Comics	Experimental	Polished	Ref	Self-portrait
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009

I saw a few other sites doing this decade recap thing and I thought I’d give it a try :)  It’s amazing how it all adds up.  I’d like to give a quick word for what was going on with each year, I’ll try to be brief.

	Comics	Experimental	Polished	Ref	Self-portrait
2000

In 2000 I was mostly still doodling.  Basically everything I drew was an experiment (which is why I left the "experimental" item blank).  My polished work was sort-of colored in the computer, but I didn’t quite get shadows yet.  When trying to draw from a reference, I set my sights lower than photos and instead drew other people’s drawings.  And finally, my self-portrait was at the tail end of my "goth is cool" phase.

	Comics	Experimental	Polished	Ref	Self-portrait
2001

2001 was the first time I was drawing with others.  I was in LA and hooked up with people for "sketch parties" thrown by the (soon to be) admins on drawingboard.org Basically, I was socializing with real artists and art school grads who were as encouraging as they were inspiring.  I drew a lot more that year and the group passed plenty of advice my way.  I found myself drawing one-panel comics, working from photo references and attempting to take things to a much more polished state (though I still had much to learn about anatomy, light/shadow, composition, etc).  At the time I was experimenting with the nearly-overwhelming idea of drawing **an entire comicbook page**.  Something I didn’t thing I could do until I used an x-men comic as a reference and drew the whole first page. (I was excited, but ended up getting flamed on forums for copying vs making my own comic)

	Comics	Experimental	Polished	Ref	Self-portrait
2002

In 2002 someone told me that all I had to do was spend 10 minutes a day drawing and I’d get good at it.  Basically, he was encouraging me to practice.  So I created a "sketch calendar" where I posted what I drew each day and tried to draw for at least 10 minutes each day.  Even though I was still just stumbling though trying to teach myself to draw, it really did make a difference.  You can see this by my experiments with longer comics (a page or more) since they show a lot of work, but also show a lack of composition and can be downright hard to read/follow.  I also tried to participate on various forums more for motivation and ideas.  The polished piece is a self portrait done in the Gorillaz art style, which was a forum jam.  Also the reference sketch was another forum jam.  I kept up with the sketch calendar’s 10 minutes a day for 9 months straight until….

	Comics	Experimental	Polished	Ref	Self-portrait
2003

So what happened in 2003?  Why is it that I only have 3 pages of doodles in my sketchbook to show for it?  Well it’s quite simple.  My girlfriend, whom I was living with, turned out to need a lot of attention.  As in, an unhealthy amount.  2003 was over by the time the whole ordeal with her was officially done with.  A word of advice, if you’re significant other is not letting you have time to do what you love to do, maybe they shouldn’t be so significant.

	Comics	Experimental	Polished	Ref	Self-portrait
2004

After kicking a certain girl to the curb, I tried to jump right back into my sketch calendar in 2004.  I only did it for about 3 months this time, not because I didn’t have time, but because I was starting to out grow it.  I was working on comics (like the Dragon Ball Z spoof) that took way more than 10 minutes, and in many cases took multiple days.  I was starting to find the patience to work on one piece for an extended amount of time and was satisfied with my progress/pace to stay excited and motivated enough to keep working on a single piece.  I was attempting to draw things other than girls and cartoons, like flowers, motorcycles, and space ships.  At that time I was also discovering manga and started experimenting with more of that style of drawing.

	Comics	Experimental	Polished	Ref	Self-portrait
2005

 In 2005, I met Alberto Ruiz at Wondercon here in San Francisco.  I loved his work from his posts on forums and only went to the convention to see him in artist alley.  I was such a fan-boy that I blurted out "how do you draw so good?".  And he actually told me.  He gave me a quick lesson on how he tackles a drawing and then told me that he spends time every day doing slide-show sketching.  That is, he has a bunch of photo reference on his computer that he sets to randomly display for 30 seconds or a few minutes each and just sketches away at whatever is onscreen.  So I started experimenting with that and I’d never filled up so much paper so fast.  I also continued to drop by various online forums from time to time to participate in a sketch jam.

	Comics	Experimental	Polished	Ref	Self-portrait
2006

Katie Cat and Juvenile Drivel were started in 2006.  I figured, if I could post a comic or two each week, I’d eventually have a whole comicbooks worth of material.  And it worked.  Having a milestone to post a comic online each week really helped.  I also specifically targeted art styles that would keep the project doable and possible to keep up with (while working a full time job).  I also got a tablet pc, so my process changed since inking became soooo much easier.  I did a lot of experimenting with process and approaches using the tablet in an effort to streamline my work flow as much as possible. This was put to the test when I took the 24 hour comic challenge (along with a couple sketchcrawl friends, Paul and Ryan).  Which brings me to the next point, I was also pretty into Sketchcrawl in the San Francisco area.

	Comics	Experimental	Polished	Ref	Self-portrait
2007

2007 was a crazy year.  After a twist of fate, I found myself unemployed for a lot of the year.  This left me 40 hours a week to draw –I mean, look for a job….  The most notable thing was the Vacation Comic and my Comic Journal.  I was drawing a comic every day plus the comics that would ultimately make up a book for my fiance.  I got A LOT of drawing practice in and a lot more workflow streamlining in.  I was experimenting with painting via the tablet pc, but never really got a change to stick with it.  However my confidence with the tablet and cartoon/sunday-comics style.  I finally decided to invest real money in my drawing and started taking night classes at SFAI.  I also found some places to go life drawing, something I’ve never actually done.  Finally, I was drawing real anatomy from a real live reference and learning new techniques.  This was also the year I discovered Bay Area Artists Unite, which is a small group, but a dedicated one.  I gave them about 30 pages of "You had me at croissant" for their annual.

	Comics	Experimental	Polished	Ref	Self-portrait
2008

I got the first order of "you had me at croissant" in early 2008.  It was, by far, the biggest project I’ve attempted and it actually got finished :)  I started taking Chinese Brush Painting classes with my fiance, which was a good experience, I’ve got plenty of posts about it.  I discovered entervoid.com (which is all about user drawn comic battles) and I started their "draw 50 hands" challenge (because I can’t draw hands and needed practice).  This was also the year I game up with the Blonde Shelly concept (which is the idea of having a nude female character in a story, but somehow making her NOT the main character –it was basically a self imposed challenge.)  I also kept in touch with Marc (from my previous job) and experimented a lot with his style of starting and ending with pen.  It was a very different way to draw.  You have to really plan before you lay down your lines.

	Comics	Experimental	Polished	Ref	Self-portrait
2009

I was working full time again, making games, for all of 2009, so I didn’t draw anywhere near as much as when I wasn’t working.  I didn’t draw hardly any comics or cartoons at all (maybe I was burned out on comics? or maybe I just didn’t have much time to draw).  Again I took night classes at SFAI, including an Anatomy class.  That class made a big difference.  For the first time, I had someone telling me "no, not like that, do this."  I mean, I finally had an instructor that did more than blindly encourage everyone.  He pointed right at mistakes and say "that’s wrong", then he showed you how to do it right.  My life drawing improved greatly in 3 months.  I also experimented with some abstract ideas in the other drawing class.  I usually *hate* abstract art… but it was a fun experience.  Finally, a friend of mine setup a private lesson with a watercolor painter.  Watercolor is much different than Chinese Brush Painting, it’s something I’d like to try again in the future (even if I am terrified of painting in color)

Now, what have I learned from all this?  Where do I go from here?  What do I do next? 

Well, I don’t have any comicbooks planned at the moment.  I have plenty of ideas, but no real plan for completing them like I have in the past (which means they won’t get done! :)  However, I’m in a different head-space lately.  I’d really like to practice at getting better.  I mean, I’d like to learn/practice new techniques and get better, not just draw what I’m already comfortable with (which is cartoony-comic that allow me to hide the things I’m bad at drawing… like hands).  I’ve already signed up for a couple more night classes: intermediate drawing and drawing motion (I’m excited about that last one).

In the end, I think the biggest lesson to learn from all this is: the years I practiced the most, I improved the most.

You only fail if you stop trying,
~Danny

PS: It’s 2010!!  Where the hell is my flying car!?

I got together with some friends and got a private watercolor lesson.  It’s pretty surprising to me because we’ve been doing chinese brush painting for so long.  Chinese brush and ink *does* have colors that are much like watercolors.  (the "ink" in brush and ink is the black and grays… not the color) 

So we found ourselves with many familiar concepts but the biggest difference is that Chinese brush and ink is done on rice paper and watercolor is done on watercolor paper.  The paper ends up having a huge impact.  Rice paper absorbs and spreads the ink and colors, but watercolor paper doesn’t (or doesn’t any where near as badly). 

With rice paper, you lay down a stroke and that’s it.  You get it right or you fall back on changing that stroke into something else.  With watercolor you can use a sponge to actually pick up the color off the page.  It’s so effective that it’s like having an eraser or an undo button.  You can also use the sponge to blend things together and smooth out hard lines.  On top of that, you can purposely come back and hit a hard line with water blend it.

For Example: at one point, my birds in the sky were nearly black.  So I used the sponge to pick up most of the color and make them look more distant.

You can also see the effects of blending verses not blending by looking at the greenery in the forground compared to that mountain in the back on the right.  The first has much more texture and abrupt color changes while the one in the back is more smooth.  I personally am used to seeing the more abrupt colors when I see people watercoloring.  I didn’t know you could purposely make such smooth transitions without being forced to fallback on a wash.

It was a fun experience.  The same, but different.  Maybe I’ll take some more classes in 2010. :)

Here are some quick sketches from a female model. I’m been drawing guys for a month in the anatomy class I’ve been taking, so it was very refreshing to be drawing a woman again. We did mostly short poses (2, 3, 5, and 10 minute poses), but this first one (a 2 min pose) really captured the feeling of drawing long, gental, smooth and curvely lines again. I forgot how fun it is to draw these types of lines, and I feel like this first sketch really captures the “wahoo!” moment of laying down line after line that echo everything you love about drawing. :)

2 Minute Poses

5 Minute Pose

8 Minute Pose

 I just finished one of those huge 18" x 24" sketchbooks.  It’s nice to be drawing two nights a week again.  Before hiding the sketchbook away forever, I could some quick photos of some of my favorites. :)  Enjoy!

Sketches of 1 to 5 minute poses

I really like the "less is more" look of these short poses

Longer Poses

It’s pretty amazing how many muscles go under and around each other all the way down the arm. It’s also interesting that each finger is controled by two muscles in the fore arm.

Also, the muscles from the upper and lower arms interlock like links in a chain.

It’s interesting that the same lines you might use to draw hair, also work well for muscles.

Here’s a thought: don’t clean up your hobby –or whatever it is you’d like to get done but keep putting off.

Why is it that so many people come home from work and waste away watching tv? I have this theroey that it’s because tv is so easy. There’s no obsticals to overcome, no work to do –it’s already hooked up! If you had to hook up your tv every time you wanted to use it, and then disconnect it and put it away when you were done watching it, no one would bother! :) it wouldn’t be relaxing, it would be work.

So why do we even consider “putting things away”? (especially our favorite things) The act of setting up and putting away can turn something you want to do into something that’s too much trouble to do. (seriously, would you watch tv if you had to set it up and dismantle it when you were done?).

I realized that, after a long day at work, I often just take the path of least resistence, which is tv. This also means a week will go by and I’ll ask myself, “why haven’t I done any of the stuff I wanted to do ( like sketch or paint )?”

All of this clicked in my head for me after I tried out a suggestion from some one in my painting class. “the trick is, you’ve got to set everthing up and then leave it out. Don’t clean anything up and you’ll alway be able to paint on a moments notice.”

And It worked! I’d find myself wandering past my ready-to-go painting desk and spotting something I wanted to try out. I’d make a few brush strokes while standing and find myself sitting down. Then, next I realized, it’s two hours later. Much of the time I’d normally find myself in front of the tv, I now found myself painting. :)

It worked so well that I went out and bought a bigger desk. :)

I signed up for more Chinese brush painting classes! And boy am I out of practice. :) –I was spacing on how to mix my grays :)

I think I’ll be looking back through this blog at all my notes from last time:
http://www.dannyburbol.com/category/art/chinesebrush/

But here’s some plum blossoms any way :)

Enjoy,
~Danny

 

I’ve been working on anatomy lately, starting with the spine and ribs.  I was actually on a plane from CA to NY last week.  I started this on the 6 hour flight there and finished it on the 6 hour flight back.  (it’s all Micron 005 and a #2 pencil) 

Want to try? here’s a reference :) GOOD LUCK! :)

I’ve been tring to make time to sketch more and I’ve been trying to experiment with approaches I don’t normally use.   

Normally I start with a gesture and start marking landmarks to keep my proportions in check before I start, then I move on to making contour lines.  After all that, I’d normally start shading.  But this always leaves me with these sketches that have hard outlines around everything.  Like a cartoon that’s trying to look real by having a lot of shading work inside the lines.

So, just for a change, I was trying to capture as much as possible without making lines.  I was blocking in big areas with the side of the charcoal.  Which means you’re laying down information to define the forms outline show volume at the same time.  It’s pretty interesting.  Here’s a couple 10 minute poses to illustrate.

In the first one you can see how quickly the form takes shape and "lines" start to form –but not as "lines", instead they are "edges".  For example, where the front leg overlaps the back leg.  It feels like there’s a line there, but there’s not.  In fact if you trying to draw a line there it will never be as thin as this "line" created by to edges meeting.

One other thing I’ll just throw out there while we’re looking at the legs.  Note the vertical strips of value I made with the side of the charcoal.  I was trying to fill in large blocks of space all at once… so a vertical line seemed like a nice idea, even though it goes against the curve of the form.  I figured I just try it out to see what it looked like in the end.  Basically, I feel like these legs look like the belong to a robot.  They’re not round, they’re angular and blocky.  Just and interesting observation.  If I had moved the charcoal from left to right along the curve of the legs they would have, no-doubt, looked much rounder.
 

In the second image, I was continuing with the "don’t draw lines" experiment.  I tried to draw as little as possible.  I have some dark spots, some medium tone and I tried to leave all highlights blank white.  Again I made a lot of long lines that following the arms and legs down.  for example, the back arm is not finished so you can see it’s just one long stroke with the charcoal.  But even though I didn’t have time to give it much more attention, it still look like it’s there (your mind kind of fills in the rest)

As I got a little more creative with those "edges instead of lines".  the heads are not outlined at all but you still get the feeling that the fingers are there.  Also note that the back was done in the direction it should be when you’re trying to make thing look round.  So you can compare the back’s shading to the legs and arms and see how the direction of the stroke make a difference.

No lines.  Give it a try some times. :)

~Danny