as promised

remember that preview from last post? here it is, finished

from the moleskine.

ink, acrylic & photoshop

so i finally broke

I wanted to wait until more things were finished--but i suppose i'll have to post the finished versions later. Here is an update of everything i've been doing.

10x16" acrylic self-portrait on illustration board--completed in about 2.5-3 hours from life (two mirrors). For observational color with Steven Strenk

I have been having a hard time fully rendering with acrylic paints. a lot here is muddled by my jabs at the canvas trying to reactivate dry paint. it has been suggested that i work with bigger, thicker brushstrokes to keep the paint wet, something I will keep in mind in the future. 

Anatomically it works well and I feel it captured my likeness, but everything feels greasy and I feel physically upset looking at the transition in the cheek, the chin and the hair and ear. 

These are some ink copies after legendary comic artist Jeff Jones in my smaller moleskine (except for the last figure which was originally in my 18x24 moleskine).--all from a book kindly lent to me by Ross Taylor

When doing these studies I attempted to find and emulate the forms in his figures rather than simply graph out and copy the images exactly--which resulted in both a personal stamp on the reproductions and also, in places, some inaccuracies. 

I attacked them with a combination of nib and brush, in places matching Jeff's hatching style and in others attempting my own. I want to eventually get to a place where I can visualize figures in this style and be able to invent them believably.

some head studies/portraits originally from the moleskines but cropped/scaled/desaturated for a better view.

Vincent Nappi looks great as a samurai

some hand studies

and some previews of things to come:

Funzies

This is a self-portrait I whipped up last night. It's 8.5x11" in pencil and was completed in roughly two hours. Special thanks to Kyle Katterjohn for letting me use his pencils and mirror into the wee hours of the morning :)

 Some more recent sketchbook work. This is referenced from a book I found in the library of all these post-mortem photographs that appeared in the NYTimes circa the 1920s--some real cool stuff.  I couldn't decide just how much blood and gore to cover this guy with, so I included three different options of moderation for you to choose from.

I've been getting pretty excited about ink-work, and recently I've been trying to invent figures with shadows using flat graphic shapes in ink. I have a sketchbook dedicated to it--but nothing yet worth posting.

This is a sketchbook spread of some fluid screenshots and/or creative interpretations while watching the film Enter the Void. If you haven't seen this movie yet, do so.

Myakka

Had the opportunity to go landscape painting in Myakka last Friday with George Pratt's class--and this is my turnout. This was my first time landscape painting (officially) and I am somewhat satisfied with the results. I approached this mostly alla prima with a palette knife, but would spend a lot of time scraping off or remixing into the canvas as well. I'm working with oil on 9x12' board and had toned the panel with acrylic burnt sienna the night before.

I was given a great walkthrough from Sishir Bommakanti while working on this--so much credit goes to him, I most likely would have been tripped up by basic obstacles and the painting ultimately failed without his help. I was amazed at how little detail it took for it to still read as a landscape and feel I have a much better grasp on color mixing and theory. (mixing in complements to get darker shades as well as using a limited palette). The palette knife is an extremely versatile tool when used on board--and added texture creates an entirely new dimension beyond color and shape. In the future I'd like to work on defining shapes more, as well as experimenting with different surfaces (linen? glass? I've loathed canvas board so far--but maybe I just need to change up my technique).

As for the two images themselves, the first is a picture taken on-site with my phone after finishing--which then seconds later ended up in the dirt. The second I scanned in a few days later after trying to smooth over some of the scratches in the lake. but the yellow and yellow/orange dried weird. Oh well. Looking forward to going plein air painting with Brooke Olivares and Matteo Caloiaro over break!

graphic to narrative remastered

this

 

to this

to this

my graphic to narrative assignment for Casmer's Intro to IL class taken back into photoshop and the curves messed with a little. I love how it looks super dark in cast shadow like this. I want to ink in this kind of style.

 some recent sketchbook work

i used reference for the third one but the rest are invented

preface

My name is Chris Baldwin. I'm currently an illustration major at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, FL. 

I'm starting this blog as both a place to dump things I'm working on, as well as get in the habit of posting things consistently to push my work to a more professional level. Enjoy!

Here are some things I have done in the past. 

oil painting brought into photoshop

super-sculpey figure. 11" high