Scum Choir

Choir Maquette

I settled on this general idea for the new Choir Tier paintings on the Patreon page.

I used some photo references for the Choir garb.

Now I'm going to make models of these sketches so I can light them how I want them.

I made a very crude little costume out of kleenex and fabri...

I spy

This is just a picture of a bunch of different projects crossing paths with each other. My antler painting, the sharpie was for the T shirt designs, an old sketchbook from the deep dives, A maquette for the new Choir paintings, pencils for sketching new painting compositions, a helmet I used for reference for one of those sketches.

I’m about to go into video editing mode. I’ll be putting together some deep dive write ups as well. Like what I did for the sketchbooks.

Happy Fe...

2024-02-23 01:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Pen and ink Process Video

I used a Pilot fountain pen, which I find satisfying to draw with. After I finished all the line work I used a King size sharpie to black out the background and kill a bunch of my brain cells.

Now to scan it in and make it a t shirt graphic!

Here's what it will look like.

I'll make a video that is more descriptive about the process for another one of the designs I did.

I have...

New Shirt Design

I haven't put out a t-shirt design for a while. I sell shirts and other merch on my threadless shop. Threadless is a print on demand platform where an artist can upload a design and then they take care of everything else. Printing, customer service, shipping. They take the majority of what you make. But I just think of it like passive income. Sort of.

 I barely make any money on threadless. We're talking like ...

New Choir Sweeties

It's almost been a year since I set up this Patreon. I made paintings for all the membership tiers, and used them as an incentive to get people to join. The first person who made it a year for each tier would get that tier's painting. Here's a little insider secret: I made a few extras. So some people who didn't quite make the cut will get a complimentary painting.

Anyways. I'm making new sweeties for the tiers so that I can offer that incentive again. 

These are some brainst...

Another iron in the fire

These are some thumbnail sketches for yet another new new painting. I have 3 paintings in the sketch/reference stage right now and the two revisit paintings that are basically done. A couple irons in the fire. 

This one is for a 3 piece series thing I'm doing though called "lose face"

There will be two paintings and the mask I did for the prompt last month in the middle. I might even do a painting of the mask. I'm not sure yet. 

These little sketches are going to b...

Painting based off a 10 year old Drawing

Almost done with this one. Just gotta define the flower and add a few more details. I was thinking about abandoning this one because it wasn't really working out. Last night I found the groove though.

I did this one almost entirely from imagination. I did a bunch of sketches. I landed on this one for the final design.

I transferred it over the panel like I did on the last one. 

Antler Boy Coming to Life (Art is Long)

I started with some photo reference of myself for this one. Okay fine. I'll post one. I'm embarrassed by this picture but this will make more sense if you can see it.

I used this reference for the lighting, the gesture and structure of the facial expression, and the pattern on the shirt. Even though I changed all these things, the reference was very useful to turn too when something looked off...

Going Back in time part II

Here's some more drawings from 2014 that I"m revisiting. I was doing these antler figures a lot.

I went way back in time on my instagram to see if I had posted any clues as to what was going on in my head at the time. I just said "I like giving people antlers and giving people animal characteristics because we're all animals at least in spirit." 

I clearly remember doing this one in...

Going Back in Time + A Valentine's Day Cringe

This was from a time in my life when I wasn't doing great. About myself or about the world. I felt like I was a burden, I felt like my life wasn't going anywhere and that it didn't really matter anyways because the earth is rotting away and people suck. I was getting drunk every night and high every day. I was just an exister. A lot of my art from this time reflects this attitude. Scribbly Scratchy "who cares" lines that kind of hint at a vague idea.

Anyways. With that in mind, when I s...

Back to the Cardinal

I sculpted this maquette a few months ago. But I had to put it on the back burner. When I pulled it out to start working on it again and it was kind of in bad shape. So I re sculpted it a little and gave him shoulders and a chest which I molded around an empty coke bottle.

 Gives him kind of a portly figure. But I'm only drawing him from the shoulders up really

In the original idea ...

Toned Paper

Last post for this sketchbook deep dive. Toned Paper. I love using toned paper. I find that it makes me think about drawing in a different way. Toned papers can also be a good way to get over that blank white piece of paper staring into your soul thing. 

The main reason why I first started using toned paper years ago was because it can make your drawings look more interesting than they might actually be. And that's not a bad thing. If you can get more confidence in yourself, you'll...

Unique and Odd Sketchbooks

Two of my favorite sketchbooks. I like them because they are unique but also they have personal stories for me.

Both of them basically fell into my life. I didn't seek them out, I wasn't looking for unique sketchbooks to acquire. 

This one was sitting at a friend's house.  I asked her about it. She looked delighted that I was interested in it. 

She told me it was at ...

Make your own Sketchbook

I started making my own sketchbook because I like to use different papers for different things.

Sketch paper for doodling ideas, toned paper for doing value studies, mixed media and watercolor paper for watercolor studies. 

Instead of having 4 different sketchbooks I like that I can put them all in one place.

I use what is called coptic stitching to put together my sketchbooks. It's pretty simple. I learned how to do it 2024-02-11 02:19:04 +0000 UTC View Post

Sketchbooks and Papers: Style and Substance

Sketchbooks vary in style and substance. In style by size, cover and binding. In substance by paper weight, texture, and the material the paper is made out of. 

Style

What I call "Style" choices are actually more practical than aesthetic. 

The size is important because it can determine how portable it is. When I took drawing classes they had us use 18x24 inch pads of drawing paper. 

2024-02-10 02:29:34 +0000 UTC View Post

Demo-Making A Sketchbook

Here's a video about how to make a custom sketchbook. I started doing these because I like to use different types of paper for different types of drawing. For this sketchbook I used:

 Canson Mixed Media paper, Strathmore Toned Blue Mixed Media paper, Canson Sketch paper, Strathmore Toned Tan Drawing paper, and Arches Watercolor Paper. 

I'm using coptic stitching to bind the pages together. 

And if you want something to follow along,  I'd highly recommend ...

Outer World, Inner World and Practice- Approaches to Sketchbooking

There are three main approaches to sketch booking. Obviously there can be other goals and the boundaries can sometimes be blurred. But in general the three main approaches are studying and drawing from observation, drawing from imagination, and practice. 

I like to think of these in terms of Max Ernst's ideas about the outer world, the inner world and the synthesis between the two. 

The Outer World

Sketching from observation helps you study and understand the out...

Show Walkthrough-The Forbidden Experiment of the Night womb at the Dark Art Emporium

Here's a tour of the show from last weekend at the Dark art emporium. 

Such a cool group of artists and a great set up with the cave and everything. 

What's your favorite piece?

Happy February 7th Everyone

I ate breakfast burritos with my dad today. We talked mostly about work. 

We had a great talk. He gave me some good advice about how to come up with extra money each month. 

I told him about how one of my favorite details in the Sopr...

Sketchbooks-Intro to Drawing Bad Art

The number one rule of sketchbooks is Do not try to make your sketchbooks perfect. Do not be precious with them. You should try and burn through them. Fill them with bad drawings. Draw a lot.

There are a few ways to approach your sketchbooks.

One is to think of your sketchbooks as a place to study the world. Draw from observation. Collect visual information, draw from life, develop your visual vocabulary.

Another way is to explore your imagination, doodle, experiment, try ne...

Feb. Prompt Announcement

I got this idea from Kate Zambrano's patreon. I thought it was a cool idea so I put it on the ballot. I've been doing a lot of going through old sketchbooks recently so I think it will be fun.

Submissions are due March 5th 

Submit them through this link  or email them to scumchoir@gmail.com

Happy February 5th everybody

The opening at the Dark Art Emporium went great. It was maybe ...

Mask submissions

Here’s the mask submissions. I’ll be announcing the new prompt tomorrow. So go vote if you haven’t.

The featured mask is Tia’s. This is what she said:

“

I started out with a thrifted porcelain mask for the base.

I then created a base with some tape and tissue paper to get the form I wanted and began to sculpt & carve the details with my apoxie sculpt.

Once that was dry, I painted it with acrylic paint.

I mounted the mask on a frame...

Drawing experiments with non art supplies

This piece was done with Soy Sauce and Crayola Magic markers.

Here's some pieces made with just soy sauce on notebook paper.

I was interested in the idea of making drawings out of the cheapest possible supplies. The soy sauce was free, the notebook paper was from the dollar store, I used a brus...

One way to get better at drawing quickly

These are some sketches from around February of 2020. I was trying this 100 portraits in 10 day challenge thing. I found it to be a super useful exercise. 

They started like this

And this

I was studying portraiture at the time from books and videos. So I knew kind of what I was looki...

Let's vote!

I'll choose the winner of the prompt on Monday. The prompt will be due a month from then.

Mask Process

Here's the process of my Mask Submission from the sketch to the finished product. Some narration about how I came up with the idea and how my initial idea had to change. 

Reminder: mask submissions are due tomorrow. I think I only got one submission. 

Probably my fault for putting the wrong date on the post.

Again, sorry about the crappy audio in the video. This is the last one I'll do on my phone.

Happy Feb 1st everybody

It's starting to rain here.&n...

I made a sketchbook

This will be my main sketchbook of the year. It's really thick and not much to look at. It definitely has more function than form.

I used sketch paper, mixed media paper, toned paper and some high end watercolor paper for the papers and I used the Coptic method to bind it together.

Mainly I just wanted different types of paper for different things all in one place. So I can work out ideas in one place rather than have 3 or 4 sketchbooks.

I fi...

Art Life and Lives-Rene Magritte

René Magritte was born in 1898 in Belgium. His early life was marked by familial turmoil, and mischief. Magritte's early years were characterized by domestic upheaval. His father was an unhealthy combination of strict and absent. He raised his three sons to be anarchic animals, who terrorized the town. Rene's Mother, Regina, sought to instill Christian virtues in her sons and live a nice quiet life, but between her abusive husband and her three demonic children, she was outnumbered . Regina'...

Sleep with a Side of Sabotage/ Compositional Sketches Timelapse

This drawing helped me see some of the missing pieces that I need to gather references for. I realized I needed to figure out the hands, costume and mask. 

Another thing I noticed about this video is that it demonstrates one of the potential pitfalls of drawing from reference photos: just copying the photo. 

That's part of why I drew the same exact thing twice. I was just copying the photo. So that's something to be aware of. References are to help not to be copied.

Process Video: Mask Sketches

Timelapse video of my first mask sketches.

This is the book I copied most of these masks from I found it years ago at a thrift store. 

happy January 28th everybody

Another day wit...

The Magic Mirror of Truth/ Sudden Bursts of Violence

Here's a little tip: if your painting or sculpture looks off to you, look at it in a mirror. Or take a picture on your phone then mirror the image. It will instantly show you what's off. especially with proportion and symmetry. 

I can't remember who came up with the term "the magic mirror of truth." But it's an accurate description.

I checked the symmetry again and it's still not exact. But I'm not going for perfect symmetry and I think It looks better.

I added the gash...