Monday, May 31, 2010

Life sketches, an orc and some sounds

Trying to find more time for life-drawing, and hopefully find a (somewhat) convenient life-painting class. I was quite rusty, and I did not like that feeling one bit. Instead of going with my usual pencils, or ball-point pen, I used a brush ben and stating swishing around the ink with a brush dipped in water. I think I am going to explore this more. The lost edges and abstraction of the washy ink has really caught my interest.



Here is an image from an upcoming project. I am not sure how much I am allowed to say on the matter, so I will play it safe and say nothing :) I know orcs are as overplayed as the original Pac-Mac, but I have to admit, it was pretty fun to paint this handsome guy. All done digitally in Painter 11.



On my work breaks I have been playing quite a lot of guitar lately, and have really been itching to make new music. Here's just an improv little music sketch I did that I thought would be fun to share. Just let the webcam record and started layering loops. It's a slow , repetitive ditty, but it might be good for insomniacs who have trouble sleeping. I was a little reluctant to post music on an art blog, but I thought I would give it a chance.
Thanks for stopping in !- scott

12 comments:

MuYoung Kim said...

Scott Altmann, a creativity that no pencil could contain!

:D

Great update (and oh, a very belated congrats on the Microvisions piece -- you, sir, have one wicked sense of humor). Yeah, orcs have been done to death, but all that matters is doing them well.

Which of course, you are!

:D

devin platts said...

that orc is lookin' sweeeet

Rich Pellegrino said...

the ogre is awesome and i love the sounds you get out of your guitar. real soothing ish man.

Nigel Quarless said...

Hey Scott,

Great to see what you've been up to! Love that orc sketch! Really nice theway it's all workied up from nice and loose into the tighter areas around the face...

Super cool of you to post your one-man guitar jam too. Nice and hypnotic. The way you're layering riffs is awesome... you've got a fun little setup by the looks of it. Take care man!

Jessica McCourt said...

Man! I Need to do some figure drawing. It's hard to find a group close to home.
I enjoy seeing how you attack figure studies. The brush pen gives the figures a sumi-like appearance with their feathered edges.

And the music is lovely. It's always nice to take a break from one art form and dabble in another.

-J

Eric Braddock said...

Sick orc piece, man! I really dig this stylization. It's almost bat-like :) And that lends some really great features. Love the tones you've got going on in this one, too.

Your loopy sketch is hypnotizing, I'm not sure if it's the loops or if it's the interesting, almost-eerie melody you came up with, pretty sweet though! I think things like that definitely have a place on an art blog, it's still creative and it shows off a little of your personality that not everyone gets to see normally! :)

Julien alday said...

Scott, mon ami, you are magnificient!!!

There's nothing but gold on this post, such as your life drawings. The most abstract/loose aspects of your technic [method ?] are absolutly fascinating for me, as well. Keep pushing it !

As for the Orc, even if you can't tell more about it.

And most of all: thanks for what we French insomniac will call a "berceuse" ! It's a brilliant one, and I'm glad to see a video from you !

Even if I regret to not see your face after all this time, I think you look in great shape !

[what are you wearing tonight ?] :P

Ciao, bello !
Plein de bonne choses à toi et à ta famille ! ^^
J.

Manuel Dupong said...

The sketches look promising. The thing about experimenting a new medium is that you're going to need several month (weeks in your case) to master it. But it sure would be nice to see a mix of traditional with digital from you.

And by the way, your solo is catchy!

Timmy said...

LIIIKE!

Tartarian wolf eagle said...

cool guitarrage scottman!

i really like the orc dude actually, i think there are a lot of nice qualities in these digital sketches, and often i prefer them to the more finished clean digital stuff, in general.

those life drawings- maybe leave the outline for the shadow side only? I think it might give it a lighter feel

thanks for the kind words on my bloggo, its a small thing but enough to give me a bit of hope since i havent been feeling too great lately about the art path.

cheers!

Jeffrey Lai said...

nice to see you kick them lifedrawing skills into gear! Everybody has that feeling at some stage XD
I should give ink go.

love the Orc painter-ness too!

Unknown said...

First off APOLOGIES! I forgot I changed my settings to preview comments before they are posted. This will reduce spam...but I forgot to check the comments!

Thank so much everyone for the comments and suggestions with the ink. That kind of feedback is so important. I'm glad some of you dug the music. Perhaps I'll share some more in the future!

hugs and handshakes -scott