Baby Monster

Just wanted to share my latest drawing. I submitted my last drawing to a group on deviantART that only accepts drawings that are medium-high to high quality... and was a little surprised and disappointed that it wasn't accepted! I know that really sounds silly, and a bit narcissistic to be surprised, but it was such a huge leap in my ability that I guess I had assumed that it was much better than it actually was.

Anyway, I requested feedback as to why, and the lady who rejected it provided me with really great insight as to what looked good and what didn't. So I tried implementing her feedback in this drawing.

So I really tried to focus on my value ranges, because some of the most positive feedback I got on Ory was her eyes and lips, where I had some knowledge of how to provide lots of contrast. So I tried to focus on that with this picture of my daughter, not just in her mouth and eyes, but also in her hair (sort of failed) and skin (sort of rocked). I also tried out a new brush for drawing hair. I'm not sure how I feel about the way it turned out. The problem was that for some of my favorite brushes that I found for drawing hair, they are so detailed that my graphics card couldn't actually handle them very well.

I was also surprised when I realized that this took me around two months worth of weekends to complete! That's REALLY slow! Someday soon I want to post some of my progressive saves to show how much I struggled with this image though. I really had to make use of some of GIMP's tools for image manipulation to make it look right, because it started out so bad.

So, here's the sneak peek. Click on the image to see the full thing on deviantART! 

Feedback is always welcome! Thanks!

Becoming Deviant

That's right. I've made a big step. I've set up a DeviantArt account. It's kind of a scary step for me, but I think my next step for growth in my art is to get feedback from those that are more talented than me, even though the idea of being criticized really scares me.

I always felt that I had to make it to a certain level in order to justify creating a Deviant account. Sure, I felt that some of my work was "good enough" but I didn't feel like it was good enough for me to justify creating an account.

My latest drawing (I started it before the last one I posted, but I finally feel that it is finished tonight) is my first at the level I feel like I need to be at to justify the account. So please help me celebrate by checking out my account, even though if you have been following this blog you have probably seen everything that's on there so far. However I do plan on putting up some of my older work.

Here's a preview of my latest. Click here to see the full image on my new profile.

Returning to Semi Activity

Life seems to be calming down now that my youngest daughter is almost a year old, and I have noticed that I have the energy and attention span to start perusing interests again. In doing so, I have become re-acquainted with an old stranger that I have found absolutely inspiring. While the logical programmer side of me has been focusing on efficiency and productivity (not always practicing it, but trying to focus on it), I feel like I have lost sight of some of the important things that have made me me.

 Anyway, with that in mind, I hope to accomplish more in the coming days, and I hope to feel inspired to share those accomplishments, large and small. I also want to do some back tracking and share some of the projects I have actually been successful with. Turns out, when I pick a small enough project, I can actually finish it sometimes :D.

 Something that's very exciting to me is one of my first drawings in months, if not years. I always doodle from time to time, but when I want to draw, I have to get myself in a completely different mindset. I'm trying to stop thinking about lines and start focusing on construction. I've been trying to start with shapes and then slowly refine and add more details. Not only do I think that it's resulted in better work, but I have also found the process more enjoyable. Here is my latest drawing, but not one of my best from my recent works. It's a bit eerie, I suppose. But I'm also trying to remind myself that art doesn't always have to have a deeper meaning. Expressing yourself doesn't mean that you have to share something meaningful, or even portray yourself as deep. It really is Ok to just draw what you want to when you want to, and it's still an expression. I kind of learned that by looking at Jeremy Geddes art. Geddes is my current favorite artist, and while I don't want to say that his art has no meaning, his subjects just seem so far out there that the meaning escapes me. Or, if there is meaning, then I believe that he is choosing to draw what he wants to draw as a symbol for his intended message. Either way, when you look at his art, the lighting, the motion, and the contrast all come off as being very dramatic.

Well, my latest drawing is hardly full of any deep meaning. It's just a quick sketch in GIMP inspired by an artist/writer that I have gained an immense appreciation for. I mostly just want to share it because it represents a new drawing style for me that I never thought I would be able to accomplish. I have been calling it ICUCME: