shane

One of my NYR (New Year’s Resolutions) was to really amp up the number of times I post to my blog.  Last year I switched from using Flash to HTML5 for my site, both to increase traffic from Google as well as to make www.crimsoncrayon.com more iPad friendly.  I have been immensely happy with the result using Word Press, however, I have seen a lot of things that needed to be added and changed.  Also, as a result of beginning to read “Likeable Social Media” by Dave Kerpen, I setup a Facebook page devoted to my art.

For anyone that has tried to use more than just the very basic of features of Facebook, you will know that it sometimes can be a real monster.  Never-the-less, changing the profile picture on your page is relatively easy until you want to maximize the picture size while maintaining the correct placement and dimensions for the thumbnail… which I still have to do.  In the meantime, I wanted to change the default image to something more interesting which is why I created this image.

So please “Like” it if you like it… and comment on it too if you are so inclined.  I am always open for comments and criticisms.

I haven’t drawn my Dragon Huntress for a while… and i wanted to do another take on an image I did before.  This was once again drawn on my iPad using the Sketch Club app.

Winter is here.  My kitchen pipes froze yesterday.  I’ve had to spend a few hundred dollars on a new winter jacket… but there is still something very special about this time of year (aside from hockey season)…

Another iPad sketch done with SketchClub…

I am trying to develop some new techniques and styles.  Amélie is one of my favourite movies of all time.

I have been playing the new Batman: Arkham City game in which you get to play as Frank Miller’s Batman.  Miller’s Batman is awesome… and although this is not referenced from any of his drawings… I was thinking of his “style” when doing this sketch.

Trying to warm up my inking skills before I start drawing my comic.  I love the 30’s and this is referenced loosely from the “White Mink Black Cotton” album.

I have a few sketches on my iPad that I have not completed for one reason or another.  This Ivy picture I had previously “inked” and somehow I lost everything I was working on.

Quorra, from TRON… drawn on my iPad.

I love her hairstyle… one of my favourites…

Working on this drawing was a lot of fun and a lot of work.  Every time I pick up my iPad and launch SketchClub, I seem to learn something new.

For those of you who haven’t used SketchClub, its a “basic” app that has come a LONG way from its first version… but has kept its simplicity that made it so great in the first place.  However this also has a down side.  Sometimes, I really do need more than 5 layers… For instance I needed to create a background for this drawing… but with my ink, colour and texture layers… I was stumped… until i realized I could create a new file… and import the final BG as a final layer (when I was ready to merge the drawing down)… Then I wanted to create some textures (such as the scales on the Dragon) but the app doesn’t include any way to create your own brushes.  So once again, I created a full page black & white image of scales which I could import, scale, rotate and apply to one layer over and over again.  Not flawless by any means, but it gets the job done.

It was done for another SketchClub contest but I think it got lost in the entry shuffle… relegated to page 4.  That being said, there are some FANTASTIC entries that clearly beats this.  Check it out while its still on.

I want to come back to this … but I know I won’t… so up it goes.

I am trying to lose the lines and finish more of my work… I would really like to be able to a sketch to more of a finished image.  This is caricature of myself for a SketchClub competition…

Wow this last week went fast.  This years FanExpo started on Thursday and lasted 4 days… and it was incredible.  Again I was sharing a table with my very talented friend Marco Bucci… from who I was able to pick up a few more titbits of knowledge and a ton of inspiration from .

Most mornings we started our day off with a  big breakfast at Dunn’s before grabbing our coffee at Starbucks.  Only then were we ready to face the crowd.  Having Thursday to warm up to everything was great, but I realized that I needed something new for the show… so that night I was off to Kinko’s 24hr shop to print up some “mini-prints” (5×7)… I had to battle the drunk university students …. one of which tipped my scooter… and didn’t get home till 3am… but it was well worth it.

We are already booked again for next year and have already started to plan how to make our space even better!

Thanks to all the fans and friends that stopped by to show your support!

I was sketching the other day in my new coffee shop location  and came up with a  couple of quick sketches that I sent to my iPad to “ink” and colour.

The SketchClub had a 1 day competition to draw an Ewok. I drew it in Starbucks on my iPad with the SketchClub app.

The full image can be found in my digital gallery.

I did this drawing on my iPad last night for one of the SketchClub comp contests.  The winner is randomly selected from the top 100 entries to win an iPad stylus.  I have 4 of these already… but hey… you never know when you might need another right?

The new selection “digital” has been added to the gallery.  Here you will find some of my iPad and Photoshop pieces.  I have been using the “SketchClub” a lot as my default drawing app.  I am even using it work out some thumbnails for a graphic novel I am working on with my brother…

I love getting mail… especailly when it’s a book… especially when that book is the newest Doug TenNapel graphic novel!

“When a family takes a boating trip, the last thing they expect is to be shipwrecked on an island—especially an island with weird, otherworldly plants and animals. Now, what started out as a bad vacation turns into a terrible one as Lyle, Karen, and their two kids, Janie and Reese, must find a way off the island while they dodge its strange and dangerous inhabitants. Is the island alive? Is it from another world? In this rousing, Swiss-Family-Robinson tale with a twist, the answers to these questions could save them… or spell their doom.

One thing Reese knows for sure:  THIS IS ONE BAD ISLAND.”

(tehehehehe… I know what I will be doing this weekend)

Bengal’s euro-manga style has fascinated me for years.  I have (still do) spend a lot of time pouring over his images from his old site but he hasn’t updated it in a very long time.  Perhaps it’s his cool French air of condescension or his seemingly indifference to his own talent that restrained him from proclaiming his “new” (to me) blog.  An article in my recent edition of ImagineFX magazine highlighted his new virtual home which can be found here.  Keep in mind, Bengal is French.  (Some of his art may not be considered “workplace safe” … you’ve been warned.  Savvy?

I’ve started redesigning my site into a WordPress driven site for a few reasons… I hope the simplified experience helps with some serious navigation issues I was having. I hope to make better use of my blog as well… which should remind me to update my gallery more often than I do. Plus I am a MAChead… and I hate not being able to see my art on my iPad… now I can!

the WAR of ART by Steven Pressfield is one book every artist, student and human being should own.  Thanks Marco for the suggestion.  The very fact that I am writing in this blog instead of drawing validates the point of this book.

“It’s not the writing part that’s hard.  What’s hard is sitting down to write.  What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.”

I am only on page 25 and already the truths Mr. Pressfield brings to light justify the somewhat hefty $18.95 CAD price tag (less my Chapters discount)

“Henry Fonda was still throwing up before each stage performance, even when he was seventy-five.  In other words, fear doesn’t go away.  The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.”

How could you not love a book that uses a simile of a warrior to describe the motivation of an artist?

Go buy it.

I have added a few new images to my site.  I am almost finished this sketchbook and I am really looking forward to starting a new one.  Every time I do, I have a renewed spirit to try and make it better than the last…

Anyway, here is perhaps my favourite image from the most recent uploads.  It is a concept for a character in a graphic novel my brother and I are working on:

I sketched it in my sketckbook, took a photo of it with my iPhone… transfered it to my iPad and “inked” it with SketchBook Pro… then when I got home (I was sketching in Starbucks) I touched it up with Photoshop.

*check* *check* is this thing on?

Hello everybody, my name is Shane and I am blog-neglect-olic…

…

Wow… seriously… how lame is this… this is my bi-yearly post.  Well things are going to change (as “things” constantly do).  No more excuses!

Yeah!  2010!  I had a great start the the new year already.  I spent the first day at Starbucks drawing for a couple of hours.  Here is what I did: And here are a couple of images to finish up 2009:

I will be posting the sketches to these images and much more in my sketchbook on the main site.

I LOVE Claire Wendlings work… this book is a collection of poster work she has done for some festivals in France.  They really have that art nouveau feel to them.  Simply beautiful.

… and this, the second volume of Drawn to Life:

My book collection is HUGE now!  Over 400 art related books… now I just have to find time to read them all…

Updates added to the website.  You will now be able to access my current sketchbook from the main menu with the archive sketchbooks in their own folder.

Also, I have started to add to the portfolio folder some of my better work…

Here are a couple of sketches done over the last couple of days…

Hi everyone!

Sorry for being so neglegent with this blog lately.  Over the last few months I have been finishing up a contract doing I.T. work that has had me working 10-12 hours a day.  Needless to say, trying to switch over to the other side of the brain and do something creative after a LONG day of troubleshooting computer issues in such a high stress job proved too much for me.

A couple of weeks ago though, I was given my 2 weeks notice.  I was extactic.  I knew the project was coming to an end and I had told myself that after I would focus most of my attention to art.  Well, that was short lived… I was offered another contract to do similar work.  I have been lead to believe that it will take up less of my time and much less stress… so I am going to give it a shot and see if, once again, I can do both.

I will post the few pictures I have been able to create over the last few months on my main site.  I have plans to start a graphic novel with my brother Jeremy and of course there is our webcomic that we are doing as well…

So if you don’t hear from me, send me a virtual slap upside the head and ask me ‘whats the hold up?’… I can really use all the encouragement I can get!

I didn’t get much time to look around this year.  But I took some snapshots from my iPhone of some of the scary, funny and beautiful costumes that walked by.  Here are a few:

Want a signed sketchbook but missed the show?  Don’t worry about it! Fire an email off to me using the contact form below and I will drop one in the post for you for $5 + shipping.  I will include a blue pencil sketch in the book upon request…

So I had a chance to visit the MET in NYC last week. It really has been the highlight of my “trip” to this city. Here are some of the photos I took with my iPhone of just some of what I saw that day…

Located on the edge of Central Park in NYC… the MET is simply regal…

The most famous Sargent painting. This image is one of my top 5 favourite paintings of all time…

The security guard gave me trouble for taking a photo of this picture… LOL