Light

The text on the side says:
-Hey, Wil! What are you doing here in the-
sound effect: click
-dark?

This is an experiment with lighting I did before I started taking art classes. Given that shadows and lighting are such a big part of the story, I decided to use an environment I was familiar with. This is based on an actual room in my house and the kinds of shadows I've observed. It's a good first try, and it accomplishes the desired effect.

I'm kind of sensitive to light, so when other people walk into a room and automatically turn on the light I sometimes wish I could do this. I don't know if it's an actual problem, if it's the nocebo effect, or if I'm just not getting enough sleep. Whatever the case I really like the expression on the tall character in this picture. Thanks goes now and always to you God, for helping me to get this posted tonight.

Let the Games Begin?

Happy After Thanksgiving everybody! I hope you all are having or have had as great a holiday as I'm having. I drew this a long time ago, but I haven't taken the opportunity to share it until now. It was back when I was only really confident with my ability to draw characters Gravity Falls style. All and all I'm pretty satisfied with it. The words are pretty legible, and you can tell who's talking. The character designs are original as far as I know. Any resemblance to actual or fictional persons, living or dead, or actual or fictional events is purely coincidental. Looking between the scanned image and the one in my sketchbook I'm amazed at the stark contrast between the lines you can't see at all and the lines that look way too emphasized. Ah well.

There's a bit of story behind this one too. PING here is a sentient arcade game machine and (as you might expect) these two are the only ones that know about it. They're not hiding it, but no one they've talked to about it cares. The kid there is trying to get PING to do something for him, but it's not having it. They're both also completely misunderstanding the phrase "no quarter given".

May God bless all your holidays and may God bless you.

Backyard Pieces

As you can see from the date, I drew this a long while ago. I've heard the best way to learn how to draw nature is (not surprisingly) to practice drawing nature. So I went out into my backyard and practiced drawing different parts of it. There's part of the porch, the bricks at the bottom of the steps, the shed, the trees, and a leaf. I'm experimenting with how to draw bark on the trees- how much realism to include on a brick, and the shadow of one fence part on another. I think I nailed the leaves in this particular picture, that's a good sign. The trouble of getting in enough practice isn't going outside- I do that all the time. It's remembering to bring my sketch book with me. I'm lucky I've got so much time before I'm expected to have these habits down. It will also help when I have a schedule and other people are counting on my work getting done. 

It's amazing how much detail is in the world around us. Of course it's easy to notice, but not to duplicate. C.S. Lewis pointed out though his deceptively named book "The Great Divorce" that artists draw what they see in landscapes or even people because they see a glimpse of heaven reflected in it and want to share it. Not only will I spend the rest of my life trying to imitate God in moral uprightness, I'll also spend my whole life trying to imitate the beauty of his work- his original, all-encompassing masterpiece. Worth it.

Face in the Dark

The latest experiment in an ongoing project idea. This time with highlights. I've been learning about highlights and I tried to incorporate them into this one. I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out. I tried to get the highlights on all the obvious parts of the face: the bridge of the nose, under the nose, the sides of the eyes, around the mouth, and on the eyebrows. It's not perfect, but it's a start.
I was mostly doing this to experiment with lights on the eyes and how that changed the direction they appeared to be facing. I think if the pupils were pointing in a more obvious direction they wouldn't be so easily governed by highlights. If you look just at the pupils but not the highlights, you can tell they're actually looking to the right. The highlights change this.
Personally, I like the dark. I feel God's presence there with me more than I do in bright areas. Natural sunlight is okay, but today it seems like every light bulb and blinking light are extra intense. It's nice to get away from it all. I intend to get better at lighting as time goes on.