Floundering attempts...

Okay, i fibbed.  Apparently my rut wasn't quite over... or maybe i just hoped it was. over.

This was a devil of a week for me for some reason. I tried dozens of paintings since my last post and destroyed or ripped up nearly all of them in frustration.

Like is said before i was determined to.. well, if not draw something new,

Then, . . . *this* finally came out totally by surprise.. a few hours ago..

it's a relief in a way.. i was hoping for at least ONE painting...

..that was relatively 'Minimal' by comparison to my usual crap. spare. understated.

..or at least bloody SIMPLE.. not quite so .. overworked?

I think this is what the other fashion ones i did last post were trying for, but failed at.



So, i breathed a sigh of relief...


THEN, weird enough... after i left my guard down..

another one popped on the next page, almost by accident.

i was just doodling a nod to an Rene Gruau illustration i always liked. Here it is, and i inspired by how rough and impressionistic the woman's white gloves were rendered.

i wanted to do my own funky version of something that rough..

sorta like i savagely attacked the paper with a hatchet..

(...or in my case, an x-acto knife..)  : )

Now these may not strike you guys as any better, or worse than the other 5 fashion ones i did before, and they may not be. But inside, something feels different here... less repetitive ... course, i know it does look like me, i give up on trying to look different than i how i look, but still.. just trying to reach for something... something ELSE... you know?

Real Life looms as usual: still have a ton of other comic book work to catch up on, but you know how it's almost a relief when your purged from being... (at the risk of seeming pretentious) ... so... creatively *blocked*????

It's not like i'm thinking what i did is so great here, it's more like passing really painful 'creative gall stone'.

just a blessed relief.  anyway, sorry for the 'blockage this week. : )

try to have a stress-free weekend everybody.
sam

Drawing Out of a Rut... (or trying to!)

..

Today i just HAD to draw something... (sometimes my only way to relax on a day off is to draw or doodle)...

i tried some roughs of some faces... but it just feels like the same old stuff i always do.

so drifted towards some fashion roughs too.. still the same.

i wanted to look different then i usually do.  Cleaner.   Less 'illustrative' and more 'design-y'... whatever that means..  I love a famous fashion illustrator from the 50s named Rene Gruau. He has a clean classic look, and really has impressive illustration chops.

But on the other hand, i another part of my personality loves  modern 'grungy' alternative fashion illustrators like Julie Verhoeven. You may or may not dig her stuff, but i'm inspired by all sorts of non-pretty stuff, though my fashion stuff doesn't seem to show that much.

I'll never look like ether of these two, and i don't want too -just looking for some a creative jump start!

... but FIRST, i need some paper to draw on.  . . .found a batch of t old maxx posters in my closet during the move - almost throw out.

now i'm glad i didn't - they backs of these posters will make a nice shiny surface to doodle on,

partly i hope the slick texture will make me think different and maybe use different tools..

secondly because drawing on the back of something, even a poster... takes the pressure off.

i can just toss these afterwords if i don't like em...

but this is already starting to look to pretty and slick,

i wanted it  a LOT messier.. here's a big old brush i found somewhere.. might do the trick..

her hair's getting a little big, huh? yikes - almost 'bride of frankenstein-ish'.  well, i said i didn't want it to be too prefect, didn't i ?  * sigh *

here's a good example what coated surfaces can do, you can rub or scratch out paint textures with rags or  razors easily... i did this on some of the Raven illustrations for the Edger Allen Poe book, with mixed success.

But i need to shake myself up, get out of this damned rut.

Okay, CRAP - - still looks pretty much... just like ME still, eh?

Damn. okay, let's try again...

The other one took too long, i think going faster may pop something out... or maybe not,

but let's try this on in about 1 minutes, just to see what blurts out.

remember the point is *against* trying to be too finished, more like a impression or gesture drawing, only in color.

her jacket or sweater is starting to be the only interesting thing about her, huh?

the spiky hair sorta gives her the Punk-ish or gothy look -

again, didn't intend  it, just seeing where the brush leads us.. this is the old splatter bit every one knows.

Now... just think about this photo above... both hands busy, so how did i take this? (yeah, i have a self timer, but i forgot to USE it).  so,like an idiot the only way that occurred to me was lay the camera on my desk and push the camera button with my nose. pretty pathetic eh?

the only thing that's worse is.. i am telling everybody. yeah, that's worse.

so, where were we? okay, i give UP on sucker!  time to move on.

these still don't really seem as radical as i was hoping they'd be.. time for another poster.. (they made some of that julie's eye page too)...

i'm pretty surprised these colored pen-brushes don't bleed through the paper. i'm not even going to pencil this one, ( so lower your expectations) ..

i was late on the other and it took 30 seconds longer than one minute,

so let's try to see if i can whip this one out in 30 second flat - just to see if anything an adrenaline boots pumps SOMETHING different out this time!

okay, this one's done, 20 seconds is too fast. i did the face but forgot to take a pic of that, but i'll take one at the bottom do you can see her face.

ONE more... only let's take out time and do better.. say 45 seconds this time..

wow, forgot to pick up the camera this time - sorry.

it just sort of seemed to finish itself. (for better or worse..)

a while back i did a hulk and timed myself to go fast, people seemed impressed, but remember it's not a race. I obviously sacrifice detail when i fly through these... but i wanted to shake off some dust and wake myself up a little.

Grrr - OKAY-  so, maybe it's NOT possible for me to to avoid looking like my usual style, but hey.. it's worth trying. push myself out of whatever comfort zone i may be wallowing in.

now it's time to rest and relax.

have a good rest of your Christmas day.
- sam

Christmas Bison..

Just did this for my mom (who i'm seeing later today) - hope she likes it ~

Merry Christmas folks!

Asian Lady ~ Final Version.

Btw, finally got around to answering some of a bunch of Comments in Last Few Posts.. (so skip down to hear me make bad jokes, shamelessly suck up to you for writing in, or just shoot the shit along with the everybody else.)

Okay, now (drum roll) to bring this Asian Woman painting to some sort of  ... Dramatic Conclusion.

i'm starting with her face first...

.. this nose of hers always bugged me a little..

..sticks out a little too far.. so i'm moving it in slightly.

sorta hard to see at this angel, but here's a dirty low-rez photo of her nose before, then after, so you can see what i mean..

since we're not in a photoshop fairy tale~land, the only way is to paint over the nose, then rework it inside her cheek.. i

Above, if you look closely, you came see her old nose under the white acrylic paint, where it used to stickiout over her cheek..

So, a little anal... but whatever...

Meanwhile i'll try to touch up some details i want to show up in the ads themselves.

I'm tempted to just fully work some flesh color skin tones down and re-paint her face fresh, but .. once upon a time..

i a ga-zillion years ago... was TRYING to do a Non-Labrious Simple little Brush Study of her face...

..which as we all see... somehow turned into adding the Antique Trout Ads... 

..then turned into Defacing said Trout ads... so their all mangled, torn and grungy looking.. (which i did like, though i missed the empty version too)... 

..which that THEN turned into moving her nose..

and adding some brown pen work to her face, (which was my way of trying to still keep her face from being totally over-worked).. 

and which has NOW it's turned into my feeling like the the Trout Ads are too jarring by themselves. 

so now i'm recklessly adding some white Acrylic, to soften the edges where the Ads meet the white Illustration board ... 

I have a feeling it could either look Really Cool.. 

... or look totally Sucky.. 

 .. either way, too late to flinch now.

Now i'm sorta starting to *like* these rough textured edges the tissue gives the acrylic white makes over the Trout Ads, so i leave them rough in some places... 

other places, i work Acrylic in more smoothly.. even finger painting it in too. (which is nothing new, lots of folks finger paint - just ask any kid!) 

I try to work some darker Red Ochre into the Ads at the top ...  so your eye doesn't get lost in all that detail. 

Okay, darker on top, with sight spilling between the Trout Ads ... then the bottom getting very translucent. 

so, were left with ~ what? (other than this piece of tissue paper i forgot to pick up?) 

this. 

and this...

.. the FINAL (quasi-bastardized) version of the original asian woman painting! 

I think i'm fond of both versions... for different reasons. Glad i took a few shots of the before though, just to see how it morphed ( or mutated?) ... into whatever it finally became. 

i still feel... like... *something* ... just got lost in this later Trout version.. i'll always have sympathy for the first brush version of her and all that white behind her.

but it's all moot now.  Two hours later, the paint's dried - and it's all over.  Each painting we do is sorta just a little snap shot of who we were when we painted it, eh?

And clearly i was waaay into excessively decorating the crap out of this sucker.

But , hey... least i had fun trying something new.