Sketch Chronicle

New Site

2010-08-02T11:55:00.002+10:00

I've decided, for a few reasons, to create my own site rather than use Blogger from now on.

Some of the reasons include having more flexible site design, allowing me to have something that looks a bit more professional and host a lot more of my projects in the one place.

The new site is:
www.artofquin.com

Hope to see you there.

Quick Satyr Sketch

2010-07-14T15:31:00.003+10:00

A quick sketch drawn while clearing my head to move onto other things.

I am thinking of putting it, or similar things onto t-shirts. Like so. (Except a shirt that is real and not drawn by me.)

Red-haired Pixie

2010-07-14T11:44:00.004+10:00

I thought I'd include some of the steps involved in making this image, since I like it so much.

First, I draw out the rough sketch idea, using a light grey colour. The idea is to simulate pencils, even though I draw directly onto my computer.

The next step is to soldify the lines and then draw over them on a new layer, in black. (The inks).

Finally, colour and shade to taste. Add background and then we're done.

Alas, that's way too quick a summary of a process that takes several hours over several days to complete. Still, I'm considering putting this on a t-shirt (for women, at least). Baby pink and black backgrounds.

A Little Warm Up

2010-07-02T16:46:00.003+10:00

Just doing a little warm up before getting cracking on some other projects. Also, I can't quite seem to get in "The Zone" (elusive thing that it is) for some other things I'd like to work on. Oh well, baby steps during art rehab, I guess.

From the Archives (6)

2010-06-25T09:00:00.000+10:00

More D&D sketches...

From the Archives (5)

2010-06-24T09:00:00.000+10:00

Copied from the D&D Monster Manual (v. 3) for practice. Was quite a bit of fun.

From the Archives (4)

2010-06-23T09:00:00.000+10:00

Cupid, as a woman, because it's:
A. Less creepy than a little baby "boy" shooting arrows of "love" into people.
B. It's more aesthetically pleasing to me.

From the Archives (3)

2010-06-22T09:00:00.000+10:00

Copying (free-hand) some concept art created for a game that never made it. Looked interesting too, given that it was set in the world of Norse mythology.

From the Archives (2)

2010-06-21T09:00:00.000+10:00

Ares, god of war. Have I mentioned I love Mythology?

Eve - WIP

2010-06-20T20:19:00.003+10:00

Now that I've gotten my new drawing setup organised, I can actually get back into sketching again. Feels really good. So here's something I'm working on at the moment. Early stages yet, lots lots more to finish yet.

From the Archives (1)

2010-06-20T14:42:00.001+10:00

Digging through my old folders to find some concept sketches, I found a whole lot of really old sketches I've done, mostly for practice, some originals for fun. I thought I'd put them up here as I work on new projects.

Old Sketches (22)

2010-06-07T09:00:00.000+10:00

Drawn for a friend's birthday, since he likes zombies so much. Seemed only fair for zombies to like him back.

Old Sketches (21)

2010-06-06T09:00:00.001+10:00

I don't quite remember what inspired this sketch, but I like it a lot.

Old Sketches (20)

2010-06-05T09:00:00.001+10:00

Another character I really must draw again at some point.

Old Sketches (19)

2010-06-04T09:00:00.002+10:00

Drawn while watching an episode of Criminal Minds Season 2, that I'd gotten for Christmas.

Old Sketches (18)

2010-06-03T09:00:00.003+10:00

I really like this one. I must draw him again at some point.

OId Sketches (17)

2010-06-02T09:00:00.002+10:00

Drawn for my cousin's stepson.

Old Sketches (16)

2010-06-01T09:00:00.000+10:00

After watching Hellboy II.

Old Sketches (15)

2010-05-31T09:00:00.000+10:00

Another sketch drawn while on holidays in Queensland.

Old Sketches (14)

2010-05-30T09:00:00.000+10:00

Drawn while on holidays in Queensland, in the library.

Old Sketches (13)

2010-05-29T09:00:00.000+10:00

Using Stalin as a reference, as I recall.

Old Sketches (12)

2010-05-28T09:00:00.000+10:00

I remember drawing this at work with ballpoint...

Old Sketches (11)

2010-05-27T09:00:00.000+10:00

Another oldie. I do like this one.

Old Sketches (10)

2010-05-26T09:00:00.000+10:00

Started out as a nude study, ended up with a complete image.

Old Sketches (9)

2010-05-25T09:00:00.000+10:00

Some old landscape practice.

Old Sketches (8)

2010-05-24T09:00:00.000+10:00

Have I mentioned I like pirates? Well I do.

Old Sketches (7)

2010-05-23T09:00:00.000+10:00

Another study of ancient egyptian fashion.

Old Sketches (6)

2010-05-22T09:00:00.000+10:00

A study on egyptian (ancient) fashion.

Old Sketches (5)

2010-05-21T09:00:00.000+10:00

As I recall, I drew this watching Van Helsing (with Hugh Jackman).

Old Sketches (4)

2010-05-20T09:00:00.000+10:00

A sketch for another of my younger cousins. He liked dinosaurs. (Don't we all).

Old Sketches (3)

2010-05-19T09:00:00.001+10:00

A drawing I drew as a b-day present for one of my younger cousins to prove a point, namely that I could draw cute things if I wanted to.

Doodle While I Work - 3

2010-05-18T18:06:00.003+10:00

Ok, so I didn't strictly do these while I was working. I was on a river cruise of the Clyde river in Bateman's Bay. But still... I have to do them sometime, don't I?

Old Sketches (2)

2010-05-18T09:00:00.000+10:00

Jason from the sissy modern version of Jason and the Argonauts.

Old Sketches (1)

2010-05-17T09:00:00.002+10:00

Finding old sketches I never put up here.

A warrior fighting some swamp wyrms.

I'll be putting one of these up every day for the next few weeks while I work on some other projects of mine.

Nude in Pencil (2)

2010-05-14T09:00:00.000+10:00

Annd here's another one. I'm not happy with the eyes, so much. There's nothing wrong with them other than the fact that I didn't manage to get them the way I wanted. That's what matters though, so it bugs me. In any case, yesterday we had boobies, so this one balances out the whole T&A thing. (As if we really need balance though).

Nude in Pencil

2010-05-13T09:00:00.000+10:00

It's been a while, but nothing helps get back into the swing of things like penciling some nudes. (With plenty-of-lead-in-my-pencil jokes galore). I had fun shading this one in, and I managed to get the teeth more or less right (As in, I was happy with them), even though the mouth might be a bit big for the face as a whole. Anyhoo. Boobies!

Faces of Africa

2010-05-12T08:48:00.002+10:00

Ok, so that whole doodle book thing didn't help me sketch as regularly as I had hoped. I haven't given up on it yet.

In the meantime, here's something else. A little while ago, I bought this book as a reference book, since it has some really stunning photos that got my mind moving (finally).

Here's a sketch inspired by one of those photos.

Doodle While I Work - 2

2010-04-01T09:00:00.002+11:00

Day 2 of doodling.

So far so good, let's see how long I can keep them going.

Here's the sketch:

I have a feeling I'll be doing this sketch a lot. There are endless possibilities for a giant boardroom painting....

Doodle While I Work - 1

2010-03-31T09:03:00.005+11:00

Day one of doodling. (Was contemplating making that not sound dirty, but couldn't be bothered).

I've scanned in a bunch of the pages from that book (Doodle While You Work) I mentioned in an earlier post, so that I can print them out and doodle on them over and over and over, you get the idea.

I won't be doing them in order. Not that you'd notice unless you had the book, since there are no page numbers.

So here's the first page:

Yes. I am insane.

Doodle While I Work

2010-03-31T08:59:00.004+11:00

Yikes, a whole month since the last update. I could have sworn it hasn't been that long.

Sigh.

Over the weekend I bought this book:

It contains a bunch of semi completed or started doodles which the reader is invited to finish off. My intention is to use these sketches as a kind of springboard for my imagination (what's left of it). Hopefully this way I'll get back into the habit of sketching and trying new things.

Ishmael - 3

2010-02-24T14:16:00.005+11:00

Aaaaaand, here's another one I popped out in my lunch break.

Not sure how well the concept of Ishmael flipping over has come across. Ah well, next time.

Ishmael - 2

2010-02-24T10:39:00.003+11:00

Here's another one.

If I could do it over, I might put Ishmael's text balloon under him.

Yes, I am aware that Sam is misquoting Hamlet. He's just practicing.

Ishmael - 1

2010-02-24T09:13:00.005+11:00

Just for fun, I've decided to print out a bunch of comic templates to draw strips in when I'm on the go. This one was done without any pencils underneath. I also wrote the text and speech balloons last and by hand, which obviously shows...

Nudes in Ink (NSFW)

2010-02-23T11:08:00.000+11:00

Here are some sketches I did to practice nudes. Since I couldn't find a working pencil (Insert quips about running out of lead here), I had to draw directly in ink. This was actually kind of fun even though it was a little stressful. None of the sketches look that much like the models. Any mistakes I made had to be worked into the image, since I had no way to undo them. Most importantly, no way to draw any guidelines in to get the proportions and placement as good as I'd like.

All in all a good little exercise I think I'll be doing again. Last one's a little racy, perhaps, but damn it, I needed to practice on an interesting pose.

Back to Sketching

2010-02-23T11:07:00.000+11:00

It's been a while since my pencil touched paper. A number of things have been going on, etc etc. I am however planning to fit more sketching into my new schedule from now on. It's just a matter of finding ways to sketch on the go.

So here are some characters I had a bit of fun with. Parts of my mind are exploring things I could do with them. Let's see.

Sketches in the Park

2010-01-14T10:48:00.000+11:00

While I was working briefly at the Pyrmont office, I managed to go have lunch in the park nearby and sketch for a bit. I saw an ant, inspiring, well, an ant drawing. Followed by other animals (not found in the park).

Trivia in the Pub (20)

2009-12-16T10:45:00.000+11:00

Some sketches from last year's trivia that I haven't gotten around to putting up till now.

Trivia in the Pub (19)

2009-12-02T11:38:00.003+11:00

Up a week late are last week's sketches from trivia. (There were none this week, on account of me not being able to go to trivia. Logical, eh?) I was messing around designing logos and poster ideas for a friend, since I was at trivia (as usual) a little earlier than most.

The next sketch requires explanation. On Twittter, some delightful people have started up a blog ( Check it out here: http://boobiewednesday.blogspot.com/) all about raising awareness of breast cancer. As part of a running joke, we now have the character Boobie-man running around in my mind. Here he is in his full glory, though I have to tweak his logo to make it more interesting.

Now we get weird. I decided to draw a zombie, but, being me, hadn't decided what he would look like as I drew him, so the whole picture just evolved as I went. There's a bit of pirate slapped in there for good measure, a touch of the Frankenstein monster as well. In the end, we have a zombie chef who likes brains. (Obviously).

You may have to know a little about Australian politics for this one to make sense. Julia Gillard is the deputy prime minister at the moment. The rest of the picture and comments kind of came together as part of a repartee. I leave it to you, the reader, to make of it what you will.

One of the guys in the pub had a pretty cool t-shirt which one of my friends didn't turn around in time to notice, so I drew the design, or at least as close as I could, so he'd get the gist.

Underneath, I then drew another version, featuring a pterosaur. Hilarious dirty comments ensued, leading to my conclusion about their mental state.

And that's it, there isn't.. any more.

(Until next week, hopefully)

Trivia in the Pub (18)

2009-11-25T14:11:00.003+11:00

Once again, I was fortunate enough to get a lift on the way back from work, so I was early to trivia in the pub. This gave me the time to put out this sketch here.

I've had several comments along the lines of "Wow, her face is very Disney-esque. Her outfit? Not so much :P". I take that as a compliment. Thank you.

Next page, when everyone got there and trivia started, was populated with a sketch of a bottle (not sure what the technical name is) of poison. Then a sketch that was meant to be an attempt at Alice Cooper, but I've only ever seen the man (in video footage) a few times and drawing him from memory proved to be impossible.

After that it was time to draw a few demons, just because.

Below is an attempt at drawing a pun, or play on words which involved depicting collge girls who would be, on (slightly) closer inspection, men. I do like the one in the top right, though I had trouble finding a costume that would scream "college girl" as much as I wanted.

Below that, another demon, dancing a tune, and a mermaid, whose breasts are being supported in true ocean symbiotic fashion by randy barnacles. Why else do you think those shells stay on?

Sadly, we lost at trivia, not knowing what the correct term was for a container holding a Buddhist artifact is.

Damn it. I may be drawing, but I expect everyone else to know the answer.

There's no such thing as good help these days.

Nudes in the Data Center

2009-11-25T14:07:00.002+11:00

I was doing some late night work in the data center and when the server was chugging along doing it's own thing, installing from the CDs, I found myself with a little bit of spare time. Thankfully, I always carry my sketchbook around, so I managed to use that spare time to practice drawing some nudes.

Here they both are.

Enjoy.

Trivia in the Pub (17)

2009-11-25T13:41:00.002+11:00

Another night at Trivia, another few pages of doodles, because that's how much I'm paying attention.

I started drawing the man's head. After I drew this, the sketchbook was stolen and a certain item of male anatomy drawn next to his head. I proceeded to censor said part of male anatomy (for your internet convenience) when the sketchbook was again stolen and a few droplets of liquid drawn being emitted from said, now censored, portion of male anatomy. The trials and tribulations that plague artists are many indeed.

After that whole incident, I drew a werewolf, a warrior woman, a few eyes, a cute woman and a woman with cat eyes. End page one.

One of the topics at that night's trivia was how long men would keep a pair of underwear in their wardrobe rotation. The results were surprising, perhaps, to women. I stand by my desire to wear the same underwear for as long as they remain hygienic, comfortable and functional! ("Allons enfants de la Patriiiii-ieuh, Le jour de gloire est arrivéeeee..." <- to the tune of La Marseillese).

After drawing a pair for men, seemed only fair to draw one modelled by a lady. You know, 'cause women have equal rights and stuff too. Then a sketch of a face, probably evil, 'cause he has no pupils, then a microwave, a friend's pic that turned into a fisherman/lumberjack beer toting George Lucas (damn that man!), then another attempt at my friend's face. Finally, at the bottom, a gaydar (fully functional).

Here we have a sketch drawn by said friend-whose-face-i-tried-to-draw's sketches of the Washington Capitol building and Canberra (bird's eye view). Then some military strategy outlines, drawn by yours truly.

Finally, above, we have two horse drawings on the left, drawn by a completely different friend from friend-whose-face-i-tried-to-draw who tried to draw a horse without reference (top) then one with (bottom). The reference was a picture of a horse drawing a sled in a book of Zombie christmas carols.

The two horses to the right are mine, drawn without reference. I have been made aware that the bottom one is in fact a chess piece. This is true.

Again, no recollection of score in the trivia quiz. We probably did well.

I think.

Trivia in the Pub (16)

2009-11-25T11:44:00.008+11:00

I got to the pub really early. Like, really really early. As a consequence of this, I had a lot of time to sketch before anyone even got there. Which was kinda cool, actually.

So you're all in for a treat. I hope you all appreciate it. ;)

The next sketch started off looking a little bit iffy, which is super technical artist jargon for: "I'm not sure that this sketch, when finished, will look as polished and anatomically correct as I would prefer it did and as a consequence I'm not sure I should bother finishing it, but what the hell, I will and then I'll just blame everyone else if it does, in fact, turn out badly, while fully taking credit if it, in the end, turns out splendidly."

The sketch below came out a bit faint in the scan, but eh, what can you do? (Take a better scan or photo, sure, so sue me.)

After everyone else got there, it was doodle time! Wohoo! Business man, snail, pear, ladder, bat, apple, gypsy caravan, rabbit in a hat, panda confused, panda eating bamboo, panda soft core porn. All these things happen (for real) at trivia and more.

Our team name was Panda Porn, by the way. As it turns out, pandas' do not instinctively know how to have sex. In order to reproduce, they need to witness other pandas (who presumably know what they're doing) go at it, so to speak. Natural born perverts with a really really good excuse. "What are you watching?!" "Muum! It's for the future of the species!" "Ok, carry on then".

I think we came third or something. At the trivia thing.

Trivia in the Pub (15)

2009-11-25T11:32:00.002+11:00

Trivia in the pub again. Posting these sketches a bit late, but never fear, here they are at last.

It had been a while since I'd sketched any women. Ok, that's a lie, but it was at least a while since I'd sketched women in more seductive poses. It's a good idea to practice these things, that's the only reason I did it, honest.

The next few sketches are fairy-tale inspired. We have witches broomsticks (sans witches), a skull, a creepy Little Red Riding Hood, the mole and Thumbelina getting married, the genie from Aladdin and finally, Mr Hyde.

The next few sketches continue the growing "horror" theme. (Apostrophes because I can only ever do cute tongue-in-cheek horror, apparently).

There's a bell, perhaps in the "The Bell Tolls for thee... ohooohoooooohohoohohoho" sense. A ghost who is totally not the same ghost I drew for the halloween decorations. See, it's poking it's tongue out, that's different. Then there's a vampire who can't see himself in the mirror, a witch, a musketeer (ok, that's not horror at all, sorry) and finally, a quill, which is maybe horror if it draws in blood! Oooohoooohohoohooo.... creepy. Ahem.

And that, my friends, is trivia in the pub.

I have no recollection whatsoever as to what the outcome was, in case you were asking. Which I hope you've learnt not to, by now.

Until next time.

Halloween Decorations!

2009-11-01T13:28:00.011+11:00

Just thought I'd show everyone the decorations I drew for a halloween party, now that the party is over and I won't spoil the surprise.

Enjoy.

Trivia in the Pub (14)

2009-10-30T23:34:00.004+11:00

I realise this is late, but I have good reason, I swear! I won't tell you what it is, you'll just have to trust me.

Trivia this week was Halloween themed. In fact, some of the questions were the same from last year, in November when we went there for my b-day. It was the first time I'd ever gone to trivia and I got free birthday cake when Rita found out. Rita's awesome that way.

So enjoy the halloweeny goodness, and until next time, beware of zombies.

Trivia in the Pub (13)

2009-10-23T16:14:00.002+11:00

I'm posting these up a few days late because I'm tired. Zzzz. See? Actual snoring.

Anyhoo. Here they are finally.

Enjoy.

I'm off to have a nap.

Zzzz...

Halloween pic.

2009-10-23T16:11:00.002+11:00

This was a drawing done for a friend's Halloween/B-day party.

Now that the invites have gone out, I can post it up.

The final version was tweaked so that the information would fit nicely on the page. And by tweaked, I mean the speech bubble was moved.

Enjoy.

Trivia in the Pub (12)

2009-10-14T10:10:00.004+11:00

Trivia in the pub, waiting for everyone to get there. There was a Marilyn Manson concert due to start at 8:00, so when I got to the pub at 6:45, it was full of goths. Some nice outfits were on display. In fact, some of them looked like they must have taken a lot of time to put on. Specifically those really tight, torn jeans. Unless they were torn because they were pulled on too quickly.

So obviously the first sketch was inspired by the hundreds of goth people I'd either walked past on the way to the pub or the thirty or so in the pub around me. Then I had fun drawing a snake tattoo-ey thing. Meh. Then, a necklace whose reflections I completely messed up, but ignore that. A raven (or crow, to taste). Then the mandatory asteroid and dinosaur pic. Dinosaurs are more curious than you would think. They sadly lack the ability to make tools though. Sigh. We still love you, dinosaur.

I was asked to draw a poster idea for a friend, doodles in the top left hand corner as I got ideas down. Then I drew the Beatles from memory. This is impressive, since I have never seen them. I tried to draw Dame Edna, again from memory, with arguable success. It's haaard to draw without references, damn it!

Then, a pictorial representation of the eternal struggle between mammal and dinosaur. And by eternal, I mean, until, you know, the asteroid kicked their arses. Dinosaurs 0, Mammals 1. Thank you very much.

We came tied second in trivia and had to play scissory paper rock to determine who got 2nd or 3rd prize. We got the second prize!! Woohoo! More drink vouchers for us.

We art being of the smartt!

Some Sketches (Or: The search for a profound title)

2009-10-14T10:03:00.002+11:00

Some sketches from Sunday night at the pub.

Caesar's salad. The origin of a classic.

A quick sketch of Napoleon.

Notes and sketches. I didn't draw everything on this page, by any means. I would tell you which, but it's more fun to let everyone guess.

Trivia in the Pub (11)

2009-09-30T10:55:00.002+10:00

This week, something or other was happening at the theater near the pub. Probably a show or something, since that's usually the type of even that happens at theaters. One could almost say it's their function. In any case, this meant that the pub was busier than normal. We weren't able to grab a normal table, or even group of tables, large enough for our team, so we had to sit at the pool table converted into a table by having a board placed on top of it.

This table is uncomfortable, since your legs cannot fit under it. Anyway, enough griping.

The first thing I was asked to draw was Asterix. There he is top left. Oh no, wait, that's an asterisk. Very different. Then Obelix was requested. It's been years since I'd read any of the comics, so I'm relatively happy with what I managed to recall. Makes me want to go and read them again though. Ah, nostaligia.

I was then asked to draw Tintin. Moderate success here, Milou doesn't look like Milou. Then I drew my friend Dan's head. Couldn't be bothered drawing the rest of him, so it remained a disembodied head, dripping blood, for effect.

Next was a mermaid version of me. Happy to oblige, it's nothing like the Little Mermaid, but that's ok. Continuing the fairy tale theme, Sleeping Beauty, followed by a Picasso rendering of a woman's face. Finally, Rapunzel's tower. A friend then drew her hair and the prince, prepared to rescue her.

Here we have a water nymph. Got into a bit of trouble from the requester for drawing her in a schooner :). Still, was funny at the time, and still is. I was then asked to draw a dryad. Not a problem. The magic of Paint also gets rid of the horrible lines that I couldn't erase on the night. Ah computers, how I love thee...

That was Trivia.

We lost, sadly. We were doing very well until the last all-or-nothing question. "Which author had an asteroid named after them in 2006?" The answer was J. K. Rowling. Who'd have thought? They name asteroids after anyone these days...

Six Prompts Drawing Meme

2009-09-28T23:52:00.002+10:00

Found and completed this drawing exercise.

Had a lot of fun doing it too. Enjoy!

Trivia in the Pub (10)

2009-09-23T10:00:00.003+10:00

Trivia in the pub again yesterday.

Unfortunately, it rained as I was walking to the pub from the station. I was too lazy to get my umbrella out, or to run, or even to walk at more than a leisurely pace, so I got quite wet. It's quite amusing to be walking sedately and seeing other people dash for cover from the wind and rain.

Cutting to the chase, here are the sketches from the night:

We have, starting from the top left: Le Petit Prince. (For all you uncultured Philistines unaware of who that is, I refer you here for some much needed education.) We have some wine, a stick figure with boobs, some of my teammates, an attempt at a Canadian Mountie. Yes, I perhaps have been watching too much Due South. And then last sketch was a woman in a bikini. No reason. Well, I'd had some wine, so... yeah.

We didn't win trivia. As usual, I helped answer the Pirates of the Carribean questions, so I felt validated.

Better luck next time, I suppose.

Sydney Dust Storm : Sign of the Apocalypse?

2009-09-23T09:18:00.004+10:00

Imagine waking up to an orange sky. There is no sun, there are no clouds, there are no birds. Everything is covered in dust and you're fortunate if you can see a couple hundred meters in the distance.

This was this morning. The end of the world.

Or at least, it would have been kind of awesome if it were the case. I wonder how many Christians, particularly Hillsong, woke up thinking it might be the rapture. Would that make them happy or afraid?

Still, apocalypse or no, I still had to go to work. How's that for dedication?

Here's the view on the way. Incidentally, a colleague I showed this photo to said he was mugged on that very corner. Saved by a woman from the brothel nearby (to the right of where I'm standing), who screamed when she saw the five men, one of whom wielded a knife, which made them run away.

It was simply surreal walking through the city with an orange sky. Pretty awesome too though, at the same time.

Some of these photos look like they were edited to be in sepia tones. It gives everything a classy look, perhaps we should try and keep it from now on...

I was worried for a moment my bus might be cancelled, the streets were quiet, much fewer pedestrians than normal and fewer cars as well. Save for the sound of sirens and a firetruck whizzing by, the city seemed muffled.

Crossing the Harbour Bridge, it wasn't possible to see anything at all. I couldn't make out the Opera House. Not even the water. For all I know, they have been engulfed by our new lord and master, Cthulhu.

I kept looking up to the sky, half expecting these guys to make a showing, Now that would have been really neat.

I was fortunate enough to get a lift shortly after getting off the bus. A colleague saw me walking up the hill and figured he'd spare me walking 30 minutes in the dust laden air. Worked out pretty well. There was a fight to get cars in the undercover parking, of course, since no one wanted to leave their car to get covered in (more) dust, or to have trees fall on it, which, I'm told, is a possibility.

I can't wait to see how the rest of the day pans out.

The Ones that Didn't Get Away

2009-09-18T12:20:00.003+10:00

There are two kinds of birds. The ones I manage to take photos of, and those I don't. These are the former, I'll have a post about the latter later.

Here was the duck I saw again yesterday, in exactly the same spot. Sadly, I didn't see Mr. Duck this morning, but I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Mr Duck gets up as I get closer. I really need more zoom on the next camera I get.

"Aaah, the strange man is following me. Waddle! Waddle!"

"Oh great fowl in the skies, the birdity of it all! Why won't the bad man stop slowly chasing me?"

Mr Duck eventually remembered he could fly and did just that, to get away.

Here are some smaller birds I saw this morning, chirping away in a tree. Cute little things.

At one point, all three birds were on one branch, but before I could take the photo, they flew away...

Perhaps another time.

Trivia at the Pub (9)

2009-09-16T10:12:00.005+10:00

For once, just about everyone got to the pub before me. Which was very very odd.

Wasn't hungry at first, though I ended up finishing half of two of my friends' meals, so I guess that counts as one proper meal. Hooray for leftovers!

Here are the sketches from the night.

A vampire James Bond. An octopus, a grandfather clock (are there such things as grandmother clocks?). Two requests, a horse eating a strawberry and a vampire cat. After drawing the vampire kitty, more blood and some sort of mouse corpse was demanded, and it was so.
Detective Turducken is from this video which I saw at an animation festival at UTS.

There was talk of geisha, so there's half a sketch. I think it was because I was fanning a friend with, well, a fan.

The last is Dianne, craving the toblerone I had just been given. To be fair, the two enormous bars of toblerone do look delicious... yum.

After this, I was too busy drinking to draw, so um.. that's it.

We came second thanks to my help with questions such as:
What is the Riddler's real name? Edward Nigma (E. Nigma).
What was Will Turner's father's name in Pirates of the Carribean? William. (Aka. Boostrap Bill).
And so forth.

Free drinks for everyone!

I saw a DUCK!

2009-09-16T09:57:00.003+10:00

You know when you see something but you can't quite make out what it is, because it's just so far off what you're expecting your mind gets confused?

That happened this morning. At first I thought the lone duck was a branch or something. When I realised, I had to rush to get my camera out.

I kept getting closer and closer to it and taking photos, just to see how close I could get.

Not too shabby. I am like a ninja!

This is when the duck figured I was probably close enough and decided to move.

Isn't it cute as it waddles away? *waddle* *waddle*

Hey Mr Duck, you're looking the wrong way!

The only problem with seeing a duck in the morning is that there is no way the rest of your day will possibly be as awesome.

Dawn of the Cockatoo

2009-09-14T09:56:00.002+10:00

As I ambled to work today, sore throat and nose determined to make me regret getting out of bed, legs beginning to ache as the rest of my body thought it would put its two cents in as well, I saw this fellow:

He (or she, I suppose) just appeared. I was walking, there was no cockatoo. Then there was one. Perfectly hidden by the telegraph pole, I only saw the bird when I was only one or two meters away, which was pretty cool. Normally they're in groups as well, so it was a nice chance to take photos.

I did have to actually go to work though, which meant walking until the cockatoo decided I was too close and flew away. Not that far though, just to the nearest antenna, to have a look around.

And finally, a nice profile shot.

Bye bye, lonely cockatoo. You're nice and quiet when you aren't surrounded by twenty of your friends.

Encounter in the Night

2009-09-14T00:10:00.002+10:00

I always seem to be the one bitten by dangerous creatures of the night...

If I survive this one, I should be more careful...

Footpath cats in the Amazon!

2009-09-11T10:06:00.002+10:00

This is what you get when animals like you. A cat coming up to you on the way to work and nuzzling your legs until you have no choice but to lean down and pat it because it's so cute. How annoying is that?! Sheesh.

Then the cat starts squirming on the footpath, scratching it's back against the pavement in the undending fight to scratch the itch that cannot be scratched. It does this just for the attention, I know it does.

Then it tries to slink off in an effort to be invisible, in the long grass. And failing. You're not very good at this camouflage thing, are you, cat?

Managing to wrestle myself away from catty cuteness, I was walking along when I suddenly found myself in the Amazon! That's right, the Amazon! Or at least, that's what it felt like when a parrot flew right past me and landed on a tree nearby. I felt the rush of air, it flew that close.

Is this not Amazonesque? I only managed to get this one photo, since it flew away before I got a chance to move around to a better vantage point.

An interesting walk to work all up. :)

Birds and the Bees

2009-09-09T10:10:00.003+10:00

Finally had my camera again, which of course means the kookaburras know to stay away. Crafty critters. However, I did see some other nice things, even if they moved around to make it hard for me.

Me and this bee were playing hide and seek. I found her.

Some nice flowers. They don't move, which I appreciate.

And last, a cute bird whose species name escapes me completely. Cute thing though.

Trivia in the Pub (8)

2009-09-09T09:49:00.002+10:00

Too tired to write very much about last night.

Drew some robots, Dianne tried to stab me with the knife. She's been watching a lot of True Blood lately, so it clearly has affected her mind.

This put vampires on my brain.

In actual trivia news: I won free drinks. I can either get 4 schooners of house beer or 2 glasses of house wine.

Our team also came third, so hooray, we got more drink vouchers. (Which is good because we'd just run out).

Nudes

2009-09-09T09:29:00.002+10:00

Here are some old nudes. The quality of the pictures isn't the best, since I had to take photos instead of scanning. Even if I were to scan, the images probably wouldn't have come out so well. In any case, here we go.

Bird on a Wire

2009-08-31T15:51:00.003+10:00

The only bird I saw on the way to work this morning, well, at least the only bird to stay still long enough for me to take a photo was a magpie, sitting on a telephone wire.

For some reason, it seems very regal there, by itself, looking out over the rest of the world.

Looking for shines, I'm sure...

I Tink I Saw, I Tink I Saw a Puddycat

2009-08-28T09:43:00.003+10:00

On the way to work this morning, apart from the sun trying to blind me with its harsh gaze (and yet caress me with its warmth, confusing), fighting the urge to just curl up on the beautiful, soft grass and have a nap, serenaded by birdsong and the wind in the trees, I heard a commotion.

In one of the trees, a few birds were chirping away like mad, because a cat was leisurely walking beneath their tree. The cat didn't seem to be in any particular hunting mood though, and when it saw me, it slunk off in the aloof way that only cats can, as if to pretend it didn't care.

That's right, cat, walk away.

Oh, and then I saw a cute bird, that jumped up into a tree when I walked by.

Look! It's looking at me. Got a few good close up photos of it.

Isn't it just cute? Chirp chirp chirp.

This lil' fella made my morning into work.

Trivia in the Pub (7)

2009-08-26T10:06:00.003+10:00

Another night of trivia in the pub.

I got there way earlier than everyone else, because I went straight after work, and everyone had to get there from other events. Excuses, I say.

So, after fighting for a table large enough to accomodate our group (And here it helps if the Trivia Mistress likes you, since she can use her mighty authority to make it happen), we started trivia. We did really well in the first round, moderately so in the second.

So, the drawings, as usual, loosely inspired by the trivia questions as well as suggestions (a.k.a. demands) from people (a.k.a. A particular person sitting next to me at the time. You know who you are.)

So we have Mozart, some gentleman, Hamlet, some practice doodles at the top, a laid out dinner table, a lady, the Mona Grinner and a spider. (Eek!).

Here, after being told to go to a new page, we have a practice cheerleader, followed by an actual cheerleader (I was told to draw her, ok?), a skull, a necklace, a pirate, a pirate ship, a ring, a cossack (attempt, anyway), a frog, a tree and the tree of evolution (made up).

Also in there somewhere is something I was *trying* not to draw this week (honest), but a glass of wine will do that to me.

Oh, and we lost trivia on the jeopardy question. Order of mammals with the most species. We answered ungulants, where the actual answer was rodents. Alas. Damn rodents.

Where Ideas Come From

2009-08-23T20:08:00.003+10:00

When I run out of ideas...

Magpie, the Return

2009-08-21T11:09:00.004+10:00

I found the magpie again on the way to work. It might even have been the same one, who knows.

Got a few good photos, then a woman came around the corner and I straight for the bird, I was sure for a moment that the bird was about to fly off, but fortunately, it just stayed ahead of the woman, keeping its distance before flying off to the side, so I was able to get more photos after all.

I wonder what people think when they see me taking photos. "What, has he never seen a magpie before? Weirdo". Heh, doesn't stop me appreciating them.

I'm also quite glad the magpies aren't attacking me.

The danger! It's almost palpable.

Birds of a Feather

2009-08-20T10:06:00.003+10:00

On the way to work, I swear these galahs just aren't trying anymore. They're making it too easy, sitting on the ground, eating, waiting for me to come up and take photos. Where's the wild spark in their eyes? The rebel streak, playing hard to get? Gone. Like so many childhood dreams in the wind. *melodramatic sigh*

Anyway, the good thing is I got nice close-ups.

This galah gave me the stare as I walked by.

Then hopped up, probably figuring I wasn't a threat. Or just because the road is not a safe place for a bird.

And for some reason, when I see the galah below, I can't help but think "Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go!".

Then saw two more galah on a wire. Maybe they're the same ones. Following me...

Almost got to work when I heard a magpie call (over the sound of Gimme!Gimme!Gimme! playing in my ears).

And a closer photo.

It occurred to me as I walked closer, that I couldn't remember when nesting season was. I've been attacked by magpies before. It's not fun. They glide in on silent wings of death from above and strike at you like a hammer cracking a macadamia nut, resulting in not too dissimilar a sound but with the added inconvenience of blood seeping out.

I hope everyone appreciates me putting my life on the line for these photos. That's all I'm trying to say.

Trivia in the Pub (6)

2009-08-19T09:22:00.003+10:00

Managed to get to trivia at the arranged time this week, which was good. There was a show at the theatre nearby, but it was due to start at 8:00, so there weren't crowds of people passing the time in our pub, which was also good.

I didn't have to go to the pub straight from work, so I didn't have my notebook with me, but I still had paper on me. I always do. It's the hallmark of a true artist. Or something.

Anyway, these are this week's sketches.

We have, starting from top left. No, wait, let's do it in chronological order. A vampiress, a queen, a lady's head, for which the rest of the body was drawn later (censored for the kiddies), an adaptation of the Birth of Venus painting. A Swiss papal guard. The Pope, Jesus, Jesus getting a mug-shot, New-York, some cats, a howling wolf, a tree silhouette, a little dog, some emoticons, some necklaces (upside down bottom of page), and in the bottom left corner, upside down, some tomb stones.

And that's everything.

Oh, and we lost.

... this time.

Galahs galore :)

2009-08-14T09:48:00.002+10:00

I was walking along when I saw these guys (or gals), thankfully before I got too close and scared them away. Quickly got out my camera and started taking photos. I do wish my camera had more zoom, but I managed to get fairly close all the same.

Here they are bunched together.

"Hey, let's go exploring over there." Said Hansel to Gretel. Hansel is the one closest to me.

Then two decided to fly away, I must have been too close, but the others stayed, so I got some nice photos of them.

Photos on the way to/from work

2009-08-13T11:41:00.003+10:00

Here's a photo I took on the way home the other day on the way home. Hadn't gotten around to uploading it yet, so here it is.

The way the sunset hits the clouds was just amazing.

Here are a few other photos I took this morning, on the way to the office. I love this tree. Pink leaves are just awesome. (Say what you will).

If you look closely, you'll see a bee! It's a bit dark, but there's not much I could do about that.

And I really like this photo:

This kind of thing makes my trip into work bearable. It's about enjoying the simple things sometimes...

Angel Dream

2009-08-13T00:19:00.002+10:00

Was listening to Abba - I have a Dream on the way home and thought of this.

This was a very very quick sketch, under 20 minutes.

I hope to have sweet dreams myself.

Trivia at the Pub (5)

2009-08-12T09:40:00.003+10:00

Had to rush to trivia from North Sydney, after the last day of the training course I was on for work. This meant I got to trivia late, unfortunately. Or at least, later than I normally get there, so that we can have dinner. I still got there before trivia proper started, so that's ok.

On the first page of sketches, we have a wizard (with a hat that appears to have a shoe on the end of it), a vampire, a teddy-bear and some faces.

On the second page, I was asked to draw the Thinker, which was hard, and I had to give up, not remembering what pose the statue is in. However, I managed to draw Scream passably, a gnome on a mushroom (cute), a giant sand-worm, Dianne as a dunce, (at her request), for not knowing something (I forget what, so it can't have been that important). Finally, a ballerina and some ice-cream.

Dianne drew some characters, the left supposed to be me. The right, who knows? I drew my versions of both below. Then we have the high heel shoe I practiced before drawing the woman's shoes, a witch, a pirate, stegosaurus, a fish, an African seal and a club (for seal clubbing), which was what the trivia question was about. I wouldn't hit seals, I swear.

And that was Trivia.

Oh, by the way, those drawings I did for my IBM presentation? My team won first prize thanks to that, and we all got a bottle of wine. Hooray!

Star Trekking

2009-08-10T23:43:00.005+10:00

Here's a pic I'm done with for now. Might come back and tweak some things later though, we'll see.

As I've decided to try and do from now on, I'll show the pencils, then inks and finally coloured stages, to show how I arrive at the final image.

This was drawn according to specific instructions. Hope you like it.

First, pencils. By pencils, I mean a rough drawing on the computer, then make it transparent, so I can use it as a guide, but see where I'm inking.

Then we have the inks and the speech balloons.

Finally, we have colour. I liked colouring the screen outputs, makes for a nice effect, I feel.

I could and probably should go in and do some more shading, but this'll do for now.

And would you believe I've never really watched any Star Trek episodes?

Sketching for IBM Presentation

2009-08-10T22:59:00.003+10:00

Today and tomorrow, at work, we graduates are being treated to a training program, to increase our business acumen. It involves a business simulation, where we get to pretend we are the executives of an initially failing company.

Tomorrow, we have to give an Annual General Meeting where we talk about how the business has been faring under our control.

My part of the presentation is the goals and objectives.

This is to represent the situation when we took over the company. It pays to remind people how bad things were.

And the following is us looking forward from the wreckage, to brand new possibilities.

The training coordinator said we had to make our presentations fun and interesting.

I think this should help.

The Never Ending Battle

2009-08-06T09:59:00.003+10:00

One of the hardest parts of being an artist is feeling the stare of a blank piece of paper and having to think of something to draw. It's as if the blankness of the paper makes your mind go blank too. Then once you do manage to think of something to draw, you've got to summon up the courage to make the first line.

It is a battle that has claimed many souls.

Anyway, that's all to explain why I sketched this on the way to work.

Hands like Icicles.. and Birds.

2009-08-05T09:39:00.004+10:00

Ok, so no sketch on the way to work today, on account of the fact that it was freezing and my fingers would have snapped off trying to draw anything.

However, as is starting to become usual, I have photos of birds instead.

Not sure if this is the same bird as yesterday, but I'll assume it is. I've named it Jack (a la Sparrow). He's playing coy and pretending not to follow me.

This is the mythical Birdus Flyawayus, otherwise known as me being too slow to take the photo.

Managed to sneak up on this one. There were a few in the tree, but I didn't manage to get a photo of them all together.

At the entrance (or close enough) to the IBM complex, this bird walked up to the tree while I was watching and started tapping, looking around for insects. It feels odd to see the road in the photo.

And that's this morning's bird watching. :)

Trivia in the Pub (4)

2009-08-05T09:27:00.005+10:00

Last night I had to walk to the bus stop, rather than getting a lift from a colleague, since he's on holidays.

On the plus side, that gave me a chance to take this photo:

Then it was trivia time, and I ended up (somehow) with a full page of sketches and doodles.

Most are because of the questions that came up or things we were talking about at our table. I'm not saying I'm suggestible in any way, but when I hear something, odds are it's the next thing I draw. :)

Oh, and we won!

I seem to have lost the photo I took of the board, which showed the team names properly, but I'll pinch this one a friend took.

It just so happened that the scores were in order on the board. Quite the coincidence. :)

Birds of Arizona

2009-08-04T10:38:00.007+10:00

Ok, so I don't have to walk quite as far as Arizona (In the U.S.A, for anyone who wasn't sure), to get to work, it just feels that way. Just thought I'd put up a photo of some swallows nesting on a building in a military base near Tucson that Jamie sent me.

Aren't they cute?

This is starting to turn into an Ornithology blog, so I promise to at least have some sort of scribble up in the next post, so I can at least pretend it's still a sketch blog. :)

No Sketches... but Look! Birdies!

2009-08-04T09:42:00.005+10:00

Ok, so I didn't get any sketching done while I was waiting for the bus today, but I did get lots of photos of birds. Does that get me off the hook? ... No? You haven't even seen them yet!

Here.

Stay still, little bird! You've made it impossible for me to take a clear picture. Sigh. You're lucky you're so adorable.

Aha! Finally found myself some kookaburras. Well, they were so far away I couldn't tell for sure that that's what they were until I got on my laptop and edited the photo. I wonder what they're looking at...

Some galahs sitting in a tree. I really like this photo for some reason. These guys were really quiet, and with my headphones in, I wouldn't have noticed them except a man who was on his morning walk had stopped to have a look at them, which made me stop to see what he was looking at. I'm glad I did.

Just across the road, in this field (which gives you an idea how far out from the city I work), were some cockatoos. Noisy critters.

Birds everywhere!

How was that? Does it make up for a lack of sketches?

It'll have to, for now. :)

Riding Dinosaurs!

2009-08-03T02:59:00.005+10:00

Phew, this image took ages.

Going to show you guys all the steps in this one, so you appreciate it.

First I get the sketch down, using loose lines, going over things until I'm happy with what I'm doing.

Then it's time to ink the image.

Finally the easier job of putting down the flat colours, basically filling in the spaces between lines. This is where the magic wand tool in Photoshop comes in handy.

And finally, it's a matter of giving everything some volume by adding shadows and highlights. Then some clouds, to make the sky interesting.

And voila!

Enjoy.

Mad Science! Mad! Mad I say!

2009-08-01T00:12:00.004+10:00

Science is awesome!

I accidentally saved the image at it's current resolution. :( I was working at twice the size before. Oh well.

Oh, and I had to redo the feet three times to get the high heels right. The mistress demands perfection, yes, she does.

Why You Always Look Both Ways

2009-07-31T22:21:00.002+10:00

This is the lady who wasn't watching carefully while she crossed the road.

You don't want to be like her, do you? Look both ways before you cross.

End of your friendly public service announcement.

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

2009-07-31T21:07:00.004+10:00

One of my favourite games ever. Here's something I finally put together for old time's sake.

And here it is in glorious colour!

Waiting for the Bus.. and Trees!

2009-07-30T09:52:00.003+10:00

On the way to work, when I stop at the bus stop, I still get weird looks as I sketch away. I think it's more because I'm in a t-shirt while I do it rather than the sketching. After all, they don't know what I'm doing.

Capturing a person's motion in an image is hard, especially when, you know, they don't stop moving while you sketch (and if they did, it'd kind of defeat the purpose). That lady needs to not wave while crossing the street. Buses have a lot of mass to stop when they hit the breaks. Also, cute doggy (drawn from imagination, since there was no real cute dog :( ).

Oh, and there was a really nice tree on the way to work. Yeah, I know, I walk the same route to work every day, how am I not noticing these trees and stuff the first time? I don't know. I just don't know.

People Walking By

2009-07-27T09:53:00.002+10:00

Sketched some more people on the way to work. This is difficult when they don't stop, it's about getting the key impression down.

Everyone seemed to have a scarf on. Maybe that's a clue that I should get one... I'm still running around in a t-shirt. To be fair, I'm walking further than these people, I need a nice cold breeze to cool me down.

Saw some kookaburras in the park on the way. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera, so I couldn't take any photos. Oh well, maybe they'll be there tomorrow.

Wonder Gal

2009-07-26T20:33:00.002+10:00

Ok, finished the Wonder Woman sketch (my version). Colours and everything. Enjoy :)

This makes me feel like doing a whole slew of comic-hero sketches... Stay tuned.

Another Robot Sketch

2009-07-26T16:43:00.003+10:00

Here's another one. This took a bit longer, since I was having fun with the shadows and reflections.

Golden Oldies Sketch

2009-07-26T11:12:00.001+10:00

Just messing around with some golden oldies. My version of wonder woman.

Do Robots Dream of Flight?

2009-07-26T10:13:00.003+10:00

Do robots dream? And if so, what of?

This was a 15 minute quick sketch. Just for fun.