The Deception of Art

Seen the second Sherlock movie yet? No? GO DO IT BEFORE I SPOIL MORE FOR YOU!

Finished the tutorial for my piece, “Heartline!” Click-through to see it full size. Hope you like it!

-Sam

chemicalparade:

dakotaaaa:

#perfect

#this is amazingly erotic

i can’t even

You guys know I don’t usually reblog things that aren’t art related…but this man is art in motion. He’s the epitome of beautiful, as Sherlock Holmes or otherwise. So I just had to share some Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch with you all…again!

Hey guys! Check out this blog I just set up for my best friend, “The-Blackest-Gray!” I did the background and pimped out the “Effector Theme.” She’s responsible for the content. I promise it’ll be good! She’ll tell you all about her college-bound experiences with disappearing Santas, bomb dogs, and dementia patients! And I guarantee you, it’s all true. If you’re looking for some amazingly true, fun, funny, and just plain off-the-wall anecdotes to brighten your day, sprinkled with the occasional short story, one-shot, serial, essay, or even drawing (because she’s JUST that multi-talented) I suggest you follow her! Don’t forget, that’s “Who, What, When, Where, Why??!!” at theblackestgray.tumblr.com. Enjoy!

-Sam

I’ve been working on this for a while now. This is “Fritz,” my new desk buddy. I’m a sometimes sculptor, really, and I sculpted him in one sitting with the last of my two 5 lb. bricks of clay after working up some Christmas presents for the people I know who will appreciate a hand made gift (face it, there are some out there that just don’t). While painting one of the other sculptures, I was placed in very bad spirits by some external goings-on, and ended up being so perturbed that I reverted back to something I used to do in my childhood that always brightened my mood- a study in forensic science. And thus Fritz, who’s rather based on the skull of an Eastern European male in his early 30s. Unfortunately, Fritz is not to scale, as I didn’t have enough clay left, but hey- he’ll be perfectly, anatomically correct when finished!

Some notes on my process:

I sculpt out of clay, mainly, but I’ve never had the opportunity to work with high grade clay that will stand up under its own weight, so I always end up using a very outlined (and typically rather creative, as it has to be removed during the drying process) armature. This time, all I had to do was wrap a Styrofoam Christmas ball ornament in 6 layers of tin foil, to hold up the posterior portion of the skull. I sculpt using a combination of additive and subtractive methods. In this case, I hollowed out his skull, eye sockets, nose, and internal jaw, and used the remaining pieces to sculpt outstanding features, like teeth, the septum, etc.

After Fritz set on a tinfoil-wrapped plate for a few days, I popped out his armature, and am now waiting for complete dry-down. Once he’s fully dry, I’ll take to sanding him and sanding in remaining features, such as divots in the mandible, spaces between his teeth, textures, and so on. Once I’m done with that, I’ll gently blow off the dust, and paint him with an off-white acrylic mix, and then do a dark, dirty brown wash over certain sections (sockets, internal parts) to complete the bone appearance. If I can find a matte finish lacquer, I’ll use it, but if not, I’ll leave Fritz open with his acrylics as the top coat.

Hope you like!

-Sam

Getting Cumberbatched yet? I am. And lovin’ it. I think this is the painting I’ve put the most love into, so far. It’s like sculpting an angel out of pixels.

Is that a little overboard? Sorry- I’ll try to reel it in from now on. :D

Progress shot 2/??

I’m not dead. Just working on other things (mostly music). But, seeing as I’ve been feeling my Sherlockian love come out lately, how’s about a little Benedict Cumberbatch in one of the best-beloved roles of all time? Painting I’m working on.

…God, I love him. And Benedict as Sherlock means I love him even more. :D CAN’T WAIT FOR SEASON 2!!!!!

Told ya I do traditional work!

After 16 straight hours of work, it’s done! And this is just the rough pencil work…

You probably don’t know this, but I am a comic FANATIC. But fanatical as I am, I’m only fanatical about very specific comics. There’s Batman, X-Men, The Avengers…but my all time favorite comic of all is “The Invincible Iron Man.” A couple nights ago, the first I.M. movie was on FX, and I was inspired to crawl out of my art block hell by drawing Tony Stark.

Don’t ask me where his helmet is/why he’s not using Bleeding Edge or Extensis if it’s missing…I just wanted to draw him without it. Also, I’ve sort of hybridized both suit and Stark between my favorite comic versions, and the movie versions (plus a few personal touches here and there).

I do intend to ink and color this when my current commissions are done…I just needed a way to rediscover my muse. Thanks, Tony! :)

Materials used: Bic .7mm mechanical pencil (aka, their normal one), and a piece of regular copy paper.

-Sam

SVITRA’S EPIC TROLLING ABILITIES ARE EPIC.

Anyway, I haven’t really introduced half these characters, but I assure you, they’re all mine. So let’s a bit more acquainted, shall we?

Long Hair: Proctor
Up-Do: Cosmina
Short Hair: Drasil
Pigtails: Ybsil
Faux-Hawk: Male’k
Bed-Head: Sheila
Scene: Ezraiel
Dreads: Basil
Bald: Svitra

That’s the gang- and none really look happy to have new hairstyles! Well, except Svitra, who’s always bald, and, surprisingly, Male’k, because…well, you’ll find out eventually. I’m especially fond of the bottom row’s expressions, plus Male’k and Proctor. They just came out flawless.

Svitra’s patented “epic trolling abilities” seem to be grating on everyone’s nerves, but honestly, I had a great time with this. From start to finish, there wasn’t a part of it I didn’t fall in love with. It was a great exercise for me to work with, and really helped me flesh out some more faces for my projects. Are all of these characters from the same story? Yes and no. They will all be mentioned or have appearances in “The Innerworks of Atmos-Atlas,” but the majority all have separate stories. Like I said, you’ll just have to wait and see.

I really hope you like this as much as I do, and don’t be afraid to try it yourself! You can find the template in my previous posts. Just download, and enjoy! I’d love to see what you come up with, too.

-Sam