Last Post (For Now... Maybe)

So I've decided to stop "blogging" on this site. It's become too cumbersome having to post on here, and to Facebook, Twitter, deviantART and my tumblr. And I've also deactivated my deviantART account as well. I'm trying to put most, if not all, my artwork on tumblr and use my Facebook just for personal use.

I just signed up for tumblr, and the nice thing about it is that I can sync up my tumblr posts to my Twitter account. Leaving me one less thing to worry about posting to. Anyways, I've included links if you would like to continue following me on any one of my other sites/social media accounts.

tumblr evolvemikl.tumblr.com
Twitter twitter.com/evolveMIKL
Facebook facebook.com/evolvemikl

Social Media, Graphic Novels and the Art of Procrastination

Okay, so this is going to be a long post since I haven't done anything a while. The irony of this post, specifically the part about procrastination, is that this post was sitting as a draft since November. Damn, I guess I really do procrastinate.

deviantART

I recently (late last year, which isn't that reason anymore) started a deviantART page in order to get my name and artwork out to a larger audience of artists and art lovers. I've barely caught on to the whole deviantART craze (not sure if craze is really the word, but I know alot of people who are either on it or take material from it) and I have to say that I really like it. It's great to have people who actually like and appreciate art critiquing or complimenting your work.

That's mainly the reason why I haven't been updating this blog that often... Wait, that's a lie. Really though, it's mostly because I haven't been creating any new work. All of the art on my page, which can be found at evolvemikl.deviantart.com, is old stuff. While there are a few pieces on there that I haven't posted either here or on my Facebook page, they're all older scans. But I still hope you check it out and maybe follow me. Or whatever the equivalent is on deviantART.

Twitter

More recently though, I joined Twitter. After thinking about it long enough and the fact that I finally got a smart phone, I just went ahead and signed up. The thing about it though is that there's alot of nothing on there. Hell, even the things that I post are really not that interesting, except to me (and even then..) So if you want to follow me and see me post about the most random things (mostly sketches and things I'm working on) you can check out my profile at twitter.com/evolvemikl

Graphic Novels

I've really been sleeping on all the new (and not so new) graphic novels that have been coming out lately. There have been so many good books in the last year that I really should have been reading. I think ever since I stopped driving I kind of stopped buying, or even reading, any new graphic novels or comic books. Usually I check them out online first then go out and buy them. It's too hard for me to sometimes just order one online without first holding the physical copy in my hands. Books (comic, novels, graphic novels) are just about the only thing that I never think about pirating (pirating any media is bad and I do not condone illegal downloading of any kind).

Here are a few on my wishlist that I will more than likely purchase in the next couple of months (Not all are from 2012, these are just graphic novels that I have yet to read).

Building Stories, Chris Ware
I was originally going to purchase this from Amazon, but they were out of stock when I put my order in. And after waiting so long (and watching the price fluctuate back and forth from $25 up to the msrp of $50) I just cancelled it altogether. The book is more like a box set. More info and pictures of the set can be found here.

X-ed Out, Charles Burns
The Hive, Charles Burns
If I'm not mistaken, both of these books are closely relate to one another. I read his other book, Black Hole, and absolutely loved it. I wrote about it before, so I wont go into it again. Any of his work is highly recommended. My previous post about Black Hole and other graphic novels can be found here.

Spaceman, Brian Azzarello (Author) & Eduardo Risso (Illustrator)
I loved 100 Bullets, also by the same pair. And I've read positive reviews about this one.

Saga, Vol. 1, Brian K Vaughan & Fiona Staples 
Truthfully, I know very little about the actual plot of this series but again, I've heard great reviews on this one as well. As long as its not some typical, corny superhero plot then I'm all for it.

100 Bullets, Brian Azzarello (Author) & Eduardo Risso (Illustrator)
These have been out for a while, but I only have up to the first 7 graphic novel adaptations, an now they're re-releasing them into thicker hardcover books which I don't know to feel about.

The Art of Procrastination

Okay, so alot of times I post about how I'm going to do this next time (ballpoint pen drawings) or do that (watercolor painting) and so on. But I'll either not do it (procrastination) or I do but then I wont post it due to my dissatisfaction with it. This time though I'm actually going to do something that I've wanted to do for a very long time. Write and draw my own graphic novel.

The hardest and most frustrating part is writing the script and scenario. It's one thing to get a basic story which I more or less have. It's a whole different thing trying to write natural speech and narration. As you can see by my posts I'm a better artist than I am a writer (would never even consider myself a writer).

The basic story more or less is about a mentally unstable man living in a dystopian -like future. What comes to mind is something similar to Blade Runner. By that I mean a 1980's view of the future where there's an antiquated mixed of digital and analog technology. Kind of like steampunk, but without the polished brass. Hope that made any sense. But it really doesn't have to at this point.

Anyways, this is something that I am definitely going to be working on in the next few months and I'll be posting updates like storyboards, sketches and other related material to both this blog, deviantArt and on Twitter.

Left Hand Sketches

So here's a quick update (for once). I drew this last night before going to bed. As you can see on the closeup there's a bit of smearing/ink buildup on certain parts. That's mostly because I'd been up late playing videogames on my computer with the lights off so my vision was kind of blurry after I turned on the light. And also these pens tend to bleed a little. But I wanted to try something different so I used Paper Mate InkJoy ballpoint pens, mostly for the colors.

Different versions of my left hand

They're alright as far as art pens but that's not exactly their function. I've been wanting to try these other pens, Bic Cristal Pocket Scent ballpoints but it's a bitch finding them in the U.S. A couple of users on DeviantArt who do amazing work with ballpoint pens use them to do portraits. I think because of the odd colors that can be blended very nicely to match skin tones.

Work in Progress (untitled, Moleskine)

Okay, so I've stated numerous times in the past that I have a hard time with procrastinating when starting a drawing. And it doesn't matter whether it's a sketchbook drawing from my Moleskine or a full blown piece. I find myself posting more unfinished drawings lately. But in some cases I'll post an unfinished drawing if it's taking me too long to finish and I need some content for this blog (as is the case for this post).

The other day I was looking through one of the several poster shipping tubes that I have put away in the corner of my room and I came across a few unfinished pieces. One of them I stopped halfway through because of a rather interesting object I decided to add to it. I'll explain in another post once I get a chance to pin it down and take pictures of it (since the drawing has been in the tube for several years now, it naturally rolls together like a poster). But I digress...

Another unfinished (for now) sketch

The problem with me is that I don't usually start a drawing with much of a goal in mind. Meaning that I don't know where it's going really. An example is the image above. While the two images don't really look cohesive, eventually they will once it's finished. Though I'm not sure how I'm going to accomplish that at this point.

Therein lies my biggest problem, not enough planning or organization. I just start something with not much of an idea as to what's going on really. That's usually the reason why sometimes I don't complete a drawing, that or the drawing just sucks. But then other times, in those rare instances, I end up with a drawing that's far beyond my own expectations of what I'm capable of.

Found Art

I've been thinking about doing some art outside of the sketchbook I usually draw in. So I decided to try and complete a piece for an art show coming up soon. As I was pulling out some mat boards I found this old unfinished drawing.

I kind of remember this drawing, but honestly I don't even know how old it is. I would say maybe 8 years at least. It's an alright drawing, nothing special or great but I kind of like the fish tail on the lower-left hand side. I tried to take a good closeup picture of the fin to show better detail. This is the best I could do.

closeup of partially finished fish

unfinished ink drawing

Ballpoint Pen Practice

I've either taken a break from drawing or just been lazy recently because I haven't been keeping up with posts this year. Usually I start up again whenever I see something, or someone, that inspires me. This time it was the work of Jim Rugg whose work I first became familiar with from the Drawn Blog which I frequent on a daily basis. His ballpoint pen drawings are awesome to say the least.

They remind me of old drawings and sketches I used to do in class a long time ago when I was in high school. I would have 3-5 sheets of notebook paper stacked on top of one another. The top one or two sheets I would use for actual note taking. The next couple of sheets were the ones I used for drawing and then I would usually have a final bottom sheet to give the ones I was drawing on a softer surface so that it would be easier to shade and bring about a smoothness to the pen, rather than pen and paper on a hard solid surface. Had I kept all the "doodles" (I hate that word) that I created back then (and some in college), I would have at least a hundred. But sadly they're all gone... Then again, I doubt they were even as good as I thought they were back then.

Unfinished practice in ballpoint

I wanted to try it again. Even though I mentioned in earlier posts that I was going to try ballpoint pens again, I have yet to fully experiment with them (besides this drawing). I'm going to look into getting a set of colored pens and really bust out an actual, complete drawing. Until then, there's this one from my moleskine.

Obviously it's not finished and I don't plan on finishing it unless I feel that I could add more to it. It started as a picture I found online, but mostly though the face and right arm are what I took from the original. Once I started with the pen he looked different from what I had planned so I changed it up quite a bit. So much so that even if you saw the picture you wouldn't find much, if any, similarities.

Finished Face (Ink & Marker Complete)

Fully inked

I've finally gotten around to finishing this drawing... well, as finished as it can be. I still need to go over it in ink and color again to get some of the patchy spots and fill in some of the ink that faded when I erased all the visible pencil markings. But it's done for the most part.

The first drawing is the completed ink version which, I have to admit, looks really good. Actually it looks better than the real version in my sketchbook. I think that's because of the high contrast when scanning a black and white photo with my scanner.

Fully colored

I think I might try some color changes on the inked version in Photoshop just to see what other colors it might have looked good in. Considering that now, I should have done that to begin with before I colored it in. I didn't really have a color scheme in mind when I started adding color, but luckily it came out looking good.

Finished Pencil Drawing (Face)

So it took me alot longer than I thought it would (but considering I'm a big time procrastinator I guess maybe it was sooner than I thought?) but I finally finished this drawing... at least the penciling. All I have left to do is the inking. Which may be the hardest part next to actually coming up with what to draw. And of course, I still have yet to purchase the Koh-I-Noor pens, which are out of stock until 12/22. I think I might have to buy some other pens in the meanwhile. That, or just use one tip size throughout the whole thing.

If you look back at the previous version(s) of it, you can see how much has changed since I first started it. And actually, when I originally started drawing I began with only the face. I really didn't have much of a goal, which is the way I usually go into a new piece (sketchbook or otherwise). Sometimes that can be a good thing, but other times it may not work out the way I had hoped. But I think this did. Hopefully the ink and color come out the way I hope they do. The next step after I've finished is to maybe do something similar on a larger scale.

Mechanical Face (Unfinished) [cont]

Rather than just update my previous post I decided to start an new one since I tend to lag sometimes. That, and it gives me an excuse to have more content. Luckily, this is a short one.

I started working on the drawing more and, like I had said earlier, it turned out completely different than what I had originally started. I think the only part still there from the beginning is the top layer of teeth and nose. If you look at the post below you can see the big differences. I honestly thought that previous drawing was going to more or less be the final product (in terms of the face at least).

So I'm going to add more to the left side of the page since right now it's basically just the face. And I'm going to continue with the whole steam/smoke (not sure yet which of the two it will eventually be) throughout the background. And of course, I'll post the finished pencil drawing, if anything just to drag it on until I have new content (like I always do).

Mechanical Face (Unfinished)

Just over a week ago, on Halloween of all days, I started a new drawing. I guess you could say that I was inspired by the "holiday" to draw something a little bit on the morbid side. Of course though that would have mostly to do with the non-stop horror/suspense programming that was on display on most of my local television channels all weekend long leading up to the 31st.

So I started drawing this mutilated face (sounds worse when I type it out) that I used to always draw in high school. I don't know why. I think I was inadvertently influenced by H.R. Giger or the Alien movies or something else he did in the 80's or 90's because alot of my doodles (btw, I hate that word) had that organic/mechanical combination that he was so good at. I don't even like mentioning him, because in no way am I trying to mimic or copy his work or his art style.

My original intention wasn't to add all of the machine-like pieces throughout the drawing. I was going for a more organic feel. When I started it, I was actually hoping to finish it the same night. But it's now been over a week and I've gone back and forth erasing alot of what I had originally started. And now I'm going to completely fill in both pages. My view of what I was supposed to draw changed drastically. But then again that's usually what happens. I go in with no real vision or goal in sight.

Obviously it's not done yet. Like everything else on here it's just a rough draft and I'm going to either post the completed work the next time, color and all, or a version in between in ink. I'm trying to finish up all the rough pencil work by this Thursday night. Ever since the Koh-I-Noor pens I've been wanting to get have received a significant price drop they've been out of stock.... And literally, just as I wrote that last sentence they moved the date up on when they will be in stock again. Oh well, at least that saves me 2 train rides and about 3 hours (round trip) to get into Pasadena to get them...

More (of the same) Markers

Ok, so I had this coupon for Aaron Brothers for 50% off any one item. Just to make it clear, I rarely ever shop there... The selection is terrible and the service is subpar. Anyways, I went in yesterday because the coupon I had expired that day. I was hoping to find the Koh-I-Noor pens that they used to always carry. And of course they don't carry them anymore (I guess the $140 retail price was too much for most). So I figured I could find some other pens in the meanwhile but there was nothing even close to that quality.

Instead I see a set of Copic Sketch Markers. Big mistake. They had them at retail ($77.99) and not even thinking if I already had those colors I bought them. With the coupon it came out to $42 for the set of 12. I just couldn't pass up that deal. They retail for about $6.49 each. With the coupon they were each about $3.25. Considering these markers are rarely ever below retail I thought it was a good decision.

The ones I bought are the 12 oval shaped markers at the bottom. If you look closely you can find the doubles.

So, of course, once I got home I get my other markers only to realize that I already had those colors. Every single one of them. I don't know how to feel. I thought about returning them or doing something sneaky like taking them to Blick and exchanging them there for something worth $80. But instead I just kept them. Technically though I don't have these because the ones that I buy are the regular, square shaped Copic Markers. But I ended up liking the sketch markers because of the longer brush nib on them. So all in all it wasn't that big of a deal that I spent $40 on a set of markers that I might already have. I think secretly I obsess over the fact that now I have 50 Copic Markers, even if 12 of those are doubles.

Finished Frank Zappa

It took a little longer for me to finish this drawing from my previous post (which should come as no surprise since I'm a habitual procrastinator) but I finally finished it... even if it doesn't exactly look complete. The original picture only shows a small portion of the guitar and even less of his left hand so I decided not to try and draw half a guitar. I guess I should have made it so the bottom of the page cuts it off naturally, but then there would have been all this negative space above him, which I hate. Sometimes I wonder if that's me trying to make it look good composition wise or just some random bout of OCD.

Hopefully though, you can tell who it is or at least recognize him enough if you're not sure. It's Frank Zappa, contrary to what a friend of mine thought from the original pencil sketch, she said it looked like George Harrison. And actually just now I did a Google image search for George Harrison and it kind of did look like him in the 60's with the long hair and mustache. At first I thought it was a bad sign, but in the end I think it came out good.

Since I've been trying to stay away from crosshatching I thought I would just use gray tones to shade instead. For this I used 3 shades of Copic Markers since the original picture was also in black & white. I also used a Koh-I-Noor Rapidosketch drawing pen, which is my favorite drawing utensil until I finally buy their 7 piece Rapidograph pen set. I've always been hesitant to purchase the set, since it retails for about $100-150. Recently though Blick Art Supplies has the set for $60. I need to get those pens. And also these Copic Multiliner SP Pens (another $70). I think I might start selling drawings. More accessible ones though, by that I mean cheaper and smaller. I'll try to post some examples of what I mean in the future.

Work in Progress

Since I haven't gone back to my previous drawing, it's so tedious to the point that I'm kind of over it for the time being, I thought I would draw something similar to the Bertrand Russell ink drawing I did a while back. By that I mean similar in style. Cross hatching, high contrast, etc. I guess you'll see once it's complete. But for now I have a rough sketch that I thought I would post.

Unfinished Frank Zappa

There's still alot of work left to be done. Mostly getting the scale right. Since the guitar and his right arm are angled so weird, I have to get it right to show the correct perspective. At the same time his head is tilted forward. Actually just looking at it right now, I know I need to add more hair to the top of his head.

After I finally finish getting everything right and have completed drawing him and his guitar, I'm then going to go over it in ink. I'll post that and the completed drawing once I'm finished (soon, I hope).

I usually tend to not draw portraits of people, known or otherwise. I always have a feeling that it doesn't exactly look identical to the original. But then, recently I just kind of figured that there's really no other way to get it down then to just try it. Even if it doesn't look like him it doesn't really matter.

Postcard Designs

I recently started doing these small ink and marker drawings on postcard sized illustration boards. Which has been kind of a hassle... mostly the prep involved in hand cutting the thick paper. But once that part was done (I cut out at least 5 for the time being) it wasn't so hard except for what to draw on them.

Originally my idea was to make some hand drawn postcards but then I realized that the illustration board wasn't the best medium. The only reason I used it was it's sturdiness. But either way I think I'm going to use them as prototypes for future postcards. At the very least ideas for them, if anything. I wasn't sure what to draw but I know I didn't want to make anything realistic like scenery or people. So instead I decided to go abstract and use mostly patterns and designs.

The first one below is completed. The second one isn't finished yet but I'm getting around to finishing it. I'll probably have it done by the end of the week and can hopefully update this post or post it in a new one. The designs are pretty much just an amalgamation of previous designs I've done in the past. You can see the similarities to some of my other drawings.

You kinda get the sense of water, I think it's the wave(ish) patterns

I prefer this one to the other one, probably because of the boldness

Unfinished Drawings

Okay, so it's been a really long while since I had any updates or new posts... longer than I thought actually. Until I looked at the date I didn't realize how long it had been. So to make up for it I'm going to post some new artwork (and some unfinished work as well).


Anyways, I was unable to finish the drawing I was working on in the previous post. I was updating it often, you can see in the last few posts that I was working on it. It was a little ambitious of me considering all the intricate line work and using that paint marker I'd never used before. As soon as it dries and I try to apply ink, the paint seems to flake off. Not all the time but about a good 5 minutes into it, it inevitably flakes off, which I then have to color over, again. All of this was way too tedious so I never finished it.

Eventually I will finish this, someday...

As you can see, I wasn't even able to finish one of the colored sections. Too many mistakes. If I drew over it in ink too hard the paint flakes making me have to add color over it. This could eventually damage or tear the paper. But I think I'm going to eventually finish it. Looking at it now after not seeing it for such a long time makes me like it alot more than I did when I was first drawing it.

I have a bad habit of being overambitious sometimes. Usually when that happens I don't end up finishing what I start. That, and my tendency to procrastinate too much. I thought that I'd post a few other drawings that are also unfinished.


I'll start with this one since I already posted it on this blog. The reason why I didn't finish this drawing is that I added more of the "sticks" throughout it and honestly, I was just unsure of where it was going. I drew the skull first, but then just added all the "sticks" and had no idea what I was going to do with it. Plus, I wasn't very fond of the color scheme I used.

This one I have a legitimate reason to have not finished it. (Also from a previous post) This I was drawing at a friend's house while out drinking. I didn't really expect to finish it, but add to the fact that I was a little tipsy and drawing rather quickly, there's no way I would have.

My outdated tv and some random books

This is one of the first drawings in my Moleskine sketchbook. Actually, my third but the first one that wasn't a hand/arm. I was really just eager to use my Copic Markers so I sat on my bed and drew a portion of my room. I didn't finish it because I didn't like how it came out.

A logo I designed for this blog, but never finished

This one was supposed to be say achromatic (color) spectrum, but it's hard to tell since the scan didn't pick up the graphite pencil. And actually, that's the best part of the drawing. But I don't really feel like scanning it again (too many problems with my scanner/printer... it figures, since it's not a standalone scanner).

Some kind of pseudo sea monster looking thing

This final one, I don't know what I was doing. I think I just felt like doing something I hadn't done (or hadn't done in a long while). If you know any of my older work it's very reminiscent of what I used to do. I tried to stay away from cross hatching to give it a different, almost comic/cartoon feel. I dont know why I never finished it.

So hopefully someday I'll be interested in these again, at least enough to finish them. Well, most of them at least. But if I do I'll be sure to post them.

Step By Step Drawing 1.4

So it's been over a week since I last posted the progress of this drawing. Mostly because I didn't know where to go next... by that I mean I didn't have any direction as to what was going to be in the background. I really just started drawing this girl, and figured something would come to mind.

I got these markers recently. They're the kind people use for crafting, scrap booking and whatnot. I thought, what can I really do with them? So I decided to use them in this drawing. I've never used them before and don't really know any of the quirks involved with mixing them with ink. Hopefully it wont ruin the drawing but we'll have to wait and see in the next post.

Anyways, on to the drawing.

I finally finished filling in the colors that were off on her. And I went over alot of the lines in and around her body. You can see the pencil sketches of the spaces where I'm going to be drawing something in.

Ok, so it may look rough but this next part kind of took me longer than I thought. It was a really hard decision to draw in all the lines before coloring the area. The markers I'm going to be using are so strong that they just completely cover over everything leaving no sign there was anything underneath at all. I guess that's because they're leafing markers.

The next step will probably be the hardest and most labor intensive because I'm going to have to slowly and precisely (well not that precise, but you get what I mean) color in small areas, while at the same time still leaving the pencil marks that I will then be filling in with ink. It's kind of hard to explain but you'll be able to see what I mean in the next post. The idea here is for the spaces to look metallic.

I don't know, but I hope it works.

Step by Step Drawing 1.3

In this picture I fixed some of the lines a little bit and went over most of the hair with a thicker tip. I think it really helped to give the hair some depth. I also added the first layer of color.

Step 5

The next picture is almost complete, well the girl at least. I need to touch it up a little bit, you can kind of see some spots but it's mostly done. Now I just need to add a background or something(?) I'm still not sure what to do with it.

Step 6

On a side note, if you notice in this post, compared to the last two ones, the quality and color look alot better. That's because the drawings were scanned wireless so I think the image quality wasn't as good so I connected my laptop directly to the scanner and you can immediately see the difference in quality.

Step By Step Drawing 1.2

At first I wasn't sure how to draw the hair, meaning that I didn't know whether or not to keep it simple with straight lines like I had planned to. So instead I just sort of used the rough sketch as a guideline and just started filling it in and see how it would come out. The result is a mix of my usual cross hatching.... That's exactly what I was trying to get away from doing, but I knew that I'd eventually get to that point. I'm going to limit the cross hatching to the hair and nowhere else.

Step 3

I just finished it up to this point this morning. There's alot more detail, and some of the lines were made bolder. It's coming together better than I was hoping for. Now all I need to do is finish it by touching it up and adding more depth and maybe a background or something.

Step 4

Step by Step Drawing 1

Originally this blog was supposed to help me with drawing everyday... that is, to help by getting me to draw everyday more or less. At first it was more, now it's unfortunately become less and less.

This post is a good example of what I was originally going to be doing. Now that I have a proper scanner setup, time, and my interest has peaked, I've decided to chronicle a drawing I started working on this past Monday. It isn't finished yet, but I'm going to try and post the progress. Well, at least scan the progress and post it afterwards.

Step 1 (more like 2 actually... read below)

I had a rougher version of this, a sketched out one, but when I scanned it most of it didn't come out. I think it has to do with the pencil not being picked up. When I messed with it in Photoshop I could see some of the indentation of the drawing, but no graphite. Her hair expands in the drawing above, but like I said, the scanner didn't quite get it.

Step 2

Here I filled in more of the hair and went over some of the lines. If you've ever heard of, or seen, any of Moebius' work you can see the influences here. Actually that's the style that I've been dabbling alot with lately (clear, solid lines with little to almost none, or non-existent, shading at all). His drawings are so smooth and fluid, he's probably my favorite artist. I guess that's because he does the kind of art I also do, illustration.

Anyways, that's it for now but I'll be updating the next steps of the drawing. Hopefully it comes out the way I want it to in the end. But if it doesn't at least I'll be able to go back and alter the previous image(s) digital, which is something I rarely ever do, if it all.

Finished Bertrand Russell Portrait (with Quote)

So for some reason I haven't really been drawing as much as I'd like to lately. I think it has alot to with the art show and all the work I did at the last minute that kind of turned me off to it. But really though, I had been in a considerable drought even for me.

The other night though for some reason I decided to finish a drawing I had started a while back in my Moleskine sketchbook. It was already my favorite drawing in the book but became even more so when I completed it. It's a portrait of Bertrand Russell, philosopher and logician, along with a quote of his that I not only like, but fits the space rather nicely.