Fixed up

Edited up the racing hounds one.

Meh.

Still like it.

...Sorta :3

Lion Rider

Boy I hope my uncle doesn't see this before Christmas.

It's his gift, in lieu of a tattoo design I don't forsee myself... you know... designing

I hope he finds it satisfactory, I did get an A- on it.

Turned out pretty snazzy, considering the time I had on it.

End of Semester

So we have come at last to the end of the semester.

I have to say, I quite enjoyed it. I found a stride I was quite comfortable with, and only felt burnt out once right around thanksgiving. Because I don't have Adobe Illustrator or Corel Painter at home I basically spent much of my time in the Mac Lab, occationally arriving at 9am and more than two dozen times leaving at 11:58pm when they started shutting the lights off.

But, with that schedule came a sort of relaxing peace. I knew exactly how much time I had, and didn't stay up pulling all nighters. When I came home, I slept, and returned the following morning.

My goodness, what a great opportunity I had in having Chuck's class. After midpoint review I felt really bummed out and hit a very low depth in self confidence. I thought I was better than the review suggested, and I felt I embarrassed myself, even though I put my best work out there. Talking with Chuck in person made me feel much better, but it wasn't until nearly the end of the semester did I really start aggressively seeking out photo references again. Before I sort of half assed used them when I really had no clue as to what I was drawing but now they are the first thing I look for when I have an idea and really there is no substitute to the level of subtlety you can miss when simply trying to draw from the mind. 

There are many very qualified instructors at the academy, but only a certain few of them can really provide you with that certain 'oomph' needed to put your best work forward to really try and show what you're made of. Chuck was one of them. I always wanted to impress him, show him I was worth something, that I was determined to make it. I don't want to be a lazy student. I don't want to slide through class. I want to LEARN while I'm still here and can look to them for advice.

One assignment we had was to take an in class drawing we completed and to put a background in perspective around it.

Chuck's reaction to all of our work was more or less "that we should wallow in our own shame for a week before trying again." He said he thought we were blowing him off. I worked hard on my assignment but I found out from Ed, and Chuck, that the main reason my perspective was wonky was my placement of my vanishing points. Big, instant improvement.

In short, I enjoyed it. I'll miss the class in the future, but I won't forget the lessons.

OH! Before I forget. I submitted work to the Society of Illustrators scholarship. Here's to hoping I at least am worthy of a mention, if not some money! Hey!

Superhero thoughts

All this is brought upon by the mention of an upcoming one shot book, which asserts that Nightcrawler, feeling made redundant by Pixie (read: Awful) leaves the X men.

X-Men quitting time

I think it's a lame excuse to put a character into Limbo. There are many more people on the net who agree with me, and who argue it better, so read up, folks. Needless to say I am severely vexed by this news.

Racing Hounds

NOT FINISHED!

I wish I had enough time to go in and actually paint more backround dogs that actually follow the path of the track, and I really need to go in and redraw those jockeys, yeesh. It is really hard to draw a person riding a dog like jockeys ride horses. Seriously, they like squat up and tuck in their knees high up. Plus, Greyhounds are way more flexible than horses, so most of the dogs' spines would probably throw the riders after a stride or two. The best bet would probably be to hunch up as best you can over their shoulders.

Also I was originally going to color the painting, as in, not sepia color. Buuut...adding color after the value is still rough for me and I just ran out of time. Oh well. I still like it.

Either way, the image of tiny dog riding jockeys wouldn't leave me alone-- (Yes, they are supposed to be tiny jockeys, not horse sized dogs.) So I had to get it out of my system.

So.... Here you go.