Practice, Practice, Practice!

Oh, the thing we hate and call busy work: practice.
(Cue the shrieking violins from the soundtrack of Psycho.)
But it's so essential! I'm on a hypocritical soap box in saying that for artwork, but I took 12 years of piano lessons-- I know practice makes things easier and better. (Shout out to my piano teacher, Connie, and Mom for making me learn this.)
The key is to get past that point of intense hatred for it, so that you've just resigned to give in, put in the numbers, get it over with and check it off the list. But after a while of that, you start to realize that you've come a long way since the beginning, and practice has changed from "I have to play this 10 times in a row pretty well," to "Ok, 10 times in a row with no note mistakes. Done! So let's see if I can try it 5 more times with no hesitations. Cool, it worked! Maybe I could try playing with my eyes closed now..." (That last one is just something I did for fun, and it didn't often work, haha.) It's suddenly more of a game that's really exciting-- like, it's ridiculous that practicing like that can make me smile so much. The only competition is yourself, and the only way to lose is to do nothing at all.

So, I assume, it is with drawing figures or whatever you want to be better at. I was astounded last year when I whipped out a male and female figure completely from my head, and they weren't too shabby! And all because I had spent hours filling up my sketchbook with figures for my figure drawing class.

This post has taken a turn from where I thought it'd be going, but it's a good one, so I'm keeping it. Just know that this great video tutorial a friend of mine posted on Facebook (thanks Jordan!) was supposed to be related to something I was going to say. :) It's a great video about structure, shape, anatomy, and expression in caricature drawing by John Kascht. Find it HERE. :)

And for good measure, here are the heads for the characters Doli and Dallben I had to do for class. I got really into that first page of the dwarf, Doli! Numbers 5,6,8, and 9 are my favorites for him. Dallben was a little more drab, but I like numbers 1 and 11 best.

Character-istics

Hellos again. I don't have anything real exciting this time: just some silhouettes and characters I worked on for class...
Taran and Eilonwy from the chronicles/series involving The Black Cauldron.

Never mind the bucket... I sketched it as one of his props, decided it was too small,
and was too lazy to take it out of the colored version.

I know they're not the best (nothing remotely like the wonderful Glen Keane's work), but I'm in the middle of learning. And I'll re-do them soon, hopefully.

Also, Jake Parker came last night to tell us a bit about his experiences and such, and did a little demo while we asked questions. His work is awesome, but I especially LOVED his sketchbooks!! They were so fun to explore. I took down some good reminder notes, tried to sketch Jake as he talked, and didn't take the opportunity to show him any of my work. I honestly have no idea what I even want to do, I didn't have anything really great with me to show him, so I figured it'd be embarrassing for me and a waste of his time. Though on second thought, I think he was a little put out that I didn't at least try. Sorry!

Bottom Right head is supposed to remotely resemble Jake, minus the line interrupting his hair.

Artist level: NINJA
Hahaha

New Design!

Heyyo folks!
I've just entered a little design (really, very simple and a little quicker than I would've liked) into the Threadless Loves Clever challenge! It's based off of a favorite joke of my family's:
Two cannibals are eating a clown, and one turns and says to the other, "Hm. Does this taste funny to you?" What a knee slapper, right? But the cheese makes it so funny! :) So I just replaced cannibals with something more easily recognized and loved these days. (Who doesn't love them some raptor?)
Besides, we all know that raptors are clever...

So please, if you have a moment, share the link via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or otherwise and vote for it if you can!

(Tee templates via Threadless.)

Character Design, #1

I'm in a character design class this semester and we had our first assignment due today. As a side note, this is new territory for me-- I feel like I'm especially bad with being able draw the same character multiple times, so I'm hoping to fix that and other problems this semester. Anyway! We had to design the character of Fflewdder Fflam from the Chronicles of  Prydain. He's the reluctant ruler of a small kingdom, but would rather live the life of a bard, wandering the countryside with his harp. So here he is!

Initial sketch before learning that maybe I should consider more interesting shapes.
-digital

This and the next picture are just gestural poses and different
face explorations.

#10 is a modern-day bard with "spiky blonde hair" as Fflewdder is described as having. ;)

I liked this guy's gestural shape a lot, but I couldn't figure out
what kind of pants he was wearing, and didn't love that he looked more
like a professional athlete instead of a quiet musician...

So instead I used my tied-for-favorite gesture and tried
to make him quietly cute.

... And then quickly added a bit of color in photoshop.
I want to do this part over-- I didn't have time to ink it like I wanted
and I'd like to paint by hand or something. I also have a few things to fix.

 I have a feeling that it won't be hard for me to post on this blog at least once a week as is required for my class...
Until next time!

Another Side Note

I'm back yet again! But this time, I just wanted to share a couple of neat, art-related things I found.

First, the more serious matter.
J. Kirk Richards posted a blog about his opinion/reconciliation of being an artist who portrays nude figures and being a faithful member of the LDS church (which, if you don't know, is very much against all things pornographic, and encourages a certain modesty among its members-- as a side note to this very long parenthetical statement, if you wanted to learn more about my faith, the LDS church, you should visit this!).

Anyway, as mentioned previously, I began my art studies at Snow College (SUCH a great school!) and took a nude figure drawing class there in my last semester. As awkward as I was feeling beforehand, I felt that it was important for me to learn to draw people excellently, and that it would be a good experience. I had no idea how much I would come to love it and view it as a sacred experience. What I love about what Richards says is that I have tried to explain my point of view to some extended family and friends before and have used some of the same arguments almost word for word. He says EXACTLY what I feel and think about the nude figures of art. The only thing I'd like to add is that I have a respect not only for how the figure looks and hinges at joints with skin over the whole thing, but for how muscles and organs like the eyes and ears work, for how amazing our blood circulation system is, and for the fact that a bunch of intricate bones, muscles, and organs help to house not only our incredibly amazing brains, but our immortal souls. What a beautiful thing each and every human being is!! Ok, end rant. :) Just go read what Richards says.

Secondly, some fun!!

I never knew that there were still hand-painted movie posters, especially in New York. How insanely incredible are the crews that get this stuff done?! This blog post finally reveals one of the brave guys who does this for a living that you never knew about. So awesome!

Please, sir, I want some more!

Far from being as culturally valuable as Oliver Twist, I just remembered that I could also include on my blog some of my work from this summer in trying to get my designs printed by Threadless! It hasn't worked yet, but I'm still hoping!

In fact, tomorrow (3 September) is the deadline for one of their design challenges, "Dangers of the Deep," and I plan on submitting the image of the mermaid below. Please go vote if you can! And not just for me, there are some really great things there!
UPDATE: I was vacationing at my cabin, celebrating my nephew's birthday, and doing my homework this weekend and forgot to enter my mermaid design! So never mind about voting for it. I snoozed and... loozed?... lost?... whatever.

Also, this is my profile for Threadless should you like to check me shtuff out.
Also also, please remember all the images [and rights] of my own art I post are belong only to me. :) Thank you!

(All T-shirt templates shown are via Threadless' website)

Vanilla Twist-- digital;
This was my very first for Threadless.
Because who doesn't love slightly melt-y ice cream?

Saint Sally-- began as pen & ink, then digital
Then they had a challenge around the theme of
"The Nightmare Before Christmas" which I simply could not pass up!
If it gets printed (I'm not too optimistic since I entered late),
the extra bits of hair would wrap around the side of the shirt.

Mermaid of the Deep-- digital
My latest design for them which will (hopefully?) be up by tomorrow!
At which time I'll edit this post and share the link to my page so you can vote for it if you'd like.

Mermaid on the tank
A reference for how it'd approximately look if printed on a tank top.

So there you go, readers! Hope you enjoyed it! Have a happy Labor Day if you're in the USA; good luck in getting through this next week, whatever you're doing; and may the odds be ever in your favor. ;)

Older Stuffs

I realized about 10 minutes after publishing my first post and saying "I'll post some of my art soon enough..." that it would be pretty silly to invite people to view a blog about my artwork if I didn't have anything up to look at. Derrrp! So here's some stuffs to keep you coming back. This work stretches back to when I went to Snow College 2 years ago, so I'm sorta cheating in calling it "recent work".

Milk Cartons-- Oil on canvas

Piano-- Charcoal on paper

Stare Down-- Woodblock print

A.J.-- Oil on Masonite panel

Sarah-- Chalk pastels on paper

Mantra-- Cross stitch, digital

Tent Poles Recommended-- Acrylic on board, digital

My Beloved Monster and Me-- Ink and acrylic on paper

Lost Lenore-- Ink and acrylic on paper, digital

Snake Charmer-- Ink and acrylic on paper, digital

We've Only Just Begun

Hello, all present and future readers!

     Welcome to my new blog! Let me start off by telling you a bit about me:

     My name is Sheridan Bronson. I'm an illustration student graduating [soon] with my BFA from Brigham Young University. My dreams for my future vary far and wide, but a part of those dreams is that my artwork will mean something special for people. Even if it's simply giving you a laugh and brightening a dull day, I'll be happy. I'm easily entertained and am often in a good mood-- because how couldn't I be?! The world is incredible! If I'm not posting my art or things about my art, I'll probably be posting about something amazing someone else accomplished, awesome movies, incredibly interesting animals that inspire me, or about historical places I'd love to visit.

     My style adheres mostly to pen and ink styles with a bit of light acrylic color in there, though I recently bought and learned to use a Wacom Intuos 5 tablet which I LOVE incorporating so far. My subject matter varies, but I love to draw people-- what on Earth could be more fascinating than a person, with a complex and unique personality and character?

     I'm sure you'll learn enough about my history as I go along, but I feel obligated to say right up front how incredibly fortunate I am. My parents, family, and friends have all been very supportive of me and my abilities, specifically in the arts (including my experiences in music). I live in such a great place-- my life is so full of luxuries I know many others don't have. Lastly, (and I truly do not mean to step on your toes, Reader!) I am so grateful for my membership in and knowledge of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Its influence permeates every aspect of my life, and brings me a happiness nothing else ever could. As it influences everything I am and do, my art is changed because of it. I tell you all of this because I feel like it's my duty, due to my fortunes, to leave the world just a little bit better. Resources are available to me that others don't have, and that gives me a responsibility to use them to promote all good and beautiful things.

     Anyway, thanks to you, reader, for visiting my blog! I promise to get some of my stuff up soon enough so you can tell me what you think-- I'd love to hear what my audiences think of the things I'm doing for them!

Adieu for now!