Here is another.

It’s that time of year again.  The Heroes Convention in Charlotte , NC will be held from June 3rd to June 5th.  I’ll be there all three days in space SP-22 in Artists Alley.

EARLY BIRD COMMISSIONS!!!

I’m also taking early bird commissions at over 50% off my usual price.  Character of your choice, black and white or color!  If you’d like to commission a piece drop me an email at bryanfowlerart@gmail.com.  You can pick it up at the show (or I can always mail it to you if you prefer).  Special only runs til June 3rd.

After I’ve filled a folder full of images it’s time to gather some props (or build your own), find some models and schedule a photo shoot.  In this case, the props were very minimal.  The gun and the sword.  For the gun I used my son’s Nerf dart gun.  I mostly needed the way a hand would hold the gun at a certain angle.  For the models my gracious brother and his wife agreed to be my subjects.  Along with my props, camera and lights I went to their house for the photo shot.  In this instance it didn’t matter the location since the background was completely dark.

My camera is a Nikon D80.  A great camera.  I make sure to not just take overall shots of my models posing.  I take close-ups of anything I’ll want details for in the drawing and painting stage.  I always get close-up of faces and hands.  You can mess up the entire rest of an image but as long as the face and hands look good you’ll be OK.  At least that’s what I was told by Dan Dos Santos.

After I’ve got all my photography shot and my references, I take it all into photoshop and digitally produce a comp that’s arranged as close as I can get to my final image.  The it’s time to transfer my image to my paper.

Next: Transferring the image!

I began this project with a brief from Ron who had a few selections from the book that another artist had done interior pen and ink drawings for.  I got to choose from those scenes in the story for the cover.  The one I liked best was of our Hero discovering a human like Bat creature.   I began doing thumbnails right away.  Initially, my thumbnails are really, really loose.  I was looking for a nice composition first and foremost.  So I just start arranging shapes and letting whatever comes happen.  It important at this stage not to get to tied in to something.  At left is one page of many from my sketchbook of some thumbnails for this project.

After I’ve got dozens of thumbnails and I’ve explored the idea pretty well I select a few to work up to a more finished stage to send my client.  I try to pick slightly different ways I could approach the cover.  Some of more narrative while other may have more of a pinup or movie poster feel.

I pencil the roughs and then scan them into Photoshop to add some gray tones.  Ron and Rob both loved the 3rd image and approved it with some minor changes involving facial expressions and where the characters were looking.  Armed with my approved rough it was time to take some reference and pencil my final image.

Next up:  Ravenwood Reference.

I did the cover.  Here’s the press release.  Will be available at Amazon and Barnes and Nobles but buy the book at http://www.gopulp.info/ to get a discount.

THE RETURN OF
RAVENWOOD!

ISBN: 1-934935-82-4
ISBN 13: 978-1-934935-82-8
Produced by Airship 27
Published by Cornerstone Book Publishers
Release date: 31 Dec. 2010
Retail Price: $24.95
Discounted at our on-line shop. (http://www.gopulp.info/)

Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

I’ve learned numerous different ways and techniques to draw.  I keep them all in my visual toolbox to utilize when I need them.  One particular technique I’ve been discovering more in depth lately is that of the great teacher and illustrator, Mr. Frank Reilly.

The “Reilly Method” of drawing is not expressly defined because Mr. Reilly never wrote any books on his method.  All knowledge comes from notes taken by students attending his classes and the students themselves, many of which went on to continue his teaching methods.

The Reilly method to drawing the figure is a general system used to construct the human figure.  It breaks drawing the figure down to simple ideas and rules that can easily be memorized although Reilly says this method is a way to “think” of drawing the figure and less a connect the dots method.  What’s sets it apart from other methods I’ve learned is the idea of finding abstractions in the model.  An example of an abstraction might be the shape of the shadows on the nose or under the lip.  It’s any abstract shape or pattern that you can find.  When you draw these abstractions it’s easier to get correct proportions, sizes and overall correct drawings.  When you add that to good gestures and anatomy you get a very potent drawing.

What really started to enhance my figure drawings were his ideas about shading.  When you’ve got all the construction layed in you separate the image into light side and dark side.  Reduce everything in the shadow on one side and everything in the half tone and light into the other.  Shade everything on the dark side a 50% gray with the side of your pencil or charcoal.  Then you can go back and refine the values, adding darker one.  It’s the idea of how he approaches the figure that is the key.

Practicing his method allows you to do very accurate and quick drawings but also opens it up so that you can have more of your artistic input into the drawing.  You’ll end up doing a lot more drawing of the model and less coping it.

Below are numerous links I’ve found that showcase and talk about his methods.

http://www.dhfa.net/Artiststatement2.html

http://www.americanartarchives.com/reilly.htm

http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/2008/05/frank-reilly-could-teach-wooden-indian.html

http://www.blog.freshdesigner.com/2009/08/riley-method-head-drawing.html

Also, check out Fred Fixler and the Watts Atelier.

I’ve gone to a lot of different figure drawing classes over the years and I’ve found many make some common mistakes that make it more difficult to have a successful session.  To that end here are my top 10 tips, suggestions and outright mistakes that go on in a  figure drawing class.

1. The model is lit badly.

I can’t tell you how frustrating it can be to have a beautiful model posed in a perfect way with nary a shadow in sight.  When everything is one value it’s harder to draw.  Shadow reveals form.  It helps us to see round objects as round or planes when they turn.

In my opinion the best way to light the model is to use one key light and a softer secondary light on the opposite side (or right angle) of the key light.  Another great choice is just to have a simple single light source.  This is particularly good for quick poses.

2.  Bad Model

To anyone that thinks being a good figure model only involves being able to stand up in front of people with no clothes on needs to think again.  A good model creates good poses and is able to hold those poses.  Nothing worse than starting a drawing of a model with her hand in the air to finishing it with her hand by her waist.

3.  Lazy Model

Probably one of my personal pet peeves.  A lazy model is one who thinks that my entire figure drawing session doubles as her personal nap time.  I have no problem with models who doze during long poses.  That’s normal.  What’s not is a model who does 2 hours of laying down poses in a 2.5 hour session.  I’m not talking about reclining, but laying down flat on his or her back.  There is another profession out there if you want to get paid for just lying on your back.

4.  Props

Yes, the best figure drawing is nude figure drawing but don’t over look a few props that could enhance the session.  Boas, different types of hats, jewelery, dramatic makeup, swords, axes, or staffs make excellent additions.

5.  Put your model to work

Having your models actually interacting with an object in some fashion turns the body from stationary relaxed muscles to active engaged muscles.  Pulling on a rope, pushing against a chair, etc.  This is also a great one for warm-ups and quick poses.

6.  Ask questions

Don’t be afraid to ask questions of your fellow artists.  For some reason it’s seems many people are reluctant to talk in a figure drawing class.  If you have an instructor this isn’t a problem but in open figure drawing classes hit up anyone whose stuff looks good to get some tips.  Outright asking for a crit or help with your work is OK too.  Most artists would love to help out a fellow artist.

7.  Music is my muse.

Music is great when figure drawing but please be somewhat considerate.  I know that not everyone is going to agree of what good music is but at least take a vote before playing Celine Dion or that new recording of original tribal chants you found at the flea market.

8.  Be respectful.

This usually isn’t a problem but every once in a while you’ll get someone whose mind is still stuck in middle school.  Don’t make sexual comments about the model or say things that could be taken as such by the model.  I’ve been in model sessions where someone says something, some laugh and I feel like we getting ready to reenact The Accused starring Jodie Foster.  Not cool.

9.  Move it, bub.

If you get an angle from a pose that you hate or doesn’t capture the lighting in the best way by all means move.  Don’t waste your time with a bad angle.

10.  Don’t be afraid to tip.

Being a model is tough work and many times it’s hard to pay a good one what they’re worth since it’s mostly students and poor artists hiring them out.  That means tips would probably be greatly appreciated.

I’ve started seeing these…things.  Through a crowd of people, waiting in parking lots, hiding in the woods by my house.  I don’t know what they want but whatever it is I just know that it’s bad. I feel them coming closer lately.  But I’ve stuck upon something that keeps them from coming any closer.  I’ve found that when I draw or paint they recede into the background.  I don’t know if it’s the God like act of creation that repels them or if they’re just allergic to graphite and gesso.

The only thing I’m sure of is that I have to create something everyday.  Every single day.  Or I’m done for.

Here’s just one of the ones from today.

PS.  I’m not sure if I should be talking about this.  I don’t know if these things can access the Internet much less read but I have to  let others know.  Maybe I can save some other people at the same time I save myself.

PSS.  The picture above is just a Photoshop doodle.  I like how it turned out.

Here’s the rundown starting in the top left hand corner.  You can scroll down to the previous post to see the images.

1.  Shawn Barber – Fantastic oil painting who does a lot of paintings of tattoo artists. He’s a self made guy and has a great philosophy about painting and drawing.  Highly recommend his website but it’s NSFW.

2. Marko Djurdjevic – Concept charter and Marvel cover artist.   I absolutely love the way he drawings.  Good digital painter but what really makes him shine is his line work and dynamic figures.  He’s just got the stroke.  (aka, just a really cool style)

3. Rudy Obrero – Castle Grayskull Box Art – He along with Earl Norem and William George did most of the original He-man packageing artwork.  I love He-man and that those old school paintings were a heavy influence on me.  Castle Grayskull was the best Christmas present I ever got.

4. Jeremy Geddes – Heat Death – Jeremy is a fine oil painter who is super realistic but totally blows photographic realism out of the water.  He’s done some comic cover work too.

5.  Scott Burdick – Figure artist and oil painter.  He paints so wonderfully thick.  I drool over the raw depth of images.

6.  Lucas Graciano – He’s a teacher at the Watt’s school (more on them later) and he a great oil painter.  He’s done work for tons of collectible card games.  He’s won some nice awards lately for some of his work.

7.  Jeffery Jones – If you don’t know who this is I can’t help you.  I’ll get killed for this but I think he’s better than Frazetta.

8.  Phil Hale – Cover to Flinch #1.  Hale is right there for me with Jon Foster and Rick Berry.  Foster and Hale studied with Berry.  All have done this really cool wipe techique when oil painting where you wipe out a lot of the paint to create your lights and transitions and then paint back into it to add detail and definition.  Hale is my favorite but that might be because he’s done some Swamp Thing cover and I love me some Swamp Thing.  Hey, get you mind out of the gutter.

9.  Brian Stelfreeze – The best mind in comics.  The best teacher in comics.  Turns comics from entertainment into a craft of fine art.

10. Gregory Manchess – This guy is old school oil painting genius.  He’s done tons of covers for fantasy novels and National Geographic.  I love how he paints with virtually no blending.  It’s all overlap.  To learn how to really paint study this guy.

11.  B. Fowler – This one is weird and two fold.  One, it’s a sketch portrait of my wife who is my best critic and supporter.  She is brutally honest sometimes to my dismay.  Second, it’s my own work.  I do influence myself because there certain ways I make a mark that I love that although are somewhat influenced by other artist are really mine.  It’s the end result of the distillation process.

12.  Dan Dos Santos – Book cover illustrator and oil painter.  He’s just flat out good.

13.  Hope Railey – She’s an awesome portraits and figure artist who works most in charcoal.  She’s my pick for a type of figure drawing that I love.  It’s a southern California thing that comes from a few schools there that kept teaching realistic figure drawings when the world went all eye of the artist Basquiat crazy.  It focuses a lot on methods credited to Frank Reilly.  The Watts school with teachers like E.M. Gist and Lucas Graciano and Jeff Watts himself. Then there is  Fred Fixler.  Glen Orbik.  To much to go into here but if anybody wants to chat about it, email me.  I love the stuff.

These things have been making the rounds all over the online artist communities and I am being fashionably late.  These are just the ones freshest in my mind as I am definetely forgetting at least 100-200 of my other biggest influences.  It’s odd what influences me. Sometimes it’s only one painting an artist does that really strikes a chord in me.  I’ll go search out the artist only to find I don’t really care for anything else they’ve done.  The biggest things that draw my attention are brushstrokes, emotional impact, and color harmonies.  Really good foundational drawing always perks me up too.  There are a lot of guys and gals I like that I wish would never finish a piece because the beginning has so much more interest.

Anybody who can name all the squares will receive either 500 dollars (in monopoly money) or a free sketch, my choice.

Every year at the Heroes comic book convention I wait in the weeds like a tiger stalking his prey for that one small moment when Superstar artist Brian Stelfreeze is alone.  Or at least a time when I can fight my way through the deluge of comic nerds, er, fans.  The man is the single best purveyor of wisdom in comic artdom.  This year I was on my way out Sunday, after the convention was over, when I spotted Brian packing up.  Ha ha!  Gotcha!

I ended up picking his brain for a good 20 minutes.  The bits of knowledge I squeezed from him would probably cost you about a semester’s worth of dough at your local art college.  Sometimes, Brian just really points home something I already knew but didn’t really take to heart and sometimes he blows me out of the water with something that 6 years of art college and 9 years as a freelancer has failed to instill in me.

My big thing this year and for the last few months as been edges.  To paraphrase Brian said edges are anywhere a value shape ends or begins.  That can be the side of an arm, the edge where a dark shadow becomes light, where the red blotch of a cheek turns to a more peachy tone.  If you can see the edge clearly, it’s a sharp edge.  If you can’t see it at all it’s a lost edge.  Intermediate edges are just regular edges.  Soft edges are just that, soft.  Paintings are really just a puzzle of these value shapes and how they interact is your edges.

There are two ways to soften an edge.  Sweep your brush through the two adjacent colors or (and this is what really stuck out for me), put a transition color between the two.  For instance in that example I mention with the red cheek and the peach skin.  To soften that transition without blending you could put a plug of reddish peach in between the two.  Awesome!

The other big thing Brian put to me is the skinny on color temperature.  I know the warm light = cool shadows and cool light = warm shadows.  It’s one of the closest things to gospel in painting.  But I still tend to confuse myself.  What about reflected light, secondary light sources, or just keeping which one I’m doing straight.  Forget all that, Brian says you can’t stray from the chick you brought to the party cause the party won’t end well.  (That’s my analogy, not Brian’s)  A useful way to keep your commitment is to lay all your shadows in at the beginning in that cool or warm color.  That way when your brain turns into mush, better know as rendering mode, you won’t be able to just blindly put down the wrong color temperature!

Brian also said I was awesome and DC should give me some Batman covers.

I did mention I was paraphrasing?  Didn’t I?

I appreciate all those who came out and said Hi or bought anything from me.  Even that one really weird guy.  Yea, I’m talking about you.

Can’t wait until next year.

The Heroes Con is this weekend!!!  I know, it always seems to take forever to get here and then, BAM, here is it is.  You’ve probably putting the finishing touches on your Spider-man or Ghost Busters costume.  You may be like a friend of mind who at one Heroes convention where Jim Lee was a guest brought every single comic book Mr. Lee had every done.  Not to get signed, just to prove to Mr. Lee what a fan he was.

In all this excitement don’t forget to come by my booth now firmly located at SP-22.  I’ll have tons of prints, mini-books of my work and more.  There is always “and more!”  I’ll be doing sketches, paintings, sketchcards and whatever else I can think of.

Here’s a few maps to help you along the way.  Heroes con isn’t middle earth but it can still get pretty confusing when you’re trying to find your way around.  Just think of me as Mount Doom and you’re bringing the precious!

<—Click there for a full map of the convention floor.

June 4-6 I’ll be at the Heroes Comic Convention here in Charlotte.  I’m not sure what space I’ll be in as the great folks at Heroes haven’t quite got all that worked out yet.  I’ll be sure and update my fan as soon as the information become available.  It’s a great convention and I love going every year.  Stop by my table and say Hi, you’ll be glad you did.

Frank Frazetta – February 9, 1928  May 10, 2010

I used to have a copy of this great Frazetta painting above my bedroom door as a teenager.  What’s to say?  This guy was a legend and his passing is felt throughout the art community.  He defined fantasy art more than any other artist.  I’ve linked to a trailer for his DVD “Fire and Ice” about his life and work.