ArtCtrl

In the past week I have completed 4 paintings. There is spose to be a 5th here but I forgot to export it and can’t be bothered to sort it now. I will include it in the next post.

The following art was created at Life Drawing Hamilton on Friday and Hamilton Computer Club on Thursday/Saturday. My life consists of meet ups.

This was started during Thursday night meeting of Hamilton Computer Club. Linda did a talk on editing photos with Google software. She also showed how to create ecards with the website 123greetings.com. I think I would rather do something original for an ecard. When I use to have Facebook I would draw/paint portraits of my friends for their birthday and post it to their wall.

The figure drawings are the next day - life drawing Hamilton. I had drawn the model once before. These are the warm up - 2 minute poses.

Longer 5 min poses. I found it hard to concentrate and went to the toilet and even walked outside and made a phone call. Sometimes I feel I attend just so that there is enough people. Of course this isn’t true and it’s best I just attend each week and have a positive attitude.

The final three poses for the day. These were longer 15/20 minute poses. I did move for the third one.

Started with a drawing of Maddie from a SIA video. When I got home from life drawing a bunch of Creative Commons pamphlets had arrived. This caused me to be inspired to work on ccanz stuff - including drawing of the pamphlets. In order for the page to not be too blank I filled the empty areas with a landscape.

On Thursday night I am attending The Cure concert and planning on bringing the Pi along and drawings. I won’t walk in with it but will set it up once I have my seat. Hopefully I get through security with it.

Middle of the month so due for a update. Spent the last two weeks in Hamilton. Been sick, had the flu. Not allot of drawing because of that. Still have yet to fix my monitor, been using the smaller one when walking.

Motivation has been hard, don’t know what conference I will attend next. Meet up groups have been dumb. Hopefully feel better after writing this post.

Looking through some of archive posts. This drawing was inspired from a pencil drawing I did in Auckland back in 2013. I drew elements of the old artwork and including the text written alongside.

Creative Commons in Schools drawing. This was created to inspire me to create slides for a talk I may give in the future on Creative Commons in schools. I started these slides when I was at Ruby Camp and have been working on them further recently… mostly adding images. There still needs to be some work - removing slides that repeat themselves. This artwork isn’t included in the slides but it should be - a good example of taking the CC kiwi and creating a derivative work from it.

Lana Del Rey and sheering a sheep. Derivative of an old aussy painting.

A full page of sketches. The only text being IS IT GOD? Creating multiply layers of line, something that is rare in my drawing.

Created during Writers Den Hamilton. The Jim was a sig that I copied. Banned is the theme for the next meeting. My idea. Communities just love to ban me.

Again looking back over archives. Took a painting I did of my Mother and redrew it.

Characters mostly. Spikes and the usual.

Drawing drink bottle and landscapes.

Portrait of someone. I have no idea.

I had a great weekend drawing at Kiwijam followed by the wlug meeting on Monday night. Here is a bunch of drawings created at kiwijam, my brothers, and wlug.

Created several cartoon portraits then filled the page with landscapes.

Focused on the circles. Small and tiny to build up an area. Landscape of water with a character at the bottom. Shapes rising up.

Continued with Trump theme. Characters standing on top of a wall. Water below.

Character in a square frame with spikes emerging out. Another character drawn on the bottom left, merging into the background.

Detail on the water. Normally don’t use such a small line for it.

These are all the same. What more can I say?

Recently I founded several groups on meetup.com that were already happening irl. These are Hamilton Computer Club and Life Drawing Hamilton.

I am likely to build scripts in the future that automates actions on meetup. This is the start - reverse engineer the concept of meetup.com and rebuild it as Nikola sites.

Had a break from the usual imagination landscapes. Or as Bill told me ‘doodles’. It doesn’t bother me, he teaches Microsoft focused Computer Science at a uni.

This was drawn from RedditGetsDrawn. wtvrmelon and hannahthepalindrome. Filled the negative space around the portraits with squares and squiggles.

Grayscale tonal layer of the following line work. Must of been getting sick of drawing the imagination line pieces and created a grayscale tonal layer.

I like the animal on the bottom left.

Towers, rectangles to build a wall. Landscape.

Idea to modify the bot to tweet images. Currently it is only tweeting random blog posts and would be easy enough to open those posts up and tweet the images/ content.

This was drawn at wlug. The topic was Wayland and Mir as replacements for X11. I packed up the Pi after the talk but Ian did an excellent demo of Endless OS which I didn’t get to take notes on.

I made it to Life Drawing on Friday. It had been quite a few weeks since I had last attending so it was great to be there. Will not make it the next two weeks due to being out of Hamilton.

The model was Laure a French girl who I had never drawn before. It was her first time modelling for the group - but she was experienced so easy to draw.

Warm up poses. These were all similar standing poses - which is no problem as I am able to fit them onto a single page. Tried to capture the whole body - which I managed to in in a couple.

Two poses. A sitting pose and a standing pose. Her hand is leaned against a chair which made it more interesting. Started drawing the tables in the background. Model wasn’t in the usual spot - was missing a heater so moved her closer to one of the wall heaters. This was fine for me as I had forgotten one of my battery packs so has to plug into the power of the venue.

A front on sitting pose and a back pose. Back poses are often hard as there is much less detail to capture - especially if the model is curled up in a ball. I’m happy with the front pose though - captured her whole body (except for cutting off her forehead).

The sitting pose was long so I had time to create a grayscale layer. Whenever I do this it causes me to look again at the model and notice all the mistakes that the line layer had. Always important to keep looking at the model!

Color layer. I believe this is the first time I’ve done a color layer along with the usual line and rare grayscale layer at Hamilton Life Drawing. The usual saved color palette - yellow for skin, slightly more black in the yellow for darker areas of the skin. Red for the hair, and blue for the background.

These were the final three poses. I like the standing pose on the left - although she looks short. Love the large head though.

Recovered from the flu and had a few late nights out this week. It’s nice to have a plan to have a few days at home - and planning on taking the dog (Patches) for a walk.

This art is a result from Writers Den Hamilton, Hamilton Book Club, and life drawing. That’s right - life drawing. 2013 was the last time I had done life drawing so great to get back into it.

Enjoy,

Joined a Hamilton book club on Meetup.com last year and finally made it to a meetup. I hadn’t read the book they discussed -
The Elusive Language of Ducks but I enjoyed the meetup anyway. These were the notes I drew during the meetup. These were the notes I took during the the meetup - others thoughts on the book.

I spent the day in Hamilton City on Thursday waiting for the book club so walked the river path, drawing the building across the river.

Life drawing. It had been years since I have drawn a nude model and it was great to get back into it. The model was Mia. These are four drawings of her, it was a long standing pose, I moved around the room several times and completed several shorter drawings of her.

Started with the eyes and worked out. The legs were certainly neglected.

The start. These were short two minute poses. Took sometime to adjust to drawing a model - certainly not use to it with the wacom.

Colour layer of the first twenty minute pose. It has been awhile since I’ve painted colour, choose a disgusting green colour rather than the normal yellow I usually use. Would of liked to add red to her eyebrows and hair.

During the break we were given a glass of wine. I displayed this drawing on the Pi and had several people ask me about my setup. Feels more complete than the line layer.

The line layer. Hands and feet were neglected. I had a grid guide on by accident and didn’t know how to get rid of it so have some strange straight lines on the right.

Drawn during writers Den Hamilton. I tend to get allot of sketching done during these meetups. It’s great, i can just draw and listen to people reading out their writing. They often have printed copies of their work which I scan but never focus on it (hard to read with my glasses on).

Artwork from the past few days. I attended life drawing on Friday which was excellent and on Saturday - Hamilton Book Club. I also read The Wrath of Grapes.

The Wrath of Grapes and 12 Monkeys. I watched season two of 12 monkeys and drew this as I was watching it.

Warm up poses. I hadn’t drawn the model before The model was older but had a slim figure with short curly hair.

The final poses for the day. I did draw the final pose but when I checked my charge level I bumped the cable the computer reset. My final drawing was lost but whatever - it was only 15 minutes of drawing.

Sitting poses. Some I get poses which are back poses which gives me little to draw. Not here though. I guess it’s one of the disadvantages of sitting on the side of the room by myself.

Using old life drawing and blog posts as reference and redrawing elements of it.

Currently I am in Hamilton. I am reading Lie Down With Lions. Here is the artwork that I have created recently on with my portable pi workstation - I drew the majority of these when I went to Hamilton Writers Den, Hamilton Computer Club and Hamilton Life Drawing.

Drawn with inspiration from Art100. Not Allot of drawing images in this - mostly just drawing words from the wiki page.

Another piece from art100. This looks at empathy and literary fiction.

Last work from art100. Focus on the course descriton and content.

I finished Fall of Giants when I was in Levin and loved it. In the center of this image it reads: write prose based on recent book - Fall Of Giants.

Hamilton Computer Club pamphlet inspired work. I picked the pamphlet up during the day and reworked it. I would like to create a a5 pamphlet for Hamilton Computer Club to advertise the club - similar idea to what I did several months ago with Hamilton Python User Group.

On Friday I went to life drawing. I arrived late and missed out on the quick warm up poses. This drawing was a 20 minute standing pose. The model had her back to me so it was hard to capture much detail. I almost managed to capture the full model - cut from the knees down.

One of the best things about the location is the view of the river and nature outside. I sat so I could lookout to the view, with the nude model between. Capturing the benches and leaves of the trees. To the left and right of her head is the wall panel - complete with power sockets.

This was the final life drawing for the day. The pose was a long 30minutes lying pose. I found it hard to capture - even after walking around the room for a better view.

This was a strange 10 minute pose. The models ankles were sore so she had one leg. Pose was 10minutes. It was interesting but hard for the model to keep still.

My favorite life drawing of the day. This was a sitting pose. The model is drawn twice - the first larger focusing on her portrait. The 2nd drawing of the model is in the top right hand corner. It’s more of stick figure drawing but it captures the full shape of the model. I ran out of room to draw the arm so it’s on the left side of the page. At the bottom the Waikato river runs through the page.

The cycle of Romantic Literature. A piece from art100. This piece focuses on drawing elements from Fall Of Giants - world war 1. Man with a gas mask, and guns.

Artwork from the past few days. Attended Hamilton Writers Den, Hamilton Computer Club and life drawing. At all events I was able to draw, here are the results along with some art I created at home.

This was created at home with the new wireless dongle I got for the wacom tablet. I have had the wacom for years and never got one - until now. I am having some issues with the pressure sensitivity not working all the time with it - but I think it’s due to over loading the power supply (am getting the rainbow symbol in the top right of the pi letting me know that there isn’t enough power). I would like to get a battery pack that is 5v 3amp.

The majority of this drawing isn’t using the pressure sensitivity but some testing squiggles are working correctly - these were done at computer club when I was demoing the wireless wacom. The demo gods were favourable.

Life drawing grayscale layer. This was a sitting pose and the woman had her back to me. It was still interesting to draw and I didn’t need to move around the room. This is the only grayscale layer created.

Life drawing line layer. Missing a head! Drew the blanket the model was sitting on.

Reclining pose. I quite like this. Managed to capture the full figure - something I was struggling with at my other two life drawing sessions that I have attended in Hamilton. On the top right is a sitting pose - from behind. I always sit so I can see out to the Waikato river - started drawing branches and leaves from the view. No water was drawn.

Two standing poses - bother from behind (I’m getting plenty of behind views). Around the figures I doodled landscapes and shapes.

Warm up poses. When I made it to to the last life drawing I was late and missed out on the warm ups. It’s very important to warm up and since it’s only two hours (including the break) there is very little time to warm up. All the poses are squeezed into the one layer. There is often no time to create a new layer for a pose and it’s better to just overlap the drawings.

Continued with abandoned water purification plant, though here I’ve written water treatment plant. Same kind of idea. Drawing plenty of circles.

On Thursday evening I attended Writers Den Hamilton. This was the writing exercise we did during the meet up. We went around the room and spoke a word that we then used to turn into a story. My word was layers.

The drawings around the writing was created at Hamilton Computer Club. The speaker was two guys from PB Tech.

Artwork from the past week - I attended life drawing on Friday and GovtHack.

Drawn at govthack. The bear was reference from somewhere

Ideas for govthack. My first idea was to continue with the MoE jobs website. Other ideas included Creative Commons polices in schools. Schools that have vs not. This is something I started. I liked the idea of entering NZ Best Data Journalism. Another idea that is a bit different is to look at public library software management and analyse regional usage. I found this data online that covered public libraries in New Zealand.

Landscape that was drawn during govthack. Warming up…

Drawn on the Friday night at GovtHack. Was watching a doco about Muslims in London - that’s why the god is great statement is there.

I had considered to make a parody for govthack - taking inspiration from North Korea and Soviet Union. I guess that was why I was watching this doco - to generate some ideas for the site.

Hamilton E-Commerce Meetup. This was on Thursday night. 6 people showed which was good numbers. I drank a beer and drew this. Only notes I took was Magento - open source php software. I wrote under it Python Ecommerce libraries - I would rather use Python than a PHP library as I can integrate it into my current scripts easily.

My main project at GovtHack this year was to redo the Jobs.Govt.NZ site. This is ideas and notes for the About page.

The categories of jobs.

Front page. We have an important jobs for you! Then listing of all the categories.

This was done after govthack. Moving beyound jobs.govt.nz and looks at job bank - Ministry of Social Development. One idea was to merge the govt and non-govt job listings together.

This is tags for jobs. Areas and locations where the jobs are located. Below these tags is a landscape and the words: ‘work, work’. I wanted some illustration to add to the website since all I really had done up to now was notes. Illustrations for categories and tags would be neat.

Life Drawing which was completed before govthack. Several back poses. Her hair is always great to draw. Love the shapes it makes on her back.

Portrait of her face with arm coming into the foreground. I included the ghost tattoo she has. Her arm is floating on the river.

Standing poses. Side on portraits. Especially happy with arm on left. Captured tattoos. They always make drawing the figure more interesting.

Artwork from the past week. Had the Wacom drawing tablet connected to the Raspberry Pi 3 that is attached to a large television. Still have the portable Raspberry Pi with touch screen but it’s nice to work on a large monitor - especially for tonal and color layers.

Majority of this artwork is digitising pencil drawings from 2012/2013.

Working vertical. Line drawing reference included works from Levin, Wellington, Auckland and RedditGetsDrawn portraits.

Grayscale tonal layer of my old school in Levin. Unlike the previous artwork this is just one pencil drawing reference.

The line layer of Levin North School drawing. I added extras to the drawing including triangles and waves at the bottom of the artwork.

A Pepper and Carrot artwork. The reference was a pencil comic strip of Pepper and Carrot in the desert. I added legs to Pepper and remixed the logo. Pepper was drawn again from a pencil reference.

Montage of traced pencil enviorment drawings - Levin, Wellington, South Island, and Auckland. Two portraits (four people) from RedditGetsDrawn.