Everything is different in the morning...

2009-03-10T01:10:00.001-06:00

ballpoint

2009-02-05T13:13:00.004-06:00

schtuff...

2009-01-03T01:12:00.003-06:00

Zombie alphabet...

Pen Drawing

Major Tom

Siren Sketch

2008-12-11T04:18:00.002-06:00

This was done with no reference what-so-ever...I guess in that sense it is a bit of an exercise in anatomy. I don't think it's all too terrible. More or less what I remember women looking like. Some of them anyway. God I should just stop typing. (sorry if that was terribly offensive.)

...in prolonged absences.

2008-12-03T15:37:00.007-06:00

SO. It's been a while yeah? To catch everyone and no one up, I have been mostly devoted to nothing what-so-ever. Work has been a bit demanding of my time, everything else has either been spent climbing or...

What HAVE I been doing?

In any case, here are some random sketches. I need to start a new REAL project but I am at a loss for ideas. Maybe I will work on some digital speed paintings tonight (I'm sick and therefore stuck at home-ish). We'll see.

2008-08-11T18:26:00.001-06:00

I am sorry to those loyal readers out there...(skoff joke huff)

I just recently moved and haven't bothered to upload, hook up my scanner, take photos or really draw all too much.

I'll get on it.

(when I feel like it.)

et al.

2008-07-13T23:28:00.002-06:00

This is currently taped to my TV.

...In random business.

2008-06-17T22:25:00.004-06:00

Just random work in the last few days.....but elsewise...

Some kid at mugs along with some guys some other place.

I call him fatman...just sketching no real person. The bottom one started out as something entirely different...i don't remember what it was. it wasn't a person.

Frame 7 of a page I was doing.

A sketched idea for an image. A person of some kind smirking as he's fooling a soldier with false letters of transit...

...in Boo R Dome

2008-06-13T00:51:00.002-06:00

...in doing other things.

2008-06-08T03:17:00.002-06:00

I started working on a digital thing. I have no idea what it is. I am calling it "Lava Walker" for now. We'll see where it goes, but here it is in progress.

...in nothing better to do.

2008-06-07T00:25:00.004-06:00

So here we are again. As per usual, it's been a while. I'd like to say I've been busy, but I haven't. Leastways in art anyhow. Just a few pages from the sketchbook here...

My love affair with Zombies...

Random Faces etc.

And RRRRRobots.

And BATMAN.

Aside from that, I've spent a LITTLE time in traditional media...acrylic paint and canvas etc. nothing spectacular.

Arcylic on canvas 48in x 20in

This based on a sketch I saw on Mark Bailey's blog. We went to highschool together, he was artistic then as well...I wasn't. He's much better. His sketch was based on Jonah and the whale I think, mine is argo, the constellation. kind of.

Acrylic on canvas 40in x 8 in

This is just a semi-abstracted interior courtyard, in progress...

acrylic on canvas 18 in x 30 in

My younger step brother is into cars etc so this is a piece I'm inactively working on for him. It's not an engine...I have no idea what an engine actually looks like. feh.

...in awkward but refreshing eye contact...

2008-03-27T02:16:00.005-06:00

All I really have to report are a few more sketches...

I am feeling much better...though not fantastic, but better.

I don't know how old this is...I didn't see that I had posted it anywhere else, if I have, I apologize.
It appears to be an older man...and a woman...and stuff...

Filling in a page I'd previously scanned...The man in the lower left...really looks like that...See?

Tonight I was at the B&N cafe because it is closer to the gym, and has a slow enough turn over of people that it facilitates longer studies if I choose...which I still tend not to. There was a girl who studies there on a regular basis and who undoubtedly has gathered that I draw people...Tonight was her turn, and she was very clearly aware I was looking at her, which made it hard. I didn't get to look up for reference for more than a second at a time so the drawing is pretty simple...Also...pretty people are hard to draw. They tend not to have marks or blemishes which make them identifiable, or shapely, instead, smooth skin which can't be marked etc...it's hard to draw so perfectly with so few marks...I need to work on that. It is a similar hangup to why I am never satisfied with my drawings of Sam.

So...to the girl at the B&N cafe...you are really cute...i'll buy you coffee or whatever if i can draw you...BUT...i am utterly head over heels for another girl, so...coffee and company?(cheesy enough? "my name's colin and i draw pretty pictures!") cough...good thing no one reads this.

...in...

2008-03-13T14:25:00.003-06:00

Just some more "life drawings" and miscellaneous sketches from yesterday.

I realized I had somehow managed to skip a page in my book so I tried to see what I remembered from figure drawing/anatomy. I'm all too certain that only about 2 muscles are right/in proportion, but a good number of them are INCLUDED at least...

Four faces, facing Four directions.

...in...whatever.

2008-03-11T00:29:00.003-06:00

just a sketch to upload since i have nothing better or more exciting.

This is a denizen of Mugs coffee lounge. she's there all the time, and may or may not be a bit more crazy then the most of us.

...in regards to behavioral disorders.

2008-03-06T01:47:00.003-06:00

It's been another hard few weeks. Just a few thumbnails and sketches for now.

Work on the "Force of Nature" painting. Slow progress due to refusing to work on it.

"Preoccupation (behavioral disorder)" March 2008

A thumbnail for one of my stories which I may get around to fully illustrating someday, but most likely not so much.

Misc. Life drawings March 2008

...more.

2008-02-21T04:57:00.003-06:00

I was doodling a bit and came up with an idea for a weary hero narrative...thing. The hero who is tired from his trials and travels, but who knows he has this one more task...or something lame like that. The problem I am running into is that my antagonist is lame. Just...not doing it for me. I think deciding on the setting will help(I am leaning toward an overgrown, mossy, dark, mirkwood-esque dealy), but I think I am going to go the more "force of nature" route and make the creature itself overgrown and a dangerous and fantastical element of the forest itself. i tried it as just a simple troll type idea and it is very hum drum. I used some vellum and overlayed some horns etc and it's just too...balor.

anyone?

2008-02-20T18:27:00.003-06:00

I haven't really been doing much beyond sketching a bit here and there. Projects haven't exactly been slapping in the face so to speak. I have a few screenprints which will be in a limited pressing, but they won't be coming into fruition for a while. Disappointing I know. So, in place of anything better, here are a few selected sketches from my Moleskine.

Altair
Sam "convinced" me to buy Assassin's Creed. By "convinced" I really mean, she mentioned it, and I am a sucker for pretty games. I became a bit addicted and now have to be disappointed that I have to wait around for pt 2 and 3 since I've finished.

Starbucks Portraits

Random sketches

"The Toreador"
I was looking through one of Sam's "Through the lens" books of Ntnl Geographic photos and there was an intense Toreador. I decided to turn it into an illustrator image, this is the sketch for that.

...in keeping up. (and making of the moneys)

2007-12-09T14:46:00.002-06:00

"Autumn" - Digital painting/scanned materials - Dec 07

I'm doing very well for once in keeping up as promised with work, and the blog. I am momentarily proud of myself. If anyone recalls, or cares to look back a short ways, I had a poster print called "winter" a while back, which was a sort of digital collage. I've had several requests from random people to buy a print of it, which struck me as a fantastic idea, if only to get my signature floating around out there. So I am in the process of setting up a paypal account, but also in the process of doing more "digital screens". Each will be available as a high resolution 11"x17" digital print for $12. Like I said, the idea is mainly to get my signature out there, and for the novelty of it. By selling them for $12 it isn't exactly as if I am in it for the large bill money. To get each printed on a high quality stock it will cost me about $3, for a mailing tube and postage, probably another $4...so I am in it for about $5 bucks a print.

"Winter" - Digital painting/scanned materials

...in supplement.

2007-12-07T11:48:00.000-06:00

Untitled 41 - acrylic/canvas Dec 07

Nothing really to say. I've been drawing much more and enjoying it; but also taking up the mantle of painting again. It hasn't been anything in depth really, I started something when I was walking around nervously tapping my hands and wanting nothing more than to break something...Leah was here so I decided to turn it into something more productive...ish.

I'll start again with real painting I think soon; not just random abstractions to keep my mind on the brush and off of...the things which they tend to fall. I have an 18" x 48" inch canvas that I stretched a month or two back which is sitting under the stairs taunting me like the tell-tale heart. For the moment I am satisfied with painting over old canvases or random masonite / cardboard I find.

...in being a coffee house denizen

2007-12-05T11:31:00.000-06:00

Moods - Dec 5 07

so...once again I return after a shorter long while, but a relatively long span nonetheless. On the artistic front, not much new to report. Still trying to figure everything out as best I can. I'm great, then awful, then just surviving, then great again, then horrible...you see the trend. That's just before lunch. I've been writing shortstories a fair bit lately, maybe at some point I will scan them or transcribe into digital media for someone to read. Also I've been teaching myself french, which is going very well. thank you for asking.

I have been in and out of coffeehouses again, doing some sketches. I am still trying to find a style of my own, the best i can come up with as a style, i'm not entirely satisfied with...I want to be an illustrator, and graphic novelist, but not a comic book artist ya? but most of my work is very outline intensive...we'll keep at it. For once i feel like my drawing is GOING somewhere. I've had to do a bit of a u-turn in life in the past 5-6 months because I realized that my life had gotten a bit bleak. Since the turn around I feel much better as a person, my climbing as gotten stronger in leaps and bounds (although we'll see with the recent return of my good ol crap knee injury) but also I feel, parallel to my climbing, I've marked improvement in almost everything, including drawing, and drawing quickly, or getting closer to that thing I want from my "art". Unfortunately, the turn around bore a promise, which has been the only questioningly unsatisfying aspect...Do not get me wrong, I've stuck to my promise, and I believe I've done well. Change in attitude was for her...but it was also for me...but I had this foolish hope that being what I should have been all along would lead to her taking me back. Alas...I must resign to siphoning the specific stolen happiness which only she gives me, and I suspect only she ever could, but doing so in a way which I almost think she feels guilty for. It's not like I lose sleep over it. I didn't sleep before...(lie)

anyway...the important stuff. the art. (so called)

Mugs Coffeehouse Sketches Nov 29 07

Misc Sam sketches : "Sleepwalking" (bottom) Dec 4 07

"Leah" Dec 2 07

Misc: (top) "Julie" Nov 07

...in regional neck pain.

2007-11-16T04:09:00.000-06:00

I don't know why it has become such a hastle to sign on to my blog lately. Sure it's been a while, so things may have changed, but apparently so did my email address. Wait...no....it didn't. So what exactly does a person do when their blog INSISTS that their email address is wrong? Argue? Irregardless, I've figured it out; until the next time it happens.

Once again it's been an extended period since my last entry, honestly I just haven't been working as much as I should be. or...at all. It's fair to let everyone in on why, though "everyone" means...Dave, and the random stumbler upon...still, it seems like in lieu of posts, excuses are appropriate. Lately (the past 4+ months) I've been overly devoted to matters of the heart, and the repetitive breaking thereof. I've been having desperate moment after desperate moment, trying to get my life, and the company I keep, to be exactly where I think it needs to be in order to be happy, and make she who means most to me happy as well. The problem has been a difference in opinion of what exactly that means for each of us. Repetitively I've been let down easy, however for such an easy let down, I seem to hit harder and harder when I land. Hit after hit I seem to find less and less of a will to do anything creative, being more willing to sit and stare, or crawl into bed and...lay down and stare. But hey! tonight is something different. Nothing great, but I have SOMETHING. I was playing around on the facebook art boards again, leaving pictures of myself on my friend's boards, here are a few of they.

Also from tonight, a friend of mine, Leah, and I spent the evening at Mugs (a locally owned coffee house) and somehow led into a photo of the two of us from my webcam which we were each drawing upon and otherwise modifying
here are a few of the better results.

...in absentmindedness

2007-07-13T16:10:00.000-06:00

It's been a considerable amount of time since I last bothered to post. Those of you who know me know I have been in a relatively rough stretch lately, emotionally, physically...metaphysically...In any case, I haven't really done much of anything. I have a few metals pieces I need to photograph to include, and a few paintings, but for the most part, my creative side died along side my broken heart.

I brought my pen tablet to a coffee house one night, here is the result: yeah, I drew a couch.

These were scribble drawings that Leah and I did...( you know the game, turn a scribble into the first thing you see)

...in distraction.

2007-07-13T15:17:00.000-06:00

"Courtney Graffiti 1" July 07

My lack of productivity of late is at the fault of nothing in particular. Finding inspiration as always, proves to be an obstacle with the weight of dark matter. *something so small weighs as much as a thousand suns...yeah.
I've been sketching a bit. Trying to let the pencil do the thinking, unfortunately it seems the pencil is as freshly out of ideas as I am. Even as such I will post a few pages from my sketchbook though none of it is spectacular.

I had been having problems with my computer feeling the need to turn off unexpectedly at the most inopportune moments. It did not just blink off, it shut down all of the applications *though if i saved my work when it did this, the file would turn up corrupt. FANTASTIC. I disassembled my computer and dusted everything out with compressed air and it seems to have done the trick. It looks like there was so much dust in the heat sync that it was causing the processor to heat up and shut down before it damaged itself.

The newfound *or rather REfound ability to finish work on my computer has resulted in...nothing. I can work again, but i've been so far from motivated to paint anything i have hardly touched andthing adobe or corel. HOWEVER, facebook has a graffiti application now and i've done a few odd things on that for kicks.

A randomly filled page from my sketchbook. I've been told that working in silhouettes can help come up with ideas so i gave it a try. it is not easy.

I had a themed night of drawing yesterday evening. A few pages of odd creatures with a page of a story idea. (see "the narrow man")

A sketch for a partial concept idea. Headdress/rigid

A nymph of some sort. I recently ordered an in depth lesson for being able to draw human anatomy from memory. It hasn't arrived yet, but i was seeing what i could pull out as it is so i can mark any form of improvement.

Miscellaneous portraits and hands. I believe the two were from a book i use as a reference source . Fresh Fruits

Another graffiti drawing. Back onto the creatures, hands and muscles.

...in disappointment.

2007-06-07T13:17:00.000-06:00

I feel the need to apologize to the millions of people who aren't reading this anyway.

I've found myself in the type of situation where a person would find themselves saying, "Well that figures..." more often than they may otherwise. In this instance, the full sentence sans ellipsis would be something along the line of, "Now that I have started an artist's blog class and sleep deprivation are going to keep me from doing anything worthwhile...etc"

Class finishes tomorrow with our formal portfolio review. All of the work in the class has definitely been in the category of design...I may further describe all works held within the semester's portfolio are utter garbage. Nothing illustrative, even though I am getting credited for the class entitled: Advanced Illustration...Well that figures.

Soon. I will have something for you SOON. I have paint. I have canvas, the WILL, the DRIVE...just not the time or the attention span.

...in catching up.

2007-05-29T13:37:00.000-06:00

While I had created this blog apparently back in early March, it has taken me over two months to actually find the time, or rather the will to sort through everything enough to decide what to post to catch anyone up in regards to any of my work.

I've taken the time today to do just that and rather than having any kind of portfolio to present, I've actually come to something closer to the opposite. I have very little to post. I've decided that the work that I had done in the past is just that, the past. While I recognize that no person would be anything without their past, it is what has made them, and what still holds them to be the person they are, philosophically, emotionally, executionally (like that word?)...While I recognize this, I see the need to veer off into the world of the new, and focus on developing my skills further, in an attempt to stray from any form of rut I've been in. In any case, someday I may post the steps that turned me into me, but honestly, my work at present isn't overly strong, you'd shudder to see how little it took for me to decide to take that leap from a career into the instability of art.

So, as far as the first post goes, I will give you only these recent works, hopefully the lack of posted work will spur me into working more, if only to have something to share.

I may not have mentioned, and I think very few people know that I actually have a double-first of Graphic Design and Metals. I'll be adding to a portfolio of metalworks as well.

"untitled #41" 2007 - Brass, silver & enamel.

A few recent pages from my sketchbook.

"Sorrow" 2007 - charcoal

"The Starbucks studies" 2007 - Graphite/Marker

a digital collage piece I did earlier this year.

"Winter" 2007 - digital scanned and drawn material

I dabble in Photography now and again, most of anything I do tends to be luck rather than skill. I have a decent eye but lack the knowhow or the method.

"Moss #4" 2007 Digital print

My friend Blake Dieters has a studio set up, thank you for letting me use it when I get bored.

"Studio Portrait study" 2006

Model: Courtney Kemp