Fishy Head

And here we go, just a tad bit further. Chipping away at the sculpture. I haven't gotten as for as I would have liked before Wonder Con but somethings came up this month that had to be dealt with but I won't bother you folks with it. I keep wanting to clean it up to make it smoother and sleeker but I haven't finished with the big planes and measuring. So I'll continue to fight that urge. Anyway, I hope to see some folks I haven't see in a while tomorrow or meet new folks to work with, at Wonder Con here in San Francisco. Also, you folks must check out Super 7's booth, Glen's the man for taking the chance on a kid like me and Jesse Hernandez's booth with Myx Vinyl addiction very cool guy and awesome sculptor.

Ps. You folks like my doily!?

Fish Head Replica!

I've been asked by the manager of Super7 to create a replica head of an old Japanese toy ( which he told me the name and I forgot, forgive me Glenn). Super7 is an awesome toy and shirt shop, it's in Japan town on Post across the street from the Kabuki hotel in San Francisco. If you're in town check it out. Tell them, "Cristian sent me", it won't get you a discount, in fact it wouldn't even mean anything; maybe a "who" reaction.

So here is the beginning of the replica. It looks like the beginning of a 'Mogwai', Gremlins refrence, kudos to those that know what I'm talking about. At this stage I used Super Sculpey to make a ball smaller then the size of the toy head. I've scratched and etched the ball on all sides and baked it. Baking it hardens the clay. Some people like to use a ball of foil for the skeleton but foil is still plaiable, which some people like, it's just not my bag. The scratches and etches on the ball gives the new layer of clay a texture to hold on to.

And here is the new layer of clay. Here again, I've used Super Sculpey, the only difference is that this is Super Sculpey firm. I work better with clay that has more resistance, I also prefer the color. Here is a basic lay out of the head with the plains. Nothing too fancy.

At this stage I've smoothed out some of the bumps and lumps and marked where the eyes of the fish are going to be.

And here's the less worked on side of the eye. You can see that I've started working of the folds in front of the head of the fish, working from the middle to the sides is easier.

Speaking of which here are the folds. They've just been marked haven been defined or smoothed out yet.

And this is the last image. This is obviously the side I've favored the most. The can see the beginning of some texture and a bit more defined folds. I would say at this point I'm close to being half way done. Next post I'll have a near done piece to show you folks. Anyway, have a good night peoples and keep on creating!

Working on my day off!

So is the life of the starving artist, that he must work at becoming a better draftsman on his day off from his day job. Art, work? Nay. Though at times it does feel like work but one must push through even when you just want to sit on the oh so comfy couch. I've once heard someone say, "A professional is someone that does what he loves, even when he doesn't want to." Thus I am a professional student.

Enough of the monkey business and on with the art. The

first image you see here is again some more master copies of Andrew Loomis. I'm learning some much just from simply copying his heads. I try and hit every line with the exact angle. Doing so takes a lot of time but again I'm learning so much. Getting the angle of the nose on the last head took me about 1/2 an hour with much of it spent on erasing. Sad, I know.

After warming up with copying some Loomis heads, I went on to sketch out this drawing. I'm working on some steam punk characters to add more figures to my portfolio. I SHOULD have started with some quick thumbnail sketches first but I just had the urge to start big. As for my punishment, I'm going to force my self to finish this guy threw. Focusing more on texture off the outfit, to help me get better at clothing and having inanimate objects looking more realistic. Since making inanimate objects looking realistic is one of my weak points. This way something good will come from my drawing impulse. The following post I'll show how far I've got'en on the figure. Till next time.

Copying from masters

So here are a few master copies I've worked on during spare time the past two days. Finding time to draw seems harder everyday. The only thing harder to find time to draw is getting myself to draw during down time, since working full time.

So I managed to find a decent copy of "Drawing the Head and Hands" by Andrew Loomis. It was a pretty penny but I don't regret it at all. Loomis is one of the rare masters that can actually explain his process is a clear way. I love this book, you can find digital copies of most of his books online. I'm just one of those people that likes having a full book case.

I didn't do any warm up drawings before hitting this book. I've purposely left the bad drawings in there along with notes to myself on where to improve, what's not working, what is working. This system is great now that I don't have a teacher. Anyway, this is going to be a short post being that my girlfriend's on the phone in the background. Till next time folks.

Starving "working" Artist

Not too sure who this blog is for, my fellow artists that are curious about my progress perhaps, but more for myself, in an attempt to get myself to become a successful artist. Who knows, only time will tell.

And now for the nitty gritty. On my day off today I got the chance to drop in at a figure drawing workshop, at 23rd. St, here in San Francisco. It felt great to draw from a live model again, it's been about two years since the last time I got to work with one. The one here on the right, I did with an ink brush pen. It was a 7 minute pose, which is weird, I've never done a 7 minute pose drawing before. Looking at it now the breasts are too small and not angled correctly. So those of you critiquing (which, is one of the main reasons for doing this blog) beat you to it suckas! Although, I do like the hips.

The sketch on the right I also did with an ink brush pen. I enjoyed this pose a lot, I like the energy from this

drawing but the head is off and too boxy, but man am I loving my brush pen.(7 min pose)

This next sketch here is one of my favorites. I feel as though I really caught the movement of the pose. This was mostly done with the brush pen, which I was just staring at to give you folks the name but it's all in Japanese! At the end of the drawing I used a little charcoal. The feet obviously need to be worked on.(7 min pose)

I know this next sketch may not be the best, but it is one I'm proud of, I've never been good at handling fore shorting poses and this is the best one I've done by far. That's enough of tooting

my own horn.............. for now. Done with charcoal and brush pen.(10 min pose)

Okay, this'll be the last sketch I'll put up for today, hope I haven't bored you folks too much. We had a twenty minute break before this pose and during so I was looking through my copy of Charles Bargue book and after being influenced this is the sketch that I created. This sketch I

started off different, I used a hard charcoal pencil and then went on top of it with my new favorite drawing tool.(20 min pose)

Thanks again, folks for taking the time to humor me and I hope to "hear" from you guys soon. Night.