Words, Art & Science by Anthony Francis
Another Goldman study. Interestingly, I had to use Photoshop's perspective warp to make this image have a square box, compared to its original, which I photographed rotated and a little off-angle:
So, this may be my last image post for a bit, as I am traveling to Con Carolinas soon, and even though my web hosting provider says I have 15 megabytes free, Wordpress is perceiving me as having no bytes free.
Regardless, I'll keep drawing every day.
-the Centaur
More studies from Goldman. I'm liking how these are turning out. Apparently repeated practice is doing something for my ability to render - whodathunk.
I'd say, "I'da thunk" except I am actually a bit surprised that there's a cross-training effect going on: that is, I'm getting better at things I wasn't really trying to get better at, just because I have to do them in order to do the things that I really want to do - sometimes improving in surprising ways.
But the drawings are turning out well, so I've got that going for me, which is nice.
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
More studies of negative space from Goldman. Yes, yes, I know "wza y'ei" means negative conceptual space, not negative visual space, but these hands really do look Lovecraftian to me.
So tired. Onward.
-the Centaur
ACTUALLY, there are no more "positive" and "negative" shapes in the real world than there are actual "lines" in the real world (well, even that's debatable, but ...) as the right diagram illustrates: yes, you can say that the hand has a shape, but its "wza y'ei", the negative conceptual space surrounding a positive concept in the Aklo language, does not actually exist for the hand: that negative space itself is both limited and shaped, broken up into negative and positive shapes like the stands for the hands or the frame of the picture. Or, to riff more on concepts from Alan Moore's version of Aklo, defining negative space can be seen as the extended creation of a new positive form.
A little punchy after that debugging session.
Drawing every day, posting every day my website works.
-the Centaur
Photoshopped version of the "C Lion" neck pillow that I drew the other day ...
It is interesting how strange shapes get compared to what we imagine things to look like ... it took conscious effort not to cartoon this and to try to make it match its referent, even given that it was a quick sketch.
Even then, I moved the binder clip in the drawing to aid the composition. Breakin' the law!
-the Centaur
I wasn't satisfied with the fingers on yesterday's drawing, nor with the fact that I didn't have time to render it, so I tackled it again, as a subject in its own right. I think it came out better, though the thumb is pointy.
Overall, I feel the shapes of the fingers I draw tend to come out fat or thin - I don't have a great grasp of their shape and thickness yet, and perspective is particularly hard.
But then, that's why I'm drawing every day, starting from Goldman's Drawing Hands and Feet.
-the Centaur
No rendering for you - I got the line drawing finished just before my late-night walk with my wife, and was about 50-50 on whether I would shade this when I got back - but it was raining, and we did a short walk, and, to our surprise, after our short little walk, the fridge in the kitchen was leaking.
So! Instead of rendering this, I helped my wife move all our food out of the dying fridge and into alternate refrigeration - fortunately we had enough room to save everything except for some freezer-burned home-made ice cream that really wasn't ever good enough to eat anyway.
Drawing every day; adulting as best as we can.
-the Centaur
Pictured: Another study from Goldman.
It's late, and I anticipated a cat would end up in my lap, so just a quick sketch for you. This is Mom, from a photograph back in the day - this is actually the photo we used for her funeral. We think the photograph was colorized and retouched, which was the style back in the day.
Interestingly, the photo was so blurry due to movement that I had to retroject the cleaned sketch back onto the notebook page, which I think turned out pretty well, though you can see a bit of the blurriness left in the notebook page texture. (Update: hit post too soon, thanks to cat, fixed now).
-the Centaur
Flying back from Silicon Valley Open Studios, just a quick sketch for you.
Drawing. Every. Day.
-the Centaur
Ya know, I could render this better, but, it's 3 in the morning, so, I'm not.
Enjoy another Goldman study.
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Long day helping clean up after Silicon Valley Open Studios and taking art to Kaleid, so here's a quick sketch of Jeremiah, based on a drawing of Jeremiah that happened to be sitting near me, after I had mostly assembled the furniture which goes in my new home-away-from-home office out in California:
You can barely see her next to the chair there, but it's the same drawing I have used for a variety of JW things, including the upcoming Jeremiah Willstone audio dramas:
Still, kind of appropriate that a character whose catchphrase is "Quick, now" (and who complained about her author reducing her strategies down to just the quick-strike) would be rendered in a quick sketch.
Drawing every day, even if I am shy of time.
-the Centaur
Pictured: Quick sketch of Jeremiah, with a little photoshoppery to jazz up the red scribbles around the Kathodenstrahl pistols, and my new home office, plus some of Sandi's sculptural furniture - believe it or not, the freaky egg thing is a combination hatrack / cupboard / jewelry case.
"No, it's not Master Strange, or Mister Strange, but Doctor Strange!" It still cracks me up that Dr. Strange's actual name is, like, Doctor Strange. "So, Stephen, what do you want to do when you grow up?" "Imma gonna be a doctor!" "Great!" "And then become a wizard superhero!" "You run along, Stevie."
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Day 139, still going through Goldman's drawing techniques section. Again I appear to have hit the (admittedly foreshortened, yet barely visible) thumb with a hammer. But, it's a good exercise. For example, the texturing technique I used for the grey background got a little misaligned in the bottom middle, creating an apparent discontinuity where it should be continuous (and making the pipe or stick the back hand is resting on less visible in my drawing, though it wasn't too easy to see in the original).
Drawing on average every day; scheduling posts to go up once a day if I can.
-the Centaur
More sketches from Wizard - How To Draw: Basic Training. I was curious about what happened to Wizard, and it apparently imploded with the big move to the Internet - just like many Internet publications imploded with the move to regurgitated garbage hidden behind sociopathic paywalls. But I'm not bitter.
Drawing, on average, every day.
-the Centaur
Even thought this illustration in Goldman was designed to show off the viewfinder idea, it is useful for my "drawing every day" purposes because it has an unchosen subject that requires new rendering techniques. Getting the texture of the viewfinder right is tedious, and it looks like I took a hammer to this guy's thumb on the left. But it came out kinda nice regardless, and stretched my drawing muscles.
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
The cleaned version of what I posted yesterday.
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
In case I don't get internet access in time to post the cleaned version, here's a peek at Drawing Every Day 2024 number 136:
Yes, I am literally drawing every coherent illustration in the Goldman book, even if they are not intended as drawing exercises. This forces me to stretch with more complex compositions, and broadens the drawing eye.
Drawing every day, posting when I have Internet.
-the Centaur
Mixing in some comics-style illustrations based on Wizard How to Draw Basic Training ...
Drawing, on average, every day; posting every day that I can.
-the Centaur
I thought about riffing on M. C. Escher by having the object being viewed in this finger viewfinder turn out to be another finger viewfinder, but I have neither the power nor inclination to follow the Hungarians beyond the Rhine. Still, I am feeling better about this drawing series as it progresses.
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
More Goldman studies. Starting to feel a little three-dimensionality to the shapes; I should start leaning into that, as I think that's a limitation of both my drawing and my viewing eye.
Drawing every day (on average).
-the Centaur
