Tangentine: Concept-Process

6th February '12

2012-02-06T14:09:00.001-08:00

We got our first proper snow of the year this weekend. It's been pretty cold too! Luckily I've been keeping warm by eating cake.

1st February '12

2012-02-01T13:33:00.000-08:00

February already!

31st January '12

2012-01-31T12:45:00.000-08:00

Today's sketch - I'm rubbish at drawing men

26th Jan '12

2012-01-26T12:49:00.000-08:00

Today's sketch

25th Jan '12

2012-01-25T13:29:00.000-08:00

Another miniature sketch.

24th Jan '12

2012-01-24T12:51:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd try working smaller to try and improve the speed at which I work. This is a 2.5"x3.5" sketch.

23rd Jan '12

2012-01-23T13:43:00.000-08:00

I received some lovely new watercolour paper, drawing ink and (finally) a new nib holder. So I thought I'd draw something small and quick to test them... but when is anything I do quick?
In celebration of Chinese New Year I tried to draw a dragon.

6th January '12

2012-01-06T07:22:00.000-08:00

This piece is coloured pigment ink on A3 Bristol board. I'm tentative about starting colouring on it as I like the lineart a lot.

2nd January '12

2012-01-02T13:34:00.000-08:00

First post of the new year! Finally getting back to drawing again after the busy-ness of the Christmas season.
I don't do New Year's resolutions, but each year I aim to get at least one piece finished per month. Last year I managed to complete 16 full colour illustrations, which is a definite improvement on my productivity of the past couple of years. It helped that 10 of those were A5 sized images, whereas I usually work at A3 size... maybe it's a hint that I should try and do some smaller works as well so that I finish them.

It does mean that I have half a dozen larger sketch pieces waiting to be finished, some of which I can hopefully work on this week.
I also spent about 3 hours today trying to get a Wacom Bamboo Tablet, Windows 7 and any piece of graphics software to talk to each other nicely to do a tiny weeny bit of editing done. On the upside where I am now is a lot more comfortable to work, but it is frustrating knowing there are two much better graphics tablets sitting unused in my other room many miles away.

The piece above is an A4 picture that I decided to try and finish, so maybe if I'm very lucky I can get it completed by the end of the week.

7th December '11

2011-12-07T13:48:00.001-08:00

One of the reasons I always give up on digital painting is the fact that I usually end up drawing rather generic digital art... I think my artistic muse lives in my pencil.

30th November '11

2011-11-30T14:07:00.001-08:00

I've not been particularly productive on the art front lately. Both nights and days are dark and I still feel tired after the cold I had two weeks ago. So now I'm kind of just waiting for the Christmas holidays so that I can sleep, because it's going to be a very busy month coming up... fun, but busy.

This picture is something that I started a year ago. It's on A2 paper (42x59cm), which will be the second largest illustrative piece I've done. It's also not something I'd usually draw. I have very limited knowledge of guns, helicopters or apocalyptic scenarios, and there's a distinct lack of flowers anywhere. But I guess we'll see where it goes.

17th November '11

2011-11-17T13:11:00.001-08:00

The worst part about being ill, after the bit where everything hurts, is the fact that even when you're stuck in bed off from work... you can't actually do anything with the time. You just sort of sleep... then wake up feeling rubbish, and try and think of something to do that doesn't involve moving, effort, or focusing your eyes too much.So here's a bit of painting I did last week before I got ill... or had Skyrim.Back to bed now and hope that I feel better in the morning.

9th November '11

2011-11-09T13:52:00.001-08:00

There's this painful bit just after inking when all the energy from the rough pencil lines is lost. Hopefully I can add it back during the colouring stage.

7th November '11

2011-11-07T13:11:00.000-08:00

Finally completed this one. The original sketch file saved on my PC is dated the 1st of December 2010... so... that's nearly a year ago ^^;
But it is almost accurately seasonal now I guess.
Original is alcohol based marker and coloured pencil on A3 Bristol Board.

31st October '11

2011-10-31T15:14:00.000-07:00

Fay Hancocks and myself selling our wares at London MCM Expo - Comic Con this past weekend. We had great fun!
The whole event was even bigger than before, so I don't think I really got to see as much as I could have. But we got to see a lot of great costumes and meet some cool people.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by.

19th October '11

2011-10-18T22:58:00.000-07:00

Between the lack of home internet and preparing for the London Expo/ Comic Con, I've not had much to upload.

So here's a work in progress of some colours. The process for it seems to have been - pick a bit, start to colour it, get distracted and start colouring a different bit - so the overall look at the moment is a bit blotchy.

6th October '11

2011-10-05T23:04:00.000-07:00

Another sketch. I like flowers

4th October '11

2011-10-03T22:58:00.000-07:00

My home internet is down, most likely, until the end of next week. I'm not getting any weird side-effects from not being connected to the internet all the time, but it is rather annoying as it happens to be the busiest month for me needing to send files to people and update things using the internet.
Oh well, I'll have to live without and try and organise things so I can carry on without.

Here's a sketch just about ready to go to the inking stage. I love keeping regular scans of work as it's nice to flick through and see how its evolved and where it's suddenly gotten better, or worse, and you have a record of the process.

28th September '11

2011-09-27T22:57:00.000-07:00

I'm without internet at home for at least the next week, if not longer. So I'm taking the time in the evenings to appreciate the finer things in life, such as being productive and not hitting refresh to see if something new has happened on the internet...
At least that's what I tell myself.

I still occassionally think I see a flashing window out of the corner of my eye.

This image was started at the end of last year as an idea, then the sketch was 90% done in January and I've only just gotten around to inking it. Hopefully between ink and colour wont be quite so long a gap.

22nd September '11

2011-09-22T14:14:00.000-07:00

Generally I spend the weekends at my partner's house, so my 'weekday room' has sort of turned into my sleep-in studio. By that I mean it's a mess.
I have an assortment of markers, inks, paints, pens, paintbrushes, artbooks, sketchbooks and paper across my desk floor and stacked untidily in boxes... and that's before you get me started on the unfolded pile of clothes (they're all clean though).

It's a special kind of organisation that I don't think everyone quite understands, but if I know where something is I'm generally happier than having everything tidied away where I'll forget where I put it.
Luckily I'm out at work for a big part of the day so I don't have to look at it anyway.

Image today is a work in progress watercolour ink and alcohol-based ink on watercolour paper

20th September '11

2011-09-20T13:22:00.001-07:00

Today I re-found my love of paint (the actual medium not the Microsoft software).
I have a stack of canvases and limited experience with painting, thus a lack of confidence in painting straight onto the canvas.
After sketching the design onto the first canvas with graphite pencil, which then proceeded to get muddied up in first layer of paint I was... somewhat unimpressed with my skills.
This evening I tried drawing the design for the second canvas on with a pale coloured marker. Worked a charm! Managed to block out all the colour and work in some detail in about an hour.

I love the way you can mix colours as you go, so you very easily get lots of subtle shades in with out spending ages colour matching. I have to remember to mix enough paint when filling in blocks though, so I don't end up getting half way through a section and running out and not quite being able to reproduce the same shade.

The above sketch in fact has nothing to do with my painting endeavors and is just something I've recently added to the increasing pile of sketches :S

7th September '11

2011-09-07T12:58:00.000-07:00

The days are shorter, colder and wetter. British Summertime is coming to an end.
I also found some pencil drawings today that I'd forgotten I had... I think I should try finishing something once in a while... but I get distracted by other work or a new idea.
I've also run out of paper... Luckily I love paper shopping.

11th Aug '11

2011-08-11T13:20:00.000-07:00

I'm exhausted. I can't wait for my holiday in a week. Still a load of work to do before then.

Here's some colours. The red are going to be a pain to balance to the right shades post scanning. Just this small preview has made the lower flowers a lot more red than they are on paper. Oh well that's an exercise yet to come.

2nd August '11

2011-08-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

I find men difficult to draw. They always come out too effeminate, which isn't what I want men to look like.
Also men and flowers aren't a particularly effective combination.

28th July '11

2011-07-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

I was very much hoping I could finish this tonight, but I think it still needs a couple of hours to polish it off. Unfortunately I wont be able to work on it over the weekend and I need a good night's sleep now before I can complete the week.
Hopefully on Monday I'll be able to get it finished, and work on some new stuff in the mean time.