Art Exclusive
I have almost filled this new sketchbook and I have really enjoyed the watercolors spattered in it. This one is from photo reference. |
Completed Projects
| Election! I made this illustration for election day and someone commented that it doesn’t make sense to have two animals not native to the USA representing the political parties. I agree and I think we should recast. My vote is for Wolves and Bison, what do you think?  Inktober This year I drew superheroes as my theme and I tried out something different compositionally. I attempted to draw all 31 characters on a single landscape page. This went sideways on me fast and I realized that I was not going to have enough room for a 31 member team. As a result, I decided to make two teams, heroes, and villains! Here they are in all their beauty. I have ordered prints 12″x24″ $25 + shipping & handling. Email me if you are interested, I will add it to my store later.   |
Current Projects
| TOT Still inking this project, my goal is to finish chapter 2 before Thanksgiving. Here is a page I did recently that I am exceptionally proud of.  Slow-vember I am very excited to be taking a break this week from daily postings. However, I am still going to take this month and focus on an art project. Lee White created this challenge called Slowvember to encourage artists to take a step back from the rush and intensity of regular month challenges to create quality over quantity. I have been wanting to do a large scale illustration that is well thought out and carefully composed for a while now. Most often I draw something quick because I want to make the most of my time, but for this project, I am going to slow down. I plan to catalog the process and share it next month. |
Upcoming Projects
| #DnDCember Last year I created #DnDecember. This year I am adding a spin and drawing characters from DC comics as D&D characters. I have included an option to roll for the class, but I have many of them already picked out. Feel free to follow and participate on Instagram.  |
Art Lesson
| Color Part 1: Color is very complex, therefore this will take several lessons. First off, there are two color mixing systems: Additive and Subtractive. Additive Color Mixing: Colors created with light in which the absence of light equals black and the presence of all light equals white.  Subtractive Color Mixing: Colors created by adding pigments together that suck in light in which No pigment equals white and the presence of all pigment equals black.  Color mixers A computer screen is Additive and operates in RGB. It mixes Red Green and Blue (RGB) lights together in different amounts to create different hues that your eyes observe as separate colors. Think about it, when your computer goes to sleep it is what color? Black. A printer is Subtractive and operates in CMYK. It mixes Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (CMYK, I don’t know why Black is K either…) ink together in different amounts to create different hues that your eye observes as separate colors. This is why you can’t print on black paper, because there is no white ink in the printer, when you have white in an image it is actually the white of the page coming through. CMYK can only mix 16,000 colors. RGB can mix an astounding 16,777,216 colors! Next month I’ll discuss the three components of every color. |
Philosophical Rant
| Deep Vs. Shallow I am exerting an effort this week to be as focused as possible. One way that I am pursuing this is by planning Deep and Shallow work in shifts.  Deep work is work that requires my full focus. This includes writing, thumbnailing, planning, emails, and this eNewsletter. I find that I work best at these tasks with nonlyrical music or no music. It usually takes me about 15-30 minutes to get into this work because it is not my favorite because it is hard. But once I am over that initial hump, then I am off to the races! Shallow work is work that is very zen and is simply going through the motions of a proficient task. This includes inking, painting, scanning, formatting, and coloring. (yes, I am an adult who colors for a living…). This type of work is not very taxing on my brain, and I often enjoy listening to an audiobook or podcast during this work. My retention of what I listen to is not perfect but it is much better in these shallow tasks than the Deep tasks. I noticed last week that I was trying to listen to a book while doing deep work and the work was half-baked. And then I tried to turn off all distractions and do shallow work, but I got bored and easily distracted. I’m hoping to pair up my work and media more effectively this week. I am very excited about this week. I have planned most of my days to be Deep, Shallow, Lunch, then Deep, Shallow again. Thankfully I have plenty of both types of work to keep me balanced. I am excited to see how this improves my workflow. Stay safe out there, love each other, and create beautiful things. Cheers, A |
