Using Photo Reference

I learned from Andrea Harris that using photo reference improved my artistic ability immensley. Here is an image of Jewel.

Got paid $25 for this portrait of James and Amber. Not worth it. I think I ended up working for like $2 an hour or something. James ended up marrying Amber's best friend's litte sister. Go figure.

Just a girl from a magazine.

Leonardo DeCrapio's Romeo and Juliet movie thing. I never saw it. From what I have deducted I'm not missing much (although some people continue to say it was a great film). I just couldn't get past the first scene. Even I could be a better gangsta than that.

Another lessoned learned from this: if at first it doesn't fit--make it.

More Characters

Despite Ben's best efforts, I remained quite aloof from the anime scene. This is one exception, nevertheless, she's still wearing highly textured and realistic armor. Textures have apparently always been important to me...

I find this image fascinating. There's so much story behind it that I don't know--I just drew it. Who is he? Why is he sorrowful? Who is his companion? I wonder if I had a story in mind when I drew it. Can't remember now. Whatever the case it shows definitive character in both individuals. Deep character, which is something sorely lacking in most media.

A diTerlizzi copy.

Copied from a Spectrum book. Not sure which one. It had a Dinotopia cover, though. This is one of my first Prismacolor images. It turned out nice, I think.

My only high school art class

It's true. I only took one art class in high school. I got Mrs. V to let me skip the intro stuff and go directly into the advanced class. But I hated it. I got a C. This image apparently is the only thing that survived (the only thing I did, maybe?). It's pointilism and I apparently went back and shaded stuff in pencil after I turned in the half-finished drawing. I think everything in the interior of the box is made up because the still life was stupid. I put some role-playing books in there and a dice bag and suddenly things became happier.

This class had the potential of getting me started on an art career at the proper age, but instead it hampered me. Tsk tsk. Oh well. At least I'm on the right track now. That counts for something in a world of people that give up on their dreams. And I thank God every day for it.

Stories

Always loved stories. Above is a map with a made-up language. I don't actually think I made the language up. I think it's mostly just scribbles. Typical. My English is mostly scribbles, too.

This was inspired by Aaron's "Us" book. We once role-played ourselves being transported into a different world--the world of Korpan. My brother's world is really cool. It was always inspiring to me, and continues to be so when I visit it.

This is a copy of some comic book artist somewhere. It is supposed to be Elizabeth Fo'gorn, one of Ben Livingston's characters from back in middle school. She was a traveling companion of Rain's. She evolved into a character that still doesn't have a name--and I recently spoke with Ben after a 2 or 3 year silence and he's doing really well. We both are writing stories with our characters we made up long ago. It's good to hear. I'm so glad he's doing well.

In case it doesn't read well, it's a dragon sawn in half with his guts spilling and a knight is bleeding from the aorta. His nerdy and half-naked squire is witnessing the gruesome scene. Yet another image that exemplifies my sadistic and twisted sense of humor. However, you can se a bit of style to this drawing, which is something I'm only now learning about, at the age of 25. In case you were wondering, I was born in 1982.

A Child's World

This poem touched me deeply when I was young and you can see its influence in the accompanying image.

Magic: the Gathering

I think this was a 1/1 green card that sucked. But the picture was cool! If you don't know what I'm talking about then you're definitely not a Magic: the Gathering geek. I would skip lunch and play magic cards with the goths, although I myself remained tactfully normal-looking. I got made fun enough for just playing the game. I have since sworn off Magic altogether and vowed to never touch a card again. I did this after high school when I wasted a lot of time devising new ways to kill my opponent when I should have been doing more productive things--like drawing.

I don't remember this card. Shame on me! I think it was a white card, though. Maybe an enchantment. Unholy strength? Notice the cheap Photoshop texture. I obviously had started using it by this point.

Various Early High School Drawings

I actually didn't finish a lot of work...and most of the stuff on this blog is the majority of stuff that was finished enough to post, or at least, to scan in whenever it was that I scanned it. A long time ago. I just found these files because of Picasa (thanks Google!) and even though I don't care for several features of the program I do use it to post with.

Anyway, that said, I probably had about one sketchbook a year in high school. Not many. I typically go through a sketchbook or more each month here at BYU (or the equivalent in looseleaf). So in high school I was particularly diligent. I'm not sure why I drew. I can't honestly remember, but hopefully the pictures speak for themselves. The one above was a photo which obviously inspired me, so I decided to draw it.

A wizard and his weird dog.

Another character design. I didn't even know what character design was back then. Much less costuming and everything else. This one was out of my head.

I think I drew flowers a lot because I liked the concentric design. God knew what he was doing when he made flowers. And you don't have to be a girl to like them. Or gay, either.