Untitled and Undecided

View fullsize

After I finished up the last piece, Dread Persephone, I thought that I was done drawing real life pieces for a while so I could concentrate more on abstract and comic book looks. But then I saw this piece I started a long time ago. I thought I might as well finish this up and write-off my idea to do more athletic/fitness art as well.

Now that I have this piece finished, I’m back to being undecided. I have an idea for a comic book/graphic novel thing that I really need to get moving on. And that will involve a lot of writing, editing and concept sketching. That’s why I wanted to concentrate more on a comic style again. But something about this piece makes me wonder if that is the right decision. I’m happy with how it turned out and it reminded me of how much I enjoy illustrating sports/athletics subjects.

This piece started out as watercolor, then I moved it into a digital piece to do that line work, background and color tweaking. I used an image of crossfitter Brooke Ence for the model. Sort of related: I noticed that, while she was in the original Justice League movie in the background for just a moment, her character had a pretty good hero moment added into the Snyder Cut of the Justice League movie. Of course she played a warrior on Wonder Woman’s home island.

Dread Persephone

View fullsize

Persephone is the Goddess of Spring. Looks like she is coming.

Like anyone after a winter, I’m really looking forward to doing all outdoors things like walks, bike rides, grilling, etc. This year however, I am a little trepidatious about what else is coming with the Spring. As people start to move into a post-Covid lockdown world, that means saying goodbye to a lot of what I loved about the last year. Working from home, quite, no commute and more gym time.

In all the solitude of the last year I both re-recognized a potentially glaring character flaw, and decided not to beat myself up about it. With the exception of family and friends…. I love being alone. I learned this years ago after spending hours and hours alone on a bike, riding the trails of southern Minnesota. But after moving to Sioux Falls I had to network for the career. I was a board member of this and then of that. Lots of meeting for drinks and luches… blah blah blah. While I met a lot of wonderful people, and found some of the best opportunities of my life, I desperately missed solitude.

After a year of being around far fewer people, my faith in the Lord is stronger (because who else could I talk to), my blood pressure is down, I actually have a deeper appreciation for friends, family, the richness they give life, and my general disposition is just better. I’m sure that if I didn’t have a wife that is genuinely so much fun to be around, I may have a different opinion. Because even after the best days alone, I always look forward to when she gets home from work. But all-in-all, I’m really warming to the thought of embracing the fact that I am at my best when I am not always around people.

The image is drawn from using a stock photo by magikstock as reference.

Watercolor on Moleskine stock. Digital painting touchups. This may be the last time I use watercolor on this substrate though. When I started doing that, I loved the unique look of how the color would react with all the layers of clearkote used to keep the paper relatively safe from warpage. But it is so labor and time intensive to apply and reapply both color and clearkote just to get to the point where an image really starts to be discernable, let alone finished. So I think I am probably done with that process for a long time.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the fresh air, budding plants, and sunlight as much as I will.

Pencils, Pens and Football

It was a lot of fun doing this one for a repeat customer. And like the previous picture of the baseball player, this will be a Christmas present for their other son.

View fullsize

Just like last time, the quality of the image was great. That always makes things so much easier when working on something where the likeness and detail is important.

View fullsize

Characters From the Ether

There is nothing wild going on with this drawing. I just saw a reference photo by Ita-Its-art and the character just kind of introduced herself. She seems like some sort of authoritarian character out of a near-future, dystopian state. But her motives are pure. She is an Inspector or Detective for some sort of police force. Perhaps her investigation will start with a dead body, but it will end with the uncovering of a far-reaching conspiracy. Or I watch and read too much detective fiction. Either way, I drew Inspector 1331.

View fullsize

This started as a pencil and ink drawing in a large Moleskine sketchbook. But I ended up coating the hell out of it with a clear coat spray and started adding watercolor layers. Finished up in Photoshop.

The Searchers

In truth, I really just wanted to draw something in a loose, ragged style that served as a sort of ode to one of my favorite shots in one of my favorite movies. The scene of John Wayne incapable of entering into that house after spending too much time away from the civilized world is perfect not just for that movie, but also the genre.

View fullsize

In a sort of tongue-in-cheek way, it makes me wonder if I will be able to function in an office surrounded by regular people again after enjoying almost three months of being able to work from home. I’ll have to wear pants on a regular basis again…. kind of a bummer.

View fullsize

Solitude/Gratitude

Covid-19 has brought on a lot of solitude for some people. Many of them have a problem with that, which is pretty understandable. I love solitude. It’s liberating and makes time for productivity, study and introspection. But solitude is like anything in that too much of it can get pretty damaging. When people spend too much time alone, I think they start to lose touch with others who don’t always share the same life experiences, lifestyles or backgrounds. In short, people who spend too much time alone lose their connection to people as a whole.

Psychology is proving what I think most people already know on some level. Gratitude is healthy in times of good and bad. So, while I love solitude, I also recognize the benefits of contact with the one person who is always there to break that solitude. In this era of economic and political uncertainty, I am particularly grateful for my wife.

A New Western Hero

Traditional + digital media. Pencil, pen and copic marker before digital coloring.

I grew up watching and reading Westerns with my father. So when we talked about those stories with friends and family, a lot of the same characters kept popping up. They are America’s mythology with John Wayne being a sort of King Arthur at the head of the round table. The characters of Louis L’amour and Zane Grey sometimes came up. Mostly the Western heroes of cinema loomed over our sense of story and downright coolness. And we didn’t split hairs over where the Western was made. We all watched a lot “Spaghetti Westerns” and never once cared that some movies had righteous heroes and some had dubious anti-heroes. Anytime we would be together looking at the engine of the vehicle someone bought, working on someone’s house, or cleaning birds after a little hunting, conversation always involved some of the same movies. No one was surprised when the names of ‘The Duke’, Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin, Lee Van Cleef, Katherine Ross, Henry Fonda, Steve McQueen, Raquel Welch, Gary Cooper, Ben Johnson, Yul Brynner, James Coburn, Alan Ladd, or George Kennedy came up. We all chuckled anytime someone would whistle or “wah ooh wah ooh wah” the iconic sounds of A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, or The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Since then, I’ve come to appreciate a lot of westerns made after that era as well. Tombstone, Lonesome Dove, Unforgiven, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Hi-Lo Country, All the Pretty Horses, Deadwood, et. al. Hell, I liked both iterations of The Magnificent Seven so much that it made me watch The Seven Samurai, which was a gateway drug to the works of Akira Kurosawa, and his contemporaries.

Traditional + digital media. Pencil, pen and copic marker before digital coloring.

I’ve also broadened my definition of a Western. Meaning that, it may not be set in “the old west” of America. The first time I watched The Crow, I remember thinking… “I can’t put my finger on it, but this sure feels like a Western”. The second part of Kill Bill made a lot of creative decisions to make it feel like a Western. No Country for Old Men and Hell or High Water are perhaps two of the best examples I can think of when it comes to “not really westerns… but totally damn good westerns” movies.

I am an American male born the same year that the first Star Wars movie was released. So it is a safe assumption that I am a fan of the franchise. I mean, I’m 42 and here I am at Disney World posing with a guy just because he is really tall and wearing a Chewbacca costume.

I know that Westerns have always been in the DNA of Star Wars. But when I saw how the new Disney+ series The Mandalorian not only embraced that heritage, but celebrated it, I took notice. The protagonist uses few words but is quick and true with is weapons. He also has a code that he lives by. He is in so many ways, the quintessential Western hero. I know it’s super popular now for artists to draw the Mandalorian and “The Child”. But I really wanted to make this little piece as a synthesis of of my admiration for the archetypes I grew up with in story and in real life (looking at you, sons of Lloyd & Dory Scoblic and Derald & Margaret Hay), as well as those great archetypes being practically changeless in modern storytelling.

Birds, Brushes and Ballpoint

I really wanted to play around with a copic nylon brush pen. And I happened to have a blue ballpoint pen sitting around along with some bird of prey reference.

Messy Experiments

Still plugging away at seeing how far I can push the abstraction of line work and texture consistency. It really got pushed on the image of the boxer and I am surprised at how happy I am with it. No idea who the boxer is, but the lady with the kettle bell is coach and athlete Meg Gallagher.

Preserving Something

Strongman Champion and actor Hafthor Bjornnson

If you or anyone you know is in great shape or at their peak strength (or at least has some quality reference photos of when you/they were), and would like to have a free illustration of yourself in an art style similar to the pics in this post, let’s talk. It can be you actually doing a lift, or running, or biking or whatever. It can be a pic of you posing too. You did all the work of getting there, now let’s preserve that with a little art!

CrossFit Champion Heather Bergeron

For some backstory, I used to love to draw comic book characters in a comic book style. It’s still fun but it just isn’t as enriching as it used to be. Using photo reference to draw actual people has become something I am thoroughly enjoying though. One thing that could be a hybrid of this is drawing people who look like they could be superheroes but live and breath. People who are in the fitness industry, or just really into being fit seems like the way to go. Plus, spending so much time in and out of gyms over the last 20 years has given me such a respect for people who can put in the work, and exercise the discipline it takes achieve the kinds of goals that are just too daunting for most people to maintain (like myself). I would love to try to capture or preserve that in what I draw.

I’ve begun doing a bunch of small pieces like the ones in this post. I think I would like to build up a bit of a fitness specific portfolio before I pursue charging people and turning it into a business. So you’d be helping me out too.

So if this sounds like something that might be of interest to you, send me a message.