CrashOctopus Blog

Skull Study by Meg Lyman

Happy Halloween!

My life drawings are always better than my drawings from photos. It’s amazing the details the brain sees in a real object that are lost in a photo. This skull was drawn from “life” - hahah I kill me! - it’s Shorty the Plastic Skeleton’s head. I love having a life-sized skeleton to work from. It’s great for perspective practice too. If only he’d stay posed for me…

It’s Squidarific!

Everyone have a great weekend.

Soused Mouse by Meg Lyman

9×12 gouache on Bristol

$100 - e-mail to buy

During my humbling “art-reaming” at Dragon*Con, I was given the same advice by several great artists: Tell a Story. Doesn’t matter if it’s an illustration or fine art or just a character pinup - it’ll be much more interesting and successful if it tells a story.

Tommy Castillo gave me a great set of guidelines to help with storytelling. Once you get an idea, ask yourself these questions:

Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?

Sitting down and writing out even quick, one-sentence answers to these helps immensely. The first four are pretty easy; usually you’ll have those answers in mind when you originally have the idea. The last two, however, can be tough. Those are the important ones. They can turn a viewer’s attitude from “So what?” to “Oh, that’s GREAT!”

I have about a zillion doodles in my sketchbook that I intend to turn into paintings. The first project I undertook after Dragon*Con started with this doodle:

Originally, I was going to ink and color him as-is. But after D*C, I answered those questions. I gave him a story. Instead of just an inebriated rodent, he became a drunk sot having trouble making his way back to his apartment after a late night out. The resulting painting was quick and messy, but I love it, because it tells a story. That makes it much more successful.

I highly recommend giving it a try next time you’re arting something from your imagination.

I’ve rated Terrapin Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout before, but it was the bottled version. In case you don’t recall, we gave it very high marks.

This delicious beer, also known as Wake ‘n’ Bake, is smooth and rich. It tastes like coffee (appropriate, since it’s made with coffee) and a hint of cookie. It’s nearly as good as the bottled version, and it has even more coffee taste. The scrumptious flavor hits right away. There’s no strong aftertaste and no bite. An all-around winner.

Ratings:
M: 9
N: 9

DISINTERESTED SQUID

IS DISINTERESTED

I could take this beyond one little digital piece, but I won’t. I promise.

If you are confused, visit I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER and view the “lolcats.” But you’ll get addicted. So click only after careful consideration about your free time, because the archives are calling like sirens…

Emoticons by Meg Lyman

4×4″ each, oil on canvas

$100 set - e-mail to buy

Continuing with the theme of “oils,” I present the Three Emoticons. I picked up these tiny 4×4″ gallery-wrapped canvases last time I was at my favorite art store:

I have a thing for the three primary colors together, so I did one of each, using several tube colors for each. I tried to make the brushstrokes fit the emotion associated with the color. Then I let them dry. For a month. It took forever. Then I went to Larry’s class and learned how to make the paint flow better and dry faster (with thinner, medium, and dryer). So I went back and painted the faces last week, and they dried in a day or two. Woo!

This week, I bring you Anchor Porter. I’ve had it several times before, but just got around to ranking it.

It has a little initial sweetness, but afterwards is overwhelming savory, almost like peppered beef jerky. But strangely, the aftertaste is sweet again. It’s an interesting effect. It isn’t tangy or too bubbly, and doesn’t kick you in the teeth. Decent overall, but nothing to write home about.

Ratings:
M: 6

Larry’s Girl by Meg Lyman

16×20″ Oil on Masonite

Here she is… as finished as I can manage. Another nice thing about oils is that I can fix anything later on, so critiques are welcome! I think the contrast on her skin isn’t high enough, but I’m afraid I’ll ruin it if I do anything. I already tried darkening it and nearly botched the whole thing. Maybe I’ll go back after I’ve done a few weeks of nice, predictable pencil work.

It’s too big to fit on my scanner, so I photographed it with my snarky digital camera. The color’s pretty good but the contrast and detail aren’t quite right.

I’m not sure what to think of it, but I’m glad it’s finished. *whew*

Today is International Cephalopod Awareness Day! Everyone please take a moment to consider the little-appreciated intelligence and beauty of class Cephalopoda.

Did you know that octopus arms act so independently of the brain that they can be said to have brains of their own? Did you know that cuttlefish can be trained to find their way out of mazes by looking at signs? Did you know the squids of family Histioteuthidae are called “cock-eyed squids” because their left eyes are long tubes bulging out of their heads?

Use today to spend a few moments learning about cephalopods. They rock.

I have just a few more steps to get that painting from class finished. I really hate how long oil paint takes to dry. It’s nice for fixing problems or taking a break to eat dinner, but it also means I have to wait 2 or 3 days for an area to dry before I can continue working.

In the meantime, I’ll share with you some random things I learned about oil painting. Feel free to add your own hints and tips.

• The more paint you squirt onto your palette (or mix up), the longer you can use it. It’ll usually form a skin overnight, but the paint underneath is still pretty good the next day.
• If your use of the palette knife is vigorous, keep a few backups on hand. They aren’t too sturdy.
• Master’s Brush Cleaner rocks. It works great for gouache, too… but make sure you have one for each.
• I had never used anything to thin oil paint except thinner (turpenoid). Adding an oil medium to the paint helps it flow a lot better, but also lengthens the drying time. In class I learned that 1/3 thinner, 2/3 oil, and a few drops of cobalt dryer work well - it makes the paint flow well and dry reasonably quickly. Just don’t lick your brushes, or use it around small children - cobalt dryer is poisonous.
• Masonite is easier to paint on than canvas, but you have to gesso it. Prepared Claybord is too smooth and Gessobord is pretty rough - although I have yet to try Gessobord with oils.
• The oil painting on Claybord in that post finally sold this week after hanging in the Marietta Pizza Company for six months!

I hope to have the workshop painting finished and blogged by mid-week.