Quick Tip - Keep it clean.

From time to time, as I'm surfing the net, I come across some very useful little tid-bits of information.  Some times they make me go "Ah ha", other times it makes me wonder why I didn't think of that myself.   At any rate, as I come across them, I'll post them here and share them with you.

I picked this one up while watching a training video late last night.

Even the most meticulous clean freaks among us will, over time,  pick up some graphite on our fingers and/or the side of our hand.  If you're not careful, you'll wind of grinding that graphite into your paper and ruin your project.   So, from time to time you have to stop and wash your hands with soap and water.   Well, did you ever notice that you can't completely remove all that ground in graphite from your hands?  You can't because the graphite resists the water.  One solution is to squirt some liquid hand soap onto your hands first, using no water. and scrub the graphite out.  Then use a paper towel to remove the graphite and soap residue.  After that you can wash you hands as you normally would and you're good to go... or are you? 

Removing graphite as described above creates another problem that you must be aware of.  I don't care how long you dry your hands, you can never get them "completely" dry.  There's always going to be some moisture that will just take time to evaporate, unless you have one of those commercial hand driers that you see in public toilets.  Getting any sort of moisture on your paper will surly ruin it and many soaps contain moisturizers that will transfer onto your paper and resist any graphite in that area.

So, what I do, to save time and my work, is keep a bottle of liquid soap "NEAR" my drawing table.  Not "on it", mind you,  but "NEAR" it.  When I'm in need of a quick clean up I grab the soap, turn away from my work, and follow the suggestion above.  The only difference being, I don't wash my hands with soap and water when I'm done.  Instead, after removing the soap residue and graphite with a paper towel,  I grab a bottle of one of those alcohol based hand sanitizers and give them a quick scrub.  The alcohol base removes the soap residue and dries quickly.  I can now get back to my work without ever leaving my work area.  Just make sure the hand sanitizer does not contain any sort of moisturizer.

Anyway, hope this helps.

WIP - Lauren

Just a quick practice piece of my daughter, Lauren.  There's still a lot to be done.  Some of the proportions are off.

Good basic tutorial on Perspective

vfxdojo.com - Learn new tricks and have some fun at it! Tutorials, content and stock resources for Visual Effects artists and professionals

Mike Sibley course on Drawspace.com

I'm so excited that I am finally able to get in on this course   My first attempt was interrupted by a very long hospital stay.   Let's hope that's all in the past.  I just can't wait for it to begin.

If you're not familiar with with who Mike Sibley is, then you owe it to yourself to check out his web site .  I first became aware of Mike's work one night while web surfing and stumbling across his website..  As far as I'm concerned, Mike's book,  "Drawing from line to life",  is a must have.  Soon after I learned that there was a Yahoo group centered around Mikes book run by Diane Wright.  "The group provides a unique opportunity to discuss the techniques discussed in Mike's book with other artists from around the world."   Mike himself is a regular contributor and will also be available to answer specific questions that you may have.  If you're interested, you can sign up at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DrawingLinetoLife/

So anyway, now i get to be coached by Mike himself and I'm just thrilled to death.

All you wanted to know about pencils?????

To those not interested in graphite drawing a pencil is just something we keep in the junk draw or if you're really cool or maybe a carpenter, behind your ear.  To those that are, it's a tool and like any other tool the better you know your tools, the better you'll be able to use them.  so, as a lead in to my upcoming pencil test results, here's a video that explains it all... well most anyway. .

Starting up again.

Well, it's been a rough year and a half for me.  I was in and out of the hospital for most of that time.  Each trip to the hospital set me back and I found myself starting all over again only to fall back again.  Well, all is good now and it's time to get this blog started again.  

I've recently found Mr. Darrel Tank and his 5 Pencil Method.  I've been through his free tutorials (which there are a ton of ) and am now working on his Drawing Eyes dvd.  I highly reccomend anyone interested in learning graphit drawing to check it out.  I've also been doing a non-scientific test of drawing pencils.  I'll be posting the results of that soon. 

So, here's to no more sick days and many more drawing days.

Wow, where did the time go?

It's been a while since I posted to this blog.  I've been real busy, and true to form, I've been dabbling in a little of this and a little of that.  I've decided to spend a considerable amount of time doing some graphite drawing and maybe get into a little bit of traditional painting.  I need to solidify my technique in both areas and incorporate them into digital matte painting.  Most of the established, big name, matte painters have solid foundations in some form of traditional art.  They just didn't get up one morning and start matte painting for a living.  So, I need to do the same.  I have to admit that soon after coming to this realization, I was a bit discouraged.  I mean I'm 59 going on 60 come July, for God's sake (the 12th to be exact.  Just in case anyone wants to get me a gift).  So, let's say I put a good 5 years into developing my foundation skills... WOW, I'll be 65.  Then I thought, "well, if I don't do it, I'll be 65 in 5 years anyway", so why not.

I've bought some books, joined some Yahoo mail lists, met some new cool and talented people and joined a graphite web site.  So I'm on my way.  I'll get into detail about them all in later posts.