This month was extra busy and very eventful outside the studio, dealing with some personal life event type stuff. (I ended up with a new child in-law) I didn’t really have an opportunity to sit down with pencil and paper until very late in the month. I spent a bit more time behind the scenes working on some legal/admin pages. This time having to add a couple more pages concerning my Commission Terms as well as The Process. Then I had to make sure all that legal stuff directly reflects the actual paperwork such as work agreements and contracts. So I found myself digging through old sketches to find some artwork to post.
This time I wanted to work on producing a more stylized image that I would be using for the featured image of the blog post. Focusing on a single topic or object or animal, as opposed to drawing any random animal I came across online as I did previously.
So once again I started by gathering up some digital sketches of dogs, specifically the Bull terrier breed. I was eventually distracted and decided to grab a few sketches of some frogs I whipped up a while back as well. However these have sat in my back log for a while now.
I only got these to the point where I basically touch up the sketch and add a background or a rusty orange border to prepare the sketches to be posted. By the time I got this far, I was distracted by outside stuff again.
Here is another quick little study, this time of a sparrow that actually got to a finished state. This was done just before the Dog and Frog Sketches. For a while there, I had been trying to find ways to work color into my personal/side projects. I have always preferred the monochromatic black and white of Charcoal, Graphite and Ink, rarely using color, and only with colored pencil or digital drawing.
This sparrow was a fun project that ended with a detailed realistic digital painting /Photo composite.
For a composite, what I do is basically hand draw a ‘painting’ filter over an image. For the most part I just skip the ‘redrawing process’ or even like with the sparrow, I draw over or cut and pasted body parts into a sort of collage, and just use the existing colors within a photo turn it into a hand drawn looking image. Eventually actually redrawing the entire image piece by piece.
Take a peek at the process here.
(This video has no sound)
The artwork in this video was created using Sketchbook pro
That brings me to this, ‘featured image’ of this post. The first thing people see usually before they even read anything. It isn’t the best stuff I’ve done, but I ended up pleased with it. As well as how some other unrelated stuff that was accomplished during this time. The sketches I did in preparation of this were all done pretty quick over a day or two. All I knew before starting, was that I was ONLY going to draw this specific type of bird. I tried to spend a little more time stylizing the image this time, eventually keeping it loose and leaving it a bit messy. This isnt exactly what I planned to end up with when I started drawing. Although its only purpose is to just be the image of a fluff post, I had a bit of fun in the process.
Before i get into the details of the drawings…
I refer to myself as a Graphic Artist, not only because I’m sorta lousy at the “design” part of graphic design, but actually because I simply like to create images and graphics, that’s about it.
Sometimes they are art worthy sometimes they are boring infographic looking clip art, like these sketches of simple items.
Creating useful practical images is a common objective when i start almost every drawing.
Ill come back to these later.
I’m also going to take a moment to point out that I didn’t get pencil to paper at least until a day or two after memorial day weekend. Within 36 hours, I had completed all 20 sketches across 4 scraps of paper.
However during this time, I also wanted to create another drawing just to have yet another category of items posted here.
So I also sketched out a 5th page of non organic still life objects. This was a drawing of four different revolvers, and an example of their respective ammunition. Bringing the total to 24 sketches, in a 48 hour period, as opposed to the 29 individual sketches done over a month, for the previous post.
That drawing didn’t quite fit into the vibe of this post, but if you want, you can still view the scan here.
A while back while watching a nature documentary, a shot of an odd looking, yellow faced bird caught my eye. It was just extra filler b-roll footage over a soundtrack during a scene transition. The show wasn’t about the bird so they didn’t mention it.
With further investigation I learned that it was actually called the Egyptian Vulture. I thought it looked interesting and immediately wanted to create a project around it, similar to the sparrow above. I soon had a collection of images to use as reference.
Finally this month I was able to began with the intention of creating another more realistic artsy fartsy project.
The goal was to focus in on that bright face, which was what caught my attention in the first place. I thought the bright orange-yellow would fit perfect on my website among all the other ‘Steweird’ branded images i was creating at the time. This past month I even purchased some actual color pencils to create a traditional drawing, then some more life happened, pulling away my attention, eventually resulting in a late start. However, by the time i actually got around to it I had limited time to work on it, so I had to rethink my idea of a realistic hand drawn rendering.
Now, I’m not trying to turn into a nature blog or anything. Lets be honest for a moment, and remember that these pages are pretty much here to be filler content for you to digest while I eventually try to cleverly funnel you into making a purchase, subscribing, or some other “call to action” later on in the post.
I actually learned some interesting stuff about the Egyptian Vulture, like the fact that it is among the smallest, yet smartest of the vultures. They demonstrate this intelligence by using tools, such as rocks to crack open one of their favorite foods, ostrich eggs. Also, these birds eat eggs, and not just dead stuff, but small animals, worms and insects too.
Keeping in mind the reality of what I do and what i’m trying to accomplish, not only here in this post but through my entire website. I decided against a realistic digital painting as well. I did still want to draw the entire image from my own sketch, and not a photo/composite like the Video and Sparrow above. I decided to keep on brand and went with a stylized practical graphic look, not just another drawing of a bird.
Which brings me back to the graphic art/clip art.
This is the end result of the sketches I mentioned before, as a bit of a contrast from what I ended up with for the vulture which was made specifically for one purpose and intentionally left a bit messy and sketchy. This is what I’ve been doing most of my career for other people and businesses. Which I now do for myself, as part of my business/service for other individuals and businesses.
Professional Illustrations, Digital Drawings, Professional Branding, Personal Designs, Stock Images, Clip Art, and even Tattoos Designs and Portraits.
(Yup this is a commercial)
These old projects or sketches are now Branded Designs that ill be using again for other projects and more elaborate designs and or Merchandise.
Ill Add A box here to reserve some space to advertise whatever i make out of this later.
So check back Soon.
I did end up finding a video specifically on the Egyptian Vulture After all.
If you’d like to see new drawings, works in progress, and future updates as they roll out, you can also follow me on social media. I’ll be sharing finished pieces, sketches, and occasional calls for commissions there as well, so feel free to follow along and say hi. Steweird.com/rayman
Social Stuff