Gods and monsters

I have spent most of the week catching up on illustrations for a game company called Dark Skull Studios. It has been a fun project with a good friend working as the art director. I got to draw weird fantasy gods and some creepy monsters- which I really enjoy drawing. One of the gods is a mix of a deer and a human. I used my lovely wife as the model- well, her and a deer. I can't show them until the book is published, so use your imagination.

I finally got into the studio yesterday and did a two hour start that I was pretty happy with. This was how the canvas looked at the end of the session. As soon as this dries I will dive in and try to finish it in the next coat. I will probably pour coffee in the cup with some cream, since that is the subject and it will add a warm note to the center of the painting.

 
Espresso and Cream, day one

In my old studio I built a model changing room behind the model stand. It was a great studio, not as classy as the one I have now, but 3 times as big in addition to being cheaper. If you could ignore the fact that I was on the 3 floor with no elevator and that when it rained water poured in and ran down the stairs like a water fall- it was an amazing studio with 30 feet of north facing windows. I was only there for a year until evil developers kicked everyone in the building out, but I digress. What was I talking about? 

Oh yeah,  my model changing room. 

I made a pretty cool door that had a nice art deco design for the model changing room. It was left over wall paper that was printed on canvas for a set at the Playhouse. I glued it to a panel and built a frame around it for the door. I just recently found the door tucked away behind some canvases in a closet and thought it could make a great background for still life set ups. I have a higher set up space on top of a filing cabinet in my studio that I can paint little paintings on. I put some adjustable legs on the door and have set it behind the filing cabinet. I was excited to put it to use the other day. You will be seeing this background in a lot of work in the upcoming year.

This is part one of a pair of paintings that will have cream and sugar. Lately I am enjoying the challenge of working on high key painting with lots of whites. It is a fun problem handling the values in such a limited rang. I also find the results to be very beautiful.

 The Force And A Can Of Soup, 8 x10, oil on panel, 2011, © Richard Luschek

Though I said I was done, I worked on Yoda a bit more yesterday and then took a better photo. Some of the forms were crunchy and the half tones dirty. I did not have the still life set up (I took it down so I would not do any more work on it). I just worked it from memory, and adjusted things till I liked them. Much better.

Workshops in Iowa

My love for Iowa is well known and documented on this blog. If you are in Iowa, you are probably getting ready for my return which is less than a week away.

A handsome shot of me in Iowa, with a John Deere cap, in front of a field of corn.I shot a lot of photos in Iowa and everyone of them had a John Deere hat and corn it somehow.

I am heading north by north west again to do a few workshops: The first is an Illustration Workshop. I think this will be mostly for teens and young adults. 

The second class will be an Evening of Figure Drawing- the classical approach. Teens are welcome, but will need a permission slip from the parent to attend.

I thought I would post a bit about the classes here with a rough supply list for both.

Illustrative Iowans 

January 28 - 29- Friday from 6pm-9pm,
Saturday from 9am 5pm
A workshop on illustration where we will learn how to draw and paint:

·         -Stuff that doesn’t exist, like Dragons

·         -Events that you wish you had seen, like the time Lincoln sucker punched Zombie Napoleon.

·         -And things that will only happen in the future of your dreams, like a self portrait with a mustache. 

We will look at illustrators of the past to see how they worked.
Using these techniques we will create some illustrations of our own. These pictures will include:

·         A small pen and ink illustration.

·         A series of thumbnail sketches for approval

·         A finished drawing from the sketch and reference photos  or drawings.

·         Color study for a finished picture.

·         To finish on your own will be a final picture based on all of the previous work.

Topics covered will include- basic composition, drawing in line and mass, traditional materials, new technologies in illustration (working digitally), what to read and how to continue your studies.
Each student will receive a few illustration assignments to complete during this course.

Friday- Discussion of Illustration, it’s history, the job, and basic techniques. There will be a slide show. The assignments will be handed out.

Saturday- Assignment 1- Pen and Ink spot illustration: assemble your reference, do a sketch, ink.
Assignment 2- The cover illustration: sketch out ideas for approval, assemble reference, final thumbnail sketch, Finished drawing, color study. The overview of the class, discuss how to transfer the drawing to the painting, and start with a rough lay in. Discuss how to move the work to finish. 

Basic Supplies: 

-A sketchbook. It can be cheap paper for working out ideas. 

-A drawing pad with a good heavy paper- I like Strathmore medium Drawing paper- 80lb. 9"x"12.

-A variety of pencils, though a simple #2 pencil will work. 

-A kneaded eraser and a white rubber eraser.

-A tray of water color paints. 

-Drawing pens, I recommend  Sakura Pigma Micron Pens. They have sets which are nice, the Pigma Micron Pen Set of 6, Pigma Manga-Comic Pro Set of 8, or just get a few 005, 01 and 02        size.

-India ink

-A good drawing brush- I like the Raphael #2  -they are expensive but last a long time if you care for them. A similar but cheaper brush would be fine.

-Some Quill pens will be provided

-Gel Medium 

-Oil paints, a palette, and brushes.

-Deoderant

An Evening of Figure Drawing

the Classical Approach

January 30^th, Sunday, from 3:00 to 8:00

At the Eclectic Eye, in Moline.

$40 / person (includes cost of model)

Contact me or Pat Bereskin if you would like to sign up for the class. mrsbsart@gmail.com

Learn the greater art of “seeing” as practiced by the Boston School of painting and how it is applied to the figure.

Working from a live model, students will learn the basics of the pencil sketch and then move on to a finished charcoal drawing.

Participants will begin by learning the basics of the visual language, the craft and order of drawing in traditional media.

Focus of class: to provide initial or further introduction to the steps taken and principles applied to the art of drawing.

This includes:

i.         the basics of composition and gesture.

ii.       setting up a pleasing pose.

iii.     using the tools available (charcoal,  good paper) and creating a comfortable setup

iv.      the execution of a start, the idea of  the light and dark, and flat shadows    

v.        Main focus that Drawing is the interpretation of form

vi.      The use of these drawings as a means to completing finished paintings.

for more information:

Call (513) 479-3322 or email: richard_luschek@yahoo.com

See more work at Richard’s Website  www.richardluschek.com

Basic supplies (Some supplies can be shared):

• Some sort of easel- I would prefer you stand an an easel rather than sit
• Drawing pencils- you can use what ever you have. A perfect set would contain various soft and hard pencils.  4H, 6H, & HB would be plenty.
• Sketch book (8x10, 9x12, or 11x16)
• A hard rubber eraser- for pencil drawing.
• A drawing board made of a flat smooth sided material that will hold pushpins. I often use a ceiling tile for a drop ceiling as a drawing board. Get the smooth kind. They are cheap and can easily be cut to any size.
• Pushpins
• Three grades of vine charcoal (Hard, medium and soft)
  -you will mostly need hard, so I recommend a few packs
• Medium-fine sandpaper on a small board ( I will bring a few with me), you can buy the pad, but I find them too small. They will work if that is what you have.
• Kneaded eraser- for charcoal
• White charcoal paper (I like white or ivory colored Ingres Fabriano)
• Plumb bob (basically a small weight on a string- fishing weight, washer, or a key.
  
  Optional:
• A 24 inch ruler
• Mirror
• Black mirror (Claude Glass- glass with back painted black or black plexi) I will have some with me. 
• A mahl stick. A simple dowel rod will do. It keeps your hand off the paper surface when drawing.

My New Business Card

I have had a pretty boring business card for a while. They get handed out enough that I thought it might be a good idea to try to make one that is a bit more memorable. I am often giving out cards when  I am painting outside, or if the topic "what do you do?" happens to come up in some social situation. My old card had the information, but no lasting punch. If someone pulled it out of a suit pocket a month after receiving it, they may not remember where they got it or why they should care and just throw it in the garbage. I needed a card that would jolt their memory somehow. Make then want to look at the website, get to know me and start collecting my work. Of course we all know sex sells, so I decided to put a drawing of myself hard at work right on the card. Impressive isn't it? I also thought I would try hand lettering it. I copied a font with an Arts and Crafts feel that I like, but the hand drawn look gives it some character.

I have always loved Art Nouveau. It was a short lived movement, that was full of beauty and great design. Unfortunately, it was quickly replaced by other movements of much less beauty and quality. I often refer to Art Nouveau and study it for use my own work, especially in my pen and ink.

Last night I drew this new business card that has more style and a bit less information. I removed my address, as I really am not sure how that information is relevant. Unless you want to just show up at my house out of the blue for lunch- which would be rude. With the phone and the internet, the address seemed outmoded. That opened up a lot of white space, I did have website and email, but thought if you can get to my website you can figure out how to contact me. If you don't know how that works you probably don't own a computer. If that is the case, then you can call me.
Above is the new card. I have yet to have it printed, but I thought I would offer it up for comments. Let me know what you think.

Coffee goes in, Illustrations come out.

I have been pretty busy lately doing a pile of illustrations. I have a list of about 200. On a good day, if I am really cooking, I can do 3 or 4- but that is without doing much of anything else, except getting up to stretch, eat and drink tons of coffee.
Despite this oppressively large list, I have been having fun, and I think these newest illustrations have been some of my best. I do mostly pen and ink drawings for various medieval role-playing games. It is a very different process from that of painting in my studio where I work directly from life. If you have a question about how something should look, you can just ask, " Does 'this' look like 'that'?" Of course it is a bit more complicated, but essentially that is how a painting happens. Visual observation and asking intelligent questions. Working from life, you paint until the effect you are seeing in nature happens on the canvas.
Illustration is often done partly from the imagination, directed through a story or description provided by the person that has commissioned the work. I read it and attempt to come up with a visual interpretation of the text. I do research, looking for relevant images or information online and at the library. Often I will pose for the characters myself, and work from tons of photo references.
I thought I would show an example of how something like this happens.

Recently I had to draw a big prehistoric creature based on a real world, long extinct bird. After reading the article I did a bit of research on terror birds, and then did a few rough sketches. It is for a fantasy game and not a scientific paper, so I can invent and play with the design, pretty much inventing whatever I want as long as it fits the description. I decided to draw an action shot of sorts. I find it more interesting to show the moment right before or right after a moment of violence. So this is the bird after killing a goblin. It would help show how dangerous this creature is in addition to providing something to show scale.
Here is the sketch done in photoshop on top of the article, making sure it fits in the space. If at any stage in the process I have questions I may send the sketch to the writer or the company to make sure I am on track.

It is a bit cartoony looking, but I went through a few more attempts till I decided upon a good composition.
I assembled some images from the web and various books to help me determine the look of my creature.
I Taught I Taw a Puddy Tat!
This one ended up not being very useful.

I then had my favorite and most handsome model pose for the dead goblin. I am quite the actor don't you think? My wife takes some wonderfully blurry photos. I need to get her a tripod.


All of that info gets assembled and I do a final sketch in pencil. I then ink it in. I use Micron Pigma pens. They are great pens that give a nice consistent line if that is what you are looking for. I like a line with some variety and as they break down you can control the line weight a bit more. So I am pretty rough on these pens, usually pushing hard to bend the felt tip getting a rougher line. They come in various sizes, but I mostly use the 005 and 01. Sometimes the 005 is not small enough and I will cut it with a razor to get an even smaller line. The felt tip gives a nice variety of line.
All the pencil lines are erased and it’s scanned into photoshop for some tweaking and any adjustments. I have a nice tablet that makes any drawing on the computer a breeze. I have tried to draw completely on the computer, but I have to admit I like the feel, and look of actual pen on paper. The drawing is cleaned up digitally, the contrast is adjusted and it's saved as a high resolution image. I email the image on to the person laying out the article for final publication. It is nice that I get to keep all the originals.
Here is the final terror bird. The article about birds will be released in the next few months through Columbia Games.

I took some liberties from the research, giving the creature much more powerful legs, that are more dinosaur like. I was pretty happy with the final bird. though I think the feathers of the tail and the wing look a bit weird and saw-tooth looking and I may have to go back in and group those into a more interesting shape.
Can you imagine the mess this bird would make on your car window if you parked under it's nest?

Sickness and Illustration

I have not been well. I have been trying to fight this head cold/allergies on my own with the nettie pot, resting, eating healthy- including downing a few cloves of raw garlic a day. Other making it very unpleasant for my wife, it has not been doing much toward my healing. I finally decided to go to the doctor.
So I am on antibiotics and cake. Hopefully I will mend soon. It has been 3 weeks of not being too productive on the painting front. I am looking forward to being healthy so I can get some real work done, not to mention, if you are out in public and you sneeze or have the sniffles, everyone runs screaming from you like you have the plague. Especially since my sneezes have a very 'swine-like' sound to them. It takes too much time to explain to everyone that I don't have a fever and am not contagious- plus, I like it when people run screaming from me. It feels very powerful.
In addition to being a bit under the weather, I have tons of illustration work to do. Last count, I have about 145 to do by the first of the year. Many are small, and if I am cooking I should be able to do up to 5 a day. It will be close, but I am doing my best to wade in and draw as well and as fast as I can. I have gotten a few done lately that I like, so in order to prove to you that even when I am on death's door I can do good work I will post them below.

I mostly do illustrations for roleplaying games that are either played online or as pen and paper games with nerds sitting around a table throwing dice. The illustrations are usually going off a bit of text in an article or very specific requested instructions.

One of my clients in in the process of writing a new game and has requested all black and white silhouette art for his products. It is called Roguish-Fantasy Adventure Game. Doing these silhouettes is both fun and a challenge. It is good practice for making sure your work reads strongly. Even in fully rendered work I try to make sure I have a strong silhouette.

The first is a good Halloweeny kind of scene. A wizard commanding pumpkin headed scarecrows to attach a band of adventurers. This is not based on real events.

A Hill Giant and goblin army on the march.

A scary view into a tunnel- I really like this one.

These next two are for the Harn Game I do the most of my illustrations for. The first is an exorcism scene (this is sort of what I look like now, with my raw garlic breath).
This next one is your typical knife throwing, skinny, goat headed demon with four elbows. I know it is kind of a tired subject, but I think this is an original interpretation.
I have two art openings this Friday, I will be posting information about them so you can all attend, have free wine and cheese, and see some of my paintings.