ShadowsFall

I read an article by Jimiyo which more or less said “go forth and create”. The idea is that the more you create, the less you should consume. And the more you create the more others will consume your work.

This isn’t really new thinking by any stretch but it’s nice to see it repeated. In my 9-5 world we really try to follow the “iterate often” mantra that has made software development a living thing. I’ve been trying to follow this myself for the past few years (and recently the past few months) and to date I have half-a-dozen projects on the burners. I don’t think I’ve drawn this much since I was a kid.

Work, school and other art have kept me so busy that I haven’t been able to post anything here. I’ll try to change that.

I’m rather uncertain about the work I’m producing lately. I feel like I rush myself because I want to be done as soon as I start. Why? Because the idea of leaving something unfinished sits poorly with me.

The reason for this is because I have left so much unfinished in the past.

I think the next decade will be about finishing what I’ve started. When I was in 8th grade, I thought it’d be great to have a turn-based strategy game centered around snowball fights. I went so far as to play test the game with my friends. Now, as I enter into the later years of school, I have the option to take some game design classes.

I think my only option for myself is to create a real time combat game based on the same premise. So here we go down the rabbit hole.

In a fit of frustration I started sketching on a prepared canvas that I’ve had ready to go for the past four months. This is the start of a work that was promised to a friend several long years ago.

I need to finish what I start.

I put some finishing touches on this tonight. Like with everything, it was a learning experience. I did most of it via the mouse, but used the tablet for some of it. Using the tablet in Illustrator is definitely something I need to work on. I decided to send this one to Tee Fury for the heck of it.

Early To Rise. 02.02.2011. Illustrator Digital Drawing

Back in high-school, I loved U2. Today I have an appreciation. However, my friend Michelle loves them in a fanatical way – to the point of meeting the band several times and playing a big role in the formation of the official fan club website.

But back in high-school, I would doodle out little Gerald Scarfe/Pink Floyd inspired drawings, watercolors and whatnots. In the process I would tag them with some words from the U2 song Bullet The Blue Sky – never quite finishing a phrase or two. This made the drawings into a series and Michelle sought to collect them all.

Next to my mother, she’s my biggest fan.

Michelle’s 40th birthday is coming up, so I blocked out an evening, and came up with this as a gift to her – to finally complete the series as started in high-school.

Bullet The Blue Sky. January 26th 2011. Acrylic, ink, wire and tape on canvas board. 20"x24".

I was working pretty fast and loose (something I rarely do) with a less than stellar reference photo. The proportions are out of whack, but I think it works for this piece. The song Bullet The Blue Sky is awash in distortion, so why not a distorted painting that is meant to convey some of that mood?

Late last night I got my bluetooth adapter to play nice and my Intuos installed. I couldn’t put it down – it’s really quite dreamy.