Challenger

I made these GIFs and other things. Follow me on twitter or email me for freelance work. Let's be e-pals. #GIF

[challenger23]

happy NOvember

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[challenger23]

nope.avi

[challenger23]

dissolving the boundary between ego and superego

this is my submission for the ‘psychedelic’ prompt for r/sketchdaily ... not crazy about what the gif compression did to it (it’s super grainy, and watch the body when it goes blue, it looks like it moves) but it really deserved to be moving. 

this is obviously ground tread far better by Alex Grey and other visionary artists, but if I were going to allow myself to be intimidated by the greats, I’d never make any art at all. 

he’s sitting in Sukhasana pose, doing the Shuni Mudra (middle finger to the thumb), which is supposed to bring patience and discipline - two things definitely required to reach a state like this. I’ll be perfectly honest - I’ve never reached this level with just yoga, as I’ve never worked up this much patience and discipline - but with some *ahem* help I’ve slipped into this state a couple times. The D.A.R.E. cop never told us about ego death when he was showing off his little case of drugs.

The White Blind Light

Your home is still here, inviolate and certain.

Thank you, oh Lord, for the white blind light. 

Jumped, humped, born to suffer. Made to undress, in the wilderness.

Our love so found a safe niche, where we can store up riches and talk to our fellows, in the same premise of disaster. Thank you, oh Lord, for the white blind light. 

Let me tell you about heartache and the loss of God, wandering, wandering in hopeless night. Moonshine night, mountain village insane in the woods, in the deep trees, in the deep trees, in the deep trees. Your home is still here, inviolate and certain. Oh, I want to be there, I want us to be there, oh I want to be there, beside the lake, beneath the moon, cool and swollen, dripping its hot liquor. I want to be there. Thank you, Lord, for the white blind light. 

A city rises from the sea. Let me tell you about heartache and the loss of God, wandering, wandering in hopeless night. Let me show you the maiden with wrought iron soul. Out here in the perimeter there are no stars. Out here we is stoned. Immaculate.

- Jim Morrison

[challenger23]

Inktober #31 - MASK

Inktober is over! I’ll still be doing r/sketchdaily, as I feel like the only real way to continually improve is to keep at it every day. This was a great learning experience and I’m really happy that I did it. Maybe I’ll even get around to doing that comic I’m always thinking about, now that I have a bit more confidence. 

I thought about doing something from M.A.S.K. (does anyone even remember that show?), and I ran through the gamut of various Halloween masks, from Jason’s hockey mask, to Hannibal Lecter’s face mask, to No-Face from Spirited Away, but finally settled on the most unsettling mask I could think of. 

Mustard gas and chlorine were prevalent in WWI, and the British were well-prepared for it during the blitz raid bombing in WWII. They held regular drills and practices so that people would be ready in case of a gas attack. Even though that ‘keep calm and carry on’ poster campaign wasn’t displayed much, the attitude seems to have been. 

Anyway, thanks for hanging in there with me for the month, and have a great Halloween.

[challenger23]

Inktober #30 - FOUND

I had a bunch of different angles I thought about approaching this one from - founding a venture, be it a business or a country, a lost and found, and even Archimedes in the tub, having his “Eureka!” moment - but I ultimately decided on the most literal version of the word “found”, as in “foundry”. From old French, fondre "pour out, melt, smelt" (12c.), from Latin fundere (past participle fusus) "to melt, cast, pour out", I thought this would be the most visually interesting form. 

I’ve always wanted to try my hand at smelting but it seems like a heavy investment for something I might not get a whole lot of use from. A good friend of mine has a miniature crucible but in all the years I’ve known him, he’s never actually fired it up to make anything. Maybe I’ll bug him about it, just to see what it’s like without actually investing anything besides the metal into it. I wonder what was being made in the photo I worked from, as it looks like some sort of thing I’d make pancakes with.

Once again, I didn’t have enough time to put everything that I wanted to into it, but I’m happy with the overall composition and the highlights. I used the Manga Smooth brush again for the lines and the Noise Bar for the texture. When in doubt, stick with what you know, I guess.

[challenger23]

Inktober #29 - UNITED

The raised fist is an ancient symbol - the act of strengthening the relatively vulnerable individual finger digits into a solid fist is a universal experience.

 Synonymous with worker’s rights, black power, feminism, communism, socialism, anti-fascism, and (unfortunately) white nationalism, it’s been used everywhere. The first time I saw it was in the photo from the 1968 Summer Olympics, where medal winners John Carlos and Tommie Smith lowered their heads and raised their fists during the American national anthem. I was just a kid but that image struck me and filled me with questions. Then, shortly after I became aware of it, Whitney Houston made the gesture but in a whole new context - as a triumph after singing the national anthem during the Superbowl, right around the time my Dad was deployed to Saudi Arabia for the Gulf War. 

It’s a powerful symbol that can carry a lot of different meaning depending on who is raising the fist - considering the white nationalist’s similar use and the fact that Trump raised his during his inauguration - but I struggled with the whole concept of “United” in a time that is so clearly divided. I went with fiery colors to avoid any obvious skin tone, though some might argue that the red makes it symbolize communism. If so, I’m ok with that. Symbols are at least half interpretation, so read into it what you need to. Buzzfeed has a good piece about the varying uses and what it means for the future of the raised fist.

Hell, there’s even a ‘raised fist’ emoji. 

[challenger23]

Inktober #28 - FALL

Title this one “I ran out of time doing Lil Wayne Falling Off His Skateboard”. I didn’t even get to the face, ffs. I really liked the movement of this photo and thought it would be a good one to do, but I always underestimate how much time it will take to do it properly and this time I just didn’t have enough to set aside. Tomorrow’s prompt is UNITED and I don’t even have an idea for it yet, so this should be an exercise in finding something quick and easy that won’t be embarrassing to post. 

Anyway, this was from summer of 2011. He was at a skatepark and blasted his face, requiring stitches.

He didn’t let it slow him down, though. 

I think I pulled my skateboard out twice this summer, and half the reason I haven’t been on it is that falling down 1.) sucks 2.) is a large part of skateboarding (at least for me - I still haven’t learned to kickflip though, so take that for what it is). At one point in my life I didn’t even have a car, so my skateboard was the only transportation available. I also used to wait until the mall was closed and go down into the parking garage bec the concrete was super smooth and there were tons of little gaps and things I could actually ollie up onto. It would only last for about 45 minutes before security would spot us on the cameras and wander down to tell us we couldn’t skate in there, but it was always worth it. Anyway, good on Lil Wayne for hopping back on the board after the hospital trip. I bet he’s way better now, 6 years later.

[challenger23]

Inktober #27 - CLIMB

I tried a couple different approaches to this one. One was going to be a silhouette of a climber hanging from a rock but it didn’t have the impact I wanted. The other was going to be a top-down view of someone climbing a rope ladder but when I was looking for references, I kept seeing photos of just a hand coming over the top of a ridge and I thought that portrayed the sense of what I was going after better than anything. I wanted the struggle to be evident, but the photos of the climbers I kept finding made it look easy, and a ladder, well, that’s more of a preset path than anything.

Struggle builds character. Without testing, we never find our limits and can never push our personal boundaries further. Staying motivated to challenge yourself is important, and seems to be valued less and less. The older I get, the more I appreciate opportunities for growth, but the often (always?) come cloaked in the disguise of struggle. Problems are there to solve; they’re like gifts to keep you from becoming soft - but god knows it doesn’t always feel that way. 

For brushes this time I went with the Manga Smoothy for lines and the Cubist color. Now that every Kyle Webster brush is included in Photoshop, you can get them for free (well, not free because you’re paying the Adobe CC subscription, but close enough). The hand shape contains just a noise field because I felt that the stark white was too much. I left the bandages completely white to give the image a little more punch. Not bad for a third attempt.

[challenger23]

Inktober #26 - SQUEAK

squeak verb \ ˈskwēk \

1: to utter or make a short shrill cry or noise

2: squeal

3: to pass, succeed, or win by a narrow margin

I tried to avoid doing a mouse, the most obvious of choices for this prompt, and I wanted to do something that was a little more fun, so I present to you this massive rubber duck getting squeaky clean in a $1500 clawfoot tub. 

When I finally get around to remodeling my bathroom, this is what I want, but the way my house is designed, anything that has to come upstairs goes up to a landing and turns to go up a few more stairs and I’m not sure I’ll be able to get it up there without taking out the window and using a crane (and that is NOT happening). I’ve seen some that are vinyl, which I guess would be ok, but I’d really hoped for a fancy old-fashioned clawfoot tub. It might even end up that it’s one of those things that is better in my imagination than in practical use. God knows there have been plenty of those examples strewn throughout my life. 

I like how the colored linework fares better than the stark blacks, it seems to have less of a comic book feel - which is great for some stuff, but tends to make the subjects look heavier. I also like the color palette for this one - it’s simple but effective, leaving the duck as the focus while giving the washcloth a little punch and setting the floor off from the wall well enough. 

[challenger23]

Inktober #25 - SHIP

Captain Jack Rackham standing aboard the deck of the Colonial Dawn, from the show Black Sails. Apparently the personalities and story of Black Sails differs significantly from the real-life accounts of what happened. Reading that Jack Rackham had Charles Vane branded a coward for running from a fight and took over his ship was an eye-opener. In the show, Vane is probably the most dedicated and fearless pirate around, and Jack holds him in high regard, even after he’s no longer his quartermaster. The backstory with Anne Bonny is also very different, with them having met irl as adults, not as depicted in the show. That said, the show is amazing, and intensely compelling. I’m a sucker for period pieces and this has everything - costumes and sets are incredible, and the CGI to make the ship battles is near flawless (I think I’ve watched as many vfx breakdowns of Black Sails as I have Game of Thrones). Jack is played by Toby Schmitz and is arguably one of the most interesting characters in the show.

I definitely bit off more than I could chew in so little time with this one. It’s not complete, but bearing in mind the “something is better than nothing” mantra for Inktober, I’m posting it as is. Would have really liked to do some different coloring on the wood of the ship and add more detail with highlights and shadows, but it is what it is for the time I could commit. 

[challenger23]

Inktober #24 - BLIND

blind adjective \ ˈblīnd \ 

1a (1) : sightless

(2) :having less than ¹/₁₀ of normal vision in the more efficient eye when refractive defects are fully corrected by lenses

b: of or relating to sightless persons

2a: unable or unwilling to discern or judge

b: unquestioning

3a: having no regard to rational discrimination, guidance, or restriction

b: lacking a directing or controlling consciousness

Stevie Wonder (in case you’ve been living under a rock for the entirety of your life) is one of the most prolific musicians in the world, who happens to also be blind. He was born prematurely and the oxygen in his incubator made his retinas detach, causing him to lose his sight. He was signed to the Motown record label at just 11, and has continued to sing, write, and produce, collecting over 25 Grammy awards (as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award), and is also an activist who was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. He’s a member of both the Rock and Roll and Songwriters Hall of Fame who’s worked with everyone from Smokey Robinson to Paul McCartney, and despite decades of evidence, there persists a conspiracy theory that... Stevie Wonder isn’t blind.

As far as conspiracy theories go, this one is relatively benign and (hopefully) tongue-in-cheek - that said, we all thought the flat earth theory was good for a larf and look what happened with that shit. In any case, “when you believe in things you don’t understand, then you suffer” seems an apt quote to leave you with.

[challenger23]

Inktober #23 - JUICY

juicy adjective  \ˈjü-sē \

1: having much juice : succulent

2: rewarding or profitable especially financially : fat

3a: rich in interest : colorful

b: sensational, racy

c: full of vitality : lusty

My first choice for this was a still from Juicy by Notorious B.I.G., but I figured the connection was a little tenuous. (At least I got to watch the video again, brought me back to 1994).  I went through various fruits, from strawberries to watermelon, and settled back on this orange half dripping juice. 

I dispensed with the linework again and relied just on paintbrushes, notably the “Marbles beta” from Kyle Webster’s Concept set and the Munch blender - the highlights didn’t come out as cleanly as I would have liked. I’ll have to practice a bit more to figure out a way to make sharper lines with brushes like that. 

Any ideas? Suggestions welcome :)

[challenger23]

Inktober #22 - TRAIL

trail noun \ ˈtrāl \

1a (1): a track made by passage especially through a wilderness 

(2): a marked or established path or route especially through a forest or mountainous region b: a trace or mark left by something that has passed or been drawn along  c: a course followed or to be followed hit the campaign trail

My first thought was to do Hansel and Gretel, leaving a trail of breadcrumbs that were being eaten by birds, but I’ve been itching to do some Beyond The Garden Wall fanart for a really long time. The artwork in that is so amazing that it’s quite intimidating to try a fanart version, but in the spirit of pushing myself further on each of these prompts, I said ‘why not’ and went for it. I’ve also been struggling with trees, so I figured this would be a good way to force myself into dealing with them. I went with a “cubist” brush by Kyle Webster for the leaves and bushes. I used his ‘Sendak sky’ for, well, the sky (and path), and a “tree bark” for the (wait for it) tree bark. I wanted Greg and Wirt to be off in the distance, just simple silhouetted shapes, but hopefully their hard contrast keeps them the focal point. I was going to do the same idea with the breadcrumbs being eaten by their bird friend, but once I made them together down the path, I felt like the bird was a) taking up too much of the focus and b) that it wasn’t really clear that they had dropped a trail of breadcrumbs.

They’re holding hands as they walk through the forest together, and it makes me think of when I walk my kids into school - we travel down the sidewalk, each one holding a hand as we go. I dread the day that they don’t want to do that anymore, but for now it’s my favorite part of the morning. 

Rorop.

[challenger23]

Inktober #21 - FURIOUS

furious adjective fu·ri·ous \ˈfyu̇r-ē-əs \

1a (1): exhibiting or goaded by anger

(2): indicative of or proceeding from anger

b: giving a stormy or turbulent appearance

c: marked by noise, excitement, activity, or rapidity

2: intense 

I dispensed with the linework in favor of a more abstract shape, and I think it works nicely. Leaning heavily on Kyle Webster’s Concept brushes, I was able to make this much more expressive than I thought I could. 

Romans used Furiæ to translate Greek Erinyes, the collective name for the avenging deities sent from Tartarus to punish criminals (in later accounts three in number and female). This is how the ‘ironies’ became the ‘furies’, which in turn became “fairies”. After learning about this, I could never quite square the modern-day concept of ‘fairies’ with the whole ‘avenging deity’ trope. Legend has it that they get quite upset with that name. Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland by Thomas Crofton Croker touches on this, and talks about some of the names people use for them, such as “The Good People”, and “The Fair Family”. 

One of the things I’ve learned in therapy is that anger lies on a spectrum from mild irritation to homicidal rage - and that it’s what we do with this emotion that has the most importance - not that we feel it. I can certainly relate to the poor figure in this piece; the fiery rage, the crackling electricity ready to be funnel-focused and directed at the source of my ire - but I’ve also come to realize that it’s far easier to give in to rage than it is to control it and use it in a positive manner. There’s more strength required to use it for good. It’s the alchemy of the soul, to turn that lead to gold.

[challenger23]

Inktober #20 - DEEP

deep adjective \ ˈdēp \

1: extending far from some surface or area: such as

a :extending far downward

b (1): extending well inward from an outer surface

(2): not located superficially within the body

c: extending well back from a surface accepted as front

d: extending far laterally from the center

I considered doing a version of The Thinker, or a play on DeepMind, but I love octopuses and even have a painting of one hanging over my desk that I made forever ago. (Sometimes I forget it’s there). They’re super smart animals and I love the idea of them raiding sunken ships for treasure. 

I’ve been trying to see what I can do with very simple color palettes, after getting sucked down a rabbithole about Swedish painter Anders Leonard Zorn and his ‘limited color palette’ and taking some refresher color theory courses. Even though I learned all of this 20+ years ago, it’s always good to go back and see it again for the first time with ‘new eyes’. You’d be amazed at what you thought you learned, what you missed, and what’s still available to work back in to your world view; and that doesn’t just apply to art stuff. It’s impossible to do that with every new thing you learn and every experience you have, as you’d quickly fall into some weird infinite recursion where you’re constantly re-evaluating every moment of your life in the context of the new information but a glance over the shoulder every now and then can be quite useful.

[challenger23]

Inktober #19 - CLOUD

cloud noun \ ˈklau̇d \

1: a visible mass of particles of condensed vapor (such as water or ice) suspended in the atmosphere of a planet (such as the earth) or moon

2:something resembling or suggesting a cloud: such asa :a light filmy, puffy, or billowy mass seeming to float in the air

b (1) :a usually visible mass of minute particles suspended in the air or a gas (2) :an aggregation of usually obscuring matter especially in interstellar space (3) :an aggregate of charged particles (such as electrons)

c: a great crowd or multitude : swarm

3: something that has a dark, lowering, or threatening aspect

4: something that obscures or blemishes

5: a dark or opaque vein or spot (as in marble or a precious stone)

6:the computers and connections that support cloud computing

I played with a couple different ideas for this one, but none of them seemed like much fun (to make, or to look at). Over the summer I got into doing some photoreal matte painting for video backgrounds, but that’s all they are - backgrounds. I also thought about doing Cloud from Final Fantasy but just didn’t feel very inspired. After a while of thinking about it, I remembered this great character from the movie Trolls (voiced by Walt Dohrn, who also boasts screenwriting credits on SpongeBob, Dexter’s Lab, and Shrek 2, among others). It’s a funny scene, and Trolls overall is a pretty decent watch (especially if you have kids). 

This one was fun to do and the most rewarding part was when my kids saw it. I used the Kyle Webster cloud brushes from his ‘Conceptual’ set for his body and the background clouds, which you can now get through the new Adobe Photoshop CC 2018 (for free, if you’re subscribed). Linework was done with his Seth Comics brush, but I don’t recall what set that was from. 

[challenger23]

Inktober #18 - FILTHY

filth noun \ ˈfilth \

1: foul or putrid matter; especially : loathsome dirt or refuse

2a: moral corruption or defilement

I thought about doing cockroaches, garbage, dirty hands, a used condom (why are there so many of those just randomly about - do people frequently fuck outside or are they flinging them from moving cars? I would really like to know the story behind their ubiquity, however torrid), and a hoarder’s house - but I eventually settled on two things I find that set off my ‘gross’ alarms. Rats might make lovely housepets, but finding a wild one (especially a dead wild one) is never a good thing. Every time I see a rat (or a squirrel, for that matter), I think ‘bubonic plague’. You have to ask yourself what level of germs would kill a rat. It must be potent, if they were able to roll around, unconcerned by carrying plague fleas.

The cigarette butt just happened to be in the reference photo I used, so I kept it. Smokers who just fling trash on the ground after every cigarette are filthy, too. Bad enough they have to shit up the air for everyone around them, but they feel the need to leave a persistent reminder of their presence. Who knows, maybe the rat was a smoker.

[challenger23]

Inktober #17 - GRACEFUL

graceful adjective \ ˈgrās-fəl \

:displaying grace (see 1grace 3) in form or action :pleasing or attractive in line, proportion, or movement

grace noun  \ ˈgrās \

3a: a charming or attractive trait or characteristic

b: a pleasing appearance or effect :charm

c: ease and suppleness of movement or bearing

I tried to come up with something other than a ballerina dancer for today’s theme, but it just fit so well, I ended up doing one anyway. The other imagery that kept coming to mind were swans - the first animal that usually comes to mind with the word “graceful”. I decided to merge the two to make it a little more interesting. 

I really liked how these brushes handled - it’s the “Seth Comics brush 1″ from Kyle Webster and I shaded with his “Noise bar” brush. This whole Inktober experience has been a real eye-opener and I’m very happy I’ve stuck with it - I’m going to try to keep going with r/sketchdaily after the month is over. I think the process of doing something every single day from random prompts is really helpful in showing me where my weak points and strengths lay, and it will be really interesting to see where I am in a year from now. At some point I may even diverge from the prompts and just do whatever comes to mind, but for now, it takes a lot of the pressure of “what do draw” off the table and allows me to keep practicing.