Back to Basics

Life is still busy. My interest in Illustration Friday has tapered off. I wasn't in a good head space to really come up with something good/interesting/witty with the last few topics. Also, I haven't been nuts about the topics either.

At any rate, (I think I say that a lot). Here's an older one just in case there is anyone out there that comes by semi-frequently (if you do I'd love to hear from you). I think I'm going to go back to drawing these abstract charcoals. They seem more moody to me than some of the other digital work I was doing.

Illustration Friday - Emergency

OK, well after two weeks of very weak digital entries for Illustration Friday on my part I decided to go back to basics. I pulled out the coloured conte sticks and just let it flow.

Here are my thoughts around this week's challenge and my response. When you have this big emergency happening (and I have had a few in the last twelve months) there's all this commotion around you. The emergency is staring you in the face ready to consume you. It's big and scary and your adrenaline is pumping. Yet, you can focus and be calm. Thoughts become sharp like razors. Know what you have to do and execute it. This is how came to my image for this week.

An interesting side note, I could see anger being very similar to danger. Maybe more red. But instead of a focus the middle is empty.

Let me know your thoughts, and please check out the rest of my blog by clicking on the header. I warn you though, my last two are slightly embarrassing. I was going to delete them, but I figured it's a good reminder of how things can go bad.

Colour Conte Abstract

Ok here's a quick one. The colours got dulled a little bit during the scan.

Back to the Charcoal

I haven't posted a charcaol abstract in a while so I figure I'd pull one out of my stash. I've also been busy with life in general.

Here's one from a few months back. Again, just sitting and drawing and sketching away until something came out.

Lately I've been trying to do more work in Illustrator and Photoshop. Those are both pretty big applications and you can do a TON of stuff with them. I'm just trying to learn how to master them. I don't know why I find Illustrator difficult. Connecting all the line segments and whatnot together and then making something out of them. I find Photoshop a lot easier.

At an rate, here's my drawing. I called it 'Roots'. Enjoy.

As always, any comments are appreciated.

Illustration Friday - Twist

Here's my entry for "Twist". This week was more just playing around in Photoshop than anything serious. I'll admit, I think this week's topic was a little weak. I have another ideas kicking around in my noodle not sure if I'll get to it though.

Tutorial Fun - Green Bubbles

Here's a quicky little thing that I did following a tutorial from the magazine "Photoshop Creative". It's $20 bucks and comes from the UK. It's a good magazine, you just have to pick and choose the issues you buy.

At any rate, here's some green bubbles.

Illustration Friday - Rejection

Here's my entry this week for Illustration Friday - Rejection. I sat and thought about it and had a couple of ideas. One of them was already done a few times (kids rejecting food). I didn't want to do a sad person sitting in a corner.

So the idea I came up with based around the actual point of rejection. I was trying to capture the moment of rejection; the expulsion of something unwanted, pushing away and getting rid of whatever.

I also figured I'd do something more abstract/figurative. Also seeing as my blog is called "Daily Charcoal" I figured I should do something using charcoal.

I believe the images above capture that. Let me know what you think.

Which way is up?

I'm trying to figure out which way this goes better. I had originally thought the drawing should be oriented with the buildings/boxes going up. I didn't think it looked right so I rotated the image. Let me know what you think?

Squares 2

Here's another 'squares' one. I know they aren't really squares, but thats ok.

Squares

Here's a quickie post. I've also taken another crack at the Conte City desktop (1600 x 1200). Enjoy!

edit 1: I don't konw why you can't click on the pictures. I'll take another crack at it later on tonight. I tried something and it didn't quite work. I will try again.

edit 2: The desktops are based on sketches that I've scanned in and photoshopped.

edit 3: Yay, got it working!

Fox or Owl?

My back catalogue is almost depleted. I'm starting to run out of drawings. I need to get cracking on more. At any rate here's another one. Is anyone reading this blog anyways?

Staircase

Here's a spooky dreamy staircase drawing. It's from my primary school. I've seen this image in my dreams a few times.

Avocado

Here's another colour conte. This is another one that spontaneously came together. The only bummer is that my sketchbook is bigger than my scanner so I can't get the full image on here. You can't see the vignetting I did all the way around the image. It really frames the drawing and gives it a much better look. I might try and take a picture of the full drawing and put it up at a later date.

Chef in Love

Ok, finally a real colour one. The colour is actually more intense than this. I didn't fiddle with the settings while scanning and/or play with it within Photoshop.

I still like doing my abstract charcoals though, but it's good to mix it up.

Oh I'm also making the images a little smaller and lower resolution. I think it makes them easier to view online.

A Man, A Tower, A Door

Here's another conte abstract. Kinda dreamy. The tones are a little more muted that I would have liked.

Arizona

Here's another conte sketch. Like most of my drawings this started out as nothing. As I progressed it started forming these cactus like shapes. I've been to Scottsdale Arizona, it's a nice place to visit. Not sure if I want to live there. At any rate, the drawing started to remind me of my time there. Very dry, brown and hot.

Finally, colour! Well sort of.

How about an abstract conte drawing? Enjoy!

Two cities

OK, here's a couple of newer drawings that I like. So far I've had one comment, so to show my appreciation to the one guy who left me a comment I'm going to post a couple more city drawings for him. The first one is was accidental, but it did give me the idea for my second drawing. Hope you enjoy them.

Coming soon... COLOUR DRAWINGS!

Here piggy, piggy, piggy

I've got a confession to make, these aren't so much as 'daily' as I have a stockpile of sketches I've been doing since March-ish. I think I may have peaked on the abstract art with my charcoal lines. I still don't mind doing them, they are really just a form of relaxation for me. Most of these drawings are done before I go to bed at night. I don't think they are works of art per-say, but they are the result of my thoughts at the end of the day.

I guess I could get pretty artsy and make up something along the lines of, "These sketches are the culmination of my daily feelings and activities put to paper. It is my visual diary of my emotions of the day. I try to capture what I've felt through the day and immortalize it on paper." That sounds pretty good actually, it does sound a little like BS, but there is some truth to it. I love talking to artist at outdoor arts shows and whatnot, they have such great stories about the pictures. Some are interesting and you can get to peek inside their head. Others sound like total bollocks and feels like they are making it up on the spot.

Can't really remember how this started but it ended up looking like a pig to me. The shape of the head can also be a torso as well. I may have started out like that, but oh well. At any rate here's my picture for today, hope you enjoy it.

Eye Eat Rabbit

I really like this one. Whats neat about it is that it works both as shown and upside down. I think I was playing a little to much Rayman Raving Rabbit on my Wii at the time.