Yuck

ART AND PAIN

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I used to think that pain was the driver of art. When I was a teen, I thought my art was a product of suffering, but come to find out it was a RELEASE from suffering.

Fast forward, I am an adult nearing 50, and everything hurts. I am now realizing that the physical pain is a blocker to my creativity. I’ve got arthritis seeping into my joints, making just moving around a struggle. I sit down to create art and nothing comes out, at least nothing worth anything. And I know not every piece is a winner, but everything just seems like crap. Physical pain + clinical depression = no art.

So how does one break out of this? I tried to do a piece based on a friend of mine’s character, but the whole thing came out crappy and uninspired.

Yuck

I mean, the dude is a skull and I couldn’t do anything imaginative with it. I posted it and it was met with a collective “Meh”. And I agree, it is “meh”. So that was a failed experiment. It was done with all digital and maybe that’s the issue? I’ve become addicted to it for sure, but I really haven’t mastered it. Most people seem to like the look, but I had a friend comment on the sterility of it and I have to agree.

Even sitting the way I used to causes pain. I wish I knew the secret to channeling pain into creativity, but the combination I have seems to have the end result that I don’t want to do anything. I think I just have to stop being hard on myself and when the creativity comes, it comes. After I did the Salem show this year it took me so long to recover that I didn’t do any shows for the rest of the year. I just signed up to one in April of next year, so assuming I get it, it will be the end of my rest period.

I guess inspiration will come when it comes. There’s no easy answer. “Existence is suffering” they say. “Life is pain” they say. I wish I could make some good art out of it, that’s all.

Boba Fett

Process Journal – The Book of Boba Fett

Process

Like many of you, I was super happy to see Boba Fett again, and I loved his new look. Therefore, I decided to do some fanart!

This one was all digital, because I need the practice. I used an old Wacom tablet (the one without the screen) and Photoshop.

First, I sketched out a general idea of what the piece would look like

Boba Fett Sketch

Next, on a new layer, I did the lineart

Boba Fett Lineart

Next, I blocked all the colors, and then kept all the distinct items on separate layers

Boba Fett Color

Next up is the background, and I HATE doing backgrounds. I took a photo of one of my Slave 1 toys and used it as a reference

From there I used it as a guide to trace over, added it in back, and it still looked poor. I tried to cover it up with a Boba Fett logo from the Book of Boba Fett series. I think it came out OK.

Boba Fett

 

Process Journal – Dokuro Mario

Process

I had applied to take part in the Ralph Baer Day exhibition early in the year, but never heard back. Two days before the show was set to begin I got an email notifying me of art drop off times! So I had to quickly scramble to get a piece done. I’ll admit that it’s not my most creative or interesting work, but I had to go with something familiar in order to get the painting done in a day.

Step 1: Compose references in Photoshop

Step 2: Using the source image as a guide on a locked layer, sketch out the basic form with a tablet.

Step 3: Using that basic sketch as a guide, do linework on a new layer.

Step 4: block out colors using linework as a guide. Again, on a separate layer.

Step 5: Display the finished layers while hiding the work layers.

Step 6: Now, because this is for a gallery, I wanted to make an actual painting on a canvas. I printed the image out in actual size. Because the canvas is larger than my printer, I had to tile the image and tape it together afterward.

Step 7: transfer the line art to the prepared canvas with carbon paper. Then block out basic colors in acrylic.

Step 8: Whisky

Step 9: start the line art with black acrylic.

Step 10: Last touches include the detail on the bricks and clouds!

Step 11: Drop it off at the gallery once the paint dries!