Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “Artworks”

[drawing every day 2024 post one oh four]: all my berks cards

Published April 13, 2024 by centaur
centaur 0

Alright, one more not-drawing drawing while I am scrambling to get ready for Clockwork Alchemy. If you're not using the Internet in its most basic form, it resembles a countryside where roads to infrequently-visited towns frequently get torn up and you have to either reroute - or build your own.

Case in point, link shorteners. Google used to have one called "goo.gl" - used to have, before Larry Page took over at Google and led it through the Google Plus debacle, where Google really started to get the reputation for killing products that ultimately led to it being called the Google Graveyard.

But, before they killed it, I used it on the book cards that I hand out at conventions! I had been using that shortlink to point to my Amazon "Anthony Francis" author page, but I don't trust link shorteners anymore. So I created a new link, dresan.com/blog/books, which has all my books on it (now in the top menu):

But, that means my book cards needed to be updated. I of course updated the link, but also took the time when I was in there to enhance the contrast on the top title so it was more legible. Hopefully these cards will arrive in time for the Clockwork Alchemy convention next week, where I will be Author Guest of Honor.

Drawing (or graphic design) every day.

-the Centaur

Pictured: the back of the "book cards", and the "book page" which also shows the book card fronts.

[drawing every day 2024 post one oh three]: the neurodiversiverse kickstarter cards

Published April 12, 2024 by centaur
centaur 0

So, no drawing-drawing today, as we needed to complete the Kickstarter for The Neurodiversiverse, which goes live early next week - and we (and by we, I mean I) had to ALSO complete the graphics for the book cards we will be handing out at the Clockwork Alchemy and Con Carolinas conventions. Have a look!

While Photoshoppery isn't the artistic skill I wanted to refine when I started Drawing Every Day, it is a skill that also needs to be perfected. I had to generate a LOT of graphics by today so we could submit the Kickstarter, and then these two cards - by TONIGHT, to get the order into Moo in time.

But, we did it! Hopefully the cards will arrive in time. Cross your fingers!

Drawing (or Photoshopping) every day.

-the Centaur

Pictured: Front and back of the Kickstarter cards, based on a draft of our cover, itself based on art from Barbara Candiotti, one of the contributors to The Neurodiversiverse. More information on The Neurodiversiverse Kickstarter will come shortly before it goes live next week.

[twenty twenty-four day one oh three]: more t-shirt tests

Published April 11, 2024 by centaur
centaur 0

Zazzle for the win. I think this rendered pretty well (the color difference is in the lighting):

Admittedly, Zazzle were late shipping this to me, but this t-shirt design came out better than the Cafe Press take on the Embodied AI Workshop t-shirt:

Even though both shirts are fairly dark, and both of these images are drawn from the same Adobe Illustrator template, the text on the Cafe Press one came out a bit grey and worn ... and actually a bit small, whereas the Zazzle one looked white and solid and was sized pretty much like the text on the preview image:

I wouldn't close the door on Cafe Press - the t-shirt itself was solid, and I've used them successfully in the past. But I think for this iteration of t-shirts I'm going to go with Zazzle.

Onward!

-the Centaur

[drawing every day 2024 post one oh two]: jeremiah willstone logo sketches

Published April 11, 2024 by centaur
centaur 0

What a long fricking day. No real drawing for you ... just sketches of a proposed Jeremiah Willstone logo. I created these as feedback to a fellow artist I'm working with who will design the actual logo in a form suitable for putting on pins and stickers. We started with an old logo idea I had a few years back:

But that's kitbashed together from a number of different public domain images and my own quickly hacked logo designs in Photoshop and Illustrator. However, Kimchi Kreative did such a good job with the Neurodiversiverse logo I asked her to apply some of her magic to Jeremiah. We're iterating on it now, with super rough sketches to bounce ideas back and forth.

You know, it's great to learn to do things on your own - and I focus on doing most of the work that I can myself, especially for my own creative projects. But when you have access to an expert, it's foolish to forego that for things in their area of expertise - and learning how to work with others on creative projects is a skill all its own.

Drawing (and learning) every day.

-the Centaur

[drawing every day 2024 post one hundred and one]: stick figures

Published April 10, 2024 by centaur
centaur 0

Back in the day, I felt embarrassed about practicing with stick figures, always wanting to move on to the actual drawing. But now, I see real value in learning an approximation, so you can test ideas out and get proportions right with rough sketches, rather than ending up with an unbalanced or malformed drawing.

Drawing every day.

-the Centaur

[drawing every day 2024 post one hundred]: footbones

Published April 9, 2024 by centaur
centaur 0

More Goldman studies. Interesting how many fiddly bits there are in something as basic as the heel of the human foot, much less all the bones that make up the rest of it.

How much of this do you really need to know to draw? Conversely, how much does knowing this at a muscle-motion, stone-cold sketching level give you an invisible substructure that helps you get the shape of the outer structures correct?

Time will tell. Drawing every day.

-the Centaur

[drawing every day post ninety-eight]: foot bones

Published April 7, 2024 by centaur
centaur 0

A comparison of hand and foot bones from Goldman. Interestingly, the big toe and thumb both seem to have lost one bone compared to the other fingers / toes. I wonder whether that happened as an evolutionary convergence, or whether they're controlled by the same homeobox or something and were both lost at the same time.

Did I get that word right? Huh, homeobox is the right concept. But, strangely, I remember last thinking about it in a place which I thought was a dream place - a road leading to a bookstore - but now I recall several visits to that bookstore, including a visit to a nearby mall to eat. Huh. I wonder if that was real.

Drawing (and reminiscing) every day.

-the Centaur

[drawing every day post ninety-seven]: more on the feet

Published April 6, 2024 by centaur
centaur 0

I know from experience how relieving it is to have a big buffer of artwork in my Drawing Every Day queue - I couldn't have gotten through GDC without it - but I also know it takes time.

More time than you expect; it was already getting dark by the time I finished this (compare with Day 97). Though, now that I think about it, I took a call with a potential sponsor for the Embodied AI Workshop, so I guess it is to be expected for it to get later if thirty minutes gets snapped out of drawing time like that.

Still ... drawing every day.

-the Centaur

[drawing every day 2024 post ninety-six]: a solid foundation

Published April 6, 2024 by centaur
centaur 0

Trying desperately to get ahead prior to the eclipse. More Goldman studies.

I really think these methodical studies help, and so does the mobile studio, but I also feel that a solid series of practice on ink rendering, also done in a larger format, would do me good as well.

Ah well. One (sub) project at a time, or even three at a time, but not five or ten.

Drawing Every Day.

-the Centaur

[drawing every day 2024 post ninety-five]: anatomy studies

Published April 4, 2024 by taidoka
taidoka 0

So I don't completely burn out on arms and legs, I'm building out my buffer with sketches based on a completely different anatomy book, which has very good planar breakdowns to help analyze shapes:

Well, I guess you can't see it well in that view because I put a clear plastic library-style cover over the book to protect it, but I also guess you'll start seeing more closeups from this book as we move forward, so you'll get the gist eventually.

Drawing every day.

-the Centaur

[drawing every day 2024 post ninety-three]: a quick sketch

Published April 2, 2024 by centaur
centaur 0

Out of time due to working on Camp Nano and lots of other stuff, so here's a quick sketch of Viv from Legends and Lattes. It was surprisingly hard to get the hands right without prior pencil sketches, so that's still an area I need to work on practicing.

Drawing every day.

-the Centaur

[drawing every day 2024 post ninety-one]: cinnamon, sketched

Published March 31, 2024 by centaur
centaur 0

Super quick sketch of Cinnamon, as I was in food coma after Easter dinner, then had to write a long review for a journal - which I was already a day late on.

And, counting "a day late" as "missed a thing", I once again "missed a thing" because I was in a meeting which we decided to let run long. Which made the next meeting run long, and we extended it even longer. And because there wasn't a specific thing on my calendar for Saturday evening - it was just on my list of things to do in my todos - I said, "eh, let's let this go long and get this done."

And then something else didn't get done.

I've learned to watch out for this zealously, because for me, at least, going long on a meeting is a dangerous prescription for screwing up your next task. If you think you can go a bit longer ... what are you missing?

-the Centaur

[drawing every day 2024 post ninety]: calves and hamstrings

Published March 30, 2024 by taidoka
taidoka 0
More studies from the Goldman book

Ran out of time to postprocess this due to prepping for Easter dinner.

Actually, I got kicked out of the library because Loki is already having his midnight snack prior to going to bed, and it is best not to (literally) open the door to another round of zoomies. The mobile studio to the rescue!

The mobile studio strikes again.

Drawing every day.

-the Centaur

[drawing every day 2024 post eighty-nine]: not technically drawing, but …

Published March 29, 2024 by centaur
centaur 0

I have been doing a lot of art today, but mostly in Photoshop and Illustrator. Regularly scheduled drawing every day will resume tomorrow, or even tonight if I can finish up my other tasks.

Or, you know what? I have a test image right there. I could draw THAT.

Bam. On one of my "todo" pieces of paper sitting nearby. Take that, autistic inertia.

Drawing every day.

-the Centaur

Pictured: a prototype of an Experimental Jetset Ampersand-style shirt, and a quick drawing of it.

[drawing every day 2024 post eighty-seven]: ice it until the swelling goes down

Published March 27, 2024 by centaur
centaur 0

Upon a closer inspection, that thumb was big even in the source image (see below), but still not as big as I drew it. So I had to draw it again. The tendons in the hand don't trace back properly on this one, but at least my poor drawing subject is not left with a throbbing thumb from some invisible hammer.

And, hey, guess what? The drawing table I set up in my office is really useful when I actually sit down to use it, rather than squeezing drawings in when I'm out and about.

Drawing every day.

-the Centaur