It’s a Fight Night style design with Frosty the Abominable Snowman vs Polar the Un-Bear-able Icecap. Cheesy, right? I wanted to throw more halftones on the two fighters but it might have been too much.
I just got another idea for these two guys that might make a cool poster.
I decided to do a dyptic of all the roommates past and present for my art party and for hanging on our bare walls. Apparently 14 people have resided at the current Victorian residence I’ve called home for the past 4 years. I did preliminary sketches and several comps before settling on this tone study; however, time ran out before I was able to transfer it to canvas/acrylic.
Taking cues from the compositions of Gustave Dore and the modern layouts of Marko Djurdjevic, I tweaked the arrangement of people more than I would have usually. Besides rhythm, flow, contrast, and various rule of thirds, I also had people in groups based on the rooms they were in, home town affiliations, original roommates on one row, and current roommates furthest in front. Also unbeknownst to you, everyone here is rocking out hard to Eye of the Tiger.
FYI, when typing “roomates” 90% of the time I type “roommages.” I’m not sure what that’s all about. Also, I am going to try and go at least 3 posts without drawing another picture of myself. You all are probably thinking I’m narcissistic or something.
Self-Portrait November 2009
Topical Humor! I hope the handful of you reading my blog enjoy this. Or maybe you feel a bit awkward looking at this picture? Sweet.
I’m not defending or condoning a man’s choice to depict himself as a centaur. I think it’s a shame I hadn’t thought of it myself. Funny enough, I’m also a Sagittarius. Take note ladies, that means I have a thirst for knowledge and adventure as well as that bow and arrow shooting, half man half horse deal. Giggity.
I also missed the Nov 1st – Self-Portrait day event at conceptart.org, so I’ll consider this a personal late entry, if only slightly altered from reality. Side note: I only made myself that ripped because of all the galloping and archery I’d obviously be doing if I was a centaur.
I’ve been slowly cleaning up both my apartment and online profiles and sites. Just like apartments, there can be a lot of maintenance that personal and social networking sites need. The quick-key, efficiency, GTD, productivity nerd in me (that also hates doing chores and likes bright things) would rather blow something up and build it over again then to clean it up. That’s why I just redesign my website every year and why I can only clean the apartment while supervised by at least one roommate to make sure I don’t just dump everything into a furnace.
MySpace as most will agree has become that neglected closet that you keep old camping gear and ex-roommate baggage in. The pristine organized storage center you once envisioned is now full of clutter that you no longer need but think you’ll fix someday. It’s kind of lost it’s charm once it started piling up with unclaimed sweaters and messages from hot girls who are lonely and want you to see their new modeling pics!!!!!!”
There’s nothing people hate more than unclaimed sweaters and advances from attractive young women who turn out to be robots. Many of my friends have gone outright and shut down their accounts. I would say that’s probably along the lines of dumping gasoline on a storage shed and throwing a block of C4 into it. I don’t know if that’s how C4 works. I’m just an illustrator who watched a lot of MacGuyver in the 80s.
The reason I don’t consider dumping a MySpace account the same as “emptying” a closet is that an empty closet has become useful. I still have some friends on MySpace and as has been suggested by many freelancers, PR agents, and all around wise folks, the more places an artist can be contacted the better. Even if that place is a dungeon full of lies and emo music*
“But MySpace is full of 14 year old kids and soccer moms who are just about ready to switch to Facebook right as it is getting outdated” you say. Well, you’re probably right, but I had to go in and delete all my drunk pics old artwork anyways.
And just in case you’re a soccer mom here’s the link: http://www.myspace.com/hoabert
*fact, I kinda like emo music.
I’ve been taking a bunch of online courses from Conceptart.org and think I’ve learned a great deal about composition, color theory, freelancing, portfolio reviewing etc. A lot of this stuff I’ve picked up from school and on the job the last 10 years; however, it was nice to have some of these tangential theories in my head vocalized and organized by professionals several years (or more) ahead of me. In summary, I’m way better than I was 3 months ago but can barely grasp of the advanced theories that the classic masters, such as Rembrandt and Doré, or modern masters like Frazetta and Djuredjevic, apply to their work.
Watching Marko Djurdjevic draw for 9 hours this Sunday was pretty inspiring and awe inducing. The man’s ability to confidently place lines and color makes me feel like a kid scribbling with crayon (not far from the truth). I don’t think the man had to hit ctrl-z once during the lecture. I guess that’s what years of diligent studying and practice will bring. On his Character Ideation DVD he did mention slowing down, thinking, and focusing on what you’re next move is. That’s probably something I should consider more while drawing, or talking, or blogging…
One exercise that has come up a lot on their forums is to draw 100 heads. I think I’m suppose to only spend 2 minutes on them, but I spend anywhere between 5 and 45 at the moment. On this post Jason Manly suggests the student also do 100 skull sketches. Maybe I need to bust out the old Bridgman books and get on that too.
Progress:
15/100 heads, 0/100 Skulls.
Tools:
iPhone: Colors!, Brushes, Sketchbook Mobile
Nintendo DS: Colors!
PC: Photoshop and Wacom
Comment from Frank: “What you’re too good for pencil and paper?”
Hi, I'm Hoa. I live in San Francisco. I work on video games, websites, and the occasional t-shirt design. I've wanted to make video games and comic books since the Reagan administration.
I love creating many types of art from traditional illustration, 3D modeling, web development, game design, and video editing. I'm currently a Lead Technical Artist and Graphic Design for Sony Network Entertainment.
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