Tag: sketching

Inspiration

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"Inspirational" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/125 sec, ISO3200
 “Inspirational” Cedar Park, 2018

こんばんは。How’s it going?

A couple weeks ago I bought Step by Eguchi Hisashi and it has been super-inspirational. I just love his style, and I’ve done a couple more drawings based on his style. I feel like I am also finding my own way of creating drawings that work for me. I watched a couple videos of artists’ advice, and one was to buy art books and study them. It’s important to have the physical book, and not just view the images online, and I have to agree that this makes a huge difference! You get to really examine all the line work and colors in a much more direct way. It’s great. I highly recommend it.

Funnily enough, when I was in art school, I never looked at books of artists I admired. I was too into just working on my own. But now that I am older, I realize that it is invaluable to look at other work and learn from them as much as possible.

The other day, I made this image, using fashion models as references for the pose, but since the Dodgers have been playing well lately, I decided to go with the baseball theme. I’m pleased with how it turned out, but I think it is lacking in dynamism – it’s very stiff. Something to work on in the future!

"Peace. Love, and Dodgers" Cedar Park, 2018
“Peace. Love, and Dodgers” Cedar Park, 2018

This evening I started a new picture, and my progress is below. Just for kicks, I applied some of Adobe’s charcoal and other brushes to the strokes to see how they looked. I think it’s pretty fun!

"Brushes" Cedar Park, 2018
“Brushes” Cedar Park, 2018

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

I hope you had a good Wednesday!

またね～

New Illustrator Discoveries

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"Summer" Cedar Park, 2018
“Summer” Cedar Park, 2018

As mentioned in last night’s post, I worked on a new illustration, this one was a combination of many sources. Sort of like sampling from different songs to make a new one I guess? The face is based on my previous illustration, for the body and clothes, I looked at some models at Old Navy’s website. The torso and legs are from two different models because the photo of the first model was cropped at her thighs so I found another full body photo from a different model and I think they matched up well.

I learned a couple new Illustrator techniques which will help not only with these illustrations, but in my professional work as well. The knife tool is handy for cutting shapes for shading and the blob brush is excellent for laying down solid color (actually creating shapes quickly using the stylus). A technique that I enjoyed was to use the pencil and smooth tools to create nice lines on one layer, then use the blob brush and eraser to create color fills on a layer below. It’s fast, clean, and can be very precise! And separating the stroke from the fill gives a lot more options for the stroke layer.

Lastly, I spent some time learning how to create custom fill patterns. The illustration above has a super-simple polka-dot pattern, which seems like it will be an important step to creating more interesting illustrations.

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

Sketch Day

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"Desk Setup" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO500
 “Desk Setup” Cedar Park, 2018

こんばんは。Today was a sketching day for me as I took inspiration from the Eguchi Hisashi book I bought yesterday. I decided to draw from a photo so I found a pic of one of my favorite actresses, Tao Tsuchiya, and started sketching on paper. When I had the outlines done, I scanned it into the computer and traced it out in Adobe Illustrator.

I learned a bunch of new techniques in Illustrator, including the pencil tool, the smoothing tool, and how to save and reuse variable widths for strokes. That makes things so much easier! It’s pretty quick to create art using the Wacom tablet and the pencil tool, which you can adjust to make super-smooth strokes, and this technique is a lot more fun than using the old pen tool and mouse combination. I guess old dogs (like me) can learn new tricks! 😀

I like how the sketch turned out. Although the drawing started out as Tao-chan, I kind of just adjusted it how I saw fit while looking at the Eguchi book for reference. I really love his art style, especially the simplicity and flat colors. I feel like I want to draw more like that in the future. It’s a lot of fun too!

"Finished Drawing" Cedar Park, 2018
“Finished Drawing” Cedar Park, 2018

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

I hope you had a good Sunday!

おやすみ！

Little Notebook

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"No..." Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/70 sec, ISO3200
 “No…” Cedar Park, 2018

こんばんは。How’s it going today?

So I’ve been using my Passport-size Traveler’s Notebook for almost a year now, and I still enjoy it, but I realize that it’s a little limiting. Basically, it’s great for taking notes, but it’s a bit small for sketching. I think it’s difficult because the pages don’t lie as flat as I’d like.

However, I don’t like big, thick sketchbooks either. My preferred size is A5, with spiral binding, and no more than a centimeter thick. The Muji notebooks I bought a few years ago are perfect. I use the dot-grid version for general note-taking both for personal stuff and for work stuff (I have one notebook for each). The paper is smooth and fountain pen ink looks great on it. It’s also nice for sketching!

I’m pretty excited because we’re going to the Muji store in NYC this summer so I can stock up!

I’ve been looking at that Roterfaden A5 notebook and it seems like a perfect solution, but I can’t justify spending that much money on it. I’m sure there’s a cheaper A5 alternative out there that I can use. I just need to do some research! In the meantime, I’ll use my Muji notebooks.

******************

Today’s photo is a sketch I did in my Traveler’s Notebook. I just drew on an old page that I had written on before. Can you guess what those words mean?

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

I hope you had a great day!

またね～

Friday at Home

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"Friday Excitement" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/100 sec, ISO1600
 “Friday Excitement” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going?

Today we took our son Bay to the oral surgeon to get eight teeth removed in order to “clear the way” for braces. This required him to be put under for the procedure, which only took about half an hour. When he came to, he was still groggy and wasn’t all there. It was funny, but scary as well. Just seeing our son sitting in the chair, more or less helpless, is something I never want to see again. It made me imagine what my parents might have felt when I was in the hospital, and I very much regret that ever happened. 😔

But after coming back home, Bay took a short nap and was feeling better, albeit very sore. The bleeding from the tooth extraction stopped pretty quickly and he had no trouble taking his pain medication, antibiotics, and rinsing with the mouthwash so we are thankful that everything has gone smoothly. But because he needed some extra care today, I spent the day at home with him. I’m happy that my job is flexible enough that I can work from home if I need to. It’s a great benefit!

This evening I did some sketches, based off of the artwork for the anime Hisone to Masotan. I love the tumblr animation I reposted a couple days ago, especially the facial expressions so I wanted to try something similar, and maybe simplify my own style. I’m still trying to find a signature style…

Anyways, I had fun drawing the faces, and using the Staedtler 925 09 pencil, with its super-broad lead. I have 2B in it, so it’s soft and dark. This combination of pencil and lead is fun, loose, and it forces you to not get hung up on precision. I like it.

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

I hope you had a nice Friday!

またね～

Sketch Style

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"Night Sketch" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO3200
 “Night Sketch” Cedar Park, 2018

こんばんは。How’s it going?

I spent some time this evening drawing simple faces while looking at other artists’ work that I admire. I’m trying to find a style that I like – something that I can draw quickly to create stories. It’s fun to break down the different elements of a face and try to figure out the minimum number of strokes to create an eye that can convey some emotion or individuality. I’m sure this is the realm of the comic artist and animator, and it’s kind of cool to peek into that world. I feel like I am exploring the unknown! 😀 I guess this is part of the joy of learning new things, isn’t it?

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

I hope you had a nice day!

またね～