Raccoon Man

It’s one thing to give some human traits to an animal character, but it’s another to create a whole new being that is halfway between a human and something else. Mythology is full of invented creatures like centaurs and minotaurs that combine elements from humans and animals.

The pencil sketches above were the first steps in developing a design for a creature that is halfway between a human and a raccoon. I surrounded myself with photos and drawings of both and experimented with different ways to draw the mask and to place the ears. Each sketch is a little different, and it takes a lot of variations until one jumps out as the winner.

The final painting was used on a paperback cover for a science fiction novel called The Architect of Sleep by Steven R. Boyett

Related posts on “Apophenia and Pariedolia, and Animal Characters.

Line Weight Hierarchy

Computer drawings made with the CAD program often show the lines all the same thickness or weight. In a large or complex drawing made with uniform line weight, it can be a bit difficult to make out what’s important.

Architects learn to prioritize certain lines and give them greater weight to help the eye sort things out. This “line weight hierarchy” follows specific rules.

First, as an object gets closer to the viewer, it should be drawn with a heavier line.
Within a given form, the heaviest line should be reserved for the outer contour or silhouette (a).

The second heaviest line should be used for "plane breaks" (b)—that is, lines within the form that define the edge where two planes meet.

The finest lines belong to surface details within a given plane (c).

If you reverse those rules and put the heaviest lines in the back of the scene or on the superficial details, you can see how confusing the drawing becomes.

Thanks to Henry Sorenson for explaining this to me.

CAD drawing from Rough Rider Industries, link.

ABC: Stiff and Clumsy

Wednesday is the day for our group sketch game called "Art By Committee." I present an actual excerpt from a science fiction manuscript and you illustrate it.

This week’s quote had a specific description of a raging female, and you came up with a variety of wonderful and creative solutions.

Mei-Yi Chun

Patrick Waugh

Andy Wales

Christoffer Gertz Bech

Paul Bozzo

Madeline Carol Matz

Michael Geissler

Kerry Lackner Jen Zeller

....and the one from the original sketchbook.

May I suggest we take a break from the game next week? I feel privileged to host it, and I'm always amazed by your amazing solutions, but I'll be a little tight on time next week.

West Thumb Caldera

Here's a quick watercolor of the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake, a giant caldera ringed with bubbling pots of water. The pool in the foreground is about twenty feet across, with colonies of orange-colored algae fringing the edges.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Here's a quick watercolor from one of the sketching excursions with ASAI.

We tried to sit high enough above the crush of tourists so that we could concentrate. Behind me, from left to right, is Masatoshi Fujimoto, Ian Stantiall, David Csont, and Gordon Grice.

Hi from Virginia City

I haven't been posting because there's no Internet at Yellowstone. Here's one sketch from Virginia City, an old mining town in the Rockies. This old Ford still runs, the locals told me.

The sketch is a mixed bag of watercolor, brown fountain pen, and water-soluble pencils. The original is about 3 x 4 inches in a mini Moleskine sketchbook. It's a big file if you want to click on it.

We've been enjoying the company of about 40 members of the Society of Architectural Illustrators. Members have come not only from America, but also from Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. These artists have experience in both architecture and illustration, and they create artistic but accurate renderings of proposed buildings, both in digital and traditional media. They meet annually for a juried exhibition, workshops, hikes, and sketching excursions. They're amazing watercolorists and sketchers. More information here: link.

Logan Airport

Jeanette and I are on our way to the annual meeting of the American Society of Architectural Illustrators (ASAI), which will be held this summer in Yellowstone Park.

We got to Logan airport in Boston a little early, so I did a watercolor study of an airplane in a small Moleskine watercolor sketchbook, working across the gutter. Usually planes don’t spend very long at the gates, but this one was held up for a while because of tropical storm Anna.