Friday, May 27, 2005

Shadows


A 5-10 minute digital chalk sketch. I used to do these shadowy face drawings all the time for practice. Just kind of fun to see who emerges from the dark.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, Maurie, Beautiful! I'm going to be exploring your wonderful blog for the next few months, methinks.

I have to say, are you familiar with Kathe Kollwitz? I love your graphic style. I'd said something to another illustrator working with Sumi-e ink and a lithographic style (she uses digital art, I think I'll mention your blog to her as well-- wonderful stuff!). Anyhoo, Hope you don't mind, I'll be posting random thoughts, and thank you for this chronicle!

Love,
Agy

Mo Manning said...

Agy, thanks so much! Yes, I LOVE Kathe Kollwitz. Her gorgeous and tragic art influenced me greatly in college. I insisted on using conte for sketches, on crisp white bond paper (instead of charcoal and newsprint like the rest of the class) in order to try to mimic the sharp contrast I saw in her work.

I'm happy to have you checking out the blog!

xo
Mo

Anonymous said...

Maurie I have been a fan of your wonderful talent for sometime. Your work on the computer is absolutely wonderful. Love the texture. I have your site bookmarked as one of my favorite artists and purchased The Coffee Can Kid. I am thinking about The Aunts go Marching in also.

I work in Photoshop and see that you use Painter. I actually own Painter, but find hard to convert to Painter after using Photoshop for over 12 years.

Just recently Agy spoke about you in one of our very small groups on Yahoo. I think there is 5 members. She had mentioned she I generally doesn’t care for art painted on the comptuer. But since seeing your work and my art, she can see the possibilities. I agree, usually computer art feels a bit cold and disconnected. Your is warm and inviting.

I live in Northern California. If you lived closer I would pop in and bug you to let me watch you create!!!

Mo Manning said...

Hi Sherry,

Thanks for the compliments! You know the thing I like best about Painter IS the texture you can achieve with the digital tools. I am working on a project now where I've been instructed to use Photoshop -- but I just can not get the same natural media look with the Photoshop paintbrush. I think if you played with Painter for a few hours, you'd never go back to drawing in Photoshop :) I do still use PS extensively for all technical jobs, like batching and color correction.

Do you have Painter IX? It's definitely worth the upgrade. You can download a free 30 day trial on the Corel website.

Anonymous said...

Yes I own Painter IX and I really do like it. . .what I have seen so far.

It seems I am always working on a deadline, so I don't take the time to learn Painter.

Like right now I am working on a children's book. So when working on a deadline it is just easier to work in a program you know. All the quick keys.

One of the reasons I really like your work is that it looks like pastels. I love that look.

I really would like to develop a less detailed style. But every time I start using texture I end up re-working it and the texture leaves and in comes the detail.

Mo Manning said...

I definitely tend more toward the digtital watercolor tool when I'm short on time (or if the client is educational and not "paying" for my chalky, trade style.) I did develop a quick, flat style particularly for educational projects.

There's really not much of a learning curve for Painter -- especially since you're so familiar with Photoshop. (Then again, I don't use any of the functions except the drawing tools and paper pallet -- and layers of course -- which I find give me great flexibility and freedom to experiment.

But I do know what you mean about sticking with what you know for deadlines! I hope you get some time to play with Painter soon.