IF: Shaky

"The Feds told him the case against the mob was shaky without his testimony...I guess Pinocchio's nerves just got the better of him and he went into hiding..."

Dimetrodon Head Study II

This drawing took less time and I liked the results a lot better...although I have to admit every time I look at it I get a hankering for Doritos...Hopefully now I can get on with the larger version...

Sometimes You Just Have to Call a Terd a Terd

While preparing to do a large scene I thought I would do a head study of dimetrodon and use colored paper...things seemed to be going along okay but at points I would stop and say to myself, "This sucks..." There are times I've weathered the storm and things would turn out okay...but this is one of a couple of drawings that when I look at it I just get mad because of the massive way in which it sucks...I could point out all the ways in which it sucks if you want...or you can just roll with it...Like one of my college professors said...sometimes you just have to be brave enough to tear it apart and start over...so after I cut out the eye...the one part I actually like...I believe this is going to be a campfire starter...hopefully it burns better than it turned out...so I started another head study to help get back into the flow of actually beginning the big picture...

IF: Worn Out

My first year teaching when summer came I was chomping at the bit to get started again and the time couldn't go by fast enough...one of my coworkers said, "Give it a year or two and you'll get over that..." The past few years immediately after graduation I've tended to disappear a month or so before getting back into the participation saddle. Teaching, if done correctly (as opposed to smiling behind a desk and just drawing a paycheck), can be one of the toughest jobs on the planet...so by the end a lot of teachers are pretty worn out...and it takes the summer to recharge your batteries for another year...I would have never guessed all the work involved until I became involved...but the pain is worth it when you see students that really care about their future...or at some point get it and start caring...and then go on to great things...

So between the end and school and now I've been busy and out of circulation (kids, fishing trip, cow bird pest control, sleeping, family reunions, moving to a new apartment, painting (not the fun kind...walls)...So here's to being back and catching up on everyone's work!!!

IF: More Great Proctologist Humor....

"So...have you 'cracked' the code yet?"

Dimetrodon Head Study and Maquettes

While working on my efforts for a large scale dimetrodon drawing I decided to try working on toned paper for the first time. I'm doing a headshot and was surprised to see that the toned paper seems to eat up colored pencils pretty quick because of the paper tooth but it isn't leaving the particles all over the place that seems to happen when I work with illustration board. I usually have to brush every few minutes but at this juncture I haven't brushed a single time and have seen no ill effects! I also thought this would give me a chance to get the prismacolor bug out of my system because I was wanting to do the scene in graphite...What has happened unfortunately I have now planned on doing a super large version of a head shot of some sort of dinosaur...I say unfortunately because I know it is going to destroy a lot of pencils in the process...plus I'll be working on the graphite scene at the same time...but perhaps doing two really big projects at once will keep me motivated...





I made some maquettes and had some trial and error issues...I started with foil to just get the mass of the body. I was really concentrating on the pose...I used to have a couple of different monitors (a savannah monitor and an asian water monitor) and I remembered vividly different ways they would posture themselves depending on the situation...


Then I overlaid the foil with sculpey...Mistake number one...I should have started with wire in the foil and set the arm screws first. It didn't make that big of a difference because I knew the maquettes were rough...if I wanted to make a detailed model there would've been lots of cracks I would've had to dealt with. I then got toothpicks and cut them in a manner that would give a good sail...sails seemed to vary depending on which skeleton I looked at with regards to shape and how they laid.I was smart enough to pre-press holes for the toothpicks...an even better solution would've been to use wire attached to a wire frame...a couple of former students showed up and one of them had some leftover wire which she donated to me...Thanks J-PO!!!




I wasn't happy with how the back laid out because it seemed too straight at this point so with the second one I made a bit of correction and then went back and adjusted the arch on this one with some additional sculpey...the other problem I ran into...the fingers were fragile and while I could use foil to protect parts from over-baking eventually the items started cracking slightly...instead of doing all for legs at once and baking I was afraid I wouldn't be able to stand the item...so I did one leg then baked x's 4...

IF:Meanwhile...Back at the Nudist Colony...(Parade)

"There she goes parading around the house with her clothes on again for all the world to see...I wonder if she's ever heard of curtains..."

Dimetrodon Prep I

After finishing Dr.Minceworm and seeing Detlef's latest efforts I started figuring out what my next item was going to be. Since that and my IF post gives me two official items completed I guess I can do another Dino without accusations that all I ever do is draw dinosaurs (although I know there are some purists out there that will argue dimetrodon isn't a dino)...plus I would like to point out I draw lots of mimes and skunks.



I've been trying to figure out what the composition and scale is going to be...at first I wanted to do a closeup with a head in the forefront and then another dimetrodon in the background. But for some reason I feel like someone is going to accuse me of not being able to draw bodies and limbs...I think that insecurity comes from all the times in my younger days when I always focused on what I felt was the most interesting part instead of thinking of the item as a whole...kind of like how sometimes people always hide hands in pockets or feet in tall grass...I still like to do just detail shots (and I've got some colored paper to do a detailed head shot in prisma color just for exploration...strangely enough I can't ever recall drawing on colored paper and I see so many great examples from people I know makes me want to give it a shot.)





I planned on doing a larger drawing again so I can try to wiggle in some detail work, even though I thought I'd sworn off big items...this one I am planning for is 20x30...



I actually really like the simplicity of this one and may do a smaller drawing of it or test painting as I try to get back into oils.







After doing another thumbnail that hit close I sketched out the setup on a large piece of white-board to see how the size vs. detail workout was going to be as well as placement. The general idea is okay but it still seems a bit stiff.While I liked the dimetro 'sitting' higher I'm not sure that their skeletal structure would allow them to get into that pose, so I kept them lower to the ground. Which led me to try something else a bit new to me...I typically use a lot of traditional reference materials but I've never actually made my own...

Next post: I made maquettes!!!

IF:Hierarchy...Low Man on National Forestry Service Ladder

Census taker for skunk gender and population identification...

Moley Moley Moley

Just a chronicle of the process of the mole. I think actual work time on the finished item was maybe 25-30 hours...part of the problem being I am slow (and you can apply that in a number of ways as my friends would readily point out for you) and work kept getting in the way...(I don't know I couldn't have just been born rich like everybody else). But I do continue to learn the importance of 'chunking' detail work. Too often as people start out in the art world they tend to procrastinate a lot and then try to cram large amounts of work into a short time span and the results aren't too stellar.


My one and only reference pic I took as I tried to figure out how the head, back, and belly would line up. And in case you were wondering, no...I'm not nearly this good looking in person...and yes, I do have ducks on my pillow, I'm just not happy to see you.


I did make some changes from the original drawing as I went...part of that whole 'letting the work dictate some of what occurs' thing. While I tend to do a lot of planning I try not to be too rigid. I didn't change the composition but just the detail work. In the upper left hole there was originally going to be a bottle and a mutant centipede. But I had moved the centipede closer to the one mole's ear because it just seemed visually creepier to me. Who just doesn't love a bug about ready to latch on to your ear...or better yet, crawling inside and laying eggs. Then I wanted a bottle still so I put a vase on the outskirts. Talisman was the word for IF so I put a lizard and talisman where the bottle and centipede were going to be at.

In the upper right hand corner I was going to plant another mushroom but changed it to a caged rat...I did this because I just didn't want to draw another mushroom.


The only other real change I made was adding a chair and bookshelf to the back. Originally I was just going to have a wall...but I wanted the picture to feel a bit claustrophobic...since Doc Minceworm is a fraud I figured part of pushing his image of competency would be to have a lot of stuff...plus it would serve as a distraction for sick moles looking for someone to heal them...adding to the ambiance of someone wanting to 'buy into the game.' Having a smaller room (him being a rather large fellow himself) cluttered would give him perhaps an illusion of being more powerful than what he is and continue to help sell him for more than what he is...Remembering old westerns with snake oil salesmen...they seemed to be large (usually tall not so much fat) characters with small 'trailers' filled with junk. As they stood in front of their moving structure it would make them seem larger than life.

On the back right shelf is actually a mole skeleton...the head and front hidden...but a mole skull rests in front of the jar on the upper left.