A Grave Mistake

Some of you may have noticed every post that was put up by me no longer has photos...
I accidentally deleted an album on my Google+ account and now they are no longer available. I'm  very angry that I could delete images on a totally different website and it could effect something that I'm connected to. I'm not a fan of every account ever being connected.

Well every photo I've ever posted here now is grey with a symbol over it. Yay.


Updates that I WON'T DELETE are coming soon.

-Allison

3 Weeks In...

    It's been a while since I/we last posted, but we're now three weeks into the semester and we have a bunch of work to share. This semester I am in Painting II, Digital Painting, Intro. to Illustration, Illustration II, Calligraphic Drawing, and Figure Drawing.

    These are shots of my still life I did for the first two classes/weeks of Painting II. The goal was to zoom in and choose an interesting intersection of objects. I found the negative space behind the cup to be interesting so I started there. Our instructor encouraged us to work out from a point rather than focus on shapes/objects, more on color relationships. I think the painting turned out pretty well. I'm goign to use more color in my darker values/shadows for the next piece though.

[focus still life]

     I just thought this picture of the painting was interesting so I'm posting it as well.

[focus still life]

    I really enjoy my Figure Drawing class, there isn't an open one on Thursday nights yet, but I get an entire day Friday to do it. I'm actually very happy with how I'm drawing figures from observation, my next trick is to take what I'm seeing and create my own figures from my mind. I need to be able to do so for character/costume design.

[figure drawings]

[figure drawings]

[figure drawings]

[figure drawings]

    For homework we had to do a self portrait of our whole body, this is an in progress shot.

[self portrait figure drawing]

    In Digital Painting we had an image of a styrofoam sphere that was lit and we painted from it. For about an hour and a half I fell prety good about it. I'm not used to trying to replicate reality when I paint in photoshop. This class is going to be good for me.

[digital painting still life]

[digital painting sketch homework]

[marker concept/sketches]

    I've also been trying to use my "spare" time in between classes better, so I've been sketching with my markers.

    The next post won't be as large, but hopefully I'll have some of my personal work/studies to share as well. 

-Cody

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    Hello, it's been a long time since I've written on the blog. I'm getting back into the habit of doing art everyday, I took a little break on doing art. 

[Allison drawing]

    Above, I'm doing a self portrait in a mirror, in a very painful position. I've had to redo it three times now so hopefully the third time it will be more successful.

[body part painting in progress]

    This painting is of Cody's knee, I'm doing for figure painting. It is supposed to be a body part as an abstract representation.  Our assignment is to zoom in close until  it's semi-unrecognizable. I'm still working on it and his leg looks super muscular. I used a flat rubber spatula to paint this one.  

[plein air cemetery painting]

    The cemetery I painted above is near the school, it's a little gloomy but I guess it fits the mood of the location. It's very messy but I like the feel of it. It's on a long canvas and I got a severe sunburn while painting it. Worth it, maybe. 

[plein air underpainting]

    This is an under painting from a location near the cemetery, I may go back to it depending on if our class does. I might go there on a free day and finish it. It's coming out nicely I've always been really lazy with my under paintings so this was refreshing to do. 

[body part painting]

    These two figure painting are done with no specific techniques. I like my figure painting class. It's great study for figures and learning on how the figure bends and which muscles are prominent in different positions.

[body part painting]

    Until next time, when I'll have more work to show. 

-Allison

 

A Little More Traditional...

    The past few weeks have been busy, we've had two pretty full classes of pre-college students. Last week was drawing, this week is painting. While working with the students and the instructors I've had the opportunity to work and learn some myself. 

[figure drawing]

    For one afternoon I sat in with a figure drawing course and sketched for a while. I also have a portrait I did of one of our recent graduates. I'll scan it eventually.

[monochromatic still life]

    I did this while the girls in the painting class[THE WHOLE CLASS IS GIRLS] were working over the past day or so. I painted the entire thing with my palette knives, I'm glad I had a chance to develop the way I was painting at the end of last semester. I feel like I'm learning almost as much as all of the students in the classes, just different things. 

[charcoal under-drawing]

    In the afternoon today everyone did a pretty quick charcoal drawing that we're then going to have shellacked and develop further with layers of glazing and painting on top. I've never worked with a technique like this and it sounds fun. I enjoy working in more traditional ways to learn to see and paint/draw. It's easing me back into how I'll be working for most of the semester, but I've lost some time/steam on my digital work again.

    I'd like to be able to focus more, but I don't have a studio of my own or anything any my room isn't really the best environment to focus in. There's one more week of pre-college courses that I'm working with, then one off and classes start again. Summers seem shorter when you have to work through them.

-Cody

"Time is an illusion." -Albert Einstein 


check me out on the Instagrams

Final Render

    Friday was the last day of the Zbrush/digital sculpture class that I was assisting with. I learned a lot over the course of the week, helping out where I could mostly with technical things. I think the model turned out alright for my first try. A lot of the time spent was struggling to learn the interface, I have a basic understanding of sculpture, but Zbrush is a completely different tool set than my loop tools and carving knives. 

[rhino beetle sculpt day 4]

    There are a few things I can see that I need to work on, the structure of the rhino's head underneath could be a little more realistic. It looks pretty close to my design, but I feel like his skull is a little oddly shaped to me. I would rework his eyelids and the cavity around his eyes as well. I do like the mandibles and the transition from the muzzle area to it's skin. 

[rhino beetle sculpt day 5 final render]

Not too much else today, but tomorrow I start with monitoring the next class. Animation.

-Cody

Backups and Updates

    I've talked about grabbing an external hard drive to backup all of my work for about a year now. I finally grabbed a terabyte to keep my work/reference on. I've also been working on my rhino beetle model while monitoring/working as well. I'm pretty happy with where the sculpt is getting to now.

[rhino beetle sculpt day 2]

[rhino beetle sculpt day 3]

[rhino beetle sculpt day 3 with texture]

    Near the end of today we were being shown how to quickly unwrap the mesh and edit the UV map texture. So I quickly edited some insect shell, and rhinoceros skin textures together. It ends up looking like a late 90s show/game textured up. He looks like a high res textured version of some sort of Beast Wars Fuzor. I kinda' dig it... at the moment.

[vehicle studies]

     Learning about 3D modeling and trying to get back into the flow of drawing everyday again has me thinking about how school and my future job prospects will play out. So hopefully I can be prepared for work/life after Lyme Academy.

[creature sketch]

    I've added a few sketches/studies fro, yesterday and today as well.

-Cody

    

I think it Could Use More Dinosaurs...

    I've started my new job at the school and I'm liking it so far. Until the summer classes start up that I'm to monitor/assist with in a couple of weeks I'm pretty much a whatever needs to be done guy. The last coupe days I've been a graphic designer.

    I have been drawing when I can, still not enough though.

[figure studies]

    I've found some time to get some studies in, but I need to make more time to apply what I'm studying after each day. To design my own vehicles, creatures, and characters.

[vehicle studies]

    I haven't had enough time to draw more dinosaurs like I had wanted to before Jurassic World comes out THIS FRIDAY. I did get a couple new Jurassic park shirts, so I'll have to decide which out of the 5 dinosaur shirts I own I'll wear on Friday... I definitely want to get in some more dinos in my days. I'll try to get a few in tomorrow, we'll see.

[acrocanthosaurus sketch]

[raptor sketch]

    I've got a lot of catch up to do if I want to hit 30 dinosaur sketches by the end of Jurassic June here. So maybe one day will just be nonstop dino drawing after work or something.

"Life, uh, finds a way." -Ian Malcolm 

-Cody

Studying Away

     I've been getting some work done most days, last week I missed a few in my schedule, but I'm determined not to this week.I'm trying to make sure I hit a little bit of everything each week. Vehicles one day, environments another, animals, and characters...

    Early last week I got a few vehicle sketches in, I'm trying to work on my perspective above most other things. It's one of my weaker skills.

[vehicle studies]

    I also worked on some black and white environment sketches as well. This week after I get a good sketch I want to develop it further. Hopefully I can start pulling some portfolio pieces out of my studies. I'm still having a hard time creating a real sense of depth though, another thing to push. 

[environment studies]

    After those sketches I started on an idea I've had for a long time, that until I understood applying perspective was baffling me. It's just a double floating pyramid in a city, but I couldn't do it 1 or 2 years ago.

Progress? I may come back to it, or go at it from another vantage point/composition later.

[environment concept in progress]

    Today though i was working on some animal studies, birds in particular since they are dinosaurs. I want to be able to bring the real traits and postures of living birds into extinct dinosaurs. The dinosaur sketch I ended up doing has a kind of silly pose/stance. So I'll play with that more next time.

[bird studies]

[dilophosaurus sketch]

    There's a group/movement on Twitter and other sites called Jurassic June, where people are celebrating the Jurassic Park franchise for the entire month. Seems like a good month to pick with the new movie coming out IN ELEVEN DAYS. I'm going to try and get a dinosaur into my studies each day if I can so here's another chunk of Dino A Days.

    Allison's been drawing and painting almost every day with her classes in Italy, hopefully she can share some pictures of what she's been doing tomorrow. If not it may be another few days because she's taking a few day trip to Rome, and Pompeii. She better have 2 billion photos for me on her memory card when she gets home.

-Cody

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Summer Work

    I finally have some time to work on some art and share what I'm up to. I've been drawing/sketching most days, but until this weekend I hadn't buckled down. So I've got a plan to keep myself working every day.

    I'm still working with a friend of a friend on a game project, it's shifted away from the armadillo character, but that's alright. We're gaining steam and more team members so I'm looking forward to working on it more. I had misunderstood what the art direction for a character and I ended up with something sci-fi and we're actually going with high fantasy...

[unapproved centaur knights]

    Last week I did a spitpaint[30 minute speedpaint] based on the prompt "fish car", I've been watching Design Cinema videos by a great concept artist and teacher Feng Zhu lately. So I essentially did a quick exercise he suggests of re-skinning something with the attributes of another. Hence the fish shuttle.

[fish "car" spitpaint]

    I actually sat down to do some re-skinning sketches and there are what I came up with. I'm trying to pay more attention to perspective, but I know I can do even better. I do like what I ended up with though. It's all good practice. I'll push myself more in the coming weeks. 

[fish inspired spacecraft]

    I still plan to photograph all of my work from the 2 semesters at Lyme, but I'm not too good with my camera, so I'm waiting until Allison gets back from her trip.

    While she's gone though I start my new job at Lyme Academy, I'll be monitoring the digital studio and helping out faculty with summer courses for high school students all summer. I'm pretty excited, it's a little closer to my end job than the meat department is.

-Cody

Final Days

    We're down to the last full week of the semester and we've got a lot of stuff we're working on. Nearly every class has some sort of final piece/assignment due this week or the beginning of the next.

    I'm finally making headway on my actual watercolor/colored pencil piece for Illustration I. I thought both of my illustration classes assignments were going to be due tomorrow, but we have another week so I have plenty of time to get them to where I want them. Hopefully.

[fruit illustration in progress]

    I've started my final painting which is due sooner than my illustrations... but I'll get it done. Allison and I went down to my grandparents house and I had her lean against a shed/garage for  a while. I don't know why, but for my traditional work I really like long vertical compositions so that's what I went with.

[exterior with figure in progress]

    I've finally got a photo of my ogre sculpture to share, I grabbed a black wig today at the store so I can make his hair tendrils and grease it up a bit. His name is Sticky Hair after all.

[3D illustration in progress]

    He's going to be a very "non-traditional" looking ogre and I think it's going to work. We'll see by next Tuesday.

-Cody

    Busy,busy,busy. I've been working for hours on my pieces. I'm almost done with them though, considering finals are this week and next week. I've been working on my art work so much I forgot about my writing assignments. This week  I have photos of my Sculpture project, Pastel final, and Independent Drawing Projects finals. 

[kaiju sculpture in progress]

   My kaiju(monster) is being developed with the muscles now. I'm excited to work on it because its something really cool. We are doing figures in sculpture right now so this is a nice break from a human figure. I'm gonna work on it and bring out the details once I figure out the musculature. 

[pastel interior in progress]

   This pastel piece is to replicate Film Nior sense of style. I will darken the edges and finish the stairs, the light space will be in the center, and everything else will be in shadow.

[pastel and independent drawing projects work]

   The piece on the right is one of my stencil paintings/drawings. It is a mixed medium piece, and It displays a topic I truly am invested in as a feminist.  Not the " man hating" feminism...
   The background looks better than before, but still empty. I'm at the point where I'm not sure what to do, for a fear of making it worse.

[independent drawing project in progress]

This is another stencil I was working on, it is an abandoned building with employee records as the background. I'm not sure if I like this version. Luckily I have a stencil and can remake it as many times as I please! The joy of stenciling!!! 

-Allison

Circle of Life Brother... Circle of Life...

    Not too much to share tonight, I haven't been grabbing enough photos from Figure Drawing or Drawing I, but I do have some stuff from Illustration. Below is my last digital/color study before I wnet to move on to my final in watercolor, ink, and colored pencil. Which I'm actually liking a lot. I can work fairly quickly with this combination of media. the most time was spent in "pre-production" designing and actually drawing the animal/scene. 

[final color study]

    For my final I fixed my watercolor paper to some Masonite board I picked up, which is super affordable by the way, so that the paper wouldn't buckle as I painted and worked on it. I'm also going to try and use the Masonite for panels in Painting I for my final homework assignment as well as my last in class pieces.

[traditional media study and final in progress]

    For the illustration though I was feeling that the pomegranates weren't clearly symbolic enough within the piece. So I'm going to give them Byzantine style halos with orbit/planetary rings within them. Which I feel makes it more stylish and makes the fruit more evidently important. I'm going to try to actually gold leaf the circles, which should look super spiffy once it's done if I can do it correctly[I don't think I'm going to use real gold for my first try here though].

    It's odd how themes and ideas link between thoughts and actions. The main idea in this piece is very similar to something I'm writing about in my English class, the cycles of themes, thoughts, and ideas.

    Tomorrow in painting we're going to be starting some landscape painting, so I'm going to finish preparing those panels.

-Cody

Something to Show

    In my painting class we've been working on painting the figure, I had started late due to my scheduling, but I think it actually turned out very well. I'll have to take another photo of it, because the picture we got the night of the show was taken in poor lighting.

[figure in interior painting]

    I've taken to laying most of my paint down in top of my sketch and under-painting with my palette knife. I think it's because it feels so much like painting digitally, laying smooth thick colors sharply and accurately. I like this painting a lot, I'll grab a nicer photo this week.

    Friday was the Opening for the Senior Exhibition, we went and had a pretty good time. A lot of people showed up and the work was great. Everyone had a few pieces in the main gallery, which looked very nice. I feel like the real show took place in each artist's individual studio.

    All of the seniors each had decked out their own studios full of more work, their sketches, reference, and other work in progress. Seeing all of the work really gets me excited for next year and going forward where I'll have more freedom to develop my own work.

[Jaroslav's studio]

    My favorite work was Jaroslav Kosmina's, he's working on a lot of stuff that interests me. Creature design, and environment work. He's taking it more in a large fine art direction at the moment, but I feel like he's truly a designer/concept artist at heart.

[Sobura maquette and drawing]

    Jaroslav's work is technically fantastic, his creatures look believable, they definitely look like they could hold their weight and smash your towns with that weight. I've been trying to study animal anatomy some in my sketching time.

[Jaroslav's studio/work]

    Seeing work of this quality inspires me to push my drawing and designing skills even more. I want my senior show to be as good as it can be. I want my work to be good enough to get me a job/work after I graduate. So I want to spend as much time as I can outside of working learning even more.

    If you want to check out Jaroslav's work head over to his Facebook Page. 

-Cody

    There are many things wrong with my figure in the image down below. I fully understand that. We just started working on them on Friday with a live model. I'm filling in her arms still and her breasts are still too small. I keep focusing on local sizing comparisons not overall sizing comparisons. Her neck is too thin and I've been working my way right to left, I tend to do that with almost all of my sculpture pieces.

    I'm in the middle of a "What am I going to do with my life" crisis, so I'm trying to straighten my self out by working harder. A few people talked to me yesterday about getting my butt in gear. I'm feeling down about how far I've gotten, and what I was suppose to do to become successful. I'll keep you updated on what I figure out. 

[Allison's figure sculpture in progress]

-Allison