Have you ever felt like you were scratching at the surface of a breakthrough? I'm in the middle of what might be something major or might be nothing at all.
dear little universe ///
even just a tiny bit / and you / open up. /
peer out into the nightless
sky /
feel the stars, that /
“you, dear little universe” /
are always coursing /
through
your
veins.
— Neon Spencer
PSA to not be a dick to retail workers this holiday season (and all seasons!). Working retail during the holidays was some of my shittiest experiences. People become coupon-waving, red-faced monsters that deserve nothing but a trip into Krampus’ sack.
Here are a few things to remember:
1: They have literally no authority. Honestly, the cashier would love nothing more than to accept a stack of expired coupons to get some cranky-ass customer indignantly insisting that “at this point YOU owe ME money!” through the line. But they can’t. And no amount of screaming will change that. Oh, and the manager is bunkered safely in the back refusing to come out and will only troubleshoot through walkie.
2: If you’re nice (like basic human decency) they are more inclined to help you as much as they are able. Being kind and patient costs nothing and might actually pay off. You might even be able to coax out a skiddish manager that *sometimes* has the magic touch to get things accomplished.
3: Corporate overlords. Managers can do a lot but in the end, the retail world is run from corporate overlords through the machine sentries AKA registers. Welcome to Black Mirror, people. If the machine rejects your request then back to the matrix with you.
Mixed media. Acrylic, pencil, digital. This is a piece from the book “Mail Me Art - Medium Without A Message” by @littlechimpsociety. I think it was the second call for entries/book.There are now 4 books filled with awesome art drawn and painted on outsides of envelopes and packages by artists all over the world who then mailed them to the UK totally exposed to the postal service. The original was all analog. I brought this into Procreate and reworked it. I may do more when I get a chance but I’m pretty satisfied with it now.
This is from an assignment to make a drawing from three words. My words were teabag, Hazmat, and cocoa. The friends are sitting inside a flow-through tea bag. Giants make tea out of herbs toxic to humans. Thus the need for the suit, and for drinking cocoa instead of the poisonous tea. But when you have good friends like giants or humans, you make accommodations.
My final entry for Stage 3 of the doodle addicts challenge! I have loved doing these challenges. They have not only got me drawing things I wouldn't have considered off my own back, but they have brought me out of my comfort zone too. Drawing steam is harder than I thought!!!
Here is a sneak peaks of my submission to the Home Sweet Home Challenge. I loved this challenge because it forced me to do something I never would have, which gave me happy surprises as I worked through it.
I got my first client for logo design and they asked for a custom watercolor illustration of Iris flower. So I researched about iris flower and did a rough sketch. From there, I started rendering color using a special brush from GrutBrushes.
India ink on tissue paper. I had never used ink on this kind of paper before; I really liked the results! There are some folds and wrinkles on the paper that give the pattern some interesting details. The paper is also super absorbing, which plays nicely with the quantities of ink. Since it's very thin, there can easily be overlays between textures. And finally, when trying to use less ink (so that it wouldn't seep through and cause a big dot - the absorbing quality is nice, but it was also somewhat of a challenge!) I used very little ink on the lettering, causing a scratchy, dry look.
Inktober2018day12-Whale. I’m using inktober to explore and improve my techniques. This time I wanted to try using more crosshatching. I’m happy with the result. Also, at first I had nothing for the whale prompt but it’s rewarding when you push through the dead space and a concept or idea comes to my head that I can be excited with.
My vision of the character ‘Smaug’ from J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’.
Pencil sketch, coloured digitally on IbisPaint X.
Here is a passage from The Hobbit describing Smaug’s appearance: “There he lay, a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep; thrumming came from his jaws and nostrils, and wisps of smoke, but his fires were low in slumber. Beneath him, under all his limbs and his huge coiled tail, and about him on all sides stretching away across the unseen floors, lay countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and unwrought, gems and jewels, and silver red-stained in the ruddy light. Smaug lay, with wings folded like an immeasurable bat, turned partly on one side, so that the hobbit could see his underparts and his long pale belly crusted with gems and fragments of gold from his long lying on his costly bed.”
Watercolor on Aquarelle. This piece is incredibly close to my heart. It closely resembles the emotions that I was going through when I painted it. I tried to replicate the numbness and the restlessness that I felt in the eyes.
I really liked the style that I used for one of the most recent labels I did for @abominationbrewingco and @snitzcreekbrewery so I decided to mess with it a bit more. Just a quick thing. I want to draw more animals in this style. This is for me, and my wife, and my daughter. Stay strong. This is for everyone. This is for you. Stay strong. No matter what you do on a day to day basis or what you go through. You are a strong person.
The (i think) 12th and final butterfly for the Literal Butterflies Project. Wow! thats a lotta flutterflies. This one was certainly tedious with such elaborate markings, she wasn't easy! ... That said, none of them were. With such beauty, and intricate wing pattern and design, butterflies are a very difficult subject to work with. But somehow we managed to get through all 12 with some of my hair left! Loved every step of this journey :)
Part of a series of drawings following characters on a journey through strange and chaotic zones of a gigantic metropolis. I really enjoyed using the Sakura brush pen for this one.
