"Rena"
I've been working on getting back into my art lately. I had a 6 month period where my computer (and my drawpad), despite all the best attempts to save it, slowly died. It was maddening. I felt incredibly impotent with no way to get in and get the ideas out. Now, after my forced vacation, I'm back with fresh equipment. I've been leaning towards vibrant almost comic book colors lately. I think that deep down, my brain is secretly attempting to grab every color on the planet and stuff them into my pictures to compensate for all the time I spent without them... that, or I'm just crazy. Either way, you combine that with my recent tentacle obsession and you get things like Rena here.

She's not my typical face, or lighting. Even though she's essentially "plain" I still enjoy her- and you wouldn't believe how many bazillions of colors are in her tentacles- there's even orange in there.

The "Mucha-Pus"
Obviously, this is based on a drawing which I've seen listed as "The Harvest" or "Fruit" by Alphonse Mucha. I thought she could use an octopus.

This is the second time I've drawn it. This most recent one (that you see here) is poster sized with some minor repair on the tentacles, and a more pronounced smile on her face. I decided I wanted to try her again because I've got this bare spot on my wall..
I finished her about 2 weeks ago and I still haven't gotten around to hanging her up.

She's a bit prettier in person, but you'll have to take my word for it, because she's not for sale.

I plan to draw several in this similar vein, with more cephalpods as well as many other creatures.



                         Home   |      Photography

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                 Illustration   |      Previews
                            A Few Notes
I was planning on having an "All Encompassing Gallery" in here that included every single one of my digital/illustrations/photos/manipulations.

I didn't realize exactly how many images that would include until I started editing them and loading them to their respective galleries.. Hundreds.. Nobody would sit through the time it took to load all of them when they could just as easily click over to faster loading small galleries- or just go somewhere else. So it's going to be a sort of "spot light on select pieces" with notes what I've been doing lately, or particular things I'm sort of stuck on or have taken a shine to recently.

                            Photos
I shoot all of my pictures with a Canon S2IS. Yes, it's a bit out of date, but really, aside from a remote puck, I've got no complaints. It takes gorgeous super-macro photos (which most of my insects are shot with) and has a 48x zoom- so I have no problems shooting clear pictures of the moon without any sort of customization.

I'm fairly new to serious photography- I took it up less than 2 years ago. I find that I have a tendency to lean towards the easiest art form (I'm lazy), so the instant gratification of a digital camera makes me extremely happy. I'm also very deeply obsessed by the wonders of insects and I find that super-macro photography allows me access to them on a level that has only been available to me through documentaries before now.

                            Illustration
I didn't know I could draw until I was 17 and had nothing else to fill my time with. All of a sudden, there was a new way to express myself, and maybe even more importantly: a way to get the images in my head out onto paper.

So I drew for a while. Sometimes, I can really focus and get things dead accurate, other times, I get distracted and lose my perspective and skew my proportions.. I think my best pieces are prismacolors on black paper. I've got a knack for being able to draw in reverse- which you won't see evidenced much in here other than Theda Bara and The Hand- which interestingly enough, without attempting it, I managed to draw so that the colors perfectly invert and turn to a flesh colored hand on a white page- go on, check it out if you've got an art program that'll "invert colors". It still impresses me.

                            Digital Art
Ah, my love. My wonderful, beautifully expressive, easy as pie, saucy wench. I can't express my love for it any better than that.

My advice to any young "arteests" out there is this:
Save your pennies and get yourself a Wacom Drawpad. -You don't have to buy the giant ones. I find the 4x5 is easier to draw on because it requires less arm movement.. You don't need expensive $700 programs- Wacom bundles very VERY sufficient software with their Bamboo pads. Almost everything you'll see on this site was made with software that was included with either of my Wacom drawpads (I killed my first draw pad- it took over 7 years of abuse). They work just like drawing with pencils, except you can get the most brilliantly vibrant colors, and add lighting, and remove mistakes in the blink of an eye. No more eraser marks, no smudges, everything is fast and simple and stunning and it only takes a short while to get the hang of it.



            Do EEt! The Winky Binky Compels You!

                           

                             Remember Kids:
      If it doesn't have "Winky Binky" it's not art.
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