Drawn in Black » Pen

Steel City Artist: Drawings and Interview with Charles Ott

Lee — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:05:06 +0000

"Cinderella Castle, Magic Mountain" by Charles Ott, Jr.

Lest you think that I have a predisposition for trippy, vulgar, and raunchy drawings (what am I saying, I confess I do!), I want to showcase an artist who’s been making a name for himself in the Pittsburgh area and beyond with his meticulously rendered architectural style scenes – Charles Ott, Jr a.k.a. Steel City Artist. I’ve always thought that there is something peculiarly special about this genre of drawings, illustrated best perhaps when considering such drawings of hundreds of years ago. That is to say, they have a distinctly historical appeal by capturing a scene suspended in a time and place. They almost present a sort of ideal of that place and require, I suspect, a focused type of concentration when in the process of rendering such pictures.

Charles agreed to partake in the Drawn in Black Artist Interview (thank you!), so without further adieu:

What’s your name?

Charles R. Ott, Jr.

Where did you grow up? Where do you live now?

Pittsburgh, PA

How old are you?

What is your educational background? What, if anything, did you study?

Self-taught architectural illustrator.

"Bethany College" by Charles Ott, Jr.

How do you make a living?

Nearly two years ago, I was at a certain crossroad in my life and career due to the fact that design firm I was working for out-resourced. I decided to focus my time and effort into doing what I love. I spent my days working to supplement my evenings through the mornings on creating a solid portfolio of illustrations. This in turn led to the development of my illustration website, Steel City Artist, which I launched in Spring, 2008. The illustrations feature detailed hand-drawn pen and ink illustrations of the prominent landmarks from Pittsburgh and across America and continues to grow. Right now, I make a living selling my work throughout the world and marketing/branding my work to various companies/businesses where I feel my illustrations have relevance.

What does “art” mean to you?

As an illustrator, I am a realist and that is the art form that has meaning to me. My artwork allows me to combine my lifelong passions/interest of architecture, illustration and history and my love for the city I call home, Pittsburgh. My artwork allows people to remember and reminisce the places that have had significant meaning in their lives, whether it is the steel mills, buildings or colleges they attended. Art to me means expressing yourself in a way that moves people and inspires them.

How long have you been making art, and what role does that play in your life?

I began drawing at a very young age and I have been drawing for nearly 25 years. Like anything in life, if you have passion and perseverance anything is possible and you must be willing to devote yourself to your craft/talent. My illustrations are the cornerstone of my life, my identity.

"Heinz Memorial Chapel" by Charles Ott, Jr.

What would you consider your “style” of art to be, if you have one?

My style of work is traditional pen and ink architectural illustrator. With advancements in computer/design technology, it is very rare anymore to find true artists who can create incredible illustrations freehand, I truly consider it a gift.

What’s your weapon of choice? What medium and drawing tool do you prefer to use?

All of my pen/ink illustrations are created by hand. My tools simply include T-square, metal ruler and a series of Pigma micron pens. These pens range in size from .008-.05 mm and create a very fine crisp line which does not bleed like some ink pens while creating the drawing. Each 18×24″ illustration is created first in pencil and then retraced with the pens. Each drawing begins from the center of the paper and blossoms outward after I spend a good deal time evaluating the photo with which I am working from. My work is also featured at Sakura of America whose micron pens I use for my work.

Are there any people that influenced you that stand out? What current artists do you follow?

During the 1980’s my father owned a business at The Shoppes of Station Square in downtown Pittsburgh. Nearly every evening as a young kid I would visit him. There was a well-known Pittsburgh artist who I believe inspired me to become an illustrator, Nevin Robinson. Our work is somewhat similar in that we both work in pen/ink and feature the places of Pittsburgh. My work is more technical in nature and requires a series of techniques such as cross-hatching/stippling for the landscape. Since I launched my website, I have been introduced to artists from all over the world. One artists’ work who I admire is Michael Smith, Buffalo, NY.

"Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church" by Charles Ott, Jr.

Selecting Between One Million Possibilities: Drawings and Interview with Andreas Martini

Lee — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:23:10 +0000

"Monstrum" (Detail) by Andreas Martini

Looking at some of the drawing art of German Andreas Martini, it might be a bit surprising to find out that he was schooled as an architect, and even more surprising that, as he states on his website, “andreas works in the field of 3d-design and cg. he simply loves to work and play with the machine.” Indeed his 3-d art and animation is compelling in its own right and worth your time.

When it comes to Martini’s drawings, they are no less compelling. Consider that the images above and below are but details of the larger image, and that each square (I presume) is a full sheet of paper. His abstract collages are varied and entertaining to study, and if there’s one complaint I’d have, is that there isn’t more work available.

"Monstrum" (Detail) by Andreas Martini

He graciously agreed to take part of the Drawn in Black Artist Interview, so here goes:

What’s your name?

Andreas Martini

Where did you grow up? Where do you live now?

Germany

How old are you?

What is your educational background? What, if anything, did you study?

I had 9 years Latin in school. After that I went to university to study architecture, but instead of designing paper houses we took our chances to reprogram ego-shooters and build wooden sculptures. I graduated as an engineer of architecture and design with the focus on new media.How do you make a living?3d visualizer, animation filmmaker

What does “art” mean to you?

To select between one million possibilities.

Live Drawing at Agency Achter by Andreas Martini

How long have you been making art, and what role does that play in your life?

Maybe forever. But since people told me I could draw, I developed an attitude, which is sometimes good, but mostly disturbing. Art is important like food. It comes and leaves.

What role does drawing play in your work? Is it a means to an end, or an end in and of itself?

The less I speak about the importance of drawing, the more I feel, that I do justice to it.

Are there any people that influenced you that stand out? What current artists do you follow?

Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, Robert Breer, Bruce Conner, Lutz Dammbeck, Guy Debord, Marcel Duchamp, Germaine Dulac, Fluxus, Hollis Frampton, Sheila Graber, Raymond Salvatore Harmon, Co Hoedeman, Ken Jacobs, David Lynch, Norman McLaren, Jonas Mekas, Yoko Ono, Man Ray, Hans Richter, Frank Stauffacher, Andy Warhol, Zeitguised, Matthew Barney, Henry Darger, Johnny Hardstaff, David O’Reilly, Bitter Films, Thomas Hicks, Dürer, Toccafondo…

Way too many to be helpful for my productivity.

Thanks again to Andreas for taking the to talk a bit about himself and to share his artwork here on Drawn in Black.

Editorial Illustration by Andreas Martini

Interview with Scott Move

Lee — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:24:44 +0000

Untitled (Zombie Head) by Scott Move

Jim Phillips on acid – that’s kind of what the art of Scott Move reminds me of, and why I was so excited when he got in touch with me. The interwoven imagery looks almost like the T-2000 burning in the molten steel at the end of Terminator 2; the clear black lines have a visceral and uncompromising feel to them. Can’t wait to see more of these kind of drawings.

Scott graciously agreed to fill out the Drawn in Black Artist Interview, so here’s what he had to say:

DiB: Where did you grow up? and where do you live now?

Scott: Essex in the south east of the U.K.

How old are you?

Never ask an artist his age! I’m 33.

What is your educational background? What, if anything, did you study?

I studied art at school and college until I realised it was a bit of a huge waste of time for me. I learned all the basics from my mum and the rest was all guess work and a series of mistakes. I don’t want to draw apples thanks.

How do you make a living?

Unfortunately I have to work a full day every day in construction. Theres no way I can make enough money from artwork to pay my rent and increasing phone bills. I dislike the work i do immensely, but can’t survive without it. Hopefully I can one day start to make a living creatively but until then, its a double life for me….

What does “art” mean to you?

I really have no idea. Some kind of expression of feeling or emotion. Whats the correct answer to that?

Trauma by Scott Move

How long have you been making art, and what role does that play in your life?

I’ve been making art for years, with the encouragement form my mum to do something creative every day, no matter what. I still try and do that. It plays a huge part in my life now as I spend nearly all my spare time drawing stuff (and then re-drawing it) – either for myself or for some kind of commision. I tend to feel like I’m wasting my time if I’m not drawing, I get a bit irritable.

What role does drawing play in your work? Is it a means to an end, or an end in and of itself?

Well, as far as my artwork, its all I really do, so its the begining and the end. I dont have the patience or the skills to use computer programmes so its all hand drawn or nothing at all. Very time consuming but i like it that way.

Are there any people that influenced you that stand out? What current artists do you follow?

There are hundreds of artists that are influential, far too many to mention. I think anyone who does what they do from the heart is pretty much doing it for the right reasons. Theres some truly incredible artwork out there from all eras, its all an influence at some point. Nothing is original.

***

Thanks to Scott for taking the time to answer these questions and sharing his artwork. You can find Scott online at his blog I SAW NOTHING, on MySpace, Twitter, or Fecal Face.

Everything is Under Control by Scott Move

Untitled (Filled With Hate Flyer) by Scott Move

Yoink by Scott Move

Drawings by Wonman Kim

Lee — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:53:09 +0000

Lions by Wonman Kim

Recently Wonman Kim, a 35-year-old freelance illustrator and graphic designer from Seoul, South Korea, got in touch with me and graciously agreed to answer a few questions I had for him, which I have summarized below.

Growing up in Seoul, Kim is a self-taught artist who majored in business and has had a passion for drawing and painting since his childhood. After he graduated, he worked as a key and clean-up animator before going into the game industry as a character and background concept designer nine years ago. He currently works in the book publishing, t-shirt, and toy industry.

Kim loves to describe his thoughts and imagination through his work, and appreciates the effect that art has on people. During his career has an artist, his simple goal was to do what makes him happy. While he has always both drawn and painted, he has recently focused more on drawing, a worthwhile pursuit unto itself. Influences on Kim include the old engravings of Gustav Dore, Australian artist Robert Ingpen, comic artist Moebius, Nicolas de Crécy, Enki Bilal, James Jean, Tomer Hanuka, Phil Hale, Jon Foster, Terrada Katsuya, and Grampa.

You can see Kim’s work on his website and keep up with him on his blog; he’s also got some great pictures on his Flickr account, and his toy company is MadWitch Toy.

"Chinese Juck Tale" by Wonman Kim

"Untitled (Sketch No. 5)" by Wonman Kim

"Untitled (Sketch No. 9)" by Wonman Kim

"Untitled (Sketch No. 18)" by Wonman Kim

Godmachine

Lee — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:29:25 +0000

Back in Black T-Shirt by Godmachine

Aziz a.k.a. Godmachine is an illustrator based out of Wales, UK, with some seriously nasty skills. Growing up and working as an electrician and bricklayer as a young lad, it was skateboard graphics through which he rekindled his connection to art. Influenced by artists such as Horsebites, Gieger, Aubrey Beardlsy, Klimt, and Richard James, it is probably fair to say that he does a bit of influencing himself these days. As a freelance artist Godmachine’s art graces skateboards and band merchandise such as t-shirts, album covers and posters. Even though he considers himself old-school, he does most of his sketching straight on the computer these days.

I think t-shirt illustrations such as the one show above are a great example his work and what I personally like: gory, detailed illustrations. His work in general is quite dark, and this is the essence of his appeal I think – at least for a certain type of audience.

If you haven’t done so already, check out Godmachine’s website or blog and put some food on his table by buying his stuff from his store. There are also a number of interview with Godmachine if you want a deeper look at who he is:

Interview with Godmachine on Abduzeedo

Interview with Godmachine on We are the Zombie Nation

Interview with Godmachine on Creep Machine

Interview with Godmachine by Rockett

Sonisphere Poster by Godmachine

Untitled Sketch by Godmachine

How to Draw Hands: 35 Tutorials, How-To’s, Step-by-Steps, Videos, Studies, Poses and Photo References

Lee — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:37:45 +0000

I’ve found drawing hands one of the most challenging aspects of drawing the human figure. You can get away with quite a bit when rendering the human figure, but get the hand wrong and it sticks out like a sore thumb. Once you start learning about the hand in greater depth, you’ll find it is truly amazing just how complex the hand is even though we see it everyday. Perhaps the following tutorials can help you and I draw better hands. Enjoy.

Tutorials, How-To’s and Step-by-Step’s

It’s often useful to have a step-by-step guide, tutorial, or “recipe” on how to accomplish a certain task. I’ve found that following steps is good to grasp basic concepts before going on to experiment and expand one’s understanding. Tutorials on drawing hands are no different, and the tutorials and how-to’s listed below should be a good starting point.

J. Peffer created some nice step-by-steps for about a handful of hand poses.

Nice little tutorial by Ron Lemen.

Tom Richmond’s site is a must-go for any aspiring cartoonist and caricaturist and has a wealth of information.

Joumana Medlev has a superb introduction on the anatomy of hands on DeviantArt; also check out her work on cedarseed.com.

Quick hands and feet tutorial on Scribd by unknown author.

This tutorial is a bit different in that it’s more focused on how to draw using a graphic tablet as opposed to a hand per se. Nonetheless, it’s never bad to learn two things at once, so check out Whyball’s “How to Draw a Classic Hand using a Graphics Tablet” over on GoMediaZine.

Short and sweet hand drawing tut by uchuucacahuate on deviantart.

(Very) short but good tutorial by nk-chan on deviantart.com.

Excellent hand tutorial by alexds1 on deviantart.com – I really wish I could executive cartoon hands like that!

Good step-by-step tutorial by vashs-angel on deviantart.com: simple illustrations and descriptive text.
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Videos

Often it’s helpful to see someone else do something, not just in pictures, but in real-time. Here are some videos that show hands being drawn:

For you all you manga heads out there, you wanna go check out Mark Crilley’s channel on YouTube on how to draw manga. Among those the video above on how to draw a hand holding a sword and how to just draw a hand.

Nice demonstration on how to draw a hand by cattusOK on YouTube.

Here we have another tutorial on how to draw female hands, also executed in Photoshop, via WonderHowTo.
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Anatomy

As one of the more complex instruments of the body, a sound understanding of underlying anatomy of hands can help considerably when trying to render realistic and convincing hands in your drawings. Below are resources that should help you begin to understand how hands truly work.

The Wikimedia Commons continues to be a great place to find reference material, such as the hand anatomy plate from Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body pictured above.

Drawing and Anatomy by Victor Perard has pretty in depth coverage of human anatomy even though the drawings aren’t the best I’ve seen. Nonetheless, very useful for the artist seeking to deepen their understanding of anatomy.

A more comprehensive discussion on drawing hands and feet which (I believe) originated on WetCanvas by JayD and then ended up on document form on Scribd.

Great mini-tutorial on hands by T. Arthur Smith on DeviantArt, looking to go beyond a tutorial on simply the idealized form of the hand.

I’ve mentioned him before in the post on skulls, and I’ll mention him again here: check out Michael Hensley for some great anatomical drawings with a distinctive style.
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Books

Perhaps the ultimate “tutorial” on drawing hands, “Drawing Dynamic Hands” by Burne Hogarth is a must-have reference book in your library. You can buy it here on Amazon.

Mr. Hogarth has more hand material in that most amazing work, Dynamic Anatomy. You can buy it here on Amazon.

Thankfully there’s a copy of “Drawing Head and Hands” over at Scribd, by that other master of drawing, Andrew Loomis. The section on drawing hands isn’t as comprehensive as that on heads, but a great resource nonetheless, especially when trying to draw non-male hands (female, baby, etc.).

George Bridgman is the author of yet another treasure of a book on drawing. Above you can see a plate from his the chapter on hands in the book Constructive Anatomy, available at the Internet Archive (or here via Scribd).
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Poses

Here’s a list of resources that display hands from many different angles. It’s truly remarkable just how many poses the hand can be seen in.

Useful collection of hand poses by Chrissy Fellmeth.

More hand poses by what-i-do-is-secret on deviantart.com.

A nice little collection of female hand poses by artrush73’s hub page.

Mickey Mouse Hand Model Sheet by Les Clark

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive has some true gems when it comes to old drawings, such as this hand model sheet of Mickey Mouse by Les Clark from 1932. Lot of other great stuff too, check it out. Found via this post on Animopus.

Another hand model sheet can be found on the Ultimate Iron Giant website, this one in particular being of Hogarth’s hand. There’re literally a ton of other drawings on sketches related to the Iron Giant, you’ll find the hands in about the middle of the page.

Nice little reference on drawing animal hands/paws provided by Kelly on drawfurry.com.

Great study of the hand in its many incarnations – love the minimal style here. By jimmymcwicked on deviantart.com.
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Photo References

Although you’ve got a pair for easy reference, it can help to look at a photo of a real hand, especially for awkward angles. Here are a few sites that should give you ample hand pose pictures for hours of hand-drawing fun.

Nice collection of hand poses taken by Thomas A of Ander’s hands, via elfwood.com.

This site is certainly something out of the ordinary: Hands for Drawing by Pose Maniacs allows you select various hand poses and then turn them in 3D (select one of the numbers in the right-hand menu). Great when you can’t find a proper reference at just the right angle.

Nice collection of both male and female hands in various interesting poses.

Female left hands by WindsweptSummer on deviantart.com.

Hand holding pencil by dragyourstock on deviantart.com.

"Tower of Babel" by Colin McAllister

Lee — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:30:24 +0000

Tower of Babel (Detail) by Colin McAllister

Tower of Babel by Colin McAllister

Looking at the artwork of 24-year-old U.K. artist Colin David McAllister, you get the sense of a man on a mission. The scale, detail, and perspectives of his drawings are immediately overwhelming; in fact, that they are really too big to appreciate on the web, as you can see from above. You can get a close-up view on Colin’s website, Snublic, but your monitor is likely too small to see the whole picture and the detail at once.

Once you wrap your mind around the idea of how big these drawings are and just how much time, dedication, and yes obsession it must’ve taken to create these works of art, it’s then even more incredible to consider all of the time spent on researching the topic at hand. For these works are social and political commentary as much as they are works of art, and his immense works tell incredible stories, both broad and detailed at once. Behind these stories lurks an immense curiosity about the world and a desire to see it improved.

"Decomposition of Memory" and Others by Colin Harbut

"The Feeb" by Mike May

Lee — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:51:37 +0000

The characters developed by veteran concept artist and character designer Mike May are anything but ordinary – each inhabits a unique world, suggested not so much by the environment they’re rendered in but by the dress, demeanor, and look of the characters themselves. Mike is a also a superb caricaturist. There’re a ton of drawings and illustrations on his portfolio site and additional, more recent, work on his blog, so if you need some inspiration, go check it out.

Drawing #008 by Mathis Rekowski

Lee — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:18:39 +0000

Although Illustrator Mathis Rekowski has some wonderfully trippy drawings like the one featured here, he’s got even more illustrations seem to me at once retro and cutting edge. Certainly someone to watch out for. You can purchase the image above at Mathis’ new store, or follow him on his blog

"Love Sketch" by Matthew Woodson

Lee — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:24:28 +0000

Finding illustrations like those of Matthew Woodson is why I (admittedly intermittenly) do this website. His work seems fresh and relevant – small moments of beauty in a dreary world. Definitely bookmark this one, and check out his blog if you get a chance.