Move on up (Buy Prints?)

So...

I was in a pretty serious drawing funk last week and I didn't do a whole lot of posting because there wasn't a whole lot to post!

As I start comicking again tomorrow though, it's time to start kicking things back into gear and today I did get some things done, chief amongst them... Mr. Caveman.

I've been struggling lately with my use of black to denote value, keeping things cartoony with the pen and figuring out coloring in dang ol' dang ol' Photoshop. All of those things start to coalesce today though and Mr. Caveman as you see above is the result!

On another note, I'm doing a run of one of my prints and I'm selling them on here (pictures below).

For the EXTREMELY reasonable price of 35 dollars (plus shipping if I can't get one to you in person) you can have a framed print as seen below (minus the artist who can't keep a straight face in photos to save his life).

If you're interested, e-mail me at georgefolz87@gmail.com. and we can work something out.

I hope the week's off to a nice start for everyone, check back tomorrow for comics!

And Then There Were Two (More)

For some reason, lighting nude males is a hell of a lot harder than females. It doesn't really make much sense if you think about it but that's just what it is I guess.

For the drawing I did, I used a wonderful site called Pose Maniacs. They have this great thing where you can set a time limit for yourself with a image of a certain figure up (a view of strictly the muscles mind you) and then you just go from there.

I tried to do two different body types here, the top being a more Buff Bagswell (anyone rememeber that clown?) type and the second one being a little more average.

I actually drew six of these but I only inked two as I want to go enjoy this primo snow that Minneapolis is currently enjoying.

The Residents (of 2436)

The triumvirate is complete. Here are my two roommates and I in all inked and colored glory!

Creepin Ethan

My roommate Ethan brought it to my attention yesterday that EVERY living being currently residing in our apartment (including our cat) has been the subject of one of my drawings. Not wanting to leave anyone out, I took it upon myself to add Mr. Holbrook to the blog!

As was the case with the drawing that I did of Charlotte, I started out doing a fairly straightforward portrait and then turned it into something kind of eerie. I'm going to do the same thing for a drawing of myself tomorrow so we can have a little series.

I'm quite pleased with his drawing and consider it one of the better (if not the best) portraits I've done recently.

Aretha and Nina

My intention today was to do numerous smaller women's faces and get some very simplified lighting on them. I started looking for reference though and I came across these two pictures of Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin, both of which were begging to be re-interpreted in ink and drawn a little larger.

I took a slightly different approach with Aretha than I did Nina, choosing to handle the rendering a little more lovingly with regards to the former. While I'm not displeased with my drawing of Aretha, I think the one of Nina Simone is far more successful as it has a greater presence, looking almost like it was carved out of the page in places.

I think I'm going to take a crack at coloring Nina later too.

For now though, I'm off to run in this...

Wait for it...

FORTY

ONE

DEGREE

WEATHER!!!

For folks who haven't spent a February in Minneapolis, this is a big deal.

Back in Our Minds

Can you say, "Throwback"?!?!?1//!/

I'm currently enjoying (NOT) my third day with a nasty little cold and I unfortunately don't have a lot of energy to draw. As this is so, I went WAYYYYYYYYYYYY back into the archives and dug up some work that was done just about two years ago to this day.

The above drawings were done my junior year of college at MCAD for a class called Comic Character Development. In this particular class, we were learned about figure drawing, designing characters appropriate for the story you're telling, differently levels of representation, and a whole bunch of other stuff. This is a combination of work done for two assignments. The first was to draw different heads and hands, and the second was to draw different examples of foreshortening.

I abandoned this kind of pencilling shortly after this assignment, (the smartest decision I've ever made art-wise) and I'm not sure if I could ever bring myself to work this tightly again. I kind of wonder what would have happened if I had chosen to focus exclusively on becoming a penciller... never for very long though.

Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)

Would it be sad if I did five figure drawings with the intention of name dropping the above mentioned MC5 song as "fa-fa-fa" could maybe be interpreted as "five-five-five"?

Happy accidents occur every now and then I guess.

I made two attempts at copying Loomis' work on the page here (top left and bottom left) but these are otherwise all originals.

Addressing lighting with ink is becoming a lot more fun and easy as these days progress. However, I'm encountering a re-occurring problem in that I don't think I can render woman's faces very well at a small size with light and shadow.

Guess I've got my work cut out for me tomorrow... be sure to check back!

Good Women

Today was a LONG drawing day. After making two attempts at a copy of Loomis' work I was about ready to skip posting today out of sheer frustration.

It was at this point that it occurred to me that maybe I should come up with something of my own and see how things went.

This was a good idea because it made me do the best figure drawings of nudes I've ever done.

I'm getting a lot more confidence with my work and I can't describe how happy it's making me. I almost took pleasure in beating myself up over my shortcomings in the past but after today, there's going to be no more of that.

Here's to the future! Be sure to check back tomorrow for more work.

The Watcher

Would you believe me if I told you that I thought about quitting this drawing half-way through?

Glad I didn't.

This started out as a fairly straightforward portrait of my roommate Charlotte and turned into something kind of spooky. I've included both the line art and colored versions as I'm fond of both.

And Then There Were Two...

These are two figures from the cover of Andrew Loomis' "Figure Drawing for all it's Worth". There are actually three figures on the cover of the book but my observational copy of the third was so poor that I scribbled, "Kill yoself if you ever draw something this poor again" next to the drawing!

I believe the original drawings by Loomis were done in charcoal and I've done these in ink. Both drawings were done exclusively with an 01 Micron and "zee chopper" (my Windsor Newton Series Seven brush that couldn't come to a point if it's life depended on it).

This week I start working on the interiors of the book. I plan on re-visit both of the above drawings at the end of my studies to see how they improve once I've had some time to properly study anatomy and proportion.

Draw the Line

Four years ago this past October I received a book from my parents as a birthday gift called "Figure drawing for all it's Worth".

For years I've threatened to go through the whole thing and actually LEARN how to draw but I keep chickening out and doing a whole lot of half-stepping.

As I have no interest in being a half-stepper, I'm going to finally go through this book and learn things the right way.

Check back daily, there's going to be a lot of moving and shaking... and moving wheels moving wheels.

Three of a Perfect Pair?

Anyone who knows what the title of this entry refers to should pat themselves on the back.

Everyone else... make a little detour here and enjoy the music of ex-Talking Heads guitar wizard Adrian Belew's other band from the 80s.

With regards to the drawings, I'm not sure which one I like better. The hints of a background in the first image were a lot of fun to draw but there's something about the black abyss threatening to envelope the figure in the second one that's just... so... cool!

Super People!

What you see above are some takes on Batman and his rogues gallery and Spider-man and his rogues gallery.

I had a blast doing these!

For the Werewolf... Have Sympathy

I don't usually make a habit of drawing people that I don't know (unless they're fictional characters of course), but I've been on a serious Cat Power kick lately and I saw a photo that was just begging to be drawn (which you can find here). Also, for the record... there was no tracing here.

Wascally Wabbit

While this one bares no resemblance to Bugs... he is still a "wabbit".

This is also probably the last blog entry for the week. I'm going to spend my time doing some reading and research for a change these next couple of days and start with the drawing updates again Monday of next week!

Wellllllll she's walking... through the clouds.

"Little Wing" popped up in the iTunes today...

I was inspired to draw her.