Dancing with the Dead

This was originally an old pencil I always really loved. So I blew it up because it was orignally only 4x6 or maybe less and used my light book to ink it. Though there are places I messed up inking in places I still love this piece.

I intend to color this eventually.

Illustration Friday: "IDLE"

My submission for this week's Illustration Friday is actually an old drawing I dug out and inked. I was going to draw someone relaxing in a chair infront of a window for "idle" until I realized I have a drawing that needs to be completed of exactly that!

I have so many similar sketches that need to be completed but I hate to ink. I'm such a slow inker and you can see the places I messed up because I was watching "The Daily Show" and couldn't help but to laugh.

I really like this piece and intend to color it eventually.

I actually aslo thought of using this as a solution for "idle" as well, but chose not to.

100 Themes: Introduction

The past few years over at DeviantArt I have seen people doing the 100 Themes challenge. So to force my artistic growth I have decided to give it a shot.

This is the first word "Introduction." I chose to do a series of my own face. As thinking of what to draw I thought of expressions and their meanings. When you first met someone you don't know their personality and moods. So initially when you meet someone your judgment of them is based on their first expression and mood. I wanted to show that in my illustration. Which of these people would you want to meet?

100 Themes

1. Introduction 2. Love 3. Light 4. Dark 5. Seeking Solace 6. Break Away 7. Heaven 8. Innocence 9. Drive 10. Breathe Again 11. Memory 12. Insanity 13. Misfortune 14. Smile 15. Silence 16. Questioning 17. Blood 18. Rainbow 19. Gray 20. Fortitude 21. Vacation 22. Mother Nature 23. Cat 24. No Time 25. Trouble Lurking

26. Tears 27. Foreign 28. Sorrow 29. Happiness 30. Under the Rain 31. Flowers 32. Night 33. Expectations 34. Stars 35. Hold My Hand 36. Precious Treasure 37. Eyes 38. Abandoned 39. Dreams 40. Rated 41. Teamwork 42. Standing Still 43. Dying 44. Two Roads 45. Illusion 46. Family 47. Creation 48. Childhood 49. Stripes 50. Breaking the Rules

51. Sport 52. Deep in Thought 53. Keeping a Secret 54. Tower 55. Waiting 56. Danger Ahead 57. Sacrifice 58. Kick in the Head 59. No Way Out 60. Rejection 61. Fairy Tale 62. Magic 63. Do Not Disturb 64. Multitasking 65. Horror 66. Traps 67. Playing the Melody 68. Hero 69. Annoyance 70. 67% 71. Obsession 72. Mischief Managed 73. I Can't 74. Are You Challenging Me? 75. Mirror

76. Broken Pieces 77. Test 78. Drink 79. Starvation 80. Words 81. Pen and Paper 82. Can You Hear Me? 83. Heal 84. Out Cold 85. Spiral 86. Seeing Red 87. Food 88. Pain 89. Through the Fire 90. Triangle 91. Drowning 92. All That I Have 93. Give Up 94. Last Hope 95. Advertisement 96. In the Storm 97. Safety First 98. Puzzle 99. Solitude 100. Relaxation

List of the 100 Themes from here.

Illustration Friday: "TANGO"

My submission for "Tango" over at Illustration Friday. I did this quick sketch last night and inked(I really need to practice inking more) it today. I thought it would look good if he dress was really vibrant, but looking at the illustration now and I am really thinking it would look better if the rest was colored maybe less intense than the dress though. Then maybe within the border I could do a line drawing of an Argentinian city. But I don't know, this was a quickie and it's only 6x6 inches.

This was not what I had originally planned to draw, but I found my idea was too complex and I had no idea to put it on paper. I do like how this came out though especially the dress. I think next time I do a marker illustration I will use bristol board because the colors blend really nicely.

Illustration Friday: "HOLLOW"

This is my first submission for Illustration Friday for this weeks theme of "hollow." I had a really hard time thinking of something to draw. The only things I could think of was woods and something creepy. So I spend a long time going through a series of concepts and thumbnails until I came on the concept of souls and mask. When I took cultural anthropology my teacher explained that certain cultures thought that humans were simply a vessel and that mask held the spirits of gods. When worn the god would take over the human body.

I had fun looking up mask on Google Images. I drew mask from Africa, Hindu, Japan, China, the South Pacific, and then some mask I combined features from many cultures. I put the mask dealer in a Noh mask because is was the least obviously a mask.

I got really into this illustration. I had originally only planned only to draw two or three mask, but I kept seeing ones I liked online and wanted to add them until I ran out of room. I hope to do a more refined version of this eventually.