Wedding Present Painting Process (Part 1)

I only have one brother, and I suppose he will only be getting married once in his life (let's hope), so I decided to make a painting for my brother's wedding present.  At least one part of the present.  Here is my plan: 1) take a picture I took of them, 2) print it out in large format color photo and 3) make a painting out of it.  I have not painted an oil painting since high school, so this will be interesting to say the least.

So, here is the original photograph, taken in front of a fireplace at the family homestead.  As you can see, I did not do much in terms of composition as I was taking the photo.  I don't mind cropping on the computer.  This was one of maybe 10 photos I took, some blurry, some funny.  Why choose this one?  I think it is nice, and my dirty little secret is that since there are no faces to draw/paint, if things start going haywire in the painting process, this faceless photo can be turned into more of an abstract painting.  It is a cheat of sorts, but like I said, I have not painted since high school.

So, here is then what I cropped it to.  I cropped the photo and printed it to match the same 16" x 20" ratio.  Printed on the Epson Stylus Photo 1400 Large Format Photo Printer (C11C655001).

I was pleasantly surprised how the Staedtler HB pencil went on to the canvas (Windsor & Newton Artists' Quality pre-stretched canvas at 16" x 20".).  Wasn't sure if it would be better to use charcoal, a lighter pencil or a darker pencil.  I was even more pleasantly surprised to find that the pencil came off the canvas nicely simply using a kneaded rubber eraser.

And after starting to sketch right-side-up, I pretty quickly decided that wasn't going to work.  So, I employed an ancient artist's secret: flip what your drawing or flip your perspective.  When you are drawing something, especially people and people anatomy, unless you have laser vision and a photographic memory, when you look from the subject to the paper/canvas, your brain does funny things.  Your immediate sensory input is layered over and under with 1) what you see 2) what your pre-conceived notion/image of "hand" and "arm" and "shoulder" are, and 3) the fact that your arms are only so long, and if you can only reach a couple of feet to the paper/canvas, what you are drawing will look different than what you see from 5' away and 10' and 20'.  So, when you flip the subject, your eyes and more importantly you mind see less "arm" and "hand" and "brother and sister-in-law" and you see more "line" and "proportion" and "shape."  Proven scientifically, easy, no-brainer art technique.  Try it at home, kids.

So, below I have flipped the subject, grayscaled it, and show some point of interest in terms of the photo/painting's composition.

In terms of the composition's "weight", you can see that despite the human subjects being to one side in this photo, when you think of it in terms of shapes, white space, and textures, the brick fireplace background is not getting in the way at all.  And there are some interesting lines here.  The photo/painting will almost be divided in three sections (shown by the two longer arrows).  The two smaller arrows show some sub-divisions and some direction in terms of where the viewer's eye will be drawn.  I like also how the fireplace bricks have angular lines, and my brother's shirt has lines and there are some natural lines in the composition of the photo.

And below is sketch part 1.

Basic shapes, loose, rough, room to work in terms of refinement.  And my plan to flip the canvas and photo while sketching worked I think.  I don't think it would have turned out as well if I held the photo right side up. Although I am already seeing things I want to change, which is good, I suppose.

Here is sketch part 2, with a little more detail in terms of light and dark.

Next Post Preview: what paints and other materials I will be using, the first layers of paint, how does the sketch hold up.  I am sincerely hoping to remain honest through this process.  I kind of hope I run into some obstacles and problems so I can work through them and learn something.  Since this is for my brother's wedding present (and the wedding is in June), I will need to work pretty steadily over the next couple of months. And I am pretty sure oil painting can take a while to officially dry, too, so that will come into play.

The Devil and Mr. Gandhi

The 12-panel comic I promised.  In a previous post, "Indie Comics: Which Way to Go --> The Devil and Mr. Gandhi (the second direction)", I mentioned how indie comics seem to fall into 2 major categories: "real life" (think the trials and tribulations of a geek) and "archetype and foil" (think the odd couple).  This is definitely the latter.  The whole idea is to come up with crazy situations in which to place these two characters, one bent on causing havoc and hijinks (The Devil, a.k.a. Satan), the other determined to be nice and keep things in order (Mohandas Gandhi).

With regards to the coloring: I decided to go with something a little different than the standard black and white.  You will see this type of monochromatic printing style in indie comics.  It's not actually monochromatic in the strictest sense of the word.  There are the black letters, a yellowish orange color around the speech balloons, as well as at least two tones of orange used for shadow and the background.  Playing with the transparency of a layer painted in one color can get you an interesting effect.  Then you can decide what you want to stand out (in black or white, etc.) or fade into the background.  I added some halftones as well.  It is kind of a cheat in terms of coloring.  If I tried to stick with a cartoon palate of primary colors (which is basic) but then colored in every inch of the comic, it would take a very long time. Then do you do a shadow and highlight of each primary color used?  More time.  This is a quick way of adding color in a short period of time.

With regards to speech balloons: Doing 4 panels across on a standard 11x17 comic page makes the panels taller and skinnier.  For me, this makes it easier to devote a full third (or more) of each panel for a speech balloon.  Sometimes I just draw a drawing in a box and add the text below like a caption, other times I try to squeeze in a speech balloon and sometimes hide some of the original drawing.  Here, I hand drew the speech balloons into the drawing and then inked them over.  It gives it a more "hand-drawn" look, and for me, I see it as a matter of practice makes perfect.  I think having the balloons bust out of the panel boxes, and overlap with some of the character elements (like Satan's horns in panel 11), it adds more simple foreground-background depth.

You might also notice some swerving in the panel lines of this piece.  I usually decide on one of two ways to do this: either use a French curve stencil to do curves, and a ruler to draw the lines, or do it all freehand.  this was done freehand, which kind of makes the Photoshopped vector text a cop-out, but I don't care.  Freehand lettering so that it fits and looks good is hard as hell.  As you can see with both coloring and lettering I look for shortcuts.

Killing Time (Re-Posting Old Stuff) / Finding a Home

Although I am currently inking a one-page, 16-panel 12-panel (I can't count) comic involving Satan and Gandhi (gonna be awesome), it won't be done tonight.  So, here is a little blast from the past.  I have started and "stalled" in several other blogs involving my art.  I am hoping I have found a solid foundation with Ink Puddle as a way to talk about art techniques and solicit ideas and feedback.  So, to keep up the pace of regular postings, I will sometimes re-post previously posted pieces of art.  These two below were ones I posted on another blog as well as on my now defunct Facebook page.  They are tidbits, brief moments in time.  Not actually comics in terms of sequential art, because they have only one panel.  Any sequence or movement is implied through the dialog, but there is not second panel, no transition or movement or sequence proper.  But I think when you try to instill some emotion in the facial expression and eyes of someone and you add a dialog, you don't always need a second panel.  Emotion, dialog, caption.  I think those three things are necessary.

This first one is an imagined conversation.  Never really took place.  I read a lot of comics, but I do not read them non-stop every day.  I read a lot of other stuff, too, so there is a lot in the world of indie comics as well as mainstream stuff that I feel I am not caught up on. I have a whole back log of books I feel I should read and study.

I made this using basic brush work, scanned, with text and halftone effects added in.  This second one is a pretty common experience.  Conversation with friends in a car on the way to an event.

More halftoning with this one, too.  And again, no sequence to follow with multiple panels.

How Often Does Talia Shire Come Up in Conversation?

How Often Does Talia Shire Come Up in Conversation?

For me, quite often, and I can't tell how you how amusing I find it.  If you don't know who Talia Shire is, she was in two of the greatest movies ever made: Rocky (Adrian) and The Godfather (Connie).  I am not arguing that she is some kind of brilliant actress who deserves some kind of lifetime achievement award, but she is a solid actress who has been in two awesome movies, and I rarely hear her name mentioned in film conversations.

This first very short comic depicts a conversation that never actually took place at Jose Pistola's in Philly. It was only afterwards that I realized that Talia Shire was what connected the movie conversation we had, which centered on Rocky and The Godfather.

And it happened again.  This time, Talia's name was spoken aloud (at The Good Dog in Philly), and it felt good having her recognized for her place in cinematic history.

I think in some ways, Talia Shire is my litmus test for discussing movies.  If you can give Talia the props she deserves, you're okay with me.

Day in the Life (Art Store Encounter)

I know these drawings/comics aren't detailed works of art, but you have to understand that it is a moral victory for myself over myself that I have made two short comics in 2 nights.  Victory!  It gives me hope that I am not as lazy as I think.  This is another piece of autobiography.  This is a close approximation of something that happened to me today at Dick Blick in Philly.

Questions:  1) You seem to feature yourself in your comics a lot.  Are you a vain man?  No. 2) You showed yourself picking your nose in yesterday's comic and today you are on the toilet.  Why are you showing these odd images of yourself?  We all die, we all shit, we all pick our noses.  Why not show a piece of humanity that links all of us together?  And the fact of the matter is: I do have an LL Bean catalog in my bathroom and I do glance through it whilst doing that which I do do whilst there. 3) Is that really what the young lady's tattoo looks like?  No.  I do not have a photographic memory, so I had to improvise.

Committing Errant Thoughts to Paper / Another Dinosaur Entry

When something pops into your brain, it is best to put it on paper.  This can be tough.  Do you do thumbnail sketches? Do you make it into a larger project or do you push through and try to finish it as a kind of one-off one-night project?  It takes persistence, patience, and sometimes a commitment to make it a finished work with blemishes.  In other words, get it done, get it on paper, get it posted on the web, and get moving on another project.  No dilly-dallying, no saving it for another time.  If it's not perfect, who cares?  As long as you put forth effort, and publish it.  Put it out there. Thus...

I did this with pencil and inked over with a nib pen, with some text and text boxes added on the computer.  Using a brush would have 1) taken too long to finish and 2) probably would have been much more effort.  Am I lazy?  Sure, of course, but I also wanted to get it done, and move on.  So, with ink-stained hands, I waited for the ink on the paper to dry.  I didn't want to scan it too soon.  Never would I ever want to dirty my Epson GT-15000.

I am still learning the art of laying out a page and laying out a panel in such a way that there is composition to the artwork but also room for speech balloons and text boxes and/or room for other narrative text to be added in.  I definitely think in text and pictures when I am planning out a strip, but it is difficult to account for additional text.  It is a skill I have not yet mastered.  I feel like I also had to come to a decision as to whether the strip would be in B&W or color and if I would do any halftone effects as layers.  I went with "simple is best" and figured I would do a simple line drawing, no shadowing, no layers, no halftones.  Just what I drew with text added.

Some things to note: Is there nose-picking featured in this 8 panel comic strip?  Yes.  What are the circles / dots on the nose in panel 5?  They are large pores on my nose.  I am self conscious about the pores on my nose.  Did the dinosaurs really become extinct because of one erupting volcano? Yes, and you heard it here first. Why is the final panel bigger than the preceding panels?  Great question!  You know how TV sitcoms have a final closing joke?  Or how a Shakespearean sonnet has the final two lines as a rhyming couplet (g, g)?  I think comic strips can have that same punchline or closing or statement at the end, and having the final panel look different has some meaning to it.  I do the same thing in my The Devil and Gandhi comic.  In my moments of determination and inspiration (read: insanity), I think of doing 1 comic or cartoon a day.  Which I think I could do if I stick to simplistic drawings, or scan in pencil and forget about inking or draw in pen and forget about pencil, but I rarely do that.  I guess we will see what shows up tomorrow night.

Creating a Baby Bib

About 3 or 4 babies ago (not mine, mind you), I began sending custom bibs from CafePress to newborn babies of friends and family.  I started off with two basic designs: a blue color themed bear for boys, and a pink themed hippo for girls.  The animals are easy to draw in a cartoon fashion but also both bears and hippos are hungry or "hungy" animals, so I think it works.

So, I figure I would make a secondary design, this for a baby brother.  I decided to go with the bear theme again, but I am thinking a more babyish bear this time as this is a baby bear brother with the name Brian, so the alliterative quality should work to my advantage as well.

So, first I started off with some thumbnail pencil sketches.  Thumnail sketches should be small and quickly done with as many variations as you can think of.  Get ideas down on paper.  When you work small, proportions tend to come easier.  You don't have to worry about details.  They should be quick, short, sweet sketches as a way to sort through ideas and directions.  They don't even have to be complete.  It is literally brain-storming on paper.  Instead of just a bear face, I wanted to add a prop of some kind to do with eating.  Bowl? Spoon?, messy food?  I also thought it would cute to have the bear wearing cartoon bear footie pajamas.  Of course, this would require a full body profile, so maybe not.  I thought also of doing more of a book illustration watercolor, but then I remembered that I am not Beatrix Potter, and I didn't want to wait until the kid was 3 before he got his bib.

I went with a more finished take on the baby bear in a high chair, and it would up looking similar to the first bear design, which I thought was fine.  I think it should be easily recognizable as baby bear cub, and it has a setup: the spoons, the bowl, and the high chair.  This baby bear is ready to eat.  I purposefully made his bowl empty and the baby bear looking up to his mommy or daddy, like "where the F is my food?" The hearts symbolize LOVE, as in bears love to eat manflesh, but they sometimes have to settle for porridge.  So, here is the finished non-reproducing blue colored pencil sketch.  And the very minor alterations as a black sumi ink sketch.

Colored, and text added, and submitted.  I went with a slightly reddish-brown hue for the bear's fur so I could still do a brown spoon.  Here is what the CafePress delivered product should look like.

CafePress is sometimes awesome, sometimes disappointing, but it's the thought that counts.  Maybe when I have a full-fledged studio running with a team of eager interns ready to do one-off custom silk screen jobs, then I can do some personal quality control.