'll lose some of the impact of the light coming in from the door. Anyway, I select my bottom layer and go ahead and fill in the area on the right in black, and fill in the rest with white. This bottom layer is now my color layer.



Next, I select the top line layer and then grab my trusty pastel brush over in the brush tool menu. It's about two-thirds down. I use the eyedropper to select the white for my brush and then start to color in the line that's now in the black area, to white. After this, I start to have some fun. Back on my bottom color layer, I go back and forth between black and white and start to work with the pastel brush to get a good idea of shading and lighting. How much am I willing to go with the shadows? Should I make the entire room black? Should I have a harsh light emit from the one window in the door? How harsh should this light be? All these questions go through my mind, plus more.



As I was working on this piece, I started to realize that the more lines I hid, the stronger the image got. If you'll notice in the final image, the guy's head in shadow has only a few highlights of lines to denote his hair and ear. I figured that the audience will know that his head continues back there, so why should I have to show all the lines? To do this, I did NOT erase the linework, but instead colored it black. That way, if I changed my mind later on, I still had the artwork intact. And by the way, I did not use the airbrush brush at all, only the pastel brush to do all my coloring -- background color and line color. I try my best to stay away from the default airbrush they give you in Photoshop as it tends to look too "computer-y" (except in a few situations where it's called for). It's too perfect. Here, I wanted a human element involved, to make it look like someone got their fingers all smeared with charcoal or pastels.



As I work, I start to get a feel for the setting, the overall ambience of the place, and try to get that feeling across through my brushstrokes. At first, I want to show all the smoke in pure white, but once I darken part of it on the right side, it somehow feels better to me. It looks "right," somehow, and I leave it be. Sometimes initial ideas don't always work out the way you imagined it in your head. (Remember that big idea I had earllier, with that diagonal shadow splitting the image in half?)

So, alas, we have here the final image, after much tweaking and noodling. Of course, the more I look at this, the more things I want to change. Why is that always the case?

Illustration Friday: Black & White

Click on image for a closer look!

Black & white is the theme for this week's Illustration Friday, and so I just had to do it. I eeked out minutes here and there, spanning a couple of days, to work on it. Just a simple scene of some dude at a bar. That's all. Kinda dark bar, but that's the way those places usually seem to me, anyway. That is, if I ever find myself in one. Not much of a drinker, so this kind of environment is so foreign to me. Plus, I wanted to evoke the look of film noir a bit, with the harsh darks and spot lighting. I had fun with this IF entry.

UPDATE: See how I did this piece with a How-to!

Illustration Friday: Summer

Summer is the theme for this week at Illustration Friday and I first thought, "Gee, that's so...broad." I mean, c'mon! Let's come up with something a little more intriguing!

But then I thought, hey -- my little boy, Ezra is turning ONE today, and that's sorta in the summer, right? A birthday under the sun -- how appropriate. In fact, whenever I think of summer, I will always think of birthdays as Ava's birthday is also during this season.

Yes, Ezra is one year old. I cannot believe how fast this one is growing. Time is passing by me so quickly, I'm afraid I'm missing all the details. I can stop and notice the most minute of details on a series of drawings, or on a commerical being made, but can I do the same for my kids as they are growing up on a daily basis? Am I missing out? I do not want to miss anything. But it's so hard for me not to think this when I'm gone half the day at work. Oh sure, this sort of thing is nothing new. Old hat. Generation upon generation of fathers have gone through this. But this is me and I want to think that I'm different. So all I can do is just get the most out of my lunches with my family and then when I'm home after work. I try my best to go full-tilt with Ava and Ezra every single possible minute.

And thus, I want to get as much as I possibly can out of Ezra's first birthday today. Take it all in. Enjoy the moment.

Happy birthday, little buddy.

Click on image for a closer look.

Illustration Friday: Daring

The Heavens. That's what graff writers call the freeway billboards. To "hit the heavens," means to get your name up on one of these incredibly high signs. I've seen some mad painting done on some of the highest signs in Atlanta before, and I honestly don't know how they do it. Talk about daring. It's crazy.

All for the sake of getting your name up.

Illustration Friday: Reinvent

Click on image for a closer lookie-loo.

Silly me. I just had to do a piece for Illustration Friday incorporating "reinvent" with Madonna. Just HAD too, right?

I'm not an official Fan Of Madonna. Don't get me mixed up with those people (sorry Robert). However, I guess you could say that I'm fascinated and intrigued by the singer. You have to admit, she is one interesting person. I do like some of her work, especially the early albums. (I even saw her in concert in 1985. And guess who opened up for her? The Beastie Boys. They were phenomenal. All the teenybopper Madonna-wannabes hated them. I thought they were great. Oh, and I went to the concert because somebody gave me a free ticket. Just had to say that for posterity sake.)

And so, since Madonna's often been described as reinventing herself all the time, it just seemed appropriate for the occasion. I love the idea that Madonna could be a robot of some sort, able to switch identities all the time, with the simple change of a mask or appendage, since she seems to do this in real life without any trouble at all. When I started doing research on all her looks, I realized just HOW MANY Madonna had! What was I thinking? And by the way -- bonus points if you can name either the album, year or era for each of the Madonna-masks over on the right.

I know that it's a little different than from my usual work shown here, but I don't care. This style is more my "default" style, reverting back to my cartoon style of drawing. Not so stylized or intricate as my other work, but it was a whole heck of a lot of fun to work on, nonetheless. And I spent way too much time on it. I should've been working on other things at home -- there were so much more important things to do! What's up wit dat? Sheesh!

(Is it me, or does it look like she's holding the head of Michael Jackson?)

Illustration Friday: Alone

I started sketching in my sketchbook a while back, just off the top of my dome, freestyling. Whatever came to me, I would draw it. Sort of like stream of consciousness, you could say. So, out of this session, I started drawing this girl with a somber gait, and realized that there was a story here. This girl had a history. I drew a couple of other poses of this down-and-out kid, but this one was the first drawn and, thus, the most telling.

What is her story? Who knows? I imagined that this girl was one of those Hollywood Kids -- those runaway boys and girls you see asking for change on the famed boulevard. I hate to think about what they went through at their prospective homes to make them leave, but I don't wanna think too much about it or else I'll get depressed. (Jeez, here I go with another downer post right after Ava Thursday. What's up with that?)

Illustration Friday: Crowded

The theme is "crowded" for this week's Illustration Friday. This was probably the quickest I've ever done one. I had this idea of heads all squished together, did a quick search through other IF entries (I have this thing where if I find out if someone else did a similar concept or idea, I'll scrap it immediately and try to come up with something else), sketched it quickly on a piece of paper, scanned it, and painted it in Photoshop -- all within about 30 to 40 minutes. I'm having fun with this pastel brush they've got in Photoshop. I usually tweak some of the qualities to the brush, but I think it does a pretty good job getting that pastel look -- complete without all the chalk getting all over your hands and clothes. Can't beat that.

Illustration Friday: Ancient

I have to admit that I cheated on the illustration for Illustration Friday this go around. The theme this week was "ancient," and I really did not feel up to it. It was not my week to be all creative I guess, because, as mentioned before, when you're dealing with two sick kids, it's kinda hard to find inspiration. So I wasn't going to participate; I was going to post about something completely different today.

But I changed my mind when I had this one scan of a painting I did in my sketchbook last year of a 1956 DeSoto ad up on my computer screen. I was going to post it for another day, but when Andrea saw it she asked me if I was going to post this for Illustration Friday. She thought that it would fit the theme considering that some people would think that a car about 50 years old would be considered ancient. I felt that that might be stretching it a bit, but after some thought, I agreed with her. To some, a DeSoto from 1956 is ancient, but to me, those cars from that era are marvelous, beautiful works of art.

So, here's my entry. I didn't work on it this week, but it does fit the theme. Something a little different, but I hope you like it.

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Oh, and isn't this an animation blog? Hmm. I guess it is. Sorry about that. It seems that I've neglected in posting about things animation-related.

So uh, yeah. Expect some more animated posts soon. I promise!

Illustration Friday: Jazz

I can't tell you how excited I was to do this week's Illustration Friday theme. Jazz holds a very special place in my heart as Andrea and I both started listening to it during our first year dating. Lady Day, Ella, Louie, Bird and Monk became our new friends that rookie year, and as I took a Jazz History class in college, it further solidified my love for the artform.

Jazz is honest and pure. There's so much more I could write about it, but that would take a small eternity, and I wouldn't want to bore the socks off my entire audience. That is, if I haven't already.

Illustration Friday: Sorrow

It's taken me practically forever to finally get around and find the time to actually work on a piece for Illustration Friday, and of course it's a heavy one. The theme is "sorrow," and although I probably have not gone through the exact same situation as the subject in my piece is going through, I've experienced grief and sorrow to some extent. Haven't we all? Quite a universal theme for our times, I would have to say.