Ben Brand WIP 3

I'll finish this eventually.

Sketching Shapes

I've had a busy week and it's prevented me from sitting down to draw. But, tonight I got a brief chance. Here's some doodles of some basic shapes. I'm trying to work on conveying a sense of fullness and form in basic shapes.

Ben Brand WIP 2

Latest progress. Getting a little better.

Ben Brand WIP

Here is my progress from my session tonight. It's almost starting to look decent. I still spend more of my time fighting with the software than drawing. This took about an hour.

This is also the first time that I tried drawing directly in Photoshop. What a pain in the butt. I'm sure I'll figure out why its the number one digital art software. But, I'm not yet convinced.

Wacom Intuos Power Session!

Here is my second attempt at drawing on the Wacom Intuos4. This is a photo of a friend of mine; powerlifter Ben Brand. He's a strong dude. There's like 700lb.s on that bar...I'm not exaggerating.

Here is the photo reference:

Here is the first sketch. You can see that the upper body is too narrow and leaning forward.

Here is the second attempt. Closer. But not quite right.

All of this represents about 45 minutes of work....most of which was figuring out the software. Actual drawing time was probably only about 15 minutes. I'm pleased at the progress. But, I have a way to go. Adapting to the Wacom is more difficult than I anticipated.

New Toys; First Attempt at Digital

I'm giddy like a school girl....and apparently I have the chops of a school girl too.

I just bought a Wacom Intuos 4. I only drooled a little taking it out of the box. I've just had a chance to play with it. Here is the first sketch. It was harder than I anticipated. It's like starting over. It looks like my 6 year old was playing on the computer. Sadly, that is not the case.

Say hello to Freddy!

We just bought a new computer. And I have Photoshop, but I can't figure out how to use it at all. So, I've been doing work in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. It's very intuitive. But, I'd like to figure out photoshop. I looked at a couple of books in Barnes and Noble. I was hoping to pick one up that could teach me how to use Photoshop. But, it seems like it's all about photo editing. I saw nothing about using photoshop for drawing and art. It makes me wonder why it's the number one digital art software. I'm sure there is a reason for that....and that I'll figure it out eventually.

What happened to Tom?

So what ever happened to my Tom Waits drawing? Well, life happened. I've had one more session and made some progress. I need one more session (maybe two) to finish. But, In the last few weeks I've had a major project at work, and everyone in my family has ended up sick at one point. There hasn't been much time to draw. I've made a few sketches, but nothing worth posting.

Look forward to hearing about my most recent purchase....

Tom Waits - WIP 1

Here is the first 4 or so hours of my progress on this Tom Waits piece. Enjoy. With the week coming up I'm hoping that I'll have time to work on it.

New WIP -Tom Waits Sketch

I had the song "Clap Hands" stuck in my head all day. So, I decided to make a drawing of my favorite musician Tom Waits. I've only just begun. Not enough to share yet, but I wanted you all (yes, all two of you) to know that I am working.

I should have something to share in a few days.

I'm doing this from a photo I found online. No copyright infringement is intended. I'm using a one inch grid to help me stay accurate. Even with the grid and photo it is a challenge.

I also went online and printed out some other photos that I'd like to draw. Now I have enough to help me stay busy drawing for weeks....if not months.

Hellboy 1

Here is my first attempt at drawing one of my favorite comic characters; Hellboy. At first I was just going to do this with a graphite pencil, but decided after the initial sketch to fill it in with colored pencil.