White Tree iPod doodle

Little sketch done in Sketch Club on my iPod. Still summery weather here for the most part with the exciting tingle of autumn in the air. Dunno where this winter scene was inspired from. 

A few iPod Touch sketches

Here's a few new sketches done using Sketch Club on my iPod Touch. I don't really plan what I'm going to draw when I do these, I kind of just start sketching. 

"Alert"

"Angry Sketchy Guy" His chest turned out way too big for his tiny angry head. 

"Marvel's Moon Knight" one of my nephew's favourite comic book characters. 

The hardest thing about doing these is precision: the screen is so small, and my finger gets in the way.  I should get a stylus. Previous iPod drawings and paintings I've done can be seen here. 


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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow under Creative Commons Licence.

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Good-bye - a Sketchclub er, sketch

"Good-bye"  - ©  Glendon Mellow 2011

Still playing with Sketchclub on my iPod Touch. Really enjoying this app. 

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow

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Testing out the Sketchclub app

I first read about the Sketchclub app on the excellent blog fingerpainted.it. 

Like Brushes and Sketchbook Pro Mobile, it's a powerful little app, great for sketching on the go. Immediately though, I have to say I love the interface.  Selecting brushes and colours just zips along, and some of the brushes are really fun. You only get 2 layers, but you can use tools like Multiply or Overlay. 

My first sketch was of a trilobite and a face. 

©  Glendon Mellow 2011

Is the face me?  Not my nose, but my eyebrows and tired new-dad eyes. I like the little shaded blade. Surprisingly though, I don't think there's a tortillon or smudger for the pencil tool.  But it does simulate it by tracking turns and where you would smudge it with your hand.  Sorta. 

Here's a couple more of my first explorations of this nifty new app which I posted directly to Facebook - another neat feature. Can't wait for Twitter to be added.

eye sketch - Sketchclub - © Glendon Mellow 2011

Ammonite sketch - Sketchclub - © Glendon Mellow 2011

If I have a complaint, it's that there's no button I can find for starting a new sketch. If I pick an empty slot from the file page, it loads with my last worked-on drawing, which I then need to clear.  According to the review though, the developer has a background in the gaming industry, and is actively and constantly improving the app, so I expect good things. 

You can click on the iPod Touch label for more of my iPod sketches. 

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow

under Creative Commons Licence.

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Art Monday: Trilobite Boy faces

click to enlarge

Lots more Trilobite Boy here. 

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Happy Thanksgiving, my fellow Canadians!

Trilobite Boy - iPod sketch

Inspired in part by the excellent sketches Eric Orchard has been producing the last few months on his iPod, here's a sketch of Trilobite Boy.
I did this using Sketchbook Mobile.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
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iForgot

Yesterday, I put up a "making of" post about Trilobite Boy Rocks Out.

I forgot to include the original colour sketch idea that had those crazy colour lights/bubbles in the first place!

It was made on my iPod Touch using Autodesk's Sketchbook Mobile while I was walking to work through Trinity-Bellwoods Park.  The iPod is a great took for quickly putting down rough ideas when inspiration strikes.  The two best apps in my opinion are Sketchbook Mobile and Brushes.  

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
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Art Monday: Girl & Dino, made on iPod

Girl & Dinosaur, done on iPod Touch using Brushes.
©  Glendon Mellow

I've been messing with this drawing on my iPod off and on in odd moments. Used Brushes, which is so much better since it added layers.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
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Computer back, my brain reboots. Huh.

Turned out to be a motherboard problem with the HP Pavilion I bought last August. Thanks to Geek Squad, a warranty and me obstinately figuring out how to reload my backed up files, everything is running again.

I lost the rest of the photos from the zoo - don't wait for your weekly back-up kids! - but all things considered, not so bad.

Thankfully I was smack-dab between two commissions, (and one was traditional oils all the way!) and could check email via my wi-fi and iPod Touch. My mother-in-law let us borrow an older 'puter, and now we have two.

Except for the backing up not-supposed-to-be-in-there files in my D:/ drive, it's all good. Now to get back into the swing of things here, at Art Evolved, and at SONSI.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Flying Trilobite Gallery *** Flying Trilobite Reproduction Shop ***

Shhhh...it's gonna be okay.

It may be a little quieter around The Flying Trilobite for a couple of weeks. The second-half of my brain, my new HP Pavilion pc has lost it's mind. I bought it last August, and came home two days ago to discover hard drive failure. Although the 5 hours with 3 different HP phone support personnel gallantly tried to save things, it was not to be.

Most of our files are backed up (the rest of the zoo photos were not yet) so things should be back to normal after the Geek Squad at Best Buy finishes their work.

But will the new pc love me like the old one?
* * * *
Thankfully my wi-fi Bell Fibe modem and iPod Touch are there to keep me going in teeny touch-sensitive blogging.

There's an exciting post in the works for Monday next week of some very different art I completed recently. *wink wink*

Also, make sure to visit the site for the Southern Ontario Nature & Science Illustrators that we've been putting together. Lots of great science illustrators in the links!

And don't forget the Art Evolved icthyosaur gallery launches at the start of May!

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.

Flying Trilobite Gallery *** Flying Trilobite Reproduction Shop ***

All this time away from the pc should allow me to get a lot of oil painting done.

Art Monday: Subway Trilobite

Subway Trilobite
Digital, 2009.
Originally appeared here.

Done using the Brushes app on my iPod Touch while commuting by subway.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Flying Trilobite Gallery *** Flying Trilobite Reproduction Shop ***

Art Monday: Balloon Boy

A doodle-y sketch using the fun and excellent Sketchbook Pro app on my iPod Touch.
Click here for more of my iPod Touch sketches, or visit fingerpainted.it to see other artists' impressive work, including with the new iPad.

The iPad is certainly on my *want* list, (mostly because my wife and I have to budget our computer needs on our one sweet pc), however it isn't really the same as a digital tablet like my Intuos 3. For one thing, the inaugural version of the iPad doesn't have any levels of sensitivity, making it a significantly less versatile tool than a digital tablet & pen. Still I love my iPod Touch so a bigger more sophisticated one would be amazing.

I already use my iPod Touch as a portfolio, (the reason Michelle bought one for me) and the iPad would be even better.


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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Flying Trilobite Gallery *** Flying Trilobite Reproduction Shop ***

Art Monday: ScienceOnline2010 iPod sketches

Created using the Sketchbook Pro app on my handy iPod Touch.

Pre-Dawn Clouds

Made while on the plane heading to the unconference from Toronto. I haven't captured it well enough. It was a solid, almost melted-blue lavaflow landscape of clouds. The dawn sunlight became visible as I was finishing the piece.

ScienceOnline2010 Participants

Created during one of the sessions while sitting near the back. Which session? Ain't tellin'. The person at the front is no one in particular. Or else they would've been wearing blue.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Flying Trilobite Gallery *** Flying Trilobite Reproduction Shop ***

Art Monday: practicing with Brushes

The Brushes app on my iPod Touch always makes for an interesting diversion in those odd moments - standing and waiting for a friend, a short streetcar ride.

I've been practicing a bit to get more detail. The control over opacity and the colour picker are terrific. My one grumble with this elegant little program is in using small brushes.


(Click to enlarge - probably to bigger than it appears when I'm working on it!)

There are three brushes, smooth to coarse, and a slider to alter the width. The problem is the slider is real touchy at the narrow end. So duplicating a "pencil" sized line becomes a real challenge.

I've been working on this face off and on, trying to play with wrinkles and textures, and generally get a handle on the program. A lot of the proportions are off, (and the purplish glowing eyes are possibly a bit creepy) but it's for the sake of the exercise.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Flying Trilobite Gallery *** Flying Trilobite Reproduction Shop ***

Art Monday: settling in

Although I haven't had very much time to draw and paint lately, I can feel the beginnings of new routine establishing itself.

The trip to York U is a long one, and I have my trusty iPod Touch with the Brushes app to sketch with while bumped and jostled on the subway and bus.

For the moment, my class on Drawing & Narrative is on Tuesday mornings and I'm taking the whole day off work so I can get in some studio time in the afternoon.

I've started and stopped so many projects lately that I'm actually creating a checklist to keep them straight. Here's where I left off the Anomalocarid Dress that I began for Art Evolved's last group gallery:

I'm using Artrage, and this image on the right is such a massive hodge-podge of techniques. I am still sorting out my workflow, and this image is on many layers while I do that. Painting over top of the existing pencil sketch seems to be less rewarding than if I had completed the sketch in ArtRage itself.

There's a long way to go, and this is deep in the Ugly Phase: that phase of painting where I almost can't look at it. It's essentially an underpainting of colours to support more detailed layers over top. Although ArtRage functions realistically like oil in many ways, I have to kind of lay down a process for myself.

Normally when painting on canvas, I pre-prime the canvas with either a raw umber or straight ivory black. I enjoy the process of painting and watching the figures edge their way out of the darkness. It's like the image reveals itself on black instead of appearing on white.

With this image, I began by painting over the sketch, meaning over an off-white. So I added heavy blacks, and they feel big and globby.And the skin isn't right. I wanted a lopsided smile, but turned it into a deformed mouth. I'll likely need to start over, delete the scanned sketch page, leaving only the drawing, or reverse the values of the scanned image.

Let's see what I can do to correct this image in days to come.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Flying Trilobite Gallery *** Flying Trilobite Reproduction Shop ***

Subway trilobite with Brushes app

Still practicing with the Brushes app on my iPod Touch. Did this while on the streetcar and subway yesterday. I kind of like the sketchy pencil lines. Trying to keep my practice pieces simple. Limited colour palette, subject I'm familiar with and a dark background. I think that's always best when exploring a new medium.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence. Flying Trilobite Gallery *** Flying Trilobite Reproduction Shop ***

Art Monday: sketching with iPod Brushes

Still getting used to it. Brushes is a pretty powerful program for digitally painting on the iPod Touch. I'm hoping to grow in skill with Brushes as I go - perhaps I need a stylus. Right now, I'm using my fingers.

When the idea for my Major Billy Barker & his Pterosaur Squadron hit me, I was walking in a park and tried to sketch it out. The final colours ended up looking pretty different. But it caught the perspective and clouds.

Here's a slightly more detailed sketch for a new piece I am working on about the accomodationist / science communication uproar that's been happening on science-based blogs for the last little while.
It was again, one of those ideas that I needed to sketch immediately. I filled a couple of pages of my sketchbook, and this image before beginning the final piece. It's a great way to do a quick colour study without the mess. Not sure if the DNA pawn will make the final image though.

The stuff at the Brushes site is pretty inspiring, and illustrator Eric Orchard did some nice work with it recently. I think the key is to spend time with it, as you would any painting medium, rather than solely for sketching as I have done so far. I'm sure I'll be posting new images as they come.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Flying Trilobite Gallery *** Flying Trilobite Reproduction Shop ***

A trip down portfolio lane...

The answer to "where am I going to put all these drawings?!" gets easier over time. Portfolios come in all types, and I'm loving the slick new one my pixie-wife picked up for my birthday.

Here's an example of some of my early ones.The wooden one is an heirloom from my paternal grandmother, whom I never met. These days I store my final pencil drawings in it to keep them nice and flat. The one with the painted image on the side I've had since early high school. When I applied for university, half of acceptance was based on marks, the other half, your portfolio. I suffered from horrible portfolio envy that day. I can remember a glamorous blonde and fast talkin' pushy guy each coming into the waiting room with massive paintings, friends helping carry them in and coordinate around corners. And me in the corner with my wee portfolio.

Me and the blonde got in, so whatevs.

Years later, my wife picked up this spectacular deep red plexi and steel portfolio by Pina Zangaro. I love how whatever image is inside becomes saturated with red hues, and dark paintings hint to the eye at things underneath. Mysterious and outstanding at once. I still carry this for face to face with people. I consider it a win if people comment on the art and not the flashy portfolio.

Now, I've entered a new age. Most of my technology is hand-me-down, and I'm grateful for it, --erm, quirks and all. The new Wacom Intuos 3 tablet is pretty awesome. At home, we're trying to upgrade our technology this year, not cutting edge, but at least a step up.

Enter the new portfolio: an iPod Touch.
Okay, maybe I'm out of touch, (ha! oh...) but it had never occurred to me to use an iPod or pda as a portfolio. Earlier this year, I purchased an iPod Nano for my wife, and after it self-loaded her hundreds of family photos on it, and she saw how little space it used, her idea was sparked.

Currently I have over 80 images loaded up. I can pinch-zoom, flick through them in seconds with no loading times...this is like a dream. Years ago I was sketching in a coffee shop, and a man asked for my card. I didn't have one back then, and he said, "oh well" and left. I always have one now. And now, I could go further: show off some of my best pieces, my completed contracts and zoom in on details. I'm hoping this will help advance my career in those unexpected moments.

I added the Brushes app (by Steve Sprang) and it's pretty cool. If I produce anything worthy, be sure I'll post it. I love how I can import my drawings, and paint with them almost like using a junior tablet! Transparencies and everything. Suh-weet. There are galleries of this type of sketchy little art (here at Wired, and a blog called Touch Art). I've read some criticisms of this type of drawing ("looks like fingerpainting") but I'm taking that as a challenge to produce something cool.

Oh and the iPod Touch plays music too, or something.

Flick, flick, flick...

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow under Creative Commons Licence.
Flying Trilobite Gallery *** Flying Trilobite Reproduction Shop ***