Tag Archives: studies

Building habits

 

Portrait of Callan, by SpAE - digital 2017
Callan
Digital, 2017

I recently discovered I miss blogging, or at least that doing things on the blog isn’t as scary as I remembered it to be.

One of the goals I’ve set for myself lately is to do more finished paintings, as opposed to the many – and extremely useful – rougher studies that I’ve mainly been posting on instagram. This painting isn’t exactly finished, but it’s as close as I’m going to get for now. So far I’ve been pretty successful all year with my goal to draw something once a day (posting those daily drawings – not so much). This portrait was completed in Clip Studio Paint, which is a change for me as I normally prefer painting pieces like this in Corel Painter. The Carp, a painting I did this year that I somehow managed to forget about, was painted mostly in Painter until my computer had a fit, the file corrupted, and I finished everything in Clip Studio Paint.

The Carp - by SpÆ 2017 - spaemakesart.com
The Carp
Digital, 2017

So. More regular painting, experimenting with new production methods and – in the background – I’m working on a few comics. It’s been a while since I wrote my own comics, without a theme or a concept ordered by someone else, so this feels a little like starting from scratch again. Now that I’m thinking of blogging again, it feels like I’ll have a legitimate excuse not to do so so often!

back with a bang

i’m back! in truth i was back two weeks ago, but wordpress ate my last post.

I’m going to be at Goulburn Comic Con next Saturday – hope to see you there!

In the meantime, I participated in the 100 People in One Week sketch challenge last week. I managed to smash them out in three days…and now I need some recovery time!

 

see you next time

EVENT: ACA Exhibition at Top Ryde City

Hello Sydney-siders and people visiting Sydney from late August to early September!

I’ll be exhibiting at the Australian Cartoonists’ Association Exhibition at Top Ryde City from 24 August  to 7 September. I’ll be exhibiting GUILT, IFRIT and some pages from Sweet-NV iss 1.

Unfortunately I can’t confirm when I’ll personally be at the event. But my art will be there the whole time. As well as the illustrations and comics of many other incredibly talented people. Have a look!

 

In the mean time, life has been finding other ways to keep me busy. I’ve managed to scrape aside a little time for projects, but I’ve been keeping busy with doing a few five minute colour studies every day. Here’s some of the latest:

Digital, 2013. Each timed to 5 minutes
Digital, 2013. Each timed to 5 minutes
Digital, 2013. Each timed to 5 minutes.
Digital, 2013. Each timed to 5 minutes.

These are kind of the 2013 version of the Monday Night Lifedrawing sessions I used to do, only with a completely different focus! All of these images are referenced, and all timed to 5 minutes. At the moment I’m focusing on colour and value, but I really need to get mood working too.

For regular updates of the 5 minute studies, check my sketchblog.

I’ve been busy, plotting for an exhibition o/~

All the excitement since the last post included

A superheroine in a super comic. Digital, 2012. Writer: Ryan K. Lindsay

…the opportunity to work on a fantastic project with a top writer, combining so many things that I love…

Speedy portraits of some lucky friends and their children. Digital, 2012

…several portrait studies…

Experiments in scifi-esque landscapes
Experiments in scifi-esque landscapes. Digital 2012.

…studies, stuff and nonsense and

Work in progress shot of my illustration for the LIEDEKIJN exhibition. Digital, 2012.
Work in progress shot of my illustration for the LIEDEKIJN exhibition. Digital, 2012.

Continued progress on my illustration for the upcoming and fantastic Liedekijn exhibition in Canberra, 2013. I was lucky enough to get the scene where the heroine is slowly breaking out of the murderer’s romantic spell.

Some explanation: Liedekijn is a sequential exhibition telling the story of the murderous spirit Heer Halewijn and the adventurous maiden Machteld. Each artist involved in the project illustrates a different page from the story, and by our powers combined the illustrations all come together to tell one glorious story. It’s a collaborative work of art featuring some amazing artists and managed by the same wonderful ringleader of last year’s Beginnings anthology project (and featuring her lovely watercolours!), so it’s good. 🙂

If you aren’t able to come see the exhibition in person next year, you can always buy a copy of the artbook. And until the end of December 2012, you can pre-order the artbook for the extremely worthy price of $10. (If you’re holding out til 2013 to make sure that $10 won’t be lost to any world-ending disasters, not to worry – throughout Jan 2013 you can still pre-order the artbook for $12, but after that you’ll have to test your luck at the exhibition itself, or hold out for the slim possibility of post-exhibition leftovers!)

 

 

Thanks for your support. Here’s to another year, better than the last!