Another senseless self-promotion thread

[Funeral Laugh]

Yeah.  One of those type of threads.  But, ey... it's worth a shot.

Ya see, I pretty much phased myself away from digital paintings and gone back to traditional.  I noticed a while back that my sketching via paper/pencil was much quicker and better than when done digitally.  So, I thought, "ya know?  I think I need to go back and draw a few things."  But, wouldn't you know it... I sucked.  I couldn't believe it.  I hadn't drawn-drawn anything in graphite since early 1993.  That's a long fricking time.  And it shows.  So, I gathered and spent a small fortune a couple years back to get back into the thick of things.

With no success.

So, I just didn't go back.

But, this year, I thought I would go at it again.  I tried to do something simple, with great contrast.  But, after two attempts, I seen too many mistakes, and trashed them.  For one, I forgot the feel of the graphite.  Two, I am HORRIBLE with hair.  I can't believe how hard things seem now.  But, right before I moved here to my current dwelling, I started another project.  And as I did, I took WIP pix in 15-30 minute intervals.  I still see my mistakes, but... here's the thing...

I've updated my website to clarify the beginning of my journey.  I subtitled this theme "Roots".  It has more meaning than one, but also to reflect how I'm going back to what started me off into art itself.  You can read-up about it in my lil' bio.  But, I really need input and a nudge on continuing to do what I am doing.  Right now, I keep wanting to trash what I do, and I have got to stop that.  I know where my mistakes are, trust me on that... but I need some type of support where the people aren't so critical on "the light reflection... blah blah... eyes uneven.. blah blah..." .   I don't want to hear about my mishaps, because I know where they are at.  Plus, I'm not doing this to be fundamentally artistic.  I'm doing this to ... do it.  You'll read about it in the bio section.  This is me... starting all over.

The pic I have chosen this round is Bianca Beauchamp, a fetish model (and my love  ).  I'm strictly using it for a practice run.  I don't tend to do this type of copying in future works, but just need to get back to how I used to shade, and work on the gawd damn hair.

After I finish with her, I will be doing a willing participant, Lisa Hellen, a model that I had met on MySpace.  She gave me a "normal" modeling pic and I will translate it into a theatrical event.  You see, she's into blood/gore theatrical type of photography and modeling.   I asked her for a norm pic so I can interpret it.  She was very willing to do such.  And, again, this is just another practice run, this time using my imagination against her pose.  All we agreed in exchange was advertising each other.  Which is great, since she knows A LOT of fetish models here in North Carolina.  Will be great to hook-up with one to take pix of so I can do some more drawings like I will with hers.  But, that's too far dreaming... let's get back to this...

Zyon's Retreat III : Roots

When I near finishing Bianca, I'll let you know what it is that I had in store with Lisa's drawing.  I'll show ya the original image and give you an idea of what I am going to do with it.  But, for now... help a brotha out and tell me what you guys think so far with what I am doing with Bianca.  Remember... it's been since 1993 since I've drawn anything in graphite.  Be gentle, but don't lay it on thick.  Honest opinion, even if it's "not my thing... not my style".

Thanks guys.

Now, let me go hide in my hole.

[Orion Jeriko]

It looks as if you've never put the graphite down. Seriously. I can't examine every square inch and give you frivilous pointers as I never had the right kind of eyes when it comes to examining art but...really, it's quite extraordinary and you're being far too humble.

I can only imagine the mess I'd create if I decided to pick up the pencil again 

Also, one quick note, I thought the hair was the most defining feature in the peice.

Let us know how the whore strangling goes...err, modelling sessions rather.

[Razor88]

Really, really good stuff droog. You have quite a gift.

[Mrs Spooky]

Seriously, that pic is amazing.  I am one of the most artistically challenged people ever & am jealous.  One thing i like though is in your drawing she looks a little more sinister than in the regular pic.  Artistic inclination to the macabre perhaps?

[Funeral Laugh]

Dankes.

I still see my faults, and am needing to find a way of doing hair.  I cannot grab the concept of negative/positive spacing to make fur/hair/grass pop-out.  I'm guessing I'm gonna have to do what so many graphite artists do and spend literally hundreds of hours doing such.   

Her face came out too long for some odd reason.  The lineart always comes out perfect to me, but once I fill it out, things tend to stretch.  Even in my old stuff I've seen this.  Maybe this is a type of calling card I should accept?

One thing that is my downfall is capturing the image for the web.  My scanning abilities suck since I have to piece it together, which results in different variations in texture and tone.  Taking a pic indoors... as you can see... results in horrible quality.  I hate when any capture allows us all to see the pencil marks that we do not see IRL.

And yeah, Spook, I HOPE it's an inclination to the macabre-things to come.  I had someone in person tell me she freaks them out moreso than her real pic, thinking maybe cuz I didn't darken her eyes, or it's the grain effect of the graphite.  But, with Lisa Hellen's pic, I am going to make it macabre on purpose.  Issue is, she wants me to make her hair dark (in the photo, her hair is stripped to blonde when her natural hair color is brunette).  Her wanting it dark will fuck up my idea of the high contrast I want, and have blots of blood soaked-in.  I'm thinking of how I can change my idea around to suit her request.

I'll be working on it again this evening.  Hopefully, finish it this weekend (or, call it complete).

Fuck... I have to hurry to work.

[Funeral Laugh]

I draw layer-by-layer.  But, actually... fricking pix are showing a whole different view.  I see shit in pix that are picked-up that you can't see IRL.  It is darker than what it appears, but not to the point of my liking.

I experimented with sandpaper two days ago.  Uhmmm... I like what came of it, but I have a horrible horrible feeling the camera is going to pick-up the scrapes.  So, now I'm pissed.

[Funeral Laugh]

No matter how many layers of 8B I apply to the piece, the next day it appears to remain light.  So, fuck it.  I call this finished.  I see all my mistakes, but learned something that will be critical in future pieces that involves sandpaper.

I'm awaiting a photoshoot from Lisa "Scarred Karma" Hellen by photographer "David6of7" Velez.  He's gonna get me some hi-rez photos from their next meeting for me to get detail for the next piece.  I'm going to be highly experimental with this one using a wash and graphite.  Still need to get proper paint to make the color I want.  Once I see what is supplied to me, I need to come up with an interpretation for the pose.  So, it won't be a direct copy.

Nearly 15 years.  Gawd damn.  Should I even push myself to be this experimental or continue to do copies?

[Razor88]

I think it's great. And I have no idea what "8B" is.

[Funeral Laugh]

I think it's great. And I have no idea what "8B" is.

 :laughing:
8B is the graphite grade.  Just like... the standard yellow pencil you use is HB (or, what U.S. folks call #2).  It's the midgrade.  From there, you go hard (9H to H) and softer (B to 9B).  The higher number, the harder/softer it is to work with.  So, 8B is pretty soft, therefore, lays out more black.

[Razor88]

:laughing:
8B is the graphite grade.  Just like... the standard yellow pencil you use is HB (or, what U.S. folks call #2).  It's the midgrade.  From there, you go hard (9H to H) and softer (B to 9B).  The higher number, the harder/softer it is to work with.  So, 8B is pretty soft, therefore, lays out more black.

Solid. 

[Funeral Laugh]

While I wait for the photo shoot results from Lisa, which self-portrait would you like to see manipulated?  I'm not gonna copy the image, but give it an altered look as I draw it.  The pose and demeanor will be the same... a little. 

Pic One





Pic Two




or Pic Three

[Razor88]

I vote for pic 2. It seems less "posed", if that makes any sense.

[Orion Jeriko]

Definitely #2. It is the more natural one out of the three.

[Funeral Laugh]

Well, it may be the most natural, but the manip won't be.  I can see what I can do to One, give it a dead look, varicose veins and what-not.  With Two, I can only picture doing it "normal".

[Funeral Laugh]

The self-portrait was scrapped cuz I kept fucking up.  Pisses me off.

So...

This is what I put up on Myspace just now.  I only have 8 ACTUAL friends/family there, and I'm including you folks in this venture:

So, I've started the sketch for my next drawing.  It's Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) of Blade Runner.  I'm taking the image that I have in my briefcase set since they don't have that image online to use.  The sketch/line-art looked fabulous, but as I started with the eyes, I made him look fricking Manga.  So, after a few days of looking at his gi-normous eyeball, I thought I would multitask and take on another sport.

With Rutger's eye watching me, I started to come up with a viddy outline of something I have been wanting to do for 3 years now.  A pseudo-movie trailer.  A big thanks goes out to Tom (Cymbal Monkey Theater) for introducing me to this craft back in 2005.  Can't believe it's taken me this long to finally persue it.

More info on this recut-trailer phenomena:
Association of Independent Creative Editors
Recut Trailers

Many you are probably familiar with now, such as The Shining and Brokeback to the Future (if you haven't PLEASE view these!).  So, what's gonna make mine different from the rest?

With the Shining (the trailer that set-off this phenomena), it was a simple transition of making it one genre from another, keeping its title.  With something like Brokeback to the Future, they stepped-up a notch and transformed Back to the Future 3 into a gay futuristic western (hence the name, Brokeback---Mountain), using footage from BttF3 and changing the title to have a play on words.  There are many video mashups, each one doing something of a different value, whether it's changing the title, mixing two movie footages together, or doing it the "traditional way" and just changing the music and placement of footage.

What I have in mind is a bit... different.. than what I have seen others do with their clips.  I'm restudying After Effects (since it's been years touching it) and learning new tools in the proggie that I never came across... making this learning curve extremely high, moreso than Photoshop.  With my mind fried, many ideas came forth.  What I am going to attempt to do is.... transform National Lampoon's Animal House into a horror supernatural thriller.  What will make this different is... I'm going to be putting special effects to camera shots and characters morphing into demons.  No cuts from other films, but actually applying the special effects directly to the Animal House footage I already have.   Also, I plan on having THREE editions of the trailer: Teaser, PG Edition, and R-rated Extended Edition.  The first two will be for YouTube, whilst the R-rated version will be an exclusive for you folks (Myspace and Church of Splatterday Saints) where I will supply a download link to all three on my server (high quality) and upload a torrent package to Tracker 3 (after you all get your view first) with all three.  The T3 package won't be popular (since it's not a film), so you folks may be some of the only people that will have this until I decide whether or not to display the third edition on Stage6.  I won't be happy with it until it looks professional enough (the special effects), so it may take me awhile to track some movements to apply the effects.

Teaser: a simple short with limited footage, but enough to set the atmosphere of it being a horror flick.
PG Edition: longer, with cuts laying out the foundation of the satanic overtones and footage of demons and violence.
R-rated Extended Edition: longest, with cuts involving nudity, gore (heads blowing up), either "demon vision" or night vision camera shots, and cursing.

Though the film is based in the 60's (according to the first quote I will be placing in the footage, making it sound like this is based on court documents), and filmed in the late 70's, this will appear to be a modern horror flick after I'm finished with it.

If I decide I pretty much suck at this, I'll tells ya, and only have you folks view what I've finished if I see fit.  Give me 2-3 months.  This is PLENTY of time for me to figure out the layout of the trailer and learn the tools of my trade, also to be drawing at the same time.

I'm thinking of doing WIPs of what I have completed for you guys, so you can see the transition (so you'll see the actual non-f/x layout and a gradual placement of all f/x till completion).  What do you think?