Mexican Menu Flowery Brunch

Sunday Brunch is a ladylike time where you can sit with the other ladies and have tea and breakfast dishes. Here's another menu sign I did for Paco's Sunday Brunch. I wanted a frilly, flower-filled design for a foofy meal. I also copied out a handwritten calligraphy font for the text. In these menu boards I had something for everyone. This is quite different from my space and galaxy designs, let alone all those Mayan gods.

Markers on posterboard, 21" x 13", winter-spring 1980. Very much restored in Photoshop.

Digital Figure Study more

I drew this figure from one of the many views offered in "Art Models 4." This series of books is a boon to artists who want to draw figures but who cannot afford models or don't have access to them. "Art Models 4" contains many classic poses, some of them imitations of famous statues and characters. All the poses are fine-arts type which means that they are sedate, quiet, demure (despite being nude) and traditionally posed. Other "Art Models" books, especially the recently published number 7, have more action-oriented poses, since the publishers know that many fantasy or comics artists are using these books. The CD that comes with the book contains pictures of each model pose from many different angles. That way you get perspective and foreshortening to work with. Since it's on a CD, you see the image on the screen and can place it next to the drawing area in Photoshop or another drawing program. If you want to work on paper, you can print out the model images.

I'm trying to work with all-digital drawing and painting. This figure was drawn with Wacom stylus and tablet in Photoshop. I've done this type of digital drawing before, but have never been satisfied with my results. I kept the shading to a minimum because I was afraid of messing it up. It took me much longer to draw this (more than an hour) than it would if I were drawing in pencil. This means that I need to do many, many more digital drawings to get good at it. I have books on digital inking which will help me along. 

Pin-up girls are not part of the "Art Models" series. Pin-ups are by their nature not "fine art" productions and so I find my pin-up girls elsewhere. In a pin-up, the girl looks out at you, the viewer, inviting you to have fun with her. She interacts with you, even if she's only an image. The "Art Models" in the formal books never look out at the viewer. This is obviously a choice the publishers made. I just have to keep drawing. I will be drawing figures on the iPad too (using a printout, perhaps) since it will soon be too cold to draw outside during my work break. 

Mexican Menu Stained Glass

Paco's Tacos had a Sunday brunch which featured Mexican style breakfast dishes, each ordered separately, such as "huevos rancheros" or fried eggs with tomato and chile stuff all over them. Chilaquiles was some sort of mix of tortilla slices with cheese, eggs, and salsa. I never ate the Sunday brunch because I can't stand eggs. I designed signs for it though including this "stained glass" style board in eggy, tomato red colors. Even with all those menus and working in the restaurant, I never quite got to like Mexican food as much as other cuisines. My favorite ethnic cuisine in the whole world is Italian.

Meanwhile on the pin-up front, I have resumed doing pencil sketches of girls from posed photomodels. None of my friends need fear that I will turn her (or him!) into a pin-up. I have ordered this book, privately printed from Dutch artist Frans Mensink, which addresses my needs directly. I typed "how to do digital pin-ups" into the Almighty (Google). I loves the internets.

"Sunday Brunch" is markers on posterboard, 21" x 13", winter 1980.

Another Pin-up Attempt

I really shouldn't be posting this, but I promised a friend that I'd try another pin-up girl on the By-Product. I know you handful of viewers are used to a certain level of quality even from by-products. But even when I am following a photo-model I am in a sorry state when attempting to make a pin-up out of her. I'm drawing it all on my Wacom tablet, which often escapes my control with its slippery plastic. Couldn't they figure out a way to give the stylus more resistance, so it resembles a pencil on paper more? Also, I am uncomfortably leaning on my left arm while working on my computer, and my left hand hovers over the keyboard to tap key commands. But my fingers under pressure often type unwanted commands (especially the letter "d" which turns any color I'm using to black). This little mini Mac keyboard is also annoying as it often repeats letters in response to my clumsy typing.

BUT THERE'S NO EXCUSE.

I'm gonna have to work on my digital figure painting of pin-up girls and of people in general. Right now any Korean high school kid can paint digital people and characters better than I can. I'm gonna find some online tutorial resources or DVD-based workshops that might give me some pin-up and digital figure skills. Until then I will not embarrass myself again by posting rubbish attempts on the By-Product.

Mexican Menu Reggae

I paid homage to all kinds of music in my Paco's Tacos menu boards. I admit to having missed some important genres, such as classical orchestral and chamber music, or Broadway musicals, or jazz, or even country music. Country just wasn't that popular in Boston, anyway. I also ignored the music of the rest of the world, mostly, except for this foray into Jamaica and the very popular sound of reggae. Here I depicted a Rastafarian vocalist doing his thing along with a drummer and an invisible band. Note the many "herbal leaves" in the background. In the lower right is my bad interpretation of the Ethiopian Lion of Judah, along with the tricolor of the (proposed) "African-American flag." I tried to make the typeface look like Ethiopic writing, about which I knew nothing.

Markers on posterboard, 21" x 13", winter 1980.

City in the Desert

This was my work break doodle for Monday afternoon. I was experimenting with a square digital "brush" which is convenient for architectural drawing. It was a wet, grey day at the beginning of fall but I came up with a city in evening sunlight in the warm desert. I suppose it could be Tucson, Arizona but it is more likely a place in my imaginary world of Noantri. You can see some water in the center of this oasis town, as well as a highway that leads into the city. I'd like to visit Arizona someday. I can visit Noantriworld anytime I want.

"Art Studio" on the iPad, October 1, 2012.

Mexican Menu Acapulco High Dive

This was one theme I simply had to do to keep the Mexican theme going. The cliff divers of Acapulco are a big attraction there so I saved them for the Sunday brunch sign. Weekends were always big at Paco's Tacos and I worked the counter all Saturday afternoon. I am especially fond of this sign because I was able to make a blue sky fade to gold at the horizon using only markers which don't blend. If you look closely you can see that I colored the sky line by line using the sky blue marker and then blended it by superimposing into the lighter blue and then pale gold. The lettering wasn't superimposed, I colored around each letter. I used a spiffy Art Nouveau font. You can see the diver in the upper right corner. 

This sign contains a spelling mistake, something I would never allow nowadays. The dessert  was these deep-fried dough bits dusted in powdered sugar. They are called "sopapillas" or "sopaipillas" but I added an extra P. At the restaurant we called them "soapy pillows." No one but you and I will ever know that I misspelled a word on a sign.

Markers on posterboard, 21" x 13", winter 1980.