Toned Paper Sketchbook

So I treated myself to a sketchbook

toned paper, i've never had one and from what i've seen artists do with white colored pencil/charcoal i wanted one.

it's probably my lack of formal art training 

every art student is probably sick of toned paper but i'm still an art infant

plus since it's hard cover and i had a 40% off coupon, i had to get it

and my first sketch (J. Stroup) is coming along well, i dont know whether to keep working it or turn the page and hit a new subject?

wow and one month later - Workout Sketchbook

I'm guessing weekly updates would be better than monthly?!

Well I hope anyone reading this is having a good New Year and had a nice holiday.  One of my art gifts was another 3.5 x 5" sketchbook and I decided to put it to use today, well yesterday as I am up sick writing this, I should be asleep) with an idea that I had thought of months ago:

An illustrated workout sketchbook for when my workouts, which have been very few and far between, become stale and stagnant.  I often come across different exercises in magazines when at the bookstore and i need to move away from art inspiration, turning to men's health.  Which has a lot of good suggested health ideas that i never incorporate into my daily living.

So as I come across some workout that I would not have thought of or remembered later that day, I'll sketch it in my book.

I'm hoping that this study will also serve the purpose to help me realize and visualize the figure artistically.

I lean towards drawing the female character so drawing some dudes could help me round out my skills as an illustrator.  I hope to present more creative ideas to you in the future, thanks for reading~!!

Halloween 11-01-10

While at the bookstore a week or 2 ago I got an idea for a sketch from the back of a horror magazine.  It was previewing some japanese horror flick and this was what came out of my brain to do last night.  The image in the hair window was actually taken from the front of the magazine.  I needed something scary to put in there and the cover had just the right amount of creepy imagery.  I'd love to darken the whole thing one day but what i really dig is that i just flipped open the sketchbook and poured this onto it relatively easily.  on the back inside cover which makes it more a part of the actual sketchbook and now everything that fills these pages has to be a bit more interesting.

Arguments & Sketches - 09/22/10

Some last week sketches from my 3.5x5 Sketchpad

The coworker that challenged me to create some of these sketches without reference, I drew her as an gator, she was getting on my case about my art using too much reference. I tried to explain to her that how can i draw something if i dont have any idea how it looks?!.

Where at first she didnt want me using reference such as poses and backgrounds then it evolved into not using any reference whatsoever. I kind of understand her logic because her big argument was being original. But how can i draw a bunny in a racing car (should have been a carrot car in hindsight) or a cat eating sushi pasta dinner if i've never seen a cat, pasta, a bunny or a carrot.

I guess it's easy to create a scene when you can imagine it's components, but if i were to try a hippo on a unicycle i'd be lost as far as accuracy without reference. So i'll practice more challenging things in order to improve~@!

Watercolor Class 2: The Pear

Last Tues in class i learned how to effectively mix paint and different ways to make/mix black and grey! Our still life was a Pear, on a mirror with a black background:




and i'm enjoying my learning in this class. Brian Stelfreeze, here i come???


and i'm currently working in my watercolor sketchbook and did an Angie sketch from this weeks Entertainment weekly: