She Sings From Somewhere You Can’t See

BTW, this sketch does not constitute endorsement of Chertoff or his policies. It’s not “fan-art”. It was just a study because I thought his face would make fantastic reference for the Prototypically Gaunt Creepy Mad Herr Doktor. I think he needs an Igor to be completed. I found the pic at Boing Boing, and it seems to be the photo associated with his wikipedia profile and the official DHS pic as well.

Decided to paint the coral sketch from Sunday…

Today I skibbled down the Seattle Aquarium to do some sketching with co-workers. I’ve got a membership and I might as well use it, right?

Thing about sketching in public that I forget is that you have a lot of people either not noticing you at all, and standing RIGHT BETWEEN you and the thing you are sketching OR you have people peering over your shoulder and asking questions. Also, it is hard to sketch when your subjects keep swimming around, and when small children insist on banging on the glass and disturbing them. All in all, it’s a bit tricky. One feels best off just getting basic shapes and form, or concentrating on one section of the animal rather than getting a full view.

The octopus in particular is very popular, so it’s probably best to take reference photos, and let it go.

I put my Chameleonmind up for voting at Threadless. If you like it, please go vote for him and help him get printed as a T-shirt. I’ll get cash and prizes if my design gets picked.

Just a little mascot I made for one of my websites.

So, I haven’t updated in a while. I went on a trip to Canada, and my job has been keeping me pretty busy. But last night, my friend, Aysha, was sketching live and chatting, and I got so inspired seeing her process, I picked up an unfinished work and started working on it again.

I’m kinda not very happy with the anatomy though. So I wonder if I’ve been futilely re-inking something I should get some reference for. I think I’ll take some shots to see about getting the arms (length STILL too long) and hips right.

The original was here: http://art.lismitchell.net/?p=120

This week’s Character of the Week assignment is an envoy of the Khemethar, a race of aliens who descended to earth to study the ancient Egyptian culture, and from whence they derived their gods. The brief is as follows:

- Design One or More of the Khemethar envoy, based upon one of the Egyptian Gods (ie, Aten-Ra, Isis, Osiris, Set, etc)

- You do not have to depict them as the Egyptians did - think of interesting things that they might have had/worn that might have been interpreted the way they were by the egyptians either for symbolic reasons, or simply because it was the closest thing that it looked like, not having the same technology/clothing available to them.

I was going to start with Seshet, Mistress of Books, for obvious reasons. But I got diverted by the design possibilities of Heptet and her snake form, and the atef crown she wears. The atef crown will actually be a sort of glass encased electrokinetic matrix where she keeps a copy Osiris’s memories. She and Isis are escorting the Osiris biopod/saracophagus, and will “resurrect” and reactivate Osiris so that he may commence his studies. They aren’t towing him precisely–those are more like bio-leashes, which will keep Osiris alive by drawing from their bodies if his power cells give out while he is in his pod. I’m also thinking that the strips on her snake hood are actually special bio-engineered information collecting cells. When Osiris is present but not conscious, he needs somebody to collect memories for him, and that’s part of what Heptet is doing while she escorts him around.

This is a sketch that is partly homage to Maxfield Parrish’s art.

Keep in mind this is pretty rough–there’s a lot of things I’d fix before moving ahead with this. The length of her forearms–too long–and the length of her legs–possibly too short. And the overlapping legs. Meh.

Here’s what I turned into ChoW:

San Francisco: A laid-back city where you can remove the masks you wear. Kind of a techno-pagan. She’s got a long history and a history of activism and culture. She’s friendly to artists and crazy people. She’s environmentally friendly (and while you can’t tell, her clothes are probably made of all-natural hemp.) Of course, every so often she throws a tantrum, and you end up with a major earthquake, but most of the time, she’s just chilling, making her own beat.

Annotations to the symbols: gold dust (for the gold rush), heart-in-a-cage tattoo (double duty for Alcatraz and "I Left My Heart In San Francisco"), goggles (technologically inclined), marijuana leaf border on her tank top, sash turning to fog, djembes (Hippie Hill in Golden Gate Park), rainbow peeps (gay pride), Chinatown, the railroad (railroad barons built SF), the Golden Gate bridge, cracked ground (earthquakes), portrait of Emperor Norton (the most famous craaaazy person in SF history), Chinese coin, and a parrot from Telegraph Hill.

I tend to paint with at least two windows open, and windows for reference for colours and shapes if necessary.

The strong outlines–the inks–will painted over later. I don’t plan on keeping them that bold.