Raccoon Man

It’s one thing to give some human traits to an animal character, but it’s another to create a whole new being that is halfway between a human and something else. Mythology is full of invented creatures like centaurs and minotaurs that combine elements from humans and animals.

The pencil sketches above were the first steps in developing a design for a creature that is halfway between a human and a raccoon. I surrounded myself with photos and drawings of both and experimented with different ways to draw the mask and to place the ears. Each sketch is a little different, and it takes a lot of variations until one jumps out as the winner.

The final painting was used on a paperback cover for a science fiction novel called The Architect of Sleep by Steven R. Boyett

Related posts on “Apophenia and Pariedolia, and Animal Characters.

Line Weight Hierarchy

Computer drawings made with the CAD program often show the lines all the same thickness or weight. In a large or complex drawing made with uniform line weight, it can be a bit difficult to make out what’s important.

Architects learn to prioritize certain lines and give them greater weight to help the eye sort things out. This “line weight hierarchy” follows specific rules.

First, as an object gets closer to the viewer, it should be drawn with a heavier line.
Within a given form, the heaviest line should be reserved for the outer contour or silhouette (a).

The second heaviest line should be used for "plane breaks" (b)—that is, lines within the form that define the edge where two planes meet.

The finest lines belong to surface details within a given plane (c).

If you reverse those rules and put the heaviest lines in the back of the scene or on the superficial details, you can see how confusing the drawing becomes.

Thanks to Henry Sorenson for explaining this to me.

CAD drawing from Rough Rider Industries, link.

ABC: Stiff and Clumsy

Wednesday is the day for our group sketch game called "Art By Committee." I present an actual excerpt from a science fiction manuscript and you illustrate it.

This week’s quote had a specific description of a raging female, and you came up with a variety of wonderful and creative solutions.

Mei-Yi Chun

Patrick Waugh

Andy Wales

Christoffer Gertz Bech

Paul Bozzo

Madeline Carol Matz

Michael Geissler

Kerry Lackner Jen Zeller

....and the one from the original sketchbook.

May I suggest we take a break from the game next week? I feel privileged to host it, and I'm always amazed by your amazing solutions, but I'll be a little tight on time next week.

West Thumb Caldera

Here's a quick watercolor of the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake, a giant caldera ringed with bubbling pots of water. The pool in the foreground is about twenty feet across, with colonies of orange-colored algae fringing the edges.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Here's a quick watercolor from one of the sketching excursions with ASAI.

We tried to sit high enough above the crush of tourists so that we could concentrate. Behind me, from left to right, is Masatoshi Fujimoto, Ian Stantiall, David Csont, and Gordon Grice.

Hi from Virginia City

I haven't been posting because there's no Internet at Yellowstone. Here's one sketch from Virginia City, an old mining town in the Rockies. This old Ford still runs, the locals told me.

The sketch is a mixed bag of watercolor, brown fountain pen, and water-soluble pencils. The original is about 3 x 4 inches in a mini Moleskine sketchbook. It's a big file if you want to click on it.

We've been enjoying the company of about 40 members of the Society of Architectural Illustrators. Members have come not only from America, but also from Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. These artists have experience in both architecture and illustration, and they create artistic but accurate renderings of proposed buildings, both in digital and traditional media. They meet annually for a juried exhibition, workshops, hikes, and sketching excursions. They're amazing watercolorists and sketchers. More information here: link.

Logan Airport

Jeanette and I are on our way to the annual meeting of the American Society of Architectural Illustrators (ASAI), which will be held this summer in Yellowstone Park.

We got to Logan airport in Boston a little early, so I did a watercolor study of an airplane in a small Moleskine watercolor sketchbook, working across the gutter. Usually planes don’t spend very long at the gates, but this one was held up for a while because of tropical storm Anna.

Dean Cornwell Article

The new issue of Illustration Magazine has a cover feature on American illustrator Dean Cornwell (1892-1960). The article includes over 40 large color illustrations, including some preliminary work and rarely seen paintings.

The story by David Hornung follows Cornwell’s career from his early days a student of Harvey Dunn and Frank Brangwyn to his later mural work from the LA Public Library.

His style evolved from the simple and dynamic shapewelding of his early magazine work to the ornate complexity of his later compositions and his advertising illustration, above.

This detail shows his characteristic juicy and planar handling of form.

The issue also includes a feature on the illustrator Murray Tinkleman and an excerpt on Constantin Alajalov from Fred Taraba’s upcoming book Masters of American Illustration: 41 Illustrators and How They Work.

You can order a copy of Illustration 23 at Bud’s Art Books, which also has other back issues of Illustration Magazine available.
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Illustration Magazine website, link.
War Art Archives (Have a Coke), link.
Thanks to Free Parking Flickr archives on Cornwell, link.
Bud’s Art Books, link.

ABC Collier Brothers

Wednesday is the day for our group sketch game called "Art By Committee." Usually I offer an excerpt from a story, but this time I challenged you to imagine the “Collier Brothers” based on their business card. The solutions show some real imagination about the brothers and their business. Here’s what you came up with:

Patrick Waugh

Mark Heng

Roberta Baird

Doug Jones Andy Wales

Mei-Yi Chun

Honey P. Amplegood

Rob Hummer

Susan Adsett
RA

Andy

Michael Geissler

And the one from the original sketchbook.

Here’s week’s quote:
Have fun! Please scale your JPG to 700 pixels across and please compress it as much as possible. Title it with your name, send it to: jgurneyart(at)yahoo.com, subject line ABC, and let me know in your email the URL of the link to your blog or website if you have one (even if you gave it to me before). Please have your entries in by next Tuesday at 10:00 AM Eastern Time USA.

Lived-in Future, Part 2

Yesterday we looked at ways to give your science fiction universe a sense of history by showing worn-out and obsolete equipment.

But your world doesn’t have to look decrepit or dystopian. You might show a city that had once been ruled by an authoritarian central government that is now in the hands of a vibrant local economy—think of Le Corbusier’s severe apartment blocks or worker houses, taken over by people who have added shutters and flowers in window boxes—which would make him turn over in his grave.

Or you might have a low-tech society reusing the parts of abandoned spacecraft for animal-drawn vehicles.

Another design strategy is retrofitting, modifying existing technology with updated elements, usually to adapt the system for modern uses, like putting an outboard motor on a rowing dory. Retrofitting was one of the design themes of the film Blade Runner, conceived by Ridley Scott and Syd Mead (above).

For most of the history of design, people have used decorative elements to evoke a civilization’s past or present glories. This explains hood ornaments, ship’s figureheads, and the Venetian Bucintoro.

We can’t assume that future civilizations will continue to adopt the Bauhaus aesthetic, which was an anomaly of the 20th century. Across time and culture, humans have always chosen to surround themselves with pattern and decoration, and we’re more likely to see a future with layers of ornament rather than minimalism. Check out CeGeBe's description of modern-day Dresden in the comments of yesterday's post.
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Syd Mead thanks to Kiel Bryant, link