Nothing worth while comes easy!

Well, here's a page from my life drawing sketchbook. This is where it all begins for the artist. The trek to making great art must start with pages like these. Not much to look at, are they? But, like a scientist who wishes to one day build a rocket, we have to start somewhere. He isn't born making the right mathematical equations to get the perfect results. He must first practice many different variations with different numbers and formulas before he has mastered the art enough to bend it to his will. That's what this page is about, something I've been learning recently. To make the marks I want with the pencil, I must know how to juggle the endless variences of angle of element to paper, different pressures with the element and my own experiences and obversations.

Next time you see a piece of art, whether it's a painting or a Saturday morning cartoon, try to appreciate the amount of hard work and skill before you.

-Howard

I...I just don't know!

There's no story behind this picture. The character has nothing to do with the background. I don't have a clue what the greater meaning to the image is. I was fooling around in PhotoShop, and this is what happened. Accept it for what it is.

-Howard

A token of my esteem; Simple tripe!

I hope that perhaps my picture will explain to you where I have been, and why I was unable to make new posts. As you can see, I was incarcerated. Yes, framed, really. Sit back, and I shall tell you a story. I warn you, this tale is not for the faint of heart, or the ugly of face. It was three days after my last post. Sept. the second. That fateful day will forever be burned into my memory as the day my life changed for all time. It was a day of murder, drug peddling, bologne, and several shades of grey.....okay. Okay. I admit it. There was no framing. No murder. No bologne. The reason I haven't been posting is cause I'm a lazy, lazy man. Rather, an unmotived one. BUT! That will change!......I hope. Meh. I'm really just posting cause I didn't know how long it was till blogger'd shut me down. Anyway, to the future......or more posting......on my part.

-Howard

Post Script: The picture above was actually taken three years ago at Capernway Harbour Bible Center. I tell ya. Ya do some crazy things at Bible school. And what happens at Bible school, stays and Bible school!

Digital BG time

It's back to school time....officially! I've started digital background painting, and it's going pretty good. Got a cool teacher. I think this year is gonna go allllllright. The above picture is my first attempt at background painting. The layout was provided by my teacher. I simply did the colours. That's all for now.

-Howard

Cubism-Boy!

Howdy! Here's my latest picture. I kinda like the way it turned out. I've been struggling with finding variety in the basic shapes I use. My people tend to look too similar.

By the by, it's been a while 'cause I've been SUPER busy with the camp that I'm working at at my church. Man! I didn't realize how exhausting it was working with children. Now I know! But it's still lots of fun. Unfortunely, it's not too great for my drawing ability, which hopefully hasn't been taking TOO much of a nose dive!

Anywho, I have a portfolio due Wed-nes-day for my cartooning class, so I'll probably be posting some of that in the next few days. Have you like it, Ma!

-Howard

We are Venom now!

Okay, so I saw the Spiderman 3 teaser trailer.....and do I ever feel teased! I can not wait until May 4th, 2007....well, I can, but not without some kind of aneurism or something. Anywho, I got a little inspired from that. Here is a one of the baddest of the bad, Venom! Dr. Doom wins as the all time greatest villain, but Venom is pretty close! Anyway, I'm done geeking out, for the time being. But here's the pic none-the-less.

-Howard

Character development

I've recently started up summer classes, taking cartooning. Seems I didn't do so well in this class the first time around (obviously), so I gotta take this class. So far I've really been enjoying it! I've been making some slow progress already, and the class just started.

The assignment was to make several different characters, who had to fit into certain age groups, and look like it. For this, I had to make a small girl, between the ages of 5-7. Here are the colours. I'm not happy with them, but that's not too big of a deal. I didn't spend too long on it. Just wanted to keep working with Photoshop as much as I can (which isn't a lot. Busy summer schedule).



Here's what I started with. Pretty Standard. I'm working on using fewer lines. Trying to get what I want on the first go, without going over and over the, trying to 'find' the line I want. Slowly getting better



And there's the 'clean up' lines. Not too clean, but again, I'm slowly improving. I guess the real test will be when I show these to my teacher. I'll let you know....maybe

-Howard

Pretty-ish

I'm actually kind of excited about this post. 'Cause I'm kinda almost semi happy with the results, at least as far as almost first time colour jobs go....this is actually my very first picture that I'd say is pretty much complete, although it's not really, cause it's only single tone at this point, but non-the-less, I like it! I did the background sky on the first try, and was happy with the results. I'm really starting to have fun fiddling around with PhotoShop! I can't wait to get my Wacom tablet! Of course, the picture is flawed (I had to drastically change this guys left wing cause it was too long, among other things) but I hope I'm on the right track. Hope you enjoy!

-Howard

Family Pictures...not mine....

Here are some picture I did recently for the Jr High group I help lead at my church. Actually, I was put in charge of doing a flier, but I figured since I'm putting out something people will see, why not put some art on it! Spruce it up some. I learned a lot while doing these.....mostly that I'm just terrible at inking. I used technical pens for the entire thing, after a failed practice attempt with ink and brush. To me, you're not really inking unless you're using a brush....so I guess I'll never be an inker. Oh well. Hope you like these. There's definitely evidence of Sean "Cheeks" Galloway seeping into my art these days. like music, my favourite artist seems to be changing weekly. I really like Cheeks art, his ability to show character through shapes. Something I want to try to do. And also the energy in his art. http://cheeks-74.deviantart.com/ If you want to see his art. Really cool stuff!

Another pic

I spent a lot of yesterday drawing....which I've actually been doing almost every day for a while, so that's good.
Something else that I did yesterday was to finally buy 'The Iron Giant'! Such a great movie. My new favourite. If you haven't seen this animated film, then you're really missing out. Great animation and great story that really pulls you in. Well, that's all for now.

Drawings....yeah!

Well, here are some more drawings of mine....not much to say........'cept that the picture of the girl and guy makes me lonely. *sniff sniff. Later!

Foolin' around with the Compy

I've been getting into computer art in the last little while....and when I find an interest in something, I tend to focus on that, and let everything else slide....like drawing....with a pencil........on physical paper. But oh well. I'll get used to it, and hopefully do both. I'm thinking about getting an Wacom Intuos tablet. If anybody has anything to say about that, good or bad, let me know. I've used the Wacom Graphire tablet, and that was good, but is it really worth the extra coin for it?

Anyway, this is my very first photo editing jobs. I'm proud of it. I don't think anybody would mistake it for anything but a photo edit, but I like it. I just hope my buddy doesn't mind. Hehehe.

I'll also be very busy during the summer with school and work. This isn't an excuse for me not posting things. On the contrary. I hope to be doing more improved drawings, and I'll be showcasing them here. If all goes as planned...which it never does. Anywho, later!

Comfort is King!

Hey, ya'll! What's been happening? Well, I've ungraded my computer terminal from a little puny end table that I have to hunch over to reach, to a full fledged table....that I stole from my kitchen. Hope my roommate doesn't mind.

Anyway, 'cause I'm such a slacker, well, I'm not improving much in my art, but that's besides the point. I am putting together a cartooning portfolio for my class of the same name....Cartooning....not portfolio. ahem. Here is a sample piece from that portfolio. I show you that, 'cause it's the only one done...hehe...and it's due tomorrow. I am a slacker. It's not much, just didn't want blogger shutting me down for not using space, or something. Adios!

Judas Document.

Hi! No picture this time, just me with my thoughts.

I'm sure most of you have heard about the recent Judas "gospel" that has surfaced in the past few weeks. Some of you, like me, were a little stymid. A little worried. Some of you were probably a little happy, or confused, or whatever. The document in question claims that Judas - who betrayed Jesus to the Jewish authorities for 30 pieces of silver - was commanded by Jesus to do so. If this were true, it would through doubt into the minds of many people about the authenticity of Jesus Messiahship. I'm here to say that, I, in my opinion, think that the document is bubkes. It's not true. Based on the research I've done, I feel there are too many loopholes in the story. The main website I checked out (one amoung a few) - http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/ - gives an account of what the document claims and how scientists went about determining it's date and origin. Let me start of by saying I have no doubt that it is an authentic ancient document, from the time they are claiming, around 220-340 AD. And I've come up with three very good reasons, which I shall share.

One! As I said, the document was found to be written around 220-340 AD. The last books of the New Testament to be written were penned around 80-90 AD. The gospels were written between the years of 40-70 AD. That's a large space of time for rumours, and the Jewish gossip tabloids to spread around the country. And there were probably groups back then who through Judas to be the underdog. There are hundreds of groups these days vying for child molesters to be set free because it's their right! A man was arrested and tried for making child pornography. The court found him not guilty because what he was doing was his way of expressing himself, and besides, children are sexual creatures, too! So it's not much of a stretch to think that there was someone who thought that Judas was getting a bum rap, and not so much falsyfied a report, but wrote a 'romantic' conclusion. A sort of alternate ending. Novelizing a true story, and editing it to fit their own views.

Two! How in the world did someone who wouldn't even have been born at the same time that Judas was alive find out about this? Especially since no other claim such as this has ever been found, to my knowledge. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Three! Assuming this person had this information, how is it that the other apostles didn't find out about this? They were around him just as much as Judas, some of them more, those in the inner circles of apostles. And yet these claims don't appear in the other gospels. Most of the apostles dies horrible torturous deaths for their beliefs in God and His Son. I think they would have been much more hesitante to die had they thought that their Master was organizing His death.

As I said, I at first was a little worried when I first heard of this document. But I looked into it, and have come to the conclusion that my faith is justified. It is justified through Christ, whom I put my faith in. The wonder and beauty that I see around me, through people and nature, is evidence of a loving Creator who sent His Son to die for us, and no third or fourth century writer can ever convince me otherwise.

Look, up in the sky.....

....It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's THE BEST-MAN! That's right. This May, I'll be the best man in my buddies wedding party. And no, I don't think there's too much in the title. I think best man adequately describes who I am, and what I'm all about.
Never one to be shown up on someone else's big day, I decided to make up the following icon and print it on a tee-shirt, which I shall wear under my tuxedo and display at key moments in the ceremony; any moment of great need.
Since my suppos-ed bestfriend never visits my blog, I doubt I'll have to worry about him finding out. Hehehe. I just hope it arrives on time.
By the by, I'm trying out the company a friend of mine works for, www.cafepress.com. I'll let you know how that turns out, but it looks like a great place to print any designs or even books or music albums, if you want 'em made up yourself. Again, I won't endorse them until I've gotten my shirt....hm....I probably should have printed it on Spandex....blast!

Post Script: I did this in photoshop, which I've mentioned I'm new at, so the lines are jagged and what-not. I'm working on it. Please forgive!

Uh-h'uh!

It's been a while. Not, I hadn't forgotten I had a blog site....well, maybe I did for a few days, but I'm back, with what I think to be a cool character. Not the best, but cool...for me. Don't ask me why he turned out to be Elvis, but he did, okay! As for interesting and witty things for me to say, I'm in the middle of a school project right now, so no dice! Go to Yuk yuks if you want entertaining. I've got work to do!

Forsooth!?!

And here we are. An attempt at caricature! This is a friend of mine, and I've done this without her permission, so I hope she doesn't mind. The trick of cariacture -besides spelling it - is to maintain the likeness of the individual, while bringing out personality through exaggeration. Something I have never been able to do before, and only slightly succeeded in here. Let me know if you like it. I could use the build up....or the tear down. Which ever you like.

I'ma havin' fun tonight!

Okay. One more post, then I'm going to bed. Not too much to say, other than that if I ever get a girlfriend, I want her to look just like this woman. Mee-yow!
Again, I fixed up one of the figures I did before. Corrections are only good in comparison to the originals, posted earlier this month, I think. Feet and hands improved, still not great.
The face! Awesome. You ever just start drawing something, not really intending it to go anywhere, and it turns out way cooler than you could have gotten it by trying? There's things wrong with this - the traveling teeth being one of them - but I like the over all feel. It definitely has emotion - feeling - and gesture/unity. And he's drop-dead gorgeous!

Red pencil Rhapsody!

Ahhhh! I love finding things that work for me. It's like discovering a whole new world.....a new fantastic place to be.....so I went out and bought myself a red pencil, forsaking my old, waxy blue pencil, and I couldn't be happier...well, I guess I could, but not much. Not without some kind of chip dip....and chips.
It's amazing how much you can improve if you just draw. Far from perfect, this picture still shows improvements on my last attempt at drawing this buff figure here. Improvements can be seen - and these are only improvements by comparison - in the feet, and hands. Also, I was able to give a 3/4 view of this guy, something I was unable to do the first around. I'm still having trouble figuring out what this guy would look like from a front view, though. This chin would seem to cover most of this mouth, if not all, and that's not good. I'll work at it, and keep ya posted. Still havin' trouble with this 'line control'....hm.

Awesome Weekend!

Wow! Two posts in one day! Even I'm impressed with myself. But I just had to give a little blurb about Winter Retreat. I go to Wednesday night College and Careers at my church, Peoples church and this past weekend we went up Perry Sound way for a little get away. The time included getting to know new people from two other churches in Toronto, and getting to know others in the group better. As the photos show, a good time was had by all.
Better still, we had awesome opportunities to connect with God, through dedicated speakers, and the ministering of a group of very musically talented young guys. And Saturday night was an emotionally charged meeting that had more than one person attending in tears of joy for our Glorious Saviour.
As I mentioned above, I'm including just a few pictures I got from another attendee. Hope you enjoy....and no making fun of me. I'm very sensitive!

Character Design

So, for one of my classes, Cartooning, we have to select two figures, one male and one female, and make them into two different stereotypical groups. The choices consist of oil barron, hockey player, professor, model, truck stop waitress, etc. I think I did pretty good at making them stereotypical, so I don't feel it nessessary to mention which ones which. As usual with me, the hands are messed up, and I need to work on something my teachers keep referring to as 'Line control'.....I'll get back to you when I've figured that one out.

Here's a sketch I did last night. It started out as just a warm up, but I decided to put it through Photoshop, in my eternal effort to figure the program out.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you had a great day! Sorry this picture came so close to the end of it! I kind of thought of it at the last minute. This is pretty much my VERY FIRST attempt at colouring on the computer, so forgive the crudeness of it. I was pretty much just playing around. It took me about twenty minutes to draw the picture, and about an hour to try to figure out how the heck to use Photoshop. Well, until next time (oh, did you notice the Rupert here has legs in this picture? I told you to watch out for him!).

Rupert Returns!

The question has been posed to me. "Why does Rupert Fridolin (pronounced as Fredolin)," the picture of that happy go lucky fellow I posted a few weeks ago, "have no legs?" Well, when I drew and posted it, the question never even dawned on me. "It's just....well....it's art!" And that, my friends, is an answer I can not stand in the least. For art, in my humble opinion, should never be without reason. It is the source of communication of ideas from one head to a group of heads. Every line, or every piece of clay, or evey twist of bronze, every note, must have meaning! That said, watch out for the return of Rupert Fridolin (pronounced as Fredolin) in the near future. His return willl be of triumph, as he brandishes a pair of glorious NEW LEGS!.....and maybe I'll do something about his back before he throws it out. It's just gotta be painful standing like that....especially without any legs.

The dream!

It's the way it always is with me. I try something, I aim for it, I go for it on my own strength, and I fail. Anybody ever have that - feel that? This my life that I'm talking about. You ever want something? You want to become a famous....something. Someone. Be the best at graphic design, or accountant, or any number of things, but it's not the most important thing to you? You'd rather just sit back, read a book, hang out with friends, anything other than work hard all day everyday to train to do whatever it is you want to do for a living.

That's me all over. I personally don't think it's a good thing to have no life outside of work, and think it's actually very beneficial to your job to have interests and hobbies, but there is going to be a certain amount of work needed to succeed in anything you do. I'm writing this mainly for myself, 'cause I'm not even sure it there's another human being on the planet that goes through this kind of thing. I don't even know how to describe what my problem is. Probably a lack of motivation, a lack of true desire.

If there is anyone out there like me, or even if there isn't, I'll write it for myself. God can help! But you have to be the one to let Him. How do I mean? Give your life to Him, daily. Again, what the heck does that mean? I can say, "I give my life to You, God!" And that doesn't mean a thing. I'm not giving over control of my body. He doesn't possess me, and walk around and talk and act for me! So what does it mean to give your life to God? Day by day, minute by minute, whenever you feel you don't have the answers, don't know what to do, feel yourself slipping, say to Him, "Lord, I can't do it on my own. I need You - I need your spirit - to guide me, to take over my life and give me wisdom, now, right this moment." And this isn't a one time prayer. It needs to be a minute by minute thing.

And this 'solution' - which isn't a garantee from me to cure all your problems UNLESS you enter into this agreement with God with the right heart. You can't just say magic words and all is well - applies to every problem in your life. And in mine.

So all that to say, I don't have any pictures to post this time around, but with God's help, I'll overcome my laziness, and start pumping out pictures like crazy. All to His glory....in theory. I'm still working on that one, too.

Fonzarelli move over!

Here is another one of my pictures. I'll have to think of a name for this happy little fellow! I did this about an hour ago. With this picture I'm trying to show space and form in as few lines as possible. I think its noteworthy to mention that all my teachers at school would probably faint if they saw me posting this picture, 'cause there are no doubt any number of mistakes I've made. But I sort of like the style. I'm a fan of Adam Hughes and Travis Charest! Both VERY good comic book artists, although I don't always agree with their subject matter. You should Google them if you're interested. If not, forget it!

First gallery Exhibition!

Well, here it is. It's not excellent, or even a thing of beauty, but it's one of my drawings. I wanted to put one on here done the day I started this blog thing, and thought this was a gooder! It's a turn-around drawing of a character for my story board class. Something like this, a description of the character, would be included in a fun-pack, a book put together to show everything there is to know about the cartoon being made. There's a little trivia for you. Hopefully there will be more - and better - drawings to follow!

First entry ever!

Well, here I am, in all my glory...that sounded humble. Anyway, thought I'd sort of introduce myself. I always feel that in movies, or books, or whatever, that the audience should have a chance to take in each new character. A pause in the drama to allow the viewers to get their first impressions, judge the hero or heroine based on first appearences. And here we are. That's me...uh...the one in the foreground. The others are friends of mine from Capernwray, a Bible College I went to for a year in 2003 and 2004. A great time had by all. Well, this has been my first offical entry. I hope to make many more!