Just updating a bunch of stuff from my sketchbook the past couple of months. Usually every week after work a bunch of us will get together, eat some pizza, and jam on a sketch topic for a couple of hours. These are some sketches from the last couple topics, plus some random stuff here and there.

Finally, after weeks of waiting, getting the wrong parts, getting the right parts, and trying to navigate terribly-designed auction house websites, I got my cintiq set up at home! Super big win for me. I honestly didn't expect it to have as big of an impact as it did; I spent the entire day after I set it up painting, almost ten hours straight. It was great, and here's some of the things I worked on over the last two weeks. Some random stuff I've been playing around with, getting used to the whole digital set-up.

I've been kinda bouncing around different projects, as my interest in things jumps all over the place. I went to Gnomon workshop that was hosting art demos by several artists a few weeks past, and though they each had different styles and techniques, I was nonetheless blown away by their collective ability to begin loosely and quickly problem solve as they went. My own process has been very labor intensive and grinding, trying to break down all the problems before I begin, and seeing their casual approach has made me rethink the way I begin a painting. I've been obsessing over two pieces I have in the fire right now, and the stress of getting things right has made me too rigid and unable to play and learn. Going over my old sketchbooks, I think I can probably pull a few loose ideas I didn't do anything with, and just approach them with an open mind, and focus on learning rather than completing. Basic stuff, but things I always seem to forget about. With that attitude, I took my sketch from two weeks ago and tried to keep an open approach. I did one version where I was just thinking about color as design, and then another where I played around with light and texture, using a bunch of brushes I found sitting around the attic of my computer.

Racing Panda Cupcakes

Here's a sketch I made for my brother's birthday. Key words were racing, panda, and cupcakes. I might on into this with some color later? We'll see.

Salamander Tea

Alright, another post finally. I've been in the process of moving from the East coast to the West, and that's shuffled a lot of my priorities in terms of making art around. Getting used to the new job and the expectations as well as finding a place to live ate up a lot of my energy, but I'm finally almost settled, and hopefully I can start working again. I'm pretty excited, I have a lot of new ideas that have been just sitting around collecting dust, so hopefully I can sit down and get some pencils moving around. I've been thinking about how the most interesting animals I've been drawing have always ended being amphibians, so I thought I might as well continue the trend and see where it goes. From what I remember in elementary school, salamanders are also amphibians, and I wanted to combine that with an earlier idea about taking a kind of tea bath. For whatever reason, tea's always been fascinating to me. The history of it, the ritual involved, its aroma and properties, the way it appears dried up and boxed in a thousand different strains; its cool. I'm getting a little noodle-y with tweaking the composition in photoshop, but I'm enjoying working again. Feedback about composition balance or anything else is always welcome.

So, I haven't been updating this blog that much, but that's going to change. Hopefully. My mid year's resolution is start getting this blog a little more active, and to kick it off, I'm posting a couple of things I've been kicking around for the last couple months, plus some sketches for a new idea. To start, here's an illustration I was working on a few months back. It's a scene from one of my favorite books, The Yiddish Policemen's Union. The story is very good, and the characters are so fleshed out that you can really picture what they look like.

And here's some sketches for a new story I was putting together in my head. It's a story I started thinking about back in college, and its basically about a girl riding a turtle through this vast area. I leaned a lot towards Wild West trappings back when I first started, but I've been thinking that maybe the world would be more interesting as a Silk Road trading route type of place, rather than strictly Western. I've been looking at a lot of Arabic art and dress, and I'm looking to infuse more of that into the look and feel. I've just been thinking mostly about the characters, and some weapons and jars, but I'm looking to do some sketches of environments and the world.

And last stuff, here's some digital sketches: