Musings and Quips of an Artist

Inktober is the celebration of drawing in ink and the love of drawing! A challenge to draw for 31 days for the month of October. This event was created by Jake Parker.

Visit here to learn more.

Also I got these lovely images from the website!
Check it out. It can be followed pretty much on any social media platform.

I am excited to participate this year and commit to it! I've always have been a bystander who oogled all the awesome art that is created from this.

My theme and prompts I decided to dedicate to this year is video game characters. I've played so many games I lost count. One time I had a discussion with my best friend and I mentioned I had about 40ish PS3 games... When I went back to count it actually is in the 60ish range! For just that one system. Years ago I donated games and I still have a lot. My collection continues to grow. Even though I am pickier with the games I play and do not play as much.

Currently I am playing the PS2 version of Odin Sphere. It is extremely good I am not finished and it has to be in my top 5 games I've played.

So today is day 11 and I have 10 more to catch up!
I have this weekend to do so.
This theme motives and excites me.

My first submission for today is Stan from Okage: Shadow King.
This drawing was only going to be black and white only in ink but I ended up adding color with Copics!

Haven't used the ink medium for years and leveling up my drawing and painting skills has helped me handle the medium better.

My collection of Inks, Pens and Nibs

The drawing is as big as a post-it-note.
The entire process less than an hour.

I mainly used the Copic multiliner ink brush and .5 pen.

Sketches

Inked and the underlying sketch remains

Erase out after the ink dries.

Block it in and Ink it.

Was going to end here and then just place the yellow eyes.
I failed at the black smoke but oh well! Next time is another
chance to maybe nail it.

Funny how I used the pens I thought were no good!
Time puts things in perspective.
And getting better drawing helps!
Especially when you can utilize line sensitivity.

There is no magic pencil or pen!
You have to put the magic in said pencil or pen!

Finique!

Cropped version

Stan isn't the type of character to be contained in a
box or magic lamp. Hence drawing him overstepping
his boundaries outside the box.

It is October and you have received a friendly reminder it is October!

Oi I have to remind myself this event is this week! It was discussed a few months ago and its slipped from my mind to mention it earlier. I've been working a lot and too much... To the point I don't remember what day of the week it. One of my friends poked some fun at me last week when I said in a serious thinking tone, "Tomorrow when its Friday I'm going to go see the art exhibit again." After a brief pause my friend mentioned, "Uh you do know it is Friday today right?" Until it was mentioned it did not occur to me that it was indeed Friday. Thankfully I didn't have to go that day, I ended up going a different day because the exhibit ran for a few more days.

Back on point I am bringing up is that THIS Friday the October 5th my friend from the drawing group Fred Burns is having a solo art show reception from 5:00-8:00pm at the Stables Gallery in Taos, NM. The exhibit also runs until the 14th 10:00 to 6:00pm

He draws these ginormous drawings with pastels. Usually 24x36 inches. And he does these in our 3 hour Drawing Sessions! I heard its quite an experience to be in a room full of them. Pretty intense.

It was cool and interesting I learned a bit more about Fred reading the pamphlet, that he takes inspiration from the past in a different way I do.

I've been slacking with posting and such but I have so much to share and write!
Have to catch up on it soon.
Until then Thanks for reading!
-K

If anyone is in the Taos, Northern New Mexico area on Friday night September 21 then you should go to the

Fall Arts 2018 Opening reception. It is from 5-7pm.

The exhibit continues daily from September 22-30 from 10am - 6pm.

We got these nice tri-folds from the president of the Fall Arts Organization.

A story for another time...Is that I got pressured by the President of the Fall Arts show and
my co-worker and boss to submit something for the show. I met him at my job when my co-worker made this really awesome pun and I just had to follow up with another joke after the fact. I did not finish the two pieces I originally planed to submit. I even mentioned one of my grievances to the President that every time I look at the event times for something it varies on different forms of media. He joked that I should be the one proof reading all the electronic media that goes out for Fall Arts. (If only they knew I've been running a blog for awhile and usually triple check what I write. Sometimes I don't catch my typos but will fix it by the next day after I post.)
Anyways the president personally told me the reception was until 7 but on the website it says 8pm.
I'm not too sure or can guarantee if it goes on till 8. Usually it does but I can't say for sure.

Also our Saturday morning portrait group will be doing a demonstration on the show floor this Sunday the 23rd from 10am-12pm. Which is shorter than usual since we take breaks every 20-25 minutes. I'm not too sure yet if I will attend this week's session.

The one piece I did submit I originally wanted to submit to another show.
I missed the deadline this summer for the Tajmagundi Taos meets the Salmagundi New York art show in NYC. :,< It was an opportunity of a lifetime but this summer I had something terrible happen but also something extremely good happen to make up for it. Like finding another job with a cool schedule and that's close to my field as an artist.

Named Her Grey Daze

If you say it really fast it sounds like Gaze or Days instead of Daze.

I believe the model's name was Jamie. For the first

3 years of going to the group I remembered all of the model's

names. It has been several years and I cannot recall

all of the people I have drawn.

As a kid and early teen one reason I was motivated to draw was because of Anime. Until the explosion of youtube back in 2006...It was something like video games I didn't have much access to at home, but at other people's houses.

Personally I don't draw in distinct anime style but once in awhile I'll sketch something anime-like just to poke fun.

One method I used all the time to gauge progress as a self taught artist would be redrawing something I've drawn before. Whether it being a single idea or concept of a particular drawing.

Sometimes improvement could be seen.
Either big leaps or small increments.

High school Junior compared to College Freshman (Pre Art School)

This was my sister's OC.

Art school Sophomore.
There was a credit cap I could transfer at my art school.
So I started as a few credits shy Freshman going into Sophomore year again.

Not the same character as the OC but based of a drawing I did as a 12 year old.
Man I loved those spikes.
I thought the spikes were awesome and edgy as an emo kid.
I'll have to find my original notebook again. It is filled with redraws from the so called future.
All of the fill in entries were terrible.

Well, Hopefully this next month I'll find something embarrassing that I thought was extremely good and redraw it into something better and be embarrassed about that again in the future!

Paseo Year 1.
Light Curtain installation at Kit Carson Historical Park
Taken with a cheap $50 phone camera!

The Paseo 2018 and 44th Annual Taos Fall Arts Show are coming up this September!

Don't miss out if you are in the area!

Oh man deciphering the information at first for this event and the other Art show was definitely confusing. Even as a participating artist the times/dates of things are confusing and shift around. This year the two events are separated. Every year the planning aspect takes a free for all. Not predictable or consistent at all.

The Paseo installation/aka the light show is earlier this year and got approved for funding for two days Yus! Yay! Day 1 I can go myself and Day 2 I can bring friends. This year's theme is Space! I am more enthused than ever.

More information on the Paseo:

http://paseoproject.org/

https://paseoproject.org/event/paseo-2018/

https://taos.org/events/the-paseo/

More information on Fall Arts:

http://taosfallarts.com/

http://taosfallarts.brownrice.com/our-history/

As of this moment I am not sure if there is a separate Open reception. Usually every art show I have been to has something special going on opening night.

On another note....I'm starting to see my visual thumbprint as a Graphic Artist around town!
I've done menu changes, signs, t shirt designs, fliers, brochures and such to name a few.

These are terrible pictures. This was the best I could do!

This past week I noticed a sign I designed and printed recently for a client. She hung it outside her shop window! I tried a few times to get a better picture. It is the long horizontal black sign inside the window.

Typography has always been one of my weakest suits as an artist. I'm astounded I've been doing quite well in selecting fonts people like for the work I have been doing. I can't draw fonts nicely or graffiti work but recently with my imagination I can visualize and imagine what I want to use. Almost like in when I draw or paint, I can visualize what I want to do and then do it.

This lady loves the Amazone font. Ever since I picked that font for her flier almost a month ago and now every project since she wants it on everything now!

After a month or so I got back into the weekly portrait drawing group. Yay!

A bit rusty and took awhile to get back in gear but I made it through!
Erased my initial sketch and started over.

Right now I am working on two new pieces for an art show and such next month.
Probably next week I'll go more in detail about the upcoming events.

More Devil May Cry 5 news! I am so excited and hyped for this game. Never predicted this game would ever be released or made.

The designs in this game look SSSensational! SSSick! Devil May Cry 1 is my favorite out of all of 5 released so far. The concepts and uniqueness in that game is still awesome to me. Everyone likes #3 but #1 has a special place in my heart. The ghost and the library are reamped designs! I can't wait for this game to blow my socks off. Some other time I'll have to go in specific detail of why that is one of my favorite games. :)