Some are dead and some are living

No prelims! This is as "alla prima" as I can get with Acrylic paint... it's often a rush to beat the drying time, however mediums help here --but that's where the rush is...juggling all visual elements at once, and trying not to paint off key... (especially for these two guys; their scorn would be silent but deadly) There were no prelims for this image, I just jumped in with paint and had at it. The duo were drawn or blocked in with paint as a line drawing of sorts, and the form was patched in as I went along. Yes, the copping is intentional. Took about an hour and 20 min.










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A Simple Tryst of Fates (Part 5)

I'm back. Where from you may ask? From the abyss of failed hard drives and faltering computers... enough said on that agonizing subject, I am now at least post functional, that is, able to post... I guess I was post (after) functional for a few weeks there, but it's getting much too confusing, and really this isn't the forum anyway. Here are two miserly drawings done back in November before the electronic flood. They are simple refinements on Decima and Nona, but this is better than nothing. Yes? I am keeping them simple but wanted to adjust and specify certain areas.
Okay. Onwards and forward.












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A Simple Tryst of Fates (Part 4)

As trios go, this is somewhat of a motley crew, although there is a sense of more intelligence there than the Stooges (Moe's, not Iggy's), and a bit less flippancy than the Marxes. If they sing after a long day's labor, I bet they chant and trill in the same octave range as the Bee Gees; maybe not as high, but I'm sure they do it with less urgency. The Bee Gees were always a bit on the desperate side; ...but I digress. Although I intend to have their faces remain a bit less defined than Mr. Fellow's, I will likely add a a bit more specifics to each.
















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Here they all are in action. Nona and Morta have been fleshed out... well certainly Nona has been fleshed out. Next step is to finalize their facial features, somewhat. And I'm considering a wardrobe change for Mr. Fellow. Morta's hands were quite fun to draw. They're big. I don't mean to say necessarily that as life goes on your hands get bigger, but the proof seems to be in the pudding here. Certainly MY hands are bigger than when I was a child; I don't know about what my senior hands will look like... I'll keep an eye on them. Evidently clothes become a premium as one ages as well.


















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A Simple Tryst of Fates (Part 3)

Decima now has more of the gesture I was aiming at with her arms pulling us up and around the top of the image, and the life cord dropping us back down to Nona and then across bottom... Hopes are that Decima herself is not following this blog, as the extended arm length, while rhythmically vital to the flow of the piece, implies that she is more simian in stature than she may want. (we'll need to check her knuckles for callouses)...word gets out and she may cajole Morta to cut MY cord earlier than planned. [ shhhhh ] I changed the angle on Morta's hand/scissors to make more sense, and have started exploring the specifics on Mr. Fellow... Value structure will need pushing, and more details to come.


















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A Simple Tryst of Fates (Part 2)

Head lice and dandruff are kid's play when compared to our poor fellow here, but according to any run of the mill oracle, this process was not only necessary, but de rigueur in classical antiquity... you couldn't be seen without it. Here we have our three fates busily fashioning out yet another lifespan: Morta is now cutting at a more appropriate spot while maintaining her far-right staging. Decima measures away on top, and Nona spins on. I can't help but wonder exactly what Decima does with the life cord after Morta has made her cut (?) one assumes that she continues to measure and pull, and ends up with the other end. Does the fellow keel over once the cord is cut? Will she then coil it up like a garden hose and place it neatly on his face? Does it get used as a belt for their gowns? Perhaps when no one is watching the three of them jump rope with it...? These are serious concerns of which I shan't do a thing about.














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The gesture of Decima's arms and posture below will likely be adapted to the final as it pulls the viewer up and through the composition better than the more finished image. This was a prelim to the prelim above.













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A Simple Tryst of Fates (Part 1)

The Fates have always straddled that spooky cum intriguing place in my imagination. While the Yankees and Santa are in the final inking process, I will be simultaneously hashing out a new composition. The first drawings below were started earlier in the year and abandoned as I was not completely satisfied with where they were going, below are two of the better incarnations: There's a slight problem, I realize, with the order of of the action. Atropos, the cutter, (I do not mean to imply that she takes a razor to her veins here) is doing the cutting at what would be in fact the beginning of the life cord... which makes Lachesis, the measurer, rather pointless. (I find this problem in many traditional renderings of these three) Atropos will need to reach in and cut closer to the distaff, and Clotho's spinning. However, she should remain on the right side as she is the end of the story, and I expect the reader to read from left to right.












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Earlier prelim for what became above. The Roman equivalent of their names are Nona, Decima, and Morta. I think I'll use these as they feel more comfortable to my ear. I'm more Latin than I am Greek. You can tell by my palliditity. Here the visual weight was too equally spread among the three fates. A better balance was achieved above.












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In some more recent explorations below, I am considering incorporating a head of supposedly the person whose lifespan is being determined. There much more to hash out here, but it may add a needed complexity missing from the earlier studies.






















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Below are even more unsuccessful forays into making a palatable image of the threesome:

This one's downright ugly.


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The two images below are various patching together of vague compositional ideas which may take you a bit of time to sort out what's happening. The process of concluding this will be more rewarding than the images themselves, so if that doesn't work for you, then just skip this part.













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Very early on are my beginning meanderings in this vein. I was playing with various directions and rhythms. I may revert to some aspects of these.















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Holiday Account ...Damn elf !

It's been a couple of years since I've produced the family holiday card. (it happens) Below is my return to the genre, as we have Santa the proprietor et unrelenting boss trying to get his proletarian artisan back on the job. (Damn elves! --their labor is cheap, but oh the headaches --always hiding and slacking off!) The drawing below is fairly near the final. Problems needing adjusting include his hand/arm which unfortunately reads more like a salute than the searching gesture I was intending. As we all know, Santa salutes no one --(except Rudolph of course). So in order to avoid Kringlesque litigation, I will have to void out those fingers I've grown fond of, and flatten out the hand pose. The elf needs to move back a tad, and perhaps be a bit overlapped by the lower part of Santa's girth... I'll have to see how it goes.
O-U-T spells out.





















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Here's how the the hand may read in the final.

















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Some of the first few sketches made in the exploratory stages of the concept. At first sleeping was the elf's wont, but TV seemed more annoying.












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DAMN YANKEES (...throes of) part 13

Specs and sizing. Not the most exciting aspect of this process, but one CAN get into all that math... for a bit. A little bit. a little tiny bit. I was pleased to find that my recap thumbnail, used for the value studies, was nearly exact in terms of proportion for the individual pieces, and down the road, the final art. This seems to be a skill that one acquires with years of drawing, much like when one wears no wristwatch for an extended period -you become fairly good at guesstimating the time of day. I forgot to bring a ruler with me to Peet's and had to then fashion my own from a bookmark...(I didn't forget to bring the book I was reading --just the necessary tools... what does that tell you about me? ...never mind.)
This way of going from prelim to final is a bit on the rigid side, but most art directors love it... No surprises! Give an art director who loves and promotes spontaneity any time! So few and far between.
Jackson may vary in his final size, as space will allow. Next step will be transfer and then inking.

















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Below is Mach two of the value study. Same thing just further exploration & wider value range. I will need to flesh out what little there is of Traveller once all the images are placed. His mane is mainly dark. Near as I can tell he has two 'L's in his name; which I believe is the British spelling of our 'traveler'... I assume the general chose this to match the two 'E's in his own surname: Lee... Otherwise tidiness would dictate he abbreviate his family name to Le. Robert E. Le. Making him Asian. That would require some leap of faith.












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DAMN YANKEES (...throes of) part 12

Value study! Below is an unofficial re-comp of the entire illustration based on the current working character drawings and positionings. There will be some shifting and other alterations as the pieces are sewn together; Traveler will need to be finalized even if he has been for the most part cropped out of the image at the bottom. I am fighting the urge to draw Babe holding a platter on high with a big ol' hamburger on it, along with the attendant checker overalls... This would undoubtedly confuse the original concept, and cause a shift in one's confidence in me as a professional. Still, the inanity of it all would be funnier than all get-out, and may be well worth the trouble. I'll think about it. ...(maybe I've already drawn it but am not showing it to you...ha!)










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DAMN YANKEES (...throes of) part 11

"Oh for goodness sakes!!!" Ruth has often been overheard in the locker rooms to exclaim after finding his locker in disarray; and he seems to expound the same here... It was little known in his day (and fairly well hidden by the press) that Babe had a great sense of empathy for his teammates, and would often feel pity and compassion for those colleagues who's lockers were also disheveled; he was notoriously full of ruth. However, there were those from other teams who claimed Babe was rather insensitive and callous, and thereby ruthless, but of course this makes no sense at all. No one in New York ever found a baseball card of Babe Ruthless in their tobacco. And if they did they wouldn't be allowed inside anymore. (wherever that happened to be at the time) Here I have him craning his "neck" and looking quite nonplussed at Lee's presence on the scene. His eye was a particular joy to explore.

















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Here is the eye again in case you missed it the first time around. Note how the pop of the eye is fighting the folds of age; nice argument.




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I exchanged the accordion nose for one that is more evocative of Joe's real schnoz... you can still see the original planar structure underneath, but now the roads turn sharply where all the cartalige meets the sinews. The shoulders are blocked in, and the sternocleidomastoid has been reduced to a manageable level. (now when he turns his head quickly, he will no longer need to worry that his nose will snap off).

















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Details, details, details. Just straightening out Reggie's glasses so they don't curve with the form of his roly-poly head. Now we have pleasing contrast. Those glasses are "oh-so-'70s" aren't they? Brings to mind Luke Skywalker, Watergate, and of course Elton John. Elton influenced the look of baseball here much in the way Charles Schulz influenced the Beatles in the '60s. Think about it.











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DAMN YANKEES (...throes of) part 10

I have done quite a number of drawings in a row of Dimaggio's head, (56 to be exact, I tried to do 57 but for some reason it eluded me). The previous incarnation was fun, but it's rubberiness didn't jive with the other heads, and so I thought to bring Joe in line with the rest. Directly below is the state of the art as he stands now; hopefully I have blended the dorky with the classy which is how I feel about him visually. One cannot be blamed for wondering if (due to how I've drawn him) he can fold up his nose into his face before he goes to sleep at night. hmmm... The little Marilyn in the corner was a distraction from the rigors of the job, as I'm sure she was for many men in the '50s.


















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Below is where I started with the Dimaggio redo. Aside from the fact that he looks like a German official from the 1930s, I rather like this semi-stylized version of Joe. It doesn't really look a lot like him, but the angle is nice, and as you'll see, I strove to incorporate this perspective into a final caricature. Alas, to no avail.

















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Here is my attempt at blending my new-found visual ideas into my old-found rubber-twisty comp of Dimaggio from a few weeks ago. Looks too forced, and the face parts don't agree with each other. If I met him on the street like this, I wouldn't agree with him either...

















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These two below were attempts at preserving the camera angle from the earlier semi-stylized head with his 'oh-so-important' goofy mouth. As you can see neither made the short list. The one with the cap looks like a cranky independent car repair guy, and the other looks like some frightening necromancer from Harry Potter (played by Willem Dafoe).


















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This is the closest I got to the blend, and it turns out that the forced perspective is compromising the length of his lower jaw. This keeps it from looking like Joe, and I've decided is not fair to the viewer (whatever that means).

















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DAMN YANKEES (...throes of) part 9

A more finalized drawing of Mr. October done in August... am I being inappropriate? I slenderfied him from where he was in the earlier sketches, --he can be chunky looking (especially in Anaheim) but, one must admit, he was in better shape than the shape I was imposing on him. For silhouette purposes, I HAVE slenderfied his arms; likely knocked off about 12 pounds each...but he reads better. Don't expect many more home runs. Expect bunting. Lots of bunting... and forget about the eponymous candy bars; bunters don't get candy bars.














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DAMN YANKEES (...throes of) part 8

I've never read where Lee personally did a 'Rebel Yell' --something he no doubt delegated to his many underlings, and the expression he's holding here is what one would imagine was his wordless command to commence a-yellin'... Anyway, he shows no love lost here amongst these particular Yankees I hope... (due in no little part to their odd army uniform?). Lee, for compositional purposes is relegated to riding a pony... This minuscule Traveller is yet another cheat, as will be the likely disappearance of stirrups -they complicate the area around his foot. Hopefully my shrinking of Lee's favorite horse stops short of becoming a Hobby-horse; last thing I need is a 'Rebel Yell' aimed at me...

















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I've been having to rework Ruth's posture to align him better with the others in the composition (see last image in this post below)... To the right here you'll see some simple attempts at where his body goes. I'm looking to have him crane his neck at Lee, which is rather challenging as I could find absolutely no reference on Babe Ruth's neck. I've decided he doesn't have one. Arguments to the contrary are futile. I've taken the liberty to gift him a neck so he can at least once in his life enjoy a good craning. Still it's a stretch. ...Sorry.













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Below looking for an improvement on Jackson's posture as well as 'camera angle'. Jackson number two is on the short list.





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Here's an idea on where things (they) stand, currently...











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DAMN YANKEES (...throes of) part 7

This is probably less painful than it looks, (however Dimaggio's expression here, out of context, belies this assumption)... Here I have the Yankee Clipper positioned so we can at once look up and down at him. This is likely quite close to his final positioning; his eyes are not correct yet, the number is too high, (although I like his shoulders) his nose needs work, and I'm toying with including a floating left eyebrow. An illustrator's work is never done. I may cheat and keep the number on his back high as I like the look of it there; most of it will be cropped off. If you look closely you'll see the crop marks. Might have to soften the chin.

















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Below is an earlier run on Joe that just wouldn't land.

















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Here is a fine tuning of Reggie, where I'm blending the sunglasses and eyes into a final cohesive argument. It may seem that the glasses are winning, but as in most arguments, it's the subtle undertones that carry more weight. You got a problem with that?
















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DAMN YANKEES (...throes of) part 6

Reggie Jackson is difficult to make interesting due to the simplicity of his "Pokemon"-like facial structure. Simplicity is wonderful when it's accompanied by a jarring incorrectness, or an incongruity in facial flow... Jackson has none of these, he's fairly geometrical, and so the search is on for where to make him catch visually. (Jackson could solve this problem for me by having a surgeon adjust his features as did his namesake, but we all know where that led, so maybe not...)
I'm working with a fish eye placement. His eyebrows are insisting on an east-west attitude, and it's natural to have the eyes follow along; because I'm using his eyes as a visual catch, his sun-glasses, which are a key to his "look" will need to be treated transparently... This may work against itself, and I may have to abandon the fishy bits... Reggie is small in the composition and it may be better to capitulate to his simplicity and let it go at that... Stay tuned.














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Quick thumbnail studies as Reggie shifts into caricature gear
















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First somewhat realistic-ish study of Mr. October; I'm already spreading those eyes out.

















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Below is a reworking of Ruth. I've decided to manipulate more of his head form, and have the features squat in a smaller surface area. It's not quite where I want it to be yet, but the head form is more appealing, and matches the other heads better.

















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Preliminary studies on what the form of Babe's head is truly about, and what angles they take.











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DAMN YANKEES (...throes of) part 5

Robert E. Lee has attitude, but not the enormity of visual characteristics that plague Mr. Dimaggio, still, I don't think Joe would've lasted as long on hardtack and tea... Regardless, the challenge with Lee is to maintain his sense of dignity and gallantry while pushing his features around and rearranging their priorities. Below is the first serious attempt at distortion. It likely doesn't go far enough. The real task will be keeping the visual faith while moving the point of view to above...(same issue I'm having with Joe: see farther below). Interesting how both fellows are characterized as gallant, respectful heroes...

















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Below is the first, somewhat straight study of Bob. (Lookin' a bit impish. Don't tell anybody). And boy! --Talk about hat hair!

















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Two small sketch studies attempting to incorporate more of Dimaggio's neck, and a folding of his back & shoulders. As well, I am pushing a slight curvilinear perspective on his facial structure.











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Not quite a likeness of Joe as I would like it, I'm still working on angle and form manipulation; I'm starting to dovetail the angles of all the characters. I like that nose. (Small splats are genuine Peet's Garuda Blend coffee drops --for the record).











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