Cloud Character #1 (Somewhere Between Denver And Detroit)

Here is another scratchboard piece and this was done prior to the scout trooper in the previous post. Clouds are such characters in their own right, each one different than the other and constantly in a state of flux.



Cloud Character #1 (Somewhere Between Denver And Detroit)
4x6
scratchboard

Scout Trooper

I've been tinkering with some scratchboard stuff as of late and came up with this scout trooper character from Return Of The Jedi.



Scout Trooper
4x6
scratchboard

Portraits

In the last few sessions of my figure drawing class we had the opportunity to work in any medium, as long as it was in full color. We had been working with colored pencils for the last few weeks, so I brought in the acrylics to see what I could do. I started out not half bad as these two will attest, but it was downhill from there. During the last two sessions I stunk up the place just about as much as one could stink up a place. It was bad. Expletives were quite common from my little corner of the room. I couldn't mix paint, well, I just couldn't paint and let's leave it at that.

So, here are the two that didn't suck so much.


Head Study #16
acrylic on illustration board
10x15


Head Study #17
acrylic on board
13x12

Venus Of Urbana

I did this as a sketch a couple of years ago and thought that it would make an interesting if slightly humorous take on the current "unhealthy/obese/sexy curves debate," using Titian's Venus Of Urbino (1538) as a starting point. It's somewhat appropriate here because I think that Michigan is now the chunky capital of the U.S. Or maybe it just has a whole loaf load of sexy curves.

I can't complain too much, as I'm damn sexy sometimes myself.

I'll go now. Enjoy.



Venus Of Urbana
12x9
colored pencil
(one day I will do this as a painting)

Bruce Gerlach Sketch Cards on ebay

For those of you into collecting sketch cards, my Lord Of The Rings Masterpiece II return cards are now up on ebay for your bidding pleasure. Go ahead and make me happy, I dare you.

Here are the links:

Berserker Orc

Gollum SOLD

Urak-Hai SOLD

Dead King

Gandalf SOLD

Balrog

Eliphont SOLD

Jack Kirby line study

This is a line study that I did a couple months back for an assignment in my figure class. We had to do a copy of a pen and ink drawing (comics seemed to be the popular choice) by someone well know in the arts. I chose this image from the cover of The Eternals #9 by Jack Kirby. This particular issue was one of my faves as a kid. It had this cool blocky monster with jagged teeth and plenty of mayhem and action. Everything a growing boy needs. And it has those remarkable flat and large fingers that I always found to be appealing. Maybe that's why I like Rodin's sculptures so much. But anyways, the purpose of this exercise was to understand  the artist's use of line weight. Thick and thin lines. The lettering is weak, but I enjoyed the rest very much so. I did the whole thing with a brush to...ahem...brushen up on my skills in that department.

Jack Kirby Line Study

15x20

india ink

Here is the original cover to The Eternals #9 by Jack Kirby
And here is an update of my returned cards from Topps. I didn't select the first two, so I'm guessing that the ones that I wanted back went out into circulation. Oh well, this happens from what I hear. I've also included two of the three that I received for doing some extra cards. They will all be for sale (eventually on ebay, I guess), except for the Gandalf at the Gates of Moiria. I'm keeping that one.

Figure Drawings

Here are a few charcoal drawings that were done last month in my figure drawing class. I really enjoyed doing this erase out technique as it was similar to sculpting in some ways by taking away and forming the shapes instead of adding line. Plus, in creating the image in this way gives off a smoky or hazy atmosphere. 

I'll definitely have to explore this technique some more.