Blog
From the Desk of...
Date: 12/13/22
Tags:
#victorian
This is a quick illustration I did for a website layout I am working on. My idea was to create something that resembles the drawings that you see on the title page of a Victorian novel. And I got to use some of my 3d models to make it, which was nice. I loving finding an excuse to use my own models in an illustration.
Progress gif under under the read more.
Morris and Co. Patterns
Date: 12/02/22
Tags:
#victorian
,
#design
I’m planning to update my websites and I wanted to give them a Victorian inspired design since I’ve been very into Victorian clothing and history recently.
I went to see an exhibit on Morris and Co. patterns at the Chicago Art Institute titled “Morris and Company: The Business of Beauty” this past summer and the designs really made an impression on me. I love how they balance nature and geometry. I wanted to recreate some of the patterns to use as tiled backgrounds on websites and possibly for illustrations as well. It turned out to be much more challenging than I thought! Click through to read more about the process and see the reference images I used for these patterns.
Roald Amundsen Portrait
Date: 11/25/22
Tags:
#victorian
,
#polar exploration
This is the result of a kind of experiment that I think turned out okay. I typically work digitally but recently I have been drawn to watercolor and ink. I wanted to try mixing up my process a bit to see if I could get some interesting results.
I based this portrait off of a few photos of Roald Amundsen when he was younger.
Click the read more for a rundown of the process.
The Terror painting studies
Date: 11/18/22
Tags:
#studies
,
#polar exploration
I watched AMC’s The Terror and took some screenshots to do studies. I’m trying to workout how to render ice and snow, so I’m doing studies each morning. I start with two 5 min, then two 10 min and then a final 30 minute study. This is the best I’ve come out with so far.
I don’t consider myself a true ‘painter’, because I rely very heavily on line. I initialy tried to do just shapes but it wasn’t working out for me, so now I’m trying to hybridize the two by incorporating a sketch into the final ‘painting.’ I am making progress, it’s just frustrating because most of the studies I do look absolutely terrible to me. I guess that’s part of the process.
Reference and timelapse under the cut.
Nansen the ship's cat
Date: 11/11/22
Tags:
#frostbite
,
#polar exploration
Nansen, the ship’s cat aboard the Belgica. She was named after Fridtjof Nansen, the Nowegian Arctic explorer. Me being me, I knew that I wanted to pay homage to her in Frostbite. I can imagine her wandering around the ship in the background and curling up on the sailor’s laps for warmth.
I’m reading Roald Amundsen’s Belgica Diariy as research for Frostbite and I was very happy to see a drawing of Nansen by the cabin boy and Amundsen has written once about her in his diary as well.
“Three flying fish flew over the rails tonight. Of course, they were given a warm reception, in particular from Nansen, our small cat. When it is dark she creeps around the deck and catches flying fish all night long.”
-September 27th, 1897
Page 22 of Roald Amundsen’s Belgica Diary by Hugo Decleir
The drawing of Nansen by the cabin boy is below the read more.