Happy Halloween...MUH-HA-HA-HA-HAAAA

Ok...Sorry, I missed last week.  I was trying to finish a big project for Drawing-100 at SCAD and I didn't get home until very late in the evening.  It was a linear still life on a 24x36 paper drawn in class and it's similar to the earlier projects during this quarter.  Drawing it was extremely challenging because I was drawing a still life with CDs, cups, papers, ruler, binders, two triangle rulers, and a large old-school calculator.  The calculator and the triangle rulers were difficult to draw, so I had to use multi point linear perspective (combination of one point (parallel to the viewer) and two point (perpendicular to the viewer) or two points where the edges are not parallel to each other).  I'll talk more about this next week when I get my artwork back.

This old ugly thing.

And now art!

Concept of the lion cobra.  I like how strong and powerful this creature looks. It carries the strength of a lion and frightening yet graceful curves of a cobra.  I might draw the midsection longer next time.

Another lion cobra. This one was drawn before the above picture as a quick sketch.

Trying the 25 expressions challenge again.  The way Vistalgia's face is designed gives very interesting and difficult to draw expressions.

Sketches...post

This week I'm drawing a final linear still life based on what I learned in my Drawing 100 class.  It's interesting though, even though I am experienced artist I still need this class to review and go back to the basic things on creating art.  Drawing from life, reviewing elements of art and design, and rediscovering what makes my artwork work and what makes it boring allows me to strengthen my artistic skills.  I'm thankful of faithfulness of my God and family and friends and you.

Meh, mooshy stuff. Anyway, Sketches!!!!

Cute, Cute, Cute, Cute!

Eldritch Angel Shade thing.

Gryphon Thing...drawing feathers in perspective is hard.

Another bird thing.

Small sketch for a future artwork. Graffiti goblin-dragon.

Also, I'm on Google plus as Amari Harkness.

Still life infodump

Ok, I decided to keep updates on Saturdays only because of school work.  The updates might become irregular over time as my studying and drawing for my class become more intense.

Also, I was unable to take pictures of the drawing exercises due to technical difficulties (camera won't work) but I do have thumbnails and notes as an example of what we do in Drawing 100:

Thumbnails are a helpful drawing tool used to analyze the composition.  Here I draw the still life in a few thumbnails.  The thumbnails are created by using the viewfinder, which is another drawing tool used to analyze the composition and is a smaller version of the 18x24 paper I used for the artworks.  What I look for in the thumbnails are a variety of lines (horizontal, vertical, diagonal, and curvilinear),  size of the objects, and changes in rhythm and flow in the composition.   When I'm satisfied with the thumbnail, I bisect it, draw boxes around the subjects in the drawing, and do the same to the large 18x24 paper for my final artwork.  After bisecting the large paper, I draw boxes, which can be any size according to the thumbnail, on it and begin to use sight and measuring tools to scale and draw the subject as accurately as I can.  This, the sighting and measuring process in creating the drawing, and drawing in the details takes about 10-15 hours to finish the artwork.

Here's some information on using sighting and measuring techniques on drawing still lifes.

INFODUMPMADNESS And now for something different:

Meet Briell Fetcher (name is spelled wrong in the picture).  Briell and Vistalgia and best friends for LIFE considering that Vistalgia is a deceased dragon spirit living within Briell.  Yup, this is going to be fun...

Hair styles for Briell Fetcher.  Dread locks are awesome.

All these ellipses...how do they work!?

I'm still alive (and drawing awesome stuff).  It's been a while since I last updated this blog (understatement I know) but attending FREAKING SCAD, doing my first projects, and studying for my first exam took a lot of time out of my hands.  Then that is to be expected when I get a job for animation....drawing forever.............{insert overused internet meme here}

Anyway, I had fun in my Drawing and Art History classes, my two classes for the fall quarter, and met some very interesting people (artists unite!).  Both my classes are foundation classes meaning that each freshmen and transfer student needs to take these classes if they haven't already.  Art History is the study of historical artworks (redundant is redundant) and understanding how such knowledge can help us understand art today and ourselves and our culture.  Drawing-100 deals with the basics of all art and design, how to organize a composition, understanding the elements of art and design (line, shape, texture, value, space, color), etc.  Some of this I learned from earlier experiences but it is incredibly helpful for me to go back to the basics of art.  Expect lots of sketches of still lives from this class because this is what each and every assignment is going to be based on.

There are two assignments each week, exercises and projects.  Exercises are short sketches (2-3 hours) and studies based on in-class lessons and projects are long (10- 15 hours) drawings and are complete versions of exercises and thumbnail sketches.   Drawings are done with direct observation, no photos whatsoever!

Here what projects I did so far (sadly the camera died on me so project one is not shown, exercises I'll show later):

Project two...linear still life.

Project three...ellipses are HARD TO DRAW.

Project four (wip)...ellipses are still HARD TO DRAW.

Updates might move to Saturdays only...I'm just having trouble managing time here so bare with me...derp.

Drawing Bird Wings...

I've been practicing on drawing bird wings.  I used some pictures from the internet and two very helpful tutorials: Bird's Wing Anatomy by unkraut (downloadable) and Bird Wing Tutorial by TheAntimonyElement.

Also, my SCAD orientation for the fall semester is tomorrow!  Squeee!

So here's the wings:

Wing drawing from a diagram.  This diagram shows the anatomy of a feathered wing. 

Random drawing of a wing from memory.  Yeeah, I needed those tutorials...

Hawk wing. 

Duck wing. I had trouble on the secondaries.

Sketchy Creatures....

(The new Blogger interface looks nice, good job Google.  Now let's see how it loads pictures and whatnot...)  Ok, some sketches, one new and two old ones.

New dragon/lion thing I came up some time ago.  I managed to flesh it out a bit.  It was originally a wingless cobra dragon.

Very old unfinished drawing for Vistalgia (dragon-form).  I actually like her old style. I might go back and finish inking it.  (Those wings..what was I thinking?!)

Dog beast thing.  One of my first ink tests on using the Wacom tablet and Photoshop.

Half a Story

Classes at SCAD begin on the 10th of September and I am nervous and excited!  Soon, Pixar, DreamWorks, Disney, Cartoon Network, and other animation and/or broadcasting studio will know my name!

Sorry, there's going to be no sketches today.  Instead I'll share an excerpt from a short story I been working on earlier this week.  The story is still very early in its development and it is subject to change. (following excerpt is copyrighted to Amari J. Harkness)

Anyway, here we go:

The Shades seem so out of place here in Heaven.  Their dark hide, their unusual tallness, and the way they...flock together, darkening the celestial skies of God's kingdom.  Their darkness is not of evil, evil was almost nonexistent since Jesus' return to Earth and Satan's banishment to the Void.  Their darkness was of sorrow and pain only the Shades can feel and the angels can sense.  The  righteous, children of earth, are somewhat spared from their gloominess.

I pity them.  These creatures really don't belong here but God allows them to freely room about.  They don't have their own homes or careers, no friends or family, not even a pet to care for.  They live in these large flocks but they have yet to recognize each other.  The Shades stand alone in their own space, even when they are close together they will never acknowledge each other.  They seem so lost and alone and fearful of their own existence, cursed to live in eternity in never ending sorrow.

I want to help them.  I want to redeem them.

But...my king, my Maker told me "For these creatures to be redeemed they must face their memories of their past and conquer the uncertainties of the future.  The process will be emotionally and spiritually painful.

"They missed out on  life, not just due to laziness or any of their own sins, but thanks to those who negatively influenced their own lives.  The Shades are actually people who become the embodiment of their own regrets, fears, and shame.  At one point of their life, they became desperate and someone took advantage of them.  They were deceived, broken, and hopeless; they were stolen from me.  I remember when I judged them, every single one of them, and it breaks my heart and soul to see them not even review their own lives.  It's like they knew they were doomed, but it wasn't until death and judgement when they realized it.

"They accepted their fate and became the creatures of pure sorrow.  You don't know how much I want to save them, too."

The King's Father wants him to wait before reaching out to the Shades.  Almost every day, if there are days in such a timeless place like Heaven, the King would appear before his father about this issue but the answer had always been the same, "Wait, Son, Wait."

The King have been doing this for over 900 years and his father still says, "Wait".

But I intend to help them.  Today, I will approach one Shade and I will help it to face it's past and future.  I don't know what to do if I become successful or not, but I'm going to do it!  It saddens me to see the King so heartbroken over the centuries.  But once I get the Shades seeking redemption, I'm sure he'll be happy...

......................................................

Yeah.  Loosely based on Christian theology, but there will be time-travel, angelic eldritch abominations and paradoxes (maybe).  The story takes place in the last few years during the 1000 year reign of Jesus on earth and before Satan breaks out from his chains (Revelations 20:1-10).  I don't have a name for the protagonist yet (well except for Metatron or maybe cough*Lucy' power*cough).  I do have some interesting ideas for the main character(s), some of which may involve the aforementioned madness.