23 FEB 2013 - Dr. Sketchy's Dublin

So I went up to Dublin yesterday for a visit to our friends at Dr. Sketchy's Dublin. They were having one of their amazing life drawing/burlesque events - this time in the theme of "Roy Lichtenstein" as part of their "Dr. Sketchy's goes POP!" series.

Needless to say, I had an awesome time, but as always there are caveats (on me, not on them).



As an advance booker, I was allowed to sit in one of the forward seats - and I should have barged right to the front. I keep forgetting how blind I really am (I really am getting more mole-like). But I sat at about the third row, which was a great seat but not close enough for my vision. I can't recommend pre-booking enough.



Also, I am really out of practise on capturing life drawing in short timed poses - this is just a skill you have to keep in gear or it gets rusty. They were (as usual) giving out prizes of cupcakes and tequila for witty word balloons, use of colour etc - but I'm a black and white artist - capturing these great poses quickly AND applying colour were beyond me. They were great poses though - I might work these up into finished pieces. :)



A great night was had by all - I was saying on Facebook that I might post my 20 minute sketch - or I might save it to work up to a more finished piece, I really like the concept behind it. I got to conspire with Scarlett a bit more on the idea of a Galway Session for Dr. Sketchy's and I met a Dublin Sketcher in the wild! We've been corresponding with their group on and off for quite a while now, it's good to put a face to the name(s).

More to come.

donalfall

24th DEC 2012 Dust Worker

I've gotten lax on posting again O_o but a lot of the last few days were relatively lack lustre anyway. I've been drifting away from the narrative part of this project and just doing concepty stuff for some other work in process. But seeing as I'm at work today, here's some of that. A Dust Worker from my Sci Fi thing you're going to see more of.

15 DEC 2012

It doesn't take a lot of inattention to fall behind on posting this project. :P Here's the one from today, Saturday 15th. I'm working a night shift tonight so I'll probably finish Sundays in the next few hours and post that too.

Some guys blowing up some other guys. Always fun, right?

14 DEC 2012

Our friends over on the Gazebo, the free RPG magazine on Issuu are doing the theme "Virtual Gaming" for their next issue. I was doodling around with a concept for some art for them here. It's kind of a rip of the double page spread from the comic "nonplayer" that blew everyone away a few months back, but not as cool looking.

I don't think this is where I'm going to go with this in the end, but it had to come out of my head.

10 DEC 2012 - skipping ahead!

Skipping ahead a bit cos I don't have time to photograph everything - and astute readers will note this is my sketch from the Pub Scrawl on Monday - so here's the 10th. I guess I'll have to do a catch-up post later with all the missing sketches. The fall back of the lazy blogger, and I think I've proven to be a lazy blogger.

I didn't know what I was going to draw at Pub Scrawl this week (and normally I go in with a few ideas) but this explosion seemed to be the way of the future. Is it narrative? Well, something's obviously happening. It maybe could have done with a little "Dragon Ball Z" guy smashing the ground open or something.

I've had some Dragon Ball Z on my mind since David Brothers talked about it in a great article over on 4th letter about gutters in comics. Gutters drive me crazy - mine always look too thick or too thin, whether I try and plan them out or let them evolve organically. I guess you are always looking at the flaws in your own work.

Anyway, Dragon Ball Z was in my head. Hence, the ground explodes. I didn't do a piece for the 11th. I'll post one for today (the 12th) shortly.

04 DEC 2012

Here my one-hour time limit came back to bite me in the ass. I spent ages getting the negative shapes right (and in the end, they're wrong) which ate up my inking time. Oh well, I like the concept here.

03 DEC 2012 - Look at the surly future soldier!

Welp, the whole point of doing this was to do it even when I didn't feel like doing it. :) I can't remember what was going on, but here is surly future soldier looking pouty as he and his friends go through a swamp.

I'm behind on posting my one-a-day narrative pieces, but I'm not behind on making them, thankfully. Well, not far behind. I didn't make one for yesterday (the 11 DEC 2012) cos I was at work all day. :P

01 DEC 2012 Jesus it's a bit dusty in here

So obviously the Pub Scrawl thing has taken over my blogging life, but I have the ever-returning intentions to do some stuff here on the blog. I'm getting involved in an upcoming project that is going to require me to do a ton of writing, so maybe that muscle will be exercised more and keep me doing stuff here? Let's not hold our breath, though, people.

Speaking of exercising muscles, I have given myself a new task that we'll see how long can last. Do a narrative sketch for an hour every day, even if I don't feel like doing one. Cos I only obey rules if they start on round-figure dates or times, I started this on the first of December, hence the blog post title. I may stray from them being "narrative" as well, but so far, so good. I'll post them here as they happen. I'm also posting from work today, so I may have to cut this short, but I've got some thoughts.

Myself and Y were playing Lego: The Lord of the Rings by Telltale Games - those games are real fun two player experiences and have gotten very sophisticated over the years. There's a problem with that too, but I won't get into it. Anyway, when Treebeard shows up, all I could think of was the concept of a walking treeman is pretty scary. I've chilled on Tolkien over the years, so I guess I think more "Black Young of Shub-Niggurath" than "Guardians of Fangorn Forest".

So here's a treeman (Treeman? Tree Man? Tree Monster?)

1 hour, start to finish-whether-it's-finished-or-not on Moleskine Sketchbook, all with my Rotring 0.5mm Mechanical with Blue Lead, Pentel Pocketbrush and my super sexy Lamy Carbon Fine POint, which I have filled with Mont Blanc ink. The black ink, dunno what they call it, "Midnight" or "Coal Face" or something. I don't like that ink a hell of a lot. It's a little greasy-feeling, but I love the inkwell bottle and I can't bring myself to just pour it out and fill it with something else. I may have used a PITT Brush Tip Black to do some fill in... yeah, probably.

There's a lot of points that bother me about this, but I'll get back to them when I'm at home again. I know it's a sketch, but the problems are endemic to the way I do things without thinking about them... more on that later.

Cheers.