Author: moonbug (Page 18 of 39)

Angeles

9/2/'06 / moonbug

You may have noticed my linking a couple of days ago to a guitar-tab page for Elliott Smith‘s song “Angeles”. In my opinion, this is one of Elliott’s most brilliant compositions — lyric-wise as well as melody-wise. As with many of his tunes, Angeles sounds deceptively simple. Only when you attempt to sing and play it on the guitar does it become clear how intricate and beautiful the chord changes are. There’s a different chord just about every single word and if you’re going to play it right, you’re going to have to know every single one of them.

Obsessive as I am, I spent the last couple of days trying to master the tune. Here’s a little QuickTime video with a version I’m moderately satisfied with, warts ‘n all (YouTube edit for those on dial-up). It obviously comes nowhere near the way Elliott Smith performed it — although on occasion Angeles proved to be a tough one to play live, even for him…

How To Draw An Androgynous Gnome

8/30/'06 / moonbug

A gnome, wikipedia will have us believe, is “a mythical creature characterized by small stature and living underground”.

Fair enough.

But what about oversized, androgynous, sexually ambiguous gnomes with a penchant for open air activity and sassy boots?

Take One:

We need some color. Second pass:

A little background imagery to finish it off…

… and that’s how you draw an androgynous gnome.

Thank me not! The eCard is available at the exit. Don’t forget your guide.

Horror Vacui

8/26/'06 / moonbug

When I was in art college back in the early 90s, this is how I spent many an evening — aimlessly doodling. The internet as we now know it was non-existent, I had no computer and no TV in my little appartment. What I did have was a turntable playing Neil Young records, a pen, ink, a coffee machine working overtime, and a lot of spare time. There was no horror vacui, no deadlines, and whatever I drew was strictly for my own enjoyment. An example (click to see the whole thing):

Ah, the good old days!

Tattoo You (3)

8/12/'06 / moonbug

Well here we are: I think the tattoo drawing is pretty much finished. I had some trouble making the cherub top left look “less evil” (per request of the client who for now, shall remain nameless!) — I wonder what that says about my personality. The solution came by way of Gaby who superimposed an image of a cherub’s face in Photoshop and went on to draw the eyes, nose and mouth from there. Now you may consider this cheating but it did get the job done, so what the hey…

Here’s approximately the final size of the tattoo:

tattoo final

… and here’s how I imagine it will more-or-less look tattooed on skin:

tattoo final (on skin)

I can tell you one thing: it’s gonna be a while before I draw cherubs again.

Tattoo You (2)

8/8/'06 / moonbug

So here’s the result of my second stab at a tattoo drawing.

tattoo you two

Thicker lines, lots of crosshatching. For those interested, here’s how I went about this:

doubled the initial sketch on a separate piece of drawing paper with a pencil
rubbed my chinny-chin-chin
attempted some crosshatching voodoo (see moonbug crosshatch his way out of the proverbial paper bag!)
scanned and corrected some stuff in Photoshop
created legs for the female on a separate piece of paper and Photoshopped them in (the guy-in-drag effect was an unintended comedic side-effect)

Whew! Onward.