I was looking through a lot of folders of artwork and pictures of such artwork, and I realized I haven't posted some of them, so that's what I'm gonna do.
-Enjoy!
My Nightmare Before Christmas Jack-O Lantern of Jack Skellington! Everyone I was carving with was doing Disney themed characters, so mine technically fits. Design from scratch.
Part of the pumpkin collapsed, so I decided to try and save it by making it into a crown. Half success!
Before I left the newspaper, I drew a little cartoon of a Newspaper Fiend on the whiteboard. This is where the staff writes what is incoming for each week and what's held, etc. so it was taking up too much space. To remedy that, I decided to ink a more permanent piece that wouldn't intrude with routine.
And voila! It's all grown up, and still enjoying chewing on papers! The frame I had I got from a thrift store. It was all torn up and dinged, so it looked like the "fiend" was trying to get out.
At meals, I've been drawing requests on napkins (I may snag all the photos other people have of them and compile them here soon). Anyway, my brother made a Deadmau5 costume for Halloween, and I decided to give him a gift to go with it. Double BAMF Deadmau5!
I find it ironic that I've been drawing on napkins a lot--the chat-drawing program on the threads I drew these on is called Napkin.
My friend Ethan, the one with the board, is living closer to me, so we've been trading art back and forth. We've been posting artwork on each other's doors to find, almost like a weird conversation. I'm gonna take pictures of mine and his, and hopefully in the future readers can follow the "conversation" on here.
This post is Ethan-friendly, because if this is posted, then he's seen the completed works, and now all of you get to see it. If you are lost about the references, check out the first post about this project.
Also, the idea of me even wanting to paint on skateboards was originally inspired by the amazingly wonderful Tran Nguyen when she painted a skateboard here, here, and here. Tran, you are so awesome!
If you're too lazy or focused on this post--my friend Ethan is a skater and wanted a blank board arted up. He gave me creative license over everything. His only stipulation was that he wanted to sign it when it was finished.
The board stayed in my room for about a week before my paint supplies were moved up here, and then another week while I prepared. Over this past week I've been dabbling on painting. The majority of it was done before class on my slower days, and then at night while my roommate was out--so that I wouldn't be in the way or tempted to play Halo: Reach with him.
Here is the process, from start to finish, in a series of pictures. Some of them are grainy/glared because I was using overhead lights instead of natural light--because it was night.
At the end of this post, I'll list the colors of paints I used for which parts, just because I know people are gonna ask me.
Original sketches during one of my meals.
The image of the squid/octopus seemed to be my mind's main focus.
Before I went to painting, I needed to play with colors and design, so I sketched it out using GIMP and my Genius Tablet, as usual. I really wanted to use all these blues and greens, and then set it all off with the bright, hot pink.
The board, with a sketch from a China marker, seen with my usual acrylic set up and newspaper to keep messes to a minimum.
Off to a good start. I was really surprised how easily the fluid acrylic covered the large areas I needed painted first. I was experimenting with color mixes, and because of how bright the sky was, I decided to change my original intent for the squid's psychedelic color pattern in my original digital draft.
After a few layers on the sea to get a variety of tones, I realized it got really dark, and that it would dry a little darker. It was here that I officially decided to change the squid's color to something less blue...
And that color was pink! I mixed varying levels of pink to get these nice tones for light and shadow effects. This is more of the "natural" image we have of Architeuthis and his kin, even though they are more naturally red/white and every other color.
I mixed even darker tones for more dramatic shadows, and decided to put some seafoam on those peaks.
Started using white and black for highlights and defining details. Notice the bubbles, wave peaks, and seagulls.
Hanging in Ethan's room after the reveal. We just have to figure out where we want to sign our names. Additional highlights and details were added all over to give the depth I wanted.
Here's Ethan's response. I was originally going to ask him what he thought it was, but he turned around right away because he hadn't pictured anything in his mind.
By the way, he loves it!
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And as promised, the color list:
All of these colors are Golden, Fluid Acrylics. They're higher-grade and a little more expensive than some other ones, but they work for me.
Thought I'd share the artwork I've been doing on Binärpilot's Community (Binärmmunity) threads. A few requests were even made, and I carried them out pretty quickly.
Also, these were done in the threads' drawing option on the comment box. You can only draw in black, erase to white, make each brush smaller/larger, and undo something (no redo). The simplicity is very liberating. And also Zen-like. I used a mouse on this first one (I was at work), and on one other that I actually mention in the pic.
I'm putting them altogether here so one can scroll through and see the progression, and see all of them in one spot without getting lost in the threads.
Enjoy!
(By the way, they're enlargeable).
Due to the onslaught of dino-related scribblings by fellow Binärites, a separate Dinosaurs! thread was created:
At the same time, I started a separate thread for Artwork--discussions and fan-made artwork. This was when I was experimenting with the full-black, while drawing in white process:
Back to the Dinosaurs! thread:
I was requested to draw "a T-rex battling a Triceratops, where the T-rex wins"--and that's what I did.
When I asked for anymore requests, I received "man flying in space rocket away from dinosaurs in space suits with big guns and metal claws?"--and this too I completed.
On the Artwork thread, I started doodling one of my (apparently) favorite things: Squids!
Although the piece "Robot Fighting the Kraken Whilst Proclaiming the Release of Binärpilot's Nordland to an Onlooking and Perplexed Lighthouse Keeper" is technically the newest piece (as of posting this post), the following one will finish this post:
A request of "A triceratops with magic(?) powers killing a T-rex. Magic powers could mean anything, I guess. Laser beams 'n shit like that." The original T-rex vs. Triceratops was part of a jaunt between two friends over who would win. This last one was requested by the same person, as a consolation for the first.
So yeah, these are my thread-based artworks, and now I'm off to bed.
Sorry, my friend Ethan--who requested I draw on his blank skate deck--also requested he not see what I'm doing until it's finished, so that's just to scare him off. Now that it is just everyone-but-Ethan, you can see what I've been doing!
(All images can be enlarged)
During my meals I've been sketching and doodling, a few of them for this project. For some reason, the image of squids and octopi, so that's what I mainly focused on.
Once I found which image I liked the most (top right on first page), and noted some colors, I went back to the blank board and used a china marker to sketch out the lines. When I took the photo, the light washed out the sketch-lines, so I went over in GIMP to darken some lines.
I then took to my computer, armed myself with my tablet stylus, GIMP, and went to town sketching and playing with colors. Here is the rough-version of what I want the board to look like.
The next step is to find a day to set out newspaper, don painting-clothes, and paint up the board. I will keep up on the progress on here. Hopefully I can get it done for Ethan pretty soon!
, as usual. I really wanted to use all these blues and greens, and then set it all off with the bright, hot pink.
, seen with my usual acrylic set up and newspaper to keep messes to a minimum.
. They're higher-grade and a little more expensive than some other ones, but they work for me.
and 
, 
, and Primary Cyan
, and 
and Titanium White
--also requested he not see what I'm doing until it's finished, so that's just to scare him off. Now that it is just everyone-but-Ethan, you can see what I've been doing!
