The Wayback Machine Part I

So I was putting around my room when I found an old sketchbook that I had not packed up. It is always fun to flip through those old sketchbooks to see how one has improved or, like a time capsule, to see what one was into at the time. To my surprise, while the majority of art was cringe-worthy, I did find a few pages where I went "You know, that ain't half bad!" So, presented over three posts, are highlights from that sketchbook which is circa 1996-1999 during my SJSU illustration major days.

Above: The bulk of my free time was usually taken up drawing superheroes. But it looks like, in this sketchbook, I was concentrating of adding more shadow for realism. Even to the point of looking at reference like the above left one which I did after looking at Sarah Michelle Gellar on a TV Guide cover about BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (which dates it at about 1998-ish, right?)

 

Above left: More typical of what I was doing at the time was the superhero and girlie stuff. But occasionally I'd bust out into looking at photos for realism life the above right image.

Above are thumbnails for an illustration assignment to design the cover art for a video game. I'd start out doing a whole bunch of thumbnail sketches to get my ideas down. The artwork at the very top of this post is one of those thumbnails enlarged. The idea I chose isn't actually on this page but another one where I have a bookcase full of elements from the history of the world and warfare: history books, a primitive statue, an 1800s style pistol, and a grenade. After I had the idea locked down, I went about to find these elements in real life to shoot some photo reference to get a more realistic approach when I did my final illustration in watercolor.

I remember a buddy of mine having most of the props I was looking for. He's an expert on guns and even had a dummy fake grenade I could use. But I was down in the south bay at SJSU and he was up in the east bay so I made a trip back up. I didn't have any studio lights so I was racing against the day's sunset to get all the elements set up in a bookcase in my driveway before I lost my daylight. So, in a hurry, I collected my friend's stuff and sped over the hill when a cop pulled me over for speeding. I didn't get a ticket but got a talking to to slow down. The funny thing is I had that dummy grenade sitting on my passenger seat right out in the open and he didn't say or do a thing. That day could have ended badly.