Avoiding Carpol Tunnel Syndrome I perform a lot of activities with my hands. Sketching, painting and typing. Sometimes that gets to be too much and my wrists start to hurt. I've learned to take a break because if I continue my wrists get seriously injured and that can take three weeks to heal. There are ways to get around this while still typing. You can setup voice recognition software but I often stick an unsharpened pencil perpendicular in my brace so the end is caught on the strap between my index finger and thumb. With the other end I can peck the keyboard without any strain to my wrists. There's a life hack for you. I'm such an addict to my computer and this allows me to continue using it.
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Character Bios I'm considering making a label for character biographies and adding concept art to each one. This way people can find new insight and description for my characters when reading my book. It took several failed attempts but I finally got a good sketch of Spiral. Drawing women is hard. I have massive respect for comic book artists. There's a formula for drawing the face: first I draw a circle and extend it into an egg shape. Then I draw a line halfway down the head and divide it into fifths; this will become the eyes. The head is five eyes wide with a single width in between the actual eyes. Then I draw an equilateral triangle from the outside corners of the eyes down the face. Where this ends marks the mouth. One third of the way up from the mouth is the bottom of the nose. Even with these guidelines, my faces often go awry. It's hard to get the eyes to mirror each other but practice makes... well better anyway. Here's how my Spiral sketch tu
So, What's Next? I completed my novel, which took over 2 years, and my painting. It's nice to get projects done. I've uploaded some sketches of monsters from my drawing pad and will talk more about them later. I've also been brainstorming the outline of a sequel and drawing characters from my novel as concept art. Drawing women is hard; I have great respect for comic book artists who can sketch all kinds of poses in perspective without reference. It took several attempts but I finally got a good sketch of Spiral; it's not yet complete. My wrists are a little sore from doing so much work so I'm taking a break tomorrow. I should have the sketch done in a few days. For now please enjoy this golem I drew. It took several tries to get the flow of the pose right.
Painting a Bouquet on Photoshop My project is finally complete. Here is the finished version: First I found an image of a bouquet. Then I sketched a mushroom shape to guide the dimensions of the bouquet. I sketched in the flower shapes. Next I filled in the details. In photoshop, using a tablet, I painted each flower layer by layer. Finally I filled in the details and added a background. Thank you for your patience. This has been my longest project so far. If you like creative projects stick around for more in the future and share this blog so it can grow.
The Problem With Printers If you worked in an office during the 90s you probably remember the behemoths that were office printers. They occupied the same space as a table and rarely worked. It was infuriating. In fact, the movie Office Space had a whole scene where disgruntled workers were trashing that kind of equipment with bats. We've come a long way since then; instead of raging over massive paper jams in the office or printing store, we can do that from the comfort of our own homes. Yep, I finally finished editing my book and tried to print it out only to be met with three separate error messages. The cyber apple doesn't fall far from the silicon tree. Fortunately I got the printer open and tore the jammed paper out with pliers. Apparently a 251 page document was too much for my printer to handle. Now I've got a fully printed manuscript to give to close family and friends to read and give impressions for. That's the next step. I'm also working on
Sharing Creative Projects I'm very close to finishing the editing of my book then I'll pass it around to some people I know for impressions. Sharing artistic or literary projects can be a difficult thing to do. I've spent thousands of hours on my book. I really have to steel myself to be ready for the world to judge it. Being a perfectionist makes sharing even harder. I feel good about my manuscript but it's my first time publishing one. Publishers are notorious for rejecting people's work. The important thing is to not get discouraged and keep at it. The first step is to get feedback from people I know, then to hire an editor, agent and artist to design the cover. The process can be taxing both mentally and monetarily. I'll keep you updated. Wish me luck.
Lengthy Art Projects I'm still figuring out how to format this blog. My aim is to produce content at a steady rate but certain art projects, like painting the bouquet I sketched, are proving to be very time consuming. Rather than put full projects into one daily post, I'm considering making several update posts followed by one final overview of the project. For now I'm continuing to paint over my bouquet sketch with a tablet on phototshop. Photoshop uses layers and this makes painting very convenient because I needn't worry about paints running together and can simply paint one flower at a time. First I painted the green leaves for a background and proceeded to create layers over that. With many flowers I would paint the shadowy back petals first than the illuminated ones on top of them. Please be patient as I hope to have results soon although there is still much to be done.
Update on Projects in Progress I'm still working on several projects that haven't come to fruition yet. I'm nearing the end of editing my novel. Then I'll give the manuscript to people close to me and get their feedback on it. My bouquet sketch has turned into a painting project and that's ended up being larger than I though. I've also been trying to get a good sketch of my character Spiral but they haven't turned out satisfactory yet. Please be patient; hopefully I'll have results to show soon. For the time being here's Arwen helping me draw:
Hiking in Colorado If you're in the front range area you'll frequently see and hear about people hiking. Colorado is a beautiful state of mountains and national forests. I try to bring a camera with me when I go. Here are some scenic pictures from hiking trails. Chautauqua Rabbit Mountain Sawhill Ponds The Anemone Trail
Sketching a Bouquet In this project I'm going to sketch and paint a bouquet. Step 1 is to find a photo online or order a real one as a reference. Here's the photo I used: From there I draw the vase and a mushroom shaped hood indicating how far out the flowers reach. Then, as shown here, I draw the shapes of the individual flowers. In the next step I fill them in with tender loving care. In part 2 I'll paint over it.