sketches doodles and art

Ah, the emotive qualities of B+W

2008-04-27T16:13:00.000-07:00

When I started taking photography seriously 30 or so years ago, I was developing and printing my own B+W films and prints in a bathroom darkroom. Since then we've had the introduction of digital, and photography has taken off, mostly in the colour realm. Digital cameras often have monochrome shooting options, but often these are low contrast images that require quite a bit of tweaking to get the results that you want.

Here is an example of a shot taken with a d-SLR, in monochrome, and then adjusted in PS to extract and define the image more the way I wanted. It takes about as long as printing your own print, but once you've got it down you don't have to replicate the process again for each subsequent print. That's helpful. There's also no messy chemicals to clean-up or dispose of.

Still digging through the archive

2008-04-15T06:26:00.000-07:00

Here are 2 shots that I worked on in PS. I wanted to create a sense of the light areas standing out, and give the colours a chance to standout without being over saturated. The first is a shot taken at Lynn Canyon in Vancouver BC. The green of the water was absolutely amazing.

The second is at Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands. This peak was enveloped in cloud and mist (it was raining on us too). The craggy rock leading up really embodied the spirit of the area. Tough, unyielding, but beautiful at the same time.

I've been away for quite a while

2008-04-13T15:27:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I posted anything here, mostly due to having moved and trying to get settled. I've begun sifting through old photos (both digital and film based) and started playing around with them in Photoshop. Here are a couple of shots that were taken in Cuba a number of years ago, with some modifications.

One of the best shots I've ever captured

2007-09-05T07:50:00.000-07:00

Normally I wouldn't put a picture here that wasn't jazzed up in some way or another, but this shot from the Toronto Air Show excited me so much when I saw it in on the computer screen (the camera LCD screen gave a bit of a clue, but you never know til you see it full size) that I had to upload it here.

It's the F22 Raptor fighter jet going into a tight turn. The vapour off the wings is in full bloom and the engines are pouring out the power. Seeing this plane in flight was a real treat - seeing it captured like this was a real bonus.

More photo fun

2007-08-30T20:46:00.000-07:00

This was a Rhino that I photographed many years ago, and I wanted to give it a mystical quality. There are filters that you can buy that will create some of these effects in the camera. However, I like to start with an original, pure image, and then go from there. I did a sketch of the Rhino as well, but it's currently in a box 1800 kilometres away. I'll post it when I'm back home in Nova Scotia.

More vector fun

2007-08-17T10:47:00.000-07:00

This is sketch and the final art for an icon that I developed for a blog. Again, sketching the dog while we were sitting around one afternoon and then fleshing it out using Illustrator. I softened him up a bit because the sketch looked to aggressive. I still like the sketch version, and will probably do something with it in the future.

Nemo found

2007-08-10T09:18:00.000-07:00

Sifting through both paper and digital work can bring about some interesting revelations. You begin to see trends that you hadn't thought about before. I've noticed, over the years, that architecture can be fascinating but that I don't have a huge interest in capturing it in my artwork. Instead, I've found myself drawn to nature, characters, and, to some extent, automotive subjects.

I've included a simple piece here that was done a couple of years ago.

A quick experiment with vegetation

2007-08-10T09:00:00.001-07:00

Here's a quick piece with vegetation added to make the Abbey appear abandoned and being over-grown. The sky was also quickly painted in to provide a more interesting backdrop. The original is included as well for comparison.

Work in progress

2007-08-10T08:31:00.000-07:00

Here's a piece that I'm currently working on. Again, the sketch just came about during one of those lazy days sitting out back. I'm using PD Pro for the paint work.

Vectors can be fun

2007-08-10T08:24:00.000-07:00

With the development of vector based tools such as Illustrator, Freehand, and Canvas we were introduced to new ways of creating artwork. There was a learning curve, but once the tools were familiar we had another medium to work in. Here is an example of a sketch done in the backyard one day, and the piece that came from that sketch.

Semi-abstract

2007-07-31T22:39:00.000-07:00

While working in abstract is very empowering, breaking out of the borders of what is recognizable and allowing the viewer to interprete for themselves, it is also nice to play with recognizable elements in a random way. Here is an example of just such a piece.

Abstracts - No. 1

2007-07-31T22:30:00.000-07:00

The advantage to working with digital tools is that you can develop some quick ideas, play around with textures and lighting, and re-work colours without worrying about paint costs, paper, and clean-up. I've worked on abstract pieces experimenting with colours, shapes, tonality, and texture and here a couple that bring out very different emotions. The blue-yellow-red composition has a very bright feel that implies a bright sunny day, while the green composition has a middle of nature feel - to me, at least. How about you? What do you see in these pieces?

The faces that launched a thousand ships

2007-07-24T13:41:00.001-07:00

Well, that might be a bit overdone, since none of these doodles were meant to be Helen of Troy, but here are some miscellaneous visages. Faces are everywhere, and having a piece of paper at the mall, on public transit, or at the airport can be very helpful. Some of these are creations, while others are based on actual people. There are plenty more, but I don't want to overload the page just yet.

While we're on sealife

2007-07-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

Artists pencil on pastel paper can give a nice look and feel to the work. I found the brown of the paper worked well with the natural colours of the turtle in this piece from a few years ago. This is still not up anywhere - it travels with me in my portfolio, and has been crimped a bit here and there.

Bring on the Macintosh

2007-07-20T10:12:00.000-07:00

When I first saw an Apple Macintosh in action I said to myself, 'self, I have to get me one of those'. And in 1994 I did just that, spending a ridiculous amount of money for something that, by today's standards, amounted to a wristwatch. But once in the digital realm it was impossible to escape. The ability to manipulate and experiment with images was getting more and more interesting with each version of software and each release of 'How to' books. The tablet was still a few years away, but there was still lots that you could do.

Don't ask me

2007-07-20T09:29:00.001-07:00

I was doodling one day back in the 80s and came up with this character - for some reason a roller skating dragon-like thing seemed to make sense at the time. Well, it was the 80s and lots of things seemed to make sense then that don't now.

How about 2 decades later

2007-07-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

To reinforce the idea that I've been interested in all things fast for a while, here's a piece that I did in 1987 of a Yamaha FZ. I still had my Suzuki at the time and did this during the dead of winter to keep the riding spirit alive.

This is a photo of a copy of the original.

A decade and a half after completion

2007-07-19T23:11:00.000-07:00

It was 1992 and Scott Goodyear was still driving competitively. I did this in artists pencils one weekend and then left it on the wall for 2 weeks. After the 2 weeks I tweaked the background and built up the colour in the car a bit more and then it was done.

The original currently resides with my brother-in-law in California.

It's time to see the light of day

2007-07-19T10:31:00.000-07:00

I'm moving to another part of the country, and that requires extensive purging of stuff to reduce the load. It also means that I've been going through lots and lots of boxes finding sketches, doodles, and art that I had forgotten about. So, this got me to thinking that maybe it's time to start putting stuff out there so that new stuff doesn't suffer that same fate as the old (I will be posting some selections from the 'archives' so that work is not gone forever).

The first one is a quick sketch that I did of Johnny Cash using PD Pro and a wacom tablet.