So I think it'd be fair to say the function and steadiness in hands has significantly deteriorated over the last few weeks.

My biological father had some condition where his hands would not be steady, so much so that he had to quit working. I cannot do traditional ink work at the moment, at least without a lot of breaks and grief.

I'm mad and frustrated- considering I gave up everything to pursue a career completely dependent on the steadiness of my hands. Fuck.

I've been feeling rather lazy towards art as of late, hence why the blog has been so inactive. The picture from my last post has been finished for quite a while, so I'll start by introducing it.

"Dangerous Game" - Title comes from a song in Jekyll & Hyde. When I was airbrushing the background box, the post-it notes didn't cover the area properly, resulting in DARK RED EVERYWHERE D8. I spent hours dissolving as much of the red as possible (with a colourless blender) until it was a light pink- light enough to cover it with other markers.

Also figured out how to make 'transparency' (sorta).


Now I'm working on a new drawing- a remake of an old picture from 2007:

Eam Culpae • 2007

It was called"Eam Culpae", featuring Emily from Skeletal Requiem.

Here is the digital rough of the remake:

I like it so much more. There's much more detail and feels more "Ophelia-esc", like how it is intended in the story.

Now, if I could only get the enthusiasm to ink and colour it. :c

-Max

I've been working on a picture of Thomas & Olivia (Thomas is the protagonist in my novel, Skeletal Requiem, and Olivia is his wife). together. This time last year I was working on something similar- I guess mid-July is my Thom & Olivia time.

Original 'sketch' was drawn in Photoshop CS3- about six hours of doodling.
It was printed out and traced with my lightbox, onto A4 cardstock.

I've started mapping out the shading (in the same manner as I normally do).

That's as far as I've attempted. Colour might commence tomorrow, I'd just really hate to balls it up- but c'est la vie with traditional work.

-Max

Art course complete, transcript received, faxed copy to Sheridan, they sent confirmation back. I'm in their BAA animation program for goodsies now. Tuition and residence were also paid for- with lovely money from the bank D8.

Artwise, nothing really has been happening. My hands have been getting worse and worse, so doing traditional inkwork is verging impossible (without me taking long breaks between sessions- whilst completing very little in those periods). I'd really like to keep up with this traditional art streak, going back to digital just seems so wrong at the moment.

I finished some concept art about a week ago- I'm so terrible at posting finished pieces here.

I've also been pushing myself to draw outside my little 'original character bubble'. Fanart never appears in my galleries because, truthfully, I can't really draw it. Well, I can, but it always looks so off- especially with real people. I need to remedy this, swiftly!

For practice, here's Anthony Head playing "Nathan Wallace/Repo Man" from REPO! The Genetic Opera.
Background is some of my favourite quotes from the film 8D.

-Max

The Jekyll & Hyde piece was finished last week and it absolutely destroyed me. Working for five days straight with that thing always on my mind. But I got it done, and that's all that mattered.

My mark was 4+, which is congruent to 95-100%. The marking scheme for that course was so vague and strange.

Now I'm working on concept art for a short film I'd like to animate:

Traditional inking is a pain in the neck, but I love trying to fix all the 'irreversible' mistakes ;).

-Max

I'm currently in the middle of a really bothersome art-block, where I cannot seem to draw anything by obscure (rubbish) doodles.

But since it's been quite a few weeks since my last post here, I'll drop some off:

I couldn't sleep the other night, So I decided to doodle 'Alvin & the Chipmunks'- I have no idea why... 15mins, pen & copics.
Last night I was experimenting with style and wondered if I could still draw the style I used back in 2007. Well, apparently I can, but it looks better now than it did back then- Haha. Thomas in that style. 10 mins, mechanical pencil.
Now, this is an update on the finished sketch for my 'Jekyll & Hyde' piece.


Oh mah gawd, I love how it turned out. I just hope it looks that nice, if not nicer, when it's on the illustration board with markers.

That's all for now-

-Max

For the class I am taking, we are required to do a final project. It can be almost anything and has no limitations or theme. We will have one week to finish it and most of it has to be done in class.

I have decided to start sketching it now, because I doubt I can finish a large traditional project in one week. I'm slow. Shaddap. I really doubt doing a digital sketch breaks any of the rules, but meh.

Here is 20 or so hours of sketching thusfar:

It will be inked with Copic multiliners 0.03 (black) and 0.05 (colours)- then coloured with copic markers. The piece will be 11''x14'' on illustration board.

The picture of Jekyll drinking is a variation of an old drawing I never finished. This thing is taking me FOR-BLOODY-EVER.

I'll keep you posted on this.

-Max

NOTE: Squelette.net is now expired and I will no longer be paying for it to stay alive. If you link to it, please change your links to: http://peasantslave.blogspot.com/ - which is right here :)

I got a COPIC Airbrush on the weekend and it is absolutely amazing. Definitely intend on buying one of the bigger systems in the future. My only complaint is that the original (square) markers seem to fit in the airgrip the best (without having to fiddle and align the marker nib)- and I only have a few of them -A-; .

So, to test my new toy out, I've drawn the following:

The backgrounds were done with the airbrush. I used green painter's tape (and the waste from my hole punch) to mask the figures, create boundaries and make effects.

Eugh, need more aircans! D60 only holds 7-8mins of air, and that's most certainly not enough. ;)

-Max

I apologize for not being around for a few weeks- I've been drawing, but not much is really worth sharing.

As terms of my conditional offer of admission to Sheridan, I have to get the senor-level visual arts credit that I didn't take when I was in secondary school. So, I spend my days at the Adult Education Centre, working to get the credit.

It's a LOT of fun and excellent practice for Sheridan.

Here's some of the gesture drawings I did today (of my teacher). Done in Col-Erase- 30 seconds each (with the exception of the first, which was 10 seconds).

Drawing YMCA & 'I'm A Little Tea Pot' is so hilarious.

-Max

I usually have someone 'beta' my lineart before I start colouring them. This way, if there's any extremely noticeable flaws, I can change them before it becomes more difficult.

Regrettably, I didn't have anyone look over the lineart of my latest picture and decided to have it beta'd when it was 99% complete.

Not the smartest move, as fixing it was a lot of work (opposed to just changing lines).

Here's the drawing at the moment:

I know there are still flaws in the anatomy, but right now I don't have the zeal to fix them. Of course I'll try to fix it up before it's 'done' and posted officially online :)

PS: I'm disliking Photobucket's new system where it asks for tags on pictures after uploading them. >:c