thegreattiny

New blog

2011-02-18T15:17:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

I'll be posting photos, drawings, thoughts, and recipes on my new blog from now on: thegreattiny

birthday selfie

2010-12-09T09:58:00.000-08:00

I was faced with a dilemma this year about when to do my birthday self portrait. In the end, I figured that it doesn't make sense to do two portraits so close to each other. This project is supposed to show an evolution, after all. So this is nominally my November self portrait and I'll do my December self portrait at the end of the month.
Here are my birthday portraits from 2008 and 2009. Hopefully I am evolving indeed.

troll

2010-11-25T03:39:00.000-08:00

Another all-digital thing. A friendly Troll. Props to Tammy Chang and J.T. Trollman for the inspiration.

So far, I'm not really seeing much benefit of skipping paper.

hrm

2010-11-16T04:41:00.000-08:00

Partially out of lacking my light table rig, and partially out of professional curiosity, I've been attempting to make illustrations which begin and end entirely digital. Here is a quick one.

October Selfie

2010-11-12T07:21:00.000-08:00

Dammit, this one is really late. The end of October was very stressful. I'm pretty happy with how it came out, though.

September Selfie

2010-10-06T22:06:00.000-07:00

August Selfie

2010-09-08T18:30:00.001-07:00

I promise I did this in August. I had issues digitizing it again. Gr.

July Selfie

2010-08-02T02:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, I swear I did this in July, but it took me a little bit of time to get my scanner situation worked out on my new laptop. kthx!

June Selfie

2010-07-06T01:54:00.000-07:00

Agh late :(

May Selfie

2010-05-31T10:23:00.000-07:00

WOOOOT!!! Now that I've graduated, I have just enough time to not half-ass this project!! I'm pretty happy with this month's selfie.

April Selfie -- Feeling Wispy

2010-04-30T20:32:00.000-07:00

I'm posting my April Selfie juuuuuust in the nick of time! It is a quick and fun drawing that is as wispy as I feel right now.

photoshop silliness

2010-04-17T04:33:00.000-07:00

It's 4:30 AM. A result of fucking around in photoshop. Better post this now, before I change my mind about it.

I'm going to regret this in the morning ;)

March Self Portrait / Harmony Tool

2010-04-04T18:06:00.000-07:00

Ugh, after several attempts to make a March Self Portrait, I felt like I failed. I was in the process of putting it off till later when I noticed it was April 4th. So I'll just put up this self portrait that I created with the harmony procedural drawing tool sometime last month (http://mrdoob.com/projects/harmony/).

It's an interesting thing to play with. I seriously recommend giving it a go, because it forces you to change up the way you think about drawing. Also, given an understanding of the tool, you can really see someone's process and thinking in the final work, because of the way the tool interacts with what's already on the canvas. Here are a couple more things I did with it.

February Self Portrait!

2010-02-16T10:51:00.000-08:00

Yay, I finally got around to doing it. I wonder how long I can keep this up.

Silly Sketches

2010-02-08T01:36:00.001-08:00

These are actually ideations for a project! omg.

I will try to put up more stuff, I think. I have been lazy about scanning. I have new work, I promise.

January Self Portrait

2010-01-07T15:25:00.001-08:00

new selfie

2009-11-28T20:44:00.000-08:00

One more

2009-08-05T12:01:00.000-07:00

This the the third painting I had up at the Russian Creativity Event in SF on Aug 1. Now who wants it?

Hmmm

2009-08-04T16:21:00.001-07:00

Another little painting. Kinda goes with the sketch two posts below.

Drunken Drawing

2009-07-26T00:48:00.000-07:00

So I'm at my friend's house, who just got a spiffy Intuos 4 and Corel Paint, neither of which I've ever played with. So this is my first experiment with Painter, just a naked lady out of my head. Enjoy.

Yes, I'm still alive

2009-07-04T13:59:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted anything in so long, I feel like whatever I post now has to be EPIC. It isn't however, because this is just a test run for a bigger project I'm working on.

New Figures

2008-08-26T14:55:00.001-07:00

I was experimenting with Japanese-style linework here. Can't say I'm totally happy with the results, but well... next time!

I have a hard time with this model, but I like this face study I did! :)

Coming home

2008-08-26T14:51:00.001-07:00

Dora and I went sketching in San Jose and here are the houses I drew. :)

Return to Paris

2008-08-26T14:47:00.001-07:00

Upon my return to Paris, I present to you the Paris Statues Series. heh.

And a sketch of Pierre-Yves Plat (http://www.pierreyvesplat.com/). I traded him another drawing I did for a CD. Mmm barter economy.

Moving on

2008-08-26T14:44:00.000-07:00

I drew this sketch from memory. It is a drawing I did in London, in the sketchbook I lost. This is a memory sketch both of the people and the drawing I did. Not the best drawing, but an interesting exercise! I did love this scene though: everyone is reading, except one dude, who is spacing out with an angelic smile on his face (I can still see him in mind's eye). He looked like he'd just gotten laid for the first time.

Here is a sketch of a church in Kiev.

Hannah and her Nanna on their way to Vienna

2008-08-26T14:42:00.000-07:00

The most amazing countryside on my way to Vienna! And my compartment mates were Hannah (7) and her grandmother. Some very nice native Austrians. They fell asleep in the cutest manner so I had to draw them. I messed up the first drawing, so I went back later and drew other stuff on it. Something I learned in Paris.

Venice

2008-08-26T14:39:00.000-07:00

A selection of my Viennese sketches.

End of Paris class

2008-08-26T14:29:00.000-07:00

I wish I had my post-class Paris drawings. There was some cool stuff in there. Unfortunately, I lost that sketchbook in London. grr. Anyway, there's Giverny (Monet's Garden), a Siberian mammoth, and my Novelty Case Centre Pompidou drawing. Eclectic collection! :P

More Paris

2008-08-26T14:24:00.001-07:00

Mid June stuff. The last two are drawings of Marta and Laura, two girls from Barcelona that asked us to draw them in Les Deux Moulins (that's right, the cafe Amelie worked in!)

Paris class sketches

2008-08-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple to start us off. This is for June 2008. More to come later to show how I improved with time! :)

People Walking

2008-05-16T19:26:00.000-07:00

sketches and notes :P

Laura

2008-05-16T19:24:00.000-07:00

Laura, substitute model extraordinaire!

Elephants

2008-05-07T20:20:00.001-07:00

One crowded page of elephant drawings just for my friend Jon lol.

Self Portrait

2008-05-07T20:19:00.000-07:00

I thought I was about due for a new self portrait. It's not one of my best, but oh well, here it is. Enjoy.

Dancer

2008-05-07T20:16:00.000-07:00

I finally took some time to draw for myself. I know, that's insane at the end of the semester, but I couldn't take it anymore. So here's one of the things I came up with.

Fun with figure drawing

2008-02-09T13:50:00.000-08:00

So the other night we had a weird male model in figure drawing. He was this big fat guy who got in all these feminine poses! I was working hard on making him appear masculine, even making him all angular and such. Here's an example:

But he just kept prancing around like Cinderella at the ball... Except Cindy seemed to not only lose her dress, but also actually turn into a pumpkin herself! At the end, I decided to see through the globs of fat and draw him as he imagined himself to be:

Isn't that so much nicer?

You might make the argument that he only looks better there because I made him thinner... but here's another lady-version of him!

And here are two versions together, just for fun! Had a bit more time during that pose:

Overall, I had fun with it all. Actually drawing him as a woman helped me relax and loosen up and even my man-drawings of him got better! :)

Kids, Don't Try This at Home

2008-01-26T18:57:00.000-08:00

So this is a crappy photo of a drawing off of a photo, which was washed out by flash and distorted due to proximity of the subject to the camera. Bad idea, I know, but in the end, I'm ok with it.

Figures from 114 portfolio

2008-01-19T12:07:00.001-08:00

On location people sketches (from 114 portfolio)

2008-01-19T12:03:00.001-08:00

Goats from my portfolio

2007-12-21T10:11:00.000-08:00

These are goats from the San Jose zoo. They are pygmy goats, they are supposed to look like that. I know, they're ugly. Ugly like Blake. Just kidding, I didn't mean that, Blake.

Quick post

2007-10-31T17:52:00.001-07:00

two five minute poses of the lovely Kit. Anyone have a problem with her hips in the 2nd one? I'm taking a poll here, so messages or comments would be appreciated.

(By the way, here are links to two of my drawings of Kit from a year+ ago. Just for fun, so you can see how much I've grown: One and Two)

A Bit of Perspective

2007-08-29T15:13:00.000-07:00

A store at Oakridge Mall.

A street in Niles.

I think the organic shapes in these studies are what kept me sane while drawing these.

Mixed Media Mayhem

2007-08-07T17:58:00.000-07:00

Boy am I having fun with alliterations!! Also, I'm having fun with charcoal sketches colored with watercolor and highlighted with white carbothello and white acryllic respectively. Sorry about the mirror images there, but that's just extra fun, isn't it??

These two are off of a photo of some pretty Russian model.

Hopefully you recognize these two as a self portrait. I'm a girl and I have a flare for drama... so what?

Thin Pen Tomfoolery

2007-07-29T00:19:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter Event Drawings

2007-07-23T14:59:00.000-07:00

Animal Drawings

2007-07-23T14:58:00.001-07:00

Brushpen Buffoonery

2007-07-23T14:53:00.000-07:00

Mountains of China

2007-07-20T16:41:00.000-07:00

Taishan
This is the holiest mountain in China. The final scene of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon supposedly takes place here.

While I was painting this, a cloud came up and completely obliterated my view. Also, while I sat on the steps of Azure Temple painting, a crowd of Chinese tourists (and a man who appeared to live on top of the mountain) gathered around talking noisily, taking pictures and whatnot. The Mountain Man sat next to me jabbering on the entire time. "Yup... still don't understand you" was all I could say. Later, he offered me fruit or something. I had to wave him off and run away.

This is a view of one of the smaller buildings of Azure Temple (as you can see, there is more in the background).

Liangshan:
Liangshan was the home to the Outlaws of the Marsh. Nowadays, there is not a marsh there, but the Outlaw Watchtower remains.

The caption in my sketchbook explains it all (in case you can't read my handwriting: View of Buddhist Temple from Outlaw Watchtower)

This is a drawing off of a statue of Likui, the Black Whirlwind. As you can see, he's sporting two axes.

Huangshan
Huangshan is the most beautiful mountain in China. The ending scene of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was actually filmed here! They also grow some fantastic tea here.

I did this one pretty quickly (had to get back down to earth).

This is the Beginning to Believe Peak. I'm pretty proud of this painting!

In conclusion, I'm glad to have had the chance to get away from just doing people/figures all the time and explore landscape painting. I'm fairly content with the results, but I've a long way to go.

Long poses

2007-04-26T00:24:00.000-07:00

self portrait

2007-04-26T00:18:00.000-07:00

woo hoo pastels are fun! :)

sweet pepper :)

2007-04-26T00:15:00.000-07:00

This was our test in my intermediate illustration class.

Head Study

2007-03-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

For Sheldon's class, Spring 2007. Compare with Fall 06 and you will notice some slight differences! :)

Horses!

2007-03-19T21:08:00.000-07:00

All the credit goes to Lauren Reeser, for guiding me through these drawings. We went to draw horses on Saturday and it was a great time! Thanks Lauren!

2007-03-09T14:07:00.000-08:00

Color Study

2007-02-14T12:41:00.000-08:00

A little color study for you. Yes, isn't it amazing?.... ehhh what the hell

Final Color Rendering

2007-01-08T18:08:00.000-08:00

Here's the color version of the old black and white rendering. I had fun with this.

Spartan Spirit

2006-11-05T12:40:00.000-08:00

These drawings are of the Spartan Spirit statue in the courtyard of the art building. They are old and they're also a semester apart. I think if anything, they show a difference in my confidence level from last January to May. Can you tell which is which?

Long poses

2006-11-05T12:30:00.000-08:00

And these are the long poses. 20-25 minutes, I think.

10 minute figure drawings

2006-10-28T14:24:00.000-07:00

And these are the 10's. Stay tuned!

5 minute figure drawings

2006-10-28T14:18:00.000-07:00

Five minute poses! Next time, 10's!

2 minute Figure Drawings

2006-10-27T19:53:00.000-07:00

Stay tuned for longer poses!

Megan McNeal

2006-10-24T00:30:00.000-07:00

This is Megan McNeal, a character I designed for Scot's show, The Moonlighters. She's loosely based off of an old character design his friend Adam made. It's my first time cleaning up a drawing in Photoshop. What do you guys think?

Elephants and Giraffes

2006-10-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

Joe Weatherly seminar.

Rendering

2006-10-17T00:47:00.000-07:00

Here's my "finished" black and white rendering... it's as finished as it's going to be for a little while... hopefully I can finish it at some point, but I'm not sure.

Rendering in Progress and another drapery

2006-10-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

Well since drapery studies are about the only thing I'm doing right now that I am proud of, here you go. Another one:

This is the rendering I'm working on. Obviously a work in progress, but what the hell. Hopefully I can finish it in time and post it on here...

studies.

2006-09-24T11:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, so right now I'm just doing studies. It's ok--it's in preparation for bigger and better things. Here is another drapery study and a face study, as well as a drawing of Melfiscent (damn she's hot). Starting to get conceptual assignments in my classes, though, so if those work out, you'll see them!

Once you know the Disney formula, it's easy.

Tone paper really does make all the difference.

Drapery

2006-09-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

Sorry for lack of updates. My scanner's been inaccessable =(. Anyway, for lack of time, here is a recent homework assignment. I'm not sure if you guys care to see a drapery study, bt that will have to do. I'm sure you don't care about it any more or less than seeing figure drawing or tree studies, so "what the hell."

.... I should end every entry with that. heh.

Another figure drawing

2006-06-03T14:41:00.000-07:00

This is a 20 minute figure drawing of Kit (5 minute drawing of her below) done on tone paper with red and white charcoal pencils.

Tree Studies

2006-06-01T14:14:00.000-07:00

For my required sketchbook for John Clapp's Intro to Illustration class, I tried a few different approaches to drawing trees, since drawing trees was something that was always hard for me before

This is just drawing the shadow shapes, like the self portrait.

I guess this is a cross between line drawing and tonal drawing. Not sure what it is, but I am content with the way it looks.

This is a semi-blind contour drawing of a small piece of some kind of fir tree.

This is a line drawing done in brushpen. Brushpen is fun because it allows you to be loose and "artistic" =).

A taste of figure drawing

2006-05-30T11:51:00.000-07:00

Three figure drawings featured in my last portfolio of the Spring Semester in Sheldon Borenstein's Drawing for Illustration and Animation class.

2 minute: Jessica
5 minute: Kit
20 minute: Jesse

Hello and the Shadow Shapes Self Portrait

2006-05-29T18:43:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! I'm Sasha. I'm in the process of learning how to draw (and do other things) at San Jose State University. I just discovered this whole artblog concept and I must say this is a lot easier than redesigning and fixing up my website and posting things on it. I will still do that, eventually (I hope), but this should get me started on the whole web presence thing.

First post: Shadow Shapes Self Portrait... This was an assignment in John Clapp's Intro to Illustration class and is probably one of the most successful things I did in that class.