Following on a Theme

     So, what can I say.  I'm a dog with a bone.  Teach me a new trick and I chew at it to the nub.  Sometimes I don't have the time to color in my work on site.  It is easy to add color later, but some of those pieces look good in pen and ink as well as in color.  So I don't want to add it.  Using the program to add the color to them after I scan them to my computer.  That means I can keep the original as is and have a color version too. 
     It is a mix of treating it like a water color and as a photo development.  As you can see, the results are very bold.  I really love how it retains the loose feel of a sketch and a magazine illustration.

Refining a new technique

     So on the same theme of my last post I have gone back to another of my pen and ink sketches and I colored it in with my Gimp program.  This time I used some of the old photo developing tools and dodged and burned in highlights and shadows.  It helped me retain the dark lines from my pen and ink.  every time I put down some transparent color - some of the black line would fade a bit.  So doing the dodge and burn helped it pop out again.  I will still do my watercolor by hand, but this will make for easier - quick work for some of the commissioned artwork I have to do from time to time.  
     This image is from the Seneca Park Zoo.  The totem pole used to be in the Midtown Plaza, but it got moved here when they went to tear the Plaza down.  I found a good home here.

Having fun with a new way of coloring

     Recently My wife and I contacted the owner of a house for rent nearby.  It is at 249 Chalford.  Just a block from the apt. we are in now.  It is small but for the 2 of us it would be good.  It is right next to the bus stop we use all the time.  So that would be one draw back, having the bus pass in front every hour till 11pm.  But that is fine.  One day, while waiting for the bus, I drew the view down Chalford from the bus stop.  I got about half the house in the drawing(yes that is how small it is). 
     I only did it in pen and ink.  after scanning it in I decided to try out a new way to color the image.  I used my Gimp program.  I picked out the colors and setting the Opacity to almost nothing I started drawing directly over the image.  I was surprised by the results.  It reminded me of water color.  I did tweek the color saturation to make it brighter but here it is.

My first Sketch book

     I have been working on this book now for almost a year and a half.  I had it laying around for years collecting dust,  but when I was introduced to Urban Sketchers I picked it up, dusted it off and started drawing.  It, alone, has made tremendous difference in my abilities as an artist.  Granted, there were other factors, but near constant drawing has moved along in ability and recognition. 
     The book looked great when I started.  A black, leather like cover started peeling quickly and the binding fell apart.  At one point I added a cloth cover to it and that saved it from falling apart.  It also pushed me to learning how to bind my own books.  I have started working in one of those that I made and am going through it quickly since it is made of thick water color paper.  Still I have a few pages left in my first one. 
     It took me most of the day to scan in most of the rest of these pages and when I have that book finished I will be posting it as a digital flip book. but for the time being for go to the link on the left to see all of the new pages of the sketchbook.

An evening at Village Gate

     Every Tuesday a group of artist and architects meet to do some drawing.  Most of the time it is a chance for meet and spend time, out of the house with someone that speaks my language, art.  For the architects it is a chance to get out and actually put pen to paper.  With todays tech. less and less of them work on paper.  So they now have this group to just go out and draw.  Granted it is also a great opportunity to network or just hang out.  For me, now that I work from home, it is a great chance to get out and do some walking and drawing. 
     This week they decided to meet at Village Gate, on Goodman.  It is a small collection of business's, stores and restaurants centered on 2 old industrial buildings from the turn of the last century.  The view I drew was from the courtyard between the 2 buildings looking back to Goodman.  The banner you see is for the TexMex restaurant "Selenas".  It is the best TEXMEX in Rochester, NY.
     The following weeks we'll start looking for indoor spaces to draw from since the fall has set in here and it is starting to get colder.

Senenca Waterways Council National Jamboree patches

So this Thursday at the weekly Boy Scout meeting I was handed 2 copies of the patch's that I designed for the local council to take to the national jamboree.  It was a great stretch for me to design these.  I had never before officially designed any.  I was somewhat aware of the politics involved because of the crests that I'd done for the Texas State Guard.  The artwork for those 7 crests took me all of 2 months to design but 2 yrs. of red tape with the pentagon.  The results were great and you can find them on their official website, but it gave me an idea of what I would have to deal with.  Still, These patch's were a lot of fun.

  

     When I joined this council I was asked pretty quickly to come up with a working design for the  council to sell for the upcoming National Jamboree in a few months.  The local council director insisted I stick to the rules setup by the National council. So I did.  They made 2 sets, as you can see above.  1 was red border, for the boys to purchase and the other silver, for anyone wanting to spend more money to raise funds for those going to the Jamboree.  Everyone loved the design, but when the boys returned with some examples of other council patches we realized that no one was following the rules and still doing what was popular for the national jamboree.

     Well, I and the others here decided that the next jamboree we will design along those lines.  Of course I have 3 yrs, to come up with the design so no rush.  The idea of doing the theme of great lakes lighthouses or sunken ships of the same are high on that list.

Drawing of home

     Okay, so I have not put in a post in a few months.  Had a computer melt down (2 of them) and it took a while to get new ones and get back up and running.  I did not stop drawing so I will be playing catch up with this blog on some of those.  But,  for today I am post these images of a commission that has taken me a few months to complete.  Not because it was a hard, but because I was working from the call center and was taking 4 extra hours a day in travel time by buss.  Needless to say I was always exhausted. 
     This week I was finally allowed to go home to work. In no time at all I got the piece done.  So I will be handing it over tonight to the owners of the home.  it is too big for me to scan in so these photos will have to do.


    First a copy of the photo I took for the lay out of the piece.  I went to their home and did some sketch's to familiarize myself with the home.

      I made a small black and white print of this and projected it on the paper I was using for the piece and blocked it in.  Next I penciled in the details.  The little black and white print I taped to the desk above the piece to give me my values.

 

I started at the top, left to right coloring in the sky and the background trees.  I had the photo on the screen of my laptop at all times.

Next, I started with the roof line

 

Then the chimney.  Before I moved on I went back over the roof and chimney to add the details

I started in on the house, again left to right.  The hardest part was all the individual rocks.

Then, of course I worked through the foreground vegetation and grass. I also kept jumping around adding detail were it needed it.

All I had left this morning was the sidewalk and the road.  It was a fun piece to do.