Sometimes, I just wish I had something sugary…. like right now… when I should be working on my figure drawing homework!  … But, since I have none of the above, I decided to sketch it instead

I think I like the style this ended up being, even if the character doesn’t look much like me.  I’ll have to experiment with drawing some more people this way… it reminds me of something, but I can’t think of what!  But, at least for now it will have to remain a mystery because I need to get back to work.

Thanks for checking out my drawings!

Work in Progress 2011

My original plan was to color this sketch and post it for the Illustration Friday topic “swell” … but painting is taking a lot longer (and requires a lot more “undoing”) than I thought it would, so I haven’t finished coloring this yet.  But, since I haven’t posted anything in a few days, I thought I would upload the line drawing as a “Work in Progress.”

This drawing is for Mom! When we were little, my twin sister and I liked to ask our Mom if we could “style” her hair.  We were four, so a good hair style meant getting out the container of hair clips, rubber bands, bobby pins, and other hair-do things and putting as many of them as possible on Mom’s head.  We told Mom we were making her hair beautiful before she went to work (and plastic hair clips are beautiful, so you should really wear as many of them as possible).

For this drawing, I was trying out a cartoon-y style of drawing, maybe something you would find in a children’s book.  I want to have some variety in my portfolio, so I thought I would try something different. Hope you like it!

That’s all for now! Thanks for checking out my work!

Digital. 2011.

I’m trying to build up my portfolio with more professional-related work. So, since I’m interested in concept art, I decided to try my hand at character design… and for some reason “pirate” was my first idea.

I think there’s still a lot of room for improvement here, but I am pretty happy with it for a first-try, so I decided to post it

I’ve also found there seems to be an over-abundance of posters with motivational quotes that use the same design and typography – usually, very plain left justified text, some type of alphabet or repeated phrase theme, or “keep calm and… whatever.”

So, since motivational posters don’t really motivate me, and I’ve been seeing the same designs all over the place, I decided a parody was in order!

Here’s what I came up with:

Anti-Motivational Poster. 2011.

… This is the type of sense of humor I have….

It might be too small to read because this is a pretty low res .jpg, but the text on the square with the blue background reads: “Stop looking for distractions.” Special thanks for this phrase goes to whoever graffitied the desk on the second floor of Shields Library at UC Davis.  I used to study on the second floor of the library between classes and frequently sat at a desk where “stop looking for distractions” was written in pencil in about 8 places on the desk.  I always thought it was kind of funny.

I just made this for fun and design/ Adobe Illustrator practice, but just out of curiosity… would anyone be interested in buying one of these posters if they were available?

That’s all for now!  … maybe I’ll print one and hang it by my desk

Digital Painting - Work in Progress. Corel Painter. 2011.

I tried to work on using some of the rendering techniques I learned in my chiaroscuro and head drawing classes to make the figure look less flat.  I still have some work to do, especially on the arm, but I’m a lot happier with this version – it looks less cartoony.

I also tried out a couple new tools in Corel Painter: the “just add water” blender and the “burn” photo tool.  The just add water tool worked great for blending out some of the brush strokes and adding some depth to the water.  I used the darkest water color at a low opacity (I think 5%) and blended over the figure to make it look like her lower half was deeper in the water.  I used the photo burn tool to darken some of the shadow areas.

Here’s the first version for comparison:

Digital Painting - Work in Progress - Part One. 2011.

Part two looks better, right? … I hope…

Also, solved the mystery on whether or not Irish Merrows are meant to be “evil.”

In Irish mythology, there is a huge difference between male and female “mer-people.” From Ireland’s Eye.Com,  Female merrows were exceptionally beautiful, but with flatter feet than a human and webbed fingers.  Male merrows on the other hand, were supposed to be extremely ugly with pig-like features and long pointed teeth; they were rarely seen.

So, here’s where the mix-up happened: back in high school  was trying to write a story using Irish mythology, and decided (for reasons I don’t remember) to combine the features of male and female merrows into one character. So, apparently when I started this drawing I had my version of a merrow in mind instead of the real version.  But, so far it’s made for an interesting painting so I think I’ll leave it that way

That’s all for now -  Hope you like the new painting!

Here are the links to Ireland’s Eye if you’re interested:

http://www.irelandseye.com/animation/explorer/merrows.html

http://www.irelandseye.com/

Graphite on paper. 2011.

This is my first Illustration Friday!  …. But, I was trying to color it and missed the deadline for submitting a link (oh no!)   But, I liked this drawing so I wanted to post it anyway.  I may still finish coloring it and then will post the final version here again.

Anyway, the topic was “Obsession.”  For some reason, that made me think of a 1950′s housewife… like a “Stepford Wife.”  If you’ve seen the 2004 comedy re-make with Bette Midler and Nicole Kidman, you might remember that Nicole Kidman’s character, Joanna Eberhart, bakes 100s of cupcakes for her daughter’s day camp to try to fit in with the other wives.   And, in an earlier scene, Bette Midler’s character, Bobbie Markowitz, tells her she looks like Betty Crocker.  So, with those two ideas and a general Stepford Wives theme  in mind, I came up with this drawing.  (If you haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend it – it is hilarious!).  I am really happy with the way the drawing came out!

This week’s Illustration Friday topic is “Imperfect,” so I am going to try to come up with an illustration for that theme by Thursday.   If you’ve never heard of Illustration Friday, it is a weekly illustration challenge where a topic is posted on Friday, and anyone who wants to participate can post a thumbnail and link to their drawing about the topic until the new topic is posted on Friday.   It’s a great way to see other artists’ work and get some critique for your drawings!  Check it out:  Illustration Friday

Hope you like this drawing!  And, thanks for checking out my site!  I’m going to try to post more often, I have way more ideas of things to post now, so hope you will be back

Today I started this digital painting!  It’s no where near finished but I got a pretty good start on it.  This painting is of a “Merrow” which, based on some research on Irish mythology I did in high school, is an evil Irish mermaid… wikipedia says they are quite peaceful, (the opposite of what I read), so since I wouldn’t exactly call wikipedia a reliable source, I’ll have to do some research to see if I can dig up where I originally found my information.

I spent about 6 hours working on this in Corel Painter today, so my eyes really need a break from the computer!  Thanks for checking out my work, more projects and works-in-progress to come!

I’ve been looking at some really amazing artwork by some artists who have worked on Disney films or at the animation studio (more on that later…) and it reminded me that I used to really like doing Disney-style cartoony/realistic characters when I was drawing for fun – it was so inspiring!  That was a few weeks ago, and I’ve been sketching almost non-stop ever since … though, not all of my sketches have been worth sharing (trust me).

On the other hand….

"Mulder and Scully." Pencil, 2011.

I liked this one so much I framed it and hung it up in my apartment   This is my cartoony version of Mulder and Scully from the X-files.   I decided one day that Mulder would make a good cartoon and this is the result of that idea.

More sketches and projects coming soon – I’m trying to space them out so I’ll have stuff to post more frequently!

Also, I just changed the name of this page, because “Tara Rankin Art and Illustrations” was sounding way too serious (and boring). The url is still tararankin.wordpress.com (my name all squished together), but now the title of the blog is “Illustrator Tara.” I’ll make a header image to go with it in the near future

Anyway – if you haven’t seen the digital illustration I posted earlier, just scroll past this theme change non-sense or go here: http://tararankin.wordpress.com/2011/06/23/digital-landscape/

That’s all for today!

Anyway….

Digital Illustration. 2011.

… I considered water-marking this but I decided that making the image tiny would suffice  I have one original that is I think 15 inches wide, and then a smaller version I turned in for my class that is 8×10.

I painted this in Corel Painter, which I may have already mentioned is my new favorite thing for drawing :p  There are so many options and tools that it was a little overwhelming to learn at first, but it’s a great program for painting and making your digital painting look similar to a hand-painted painting … I don’t usually like to have visible brush strokes so mine probably looks like a digital painting because I try to hide them.  For this painting I used the “oil pastels” medium in Painter and blended using the clone stamp.

When I first painted this, I LOVED it – it was the best thing I did all semester!  But, I’ve been looking at some really amazing artists’ work and it makes me want to re-do this one… or make a new digital painting that’s even better because this is looking a little flat or static to me at the moment . So, that’s what I’m working on right now – a new painting!  Seriously, I have a sketchbook on my lap as we speak… or, as I type …  But, as soon as I get a thumbnail I can work with, I will upload some in-progress photos.

I may have mentioned that I was going to upload two digital paintings … but Photoshop just decided its not going to let me type anything in the “height” or “width” boxes to re-size the image (I think re-sizing the last one confused it).  So, I’m going to have to fight with Photoshop or re-start my computer before I can get that one re-sized and uploaded (it is also huge, at least on screen, it’s 9×12).    So, look out for a new post with that painting soon!

So, at long last, my first digital painting:

Digital painting. 2011. (c) Tara Rankin

This is a scene from Alice in Wonderland as I imagine it.  This is the scene where Alice has just followed the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole only to mistakenly drink from a bottle that makes her very very small.

I wanted the viewer to be in Alice’s position, looking up at the White Rabbit.  So, I used a very dramatic (and difficult!!) three point perspective to make the room look huge.   Setting the vanishing points in Photoshop was a bit tricky because when I drew my thumbnail for this painting I put the vanishing points as far off the page as possible to make the perspective more realistic, but in Photoshop it’s hard to set a vanishing point off your drawing because there’s no way to mark it.  I ended up using the rulers so chose vanishing points, but in the future I think I’ll try out the perspective grid tool in Illustrator.  Hopefully it will make my life easier.

I’m pretty happy with the way this turned out, but I’m working on an environmental concept painting in Corel Painter right now, and I’m hoping it will be even better (by the way, Painter is an amazing program, it’s my new favorite thing!).

Anyway, thanks for checking out my painting!  Bonus points if you can pick out all the little Alice in Wonderland details

Expect more drawings from me soon!

To check out my Behance portfolio, you can go to: http://behance.net/tara_rankin

Or, just click the link on your right under the new “Find Tara” links category (which is what I’ve decided to call the section of links for my websites :p)

It takes a while to get everything uploaded to Behance so I only have one section of my portfolio up right now, but hopefully in the next couple weeks I can add even more!

Hope you like it

2011. Nupastel

This is my latest figure drawing, it’s done in Nupastels.  I think I “finished” this drawing 7 or 8 times before I was actually done working on it – I kept thinking I was done and then coming back 20 minutes later and finding something to fix!  But I think I caught a lot of my mistakes that way.

The topic in class this week was “shadow pattern” so in this drawing I tried to focus on bringing out the light source and getting the correct edge on the shadows, which means  all the “form shadows” (like the shadow that shows the roundness of the arm or leg) should have a soft edge, and all the cast shadows created by the light source should have a sharp, crisp edge.   The sharp edges are tough to draw with nupastels because they tend to pick up the texture of the paper easily, so I used a charcoal pencil to sharpen up the cast shadows.  I also used a white charcoal pencil on some of the brightest highlights… but I think I’ll go into the technique I’ve been using a bit more when I post my next figure drawing because it’s a longer drawing and I have in-progress photos

Speaking of my next drawing …

I also have my first digital painting to post … soon!  There’s a long “making-of” story that goes with that drawing, so since I already wrote a couple huge paragraphs I’m going to hold off on that drawing so this post doesn’t become a novel!  … That and my ulterior motive: I want to shrink my color comps and stick them together side-by-side before I post them :p

I’m also still debating whether or not to change the url and title of this blog.  I’m kind of concerned that tararankin all stuck together is too confusing to spell and hard to remember because of all the R’s and A’s in a row.   But I haven’t come up with a better name yet so for now it’s still the same… if only I could add a “_” somewhere in there to break things up!

Anyway, thanks for checking out my work!   I love seeing blog views – and comments!  If you like my drawings, you can subscribe using the button on the right

Subscribe if you like my work, I’m about to post some new stuff right now!

Nupastel on toned paper, 2011.

Nupastel on toned paper, 2011.

Nupastel on toned paper, 2011.

I drew these over the past several weeks for my figure drawing class at Academy of Art.  I think I”m getting  used to Nupastels.   They are still very, very far from being one of my favorite mediums, but at least I haven’t over-sprayed a drawing to the point where it’s unworkable in the past couple weeks (I’ve started over many a homework assignment because after doing that).

And speaking of homework – I need to get to work on mine!  I have some digital painting stuff that hopefully I can upload soon, after I’ve saved them in a blog-friendly format.

Stand by for page updates! … Yep, I’m editing ALL of them!

I am taking two classes at Academy of Art this semester, the first is called “sustained figurative concepts,” which is basically code for “figure drawings in color.  I took this class last semester but I ended up dropping so I’m taking it again this semester.  My other class is digital painting, which I’m really excited about because aside from the odd facebook “graffiti” drawing (does that app still exist?) I’ve never done digital painting!  (and my teacher is an artist at Pixar, so I’m super excited!)

Anyway… I finished my first new drawing of this semester!  This is a figure drawing from my figure drawing class, and it’s also the new “best thing I’ve ever drawn.”  I hope you like it   I’m really happy with this drawing!

Figure Drawing, Nupastel, February 2011

More to come soon!  Thanks to everyone who’s checked out my drawings!