·:[ Rusty Innards ]:·
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Here’s a little flier I did for TheIllustrationBoard.com’s Comic-Con Sketch Group announcement.

With Comic-Con just around the corner, I thought it would be fitting for TheIllustrationBoard.com to host a Zoo Sketch group and welcome all visiting artists in the area.  If you’re in San Diego for the ‘con and want to do a bit of drawing this Saturday, July 24th, meet up with our group in front of the zoo at 5pm.  All are welcome of course, so come on out and have a great time!

     Last week ended up being Cat Drawing day for the zoo sketch group from TheIllustrationBoard.com.  We had a pretty nice turnout, but rain, sickness and some rather shy animals hiding in their exhibits led to very little drawing getting done.  I did manage to pull out a decent lion scribble from the day, and I prepared a handout for those who attended.  If you didn’t get a copy of the handout for yourself last Sunday, feel free to print it out and keep it for your own personal use.

Aaand if you haven’t already, make sure to check out the other blog I manage for theillustrationboard and take a look at the sketches everyone else did for Big Cat Day.

Here’s another page from the ol’ sketchbook, which accidentally ended up being North-American Mammal-themed.  The skulls were done at home (Pronghorn skull, grizzly skull, and two polar bear skulls) and the animals were done from life at the zoo… Speaking of which, there’s another zoo trip coming up this Saturday, April 3rd at 9:30am.  Show up and do some drawing.  It’ll be grand.

Nothing much to show today, outside of a bit of studying for the upcomming demo and lecture at the San Deigo Zoo.  If you’re in the area and free Saturday morning, swing on by and say hello.

My apologies for the lack of updates lately; I’ve been pretty busy with my new role as the Zorganizer (Zoo Organizer) for TheIllustrationboard.com.  Head over to the boards, sign up, and say hello.  While you’re there, check out the animal drawing blog I’m running for the board, and take a look at the “Events” section to jon us for our zoo drawing trips.

Anyways, you’re probobly wondering what’s been going on in my sketchbook.  Well, here you go…

Well,  it’s been far to long since the last update.  I’ve been busy working, trying to get ideas for the website in order, and studying.  Speaking of studies, here’s a few, done at both the Atelier and in-studio at home.  The figure painting is from photo reference, the portrait from life, and the pinup portrait is a quick study after Elvgren (to get me warmed up for an in-depth Elvgren study I have planned.)  While I’m talking about illustration studies, I want to go ahead and point everyone in the direction of TheIllustrationBoard.com, a fledgling online community dedicated to illustrators, visual storytellers, and representational art.  Swing by, register, and take a look at what the forum has to offer….Everything from critiques by working professionals, to contests, to tutorials.  Make sure to take a look at the events section on the boards as well, as I’ll be leading weekly sketch trips to the zoo on behalf of the forum.  You can look forward to some fun lectures and drawing demonstrations on specific animals with each trip, and get to know the illustration community here in southern California.

Hope to see you on the boards, and at the zoo.

-tb

    Here’s a portrait painting from life I played around with a bit during Wednesday night’s sitting.  No, Kal-El did not pose for us, but the model that did pose had an exceptionally square jaw and massively thick neck.  After the drawing/lay-in was down on the canvas, I couldn’t help but play around a little with the subject matter.  While serious studies and observation are immensely important when painting from life, it’s almost as important to let your creativity get the best of you at times so you don’t get burned out from those serious studies.  In addition to being pretty fun, playing up and exaggerating features, changing the color tones and making the new color harmonies work can lead to quite a bit of unexpected learning.

      Here’s a few pages from the last trip to the zoo.  In case you can’t tell, we hit the camels and giraffes.  I hardly ever head in the direction of the giraffes, which I think will change on future zoo trips..They’re just a blast to sketch, with that awesome, graceful gestural swoop they have.  While I’m happy with how the head turned out in the sketch, I was a bit confused and had trouble with the way their lips worked in relation to their skull while sketching them.  That said, I headed home, took out the trusty Goldfinger Animal Anatomy for Artists book (that’s right, he has an animal anatomy book, too) and did a quick skull study.

     I’m going to have to do the same with those damn camels.  I always love sketching them, because of those exaggerated, full-of-character features they have, but they’re a pain for the exact same reason;  Exaggerated, charactertured features.  Let this be a lesson, all…  Anatomy studies are not just for the human figure.  I’ll be posting a few animal anatomy studies I’m doing (including the camel and giraffe) in the next few days, and I’ll be carting my anatomy book to the zoo from here on out;  It’s a valuable tool, and there’s no reason to leave it on the shelf.

     Studies are something I’ve been doing quite a bit more of lately, and consequently I’ve been getting a good deal more comfortable with oils.  This is a study done from a John Singer Sargent portrait, under the watchful eye of my instructor and friend, Lucas Graciano.  I learned quite a bit from this one, mainly edge subtly and cool notes versus warm notes.  Some areas of the head are a bit wonky, but overall I’m happy with the painting  due to what I took away from it.

    Take away from this post?  Do more studies.