Today’s post is an illustration from 1995 done in markers. I think this might be Dave from Bugfuck Palace.
Author Archives: skook
The (Vampire) Kids are All Right
I spent yesterday getting readjusted to home and work and thus missed posting. My apologies.
This illustration was the last piece in the watercolor sketchbook that held the figure drawings and the previous post’s Black Molly illustration. As I think I written previously, most horror writers and fans have a vampire story they want to tell. This is a glimpse of what mine might have looked like if I’d started drawing it in 1992.
Early Black Molly
This painting is out of the same watercolor pad as the four figure drawings just posted so it’s from 1992 as well. It’s a very early version of my Black Molly character.
Yeah, those figure drawing classes really made a difference. This isn’t a perfect piece but it’s world more “real” than anything I’d been doing the year previously.
Figure Drawing 4
A final example from the figure drawing class I took in 2002. Taking figure drawing improved my drawing skills far more than I ever expected. Until I took the classes I didn’t realize how bad I was. It’s amazing how many wrong understanding I had about not only the human figure but how to portray weight and mass in general.
Figure Drawing 3
Another piece from the figure drawing course I took back in 2002. I tried to portray the woman as accurately as possible. I took a few liberties with the background.
Figure Drawing 2
Another example of a figure drawing from one of the classes I took in 1992 (and 93). This was obviously one of the male models. There were usually 2 female models to every male model.
Figure Drawing 1
In 1992 and 1993 I took figure drawing classes at the Santa Rosa Junior College. Most of those drawing were done on very large sketch paper that would be a real pain to scan. I did find a few pages that only required a couple of scans and a little photoshopping to knit together. This one was from one of the rare sessions when we had two models posing.
The World is an Environment Suit
An unfinished Sentient 39 universe illustration from 2002. It depicts a denizen of world that once had a thriving human colony that, for whatever reason, mostly collapsed. The world’s environment is toxic, the air unbreathable to naked human lungs. The humans now live as nomads in hacked together transports and ancient many-times repaired environment suits. As humans have done for thousands of years the nomads have personalized their homes, covered them with paint and talismans and friendly (or threatening) touches.
Cover for Glyph Number One
This is a scan of the original art for the first issue of the free tabloid version of Glyph. The essay on the other side of that link is about ten years out of date. It might be fun to update it for 2010 but that’s going to have to be a project for after I’ve met a lot of other, more pressing deadlines.
At Home in the Abyss
I’ve been doing a lot of data entry for my Day Job over the last week. By the time I’ve spent a few hours at it my brain is fried and my ability to sit and do art is pretty minimal. My back is just not happy with me. The one thing I’ve been able to do is scan art. So I’ll be able to start posting sketches and drawings again.
I’ve been pulling art out of boxes rather than sketchbooks. That means some of it will be more finished than what I’d find in the sketchbooks. Some, but, like today’s post, not all. This image is from 2002. It’s an illustration of one of the intelligent species in my Sentient 39 universe – a Trader.
The Traders live in an immense and ancient colony ship. Launched from a world in another galaxy, over thousands of years breakdowns in the radiation containment fields of the ship, resulted in the poisoning and death of the original builders of the ship. With no one to contain them the gardens and animal life brought by original builders grew and adapted and mutated and evolved. And eventually one of the species evolved enough intelligence to figure out that it was living on a ship and, eventually, learned to control and pilot that ship.
Now they travel from world to world, trading goods and services and information. Because they evolved without gravity they can’t ever land on the worlds they visit.
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I’m not posting any new progress reports today. Aside from a general lack of progress I’d like to get the info into some sort of spreadsheet so that it’s easier to read and update.
I’m also trying to get chores taken care of before I go see family up in Alaska on Tuesday. I’m not sure whether I’ll be updating this blog while I’m up there or not.
