Changewind's Ink

Hot Off the Press!

2012-01-24T16:24:00.000-08:00

This past week I went to go visit friends and family over in Washington D.C. and New York. It was a museum/ memorial walk fest! This time, I remembered to scan in the sketches early on, so here's a few sketches from my journey through D.C. and New York.

A sketch of the Lincoln Memorial done in a cheap Japanese brush pen, a water-soluble Pilot pen, a waterbrush, and a pencil.

Very cute elephant shrews at the National Zoo. Ink pens and pencil.

The only full color image I did on my trip. Watercolor and pencil of Passenger Pigeons from the "Birds of D.C." display at the Smithsonian Natural History Musuem. The female is a little rougher since my arm was getting numb by then.

A giant sloth skeleton at the Smithsonian Natural History Musuem. Pens and pencil.

An Allosaurus skeleton at the Smithsonian Natural History Musuem. Pens, pencil, and a little watercolor.

A Sakhmet statue at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Pens and pencil. Her waist got a little truncated.

A quick sketch of the Greek mythology statue called "Andromeda and the Sea Monster" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with pencil and colored pencil. The hand is a little rough.

Ballpoint pen sketches of NY subway commuters. The lower lady got a little compressed, probably because of the way I was holding the sketchbook.

And the conclusion of the trip! Rough mountain sketches with the brush pen on the plane returning home.

Thanks for coming along!

Concept Art

2011-07-08T15:41:00.000-07:00

In this post I talk about concept art, another example of why you would use an illustration as opposed to a photograph. Concept art is the physical form of an idea, used in my job to make a case for funding, for fellow employee's to visualize what they're planning, and for fabricators to visualize what the aquarium would like in the final product. The concept art that I do is usually quick and dirty and isn't as beautiful and thorough as that found in the breathtaking vistas of the concept art for games; it's mostly to have something physical to look at to get a better idea of what everyone is looking for. Most of the time, the final product doesn't resemble the original art and sometimes the image is as far as the idea goes.

To make the process faster, I've used Google Sketchup as a base for most of my concept art. Sketchup is very useful for plugging in real-life measurements and being able to get perspective lines and a sense of the space. The final art is mostly digital for the ease of revisions, but sometimes, I also get to use watercolor for that traditional architectural rendering look. Here's just a few of the projects I've worked on over the past few years.

This is the Sketchup version of our now open Ocean Science Center. Done 2 years before the actual space was opened.

Here is the Photoshop rendering, based on the Sketchup model. You can see that the overall layout and positions of most of the people are based on the model. I had a lot of fun trolling through the internet for fashion ideas to clothe the simple Sketchup models. Also, as requested, the people in the final rendering reflect the diversity of our guests. I had more time than usual to render this one, about 2 weeks. This image was used as part of the funding request and as a glimpse of the up-and-coming exhibit.

Another simple Sketchup model used as the base for the final rendering. This is of a potential otter play structure.

I've learned a lot about rendering rocks in this job. This one was a little experimental, trying out some Photoshop brush techniques that I first worked with on the Harbor Reef computer mural. This one was fairly rough, maybe a week or less to render with a few revisions thrown in. So far, I haven't actually seen this structure made.

Here is a Sketchup model of our new rock shrimp habitat. The Sketchup rocks gave me a rough idea of how much space a particular-sized rock would take up.

The final Photoshop rendering. I'm pleased with the way this one turned out because the real-life structure actually resembles my rendering.

We are changing out an existing exhibit to make way for penguins! Here is the Sketchup rendering that I used as the basis for my final rendering.

One of the few times I got to break out the watercolors. This rendering is done in watercolor and graphite and was shown at our fundraising event "Aquarium After Dark" to give everyone a glimpse of what the penguin exhibit might look like when it is finished next year.

I have a lot of fun with these concept renderings because they are a challenge to make sure I get everything the client wants in the image and because it's a little like making your own world in miniature.

Urban Ocean Festival 2011

2011-06-19T19:57:00.000-07:00

Here's my contribution to the Urban Ocean Festival at the Aquarium of the Pacific.

One of the more fun murals done in about ~12 1/2 hours over 2 days. Part of the Art Miles Mural Project, an amazing project bringing art to children all around the world. I was one of the live artists to draw people in while kids and families were welcome to join in on the fun with one of our other canvases set up to paint.

Thanks to all the volunteers and staff that helped out. Couldn't of pulled off such a speedy mural without all the help I received with water changes, paint distributing, and canvas moving. Everyone was awesome!

The theme was Urban Ocean and I started out with the thought of gears in the ocean and a couple of photos from the Monterey Bay Aquarium of a wolf eel skeleton and an octopus. One of my fastest murals and paintings to date. I had a lot of fun, with free reign and creativity that I don't normally get on work projects.

Fun Fish in Black and White

2010-12-03T16:51:00.000-08:00

These are from a while ago now, maybe a couple months ago, but I was going through the education list of fish illustrations they didn't have and chose my favorites to start off with. For me, pen and ink is a very calm affair, zen-like almost. Turn on the music/podcast and slowly watch a piece develop under your hands. The time frame for these illustrations was more than usual since I was just filling time between projects, so they're more detailed than I would normally get.

The best of the recent black and white illustrations:

A frogfish.
They move around on their fins like they're part walking, part hopping along the ocean floor. They're also related to anglerfish and are ambush predators with a lure on their head.

A Pacific spiny lumpsucker.
These guys always remind me of muppets. A very cute fish. Their disk shaped ventral fin lets them hold onto rocks in high tide areas.

A wolf eel.
Not truly an eel—they have pectoral fins—these guys have some brilliant orange and brown colors with blue-green eyes as babies and then turn into grey, spotted, heavy-jawed animals as adults.

Tuco-tuco

2010-11-12T12:38:00.000-08:00

A subterranean rodent that lives in South America, the tuco-tuco of the family Ctenomyidae.
Fulfilling an old request to draw one in black and white.

Garden Signage: Non-Plant Illustrations

2010-09-03T15:42:00.001-07:00

Here are a few close-ups of the non-plant ID images used in the Garden signage.

Food waste that can be used for composting. This image was a simple pencil sketch composed from various photos and colored in Photoshop.

Compost and worms. Again, a simple sketch composed from various worm and compost photos, colored in Photoshop.

Organic pesticides. Usually when I do a vector image of an existing object, I start out with a trace of a photo of the object, usually low res, and adjust accordingly.

A close up of the home with the programmable drip irrigation box. Composed from various Illustrator and Photoshop elements.

Garden Signage

2010-08-27T10:52:00.000-07:00

Here following are the Aquarium's garden signage, which feature my plant illustrations and vector drawings. The first two are used out in front to talk about our drought tolerant garden, designed to match existing signage in the front and the other one is used behind-the-scenes at our compost bin, designed to match our other BTS signs.

Water Wise Plants for the Home Garden

2010-05-26T17:26:00.000-07:00

The Aquarium of the Pacific had it's official opening of its Earth-Friendly Garden on Earth Day 2010, featuring drought-resistant plants. The goal of this project was to show a variety of plants that had low water usage and that also looked beautiful, encouraging guests to plant a few in their home garden. I did the illustrations for the signs and based the layout on existing signage. Ahead are just a few of the many beautiful choices for a drought-resistant garden.

Foxtail Agave
Agave attenuata

Blue Fingers
Senecio mandraliscae

California Lilac "Blue Cushion"
Ceanothus "Blue Cushion"

Douglas Iris
Iris douglasiana

Jester Flax
Phormium tenax "Jester"

Spanish Lavender
Lavandula stoechas "Otto Quast"

Carmel Sur Manzanita
Arcostaphylos edmundsii "Carmel Sur"

Rock Rose
Cistus "Sunset"

Cleveland Sage
Salvia clevelandii "Winnifred Gilman"

Next time, a post of the actual signs and some plant illustrations from last year for the Watershed Exhibit website.

As I Sail On

2010-02-12T14:49:00.000-08:00

Here's the latest large art project I was involved in for work. It's a sail-like banner for the Aquarium's Shark Lagoon, currently hanging on the elevator tower. Actual size is ~8' x 13'. Original was a sketch that was colored in Photoshop. I've only got a digital file of it now; the photos I took on the day it went up turned out too dark and grainy. Better photos of the actual sail to come.

The Process Behind the Madness

2009-12-10T15:14:00.000-08:00

Here's a little insight into my own process for black and white drawings. This is the process I use at work, usually takes between 8 to 16 hrs to complete a piece, depending on the complexity. I'll be mostly going over general stages and not into specifics on each step. Next time I do an ink drawing, I'll try scanning in additional steps in the process.

In this instance, I'm going to talk a little bit about how my Crested Caracara ink drawing was done.

First, I gather a nice library of reference photos, these days, mostly performed through a Google search, for both the common name and the scientific name. Generally, I end up with about 6-10 photos that compromise one drawing. This prevents the drawing from looking like any particular photo, and also includes enough detail to work up each part of the animal.

In this case, these photos here and here were used for the head. This one for the wings. Also this one and this one for the wing feathers. This one was referenced for the wing and tail feathers.

Two photos were used as the main references, which give the majority of the look of the final piece. This one was one I used a lot for the pose, wings, shadows, and patterning. Here's another I used the most for the pose and the feet.
A few other photos also played minor roles in detail references.

To save myself the trouble of sketching, then retracing onto tracing paper, I skip a step and sketch directly on tracing paper. The initial sketch is loose and light, with a 2H pencil, lots of erasing and correcting until I get something that looks like it matches all the references I used. Then, I make a few more small corrections in the process of transferring the image onto bristol using graphite transfer paper. All the dark lines on the sketch are the final lines that were transferred to the bristol paper.

Next step is to ink the transferred sketch. I generally start near the head, outlining the shape with a Hunt 512 nib. Anything that still feels strange at this point is erased and redrawn with the 2H pencil. I do most of the interior details with the Hunt 102 nib. Any stippling is done with a Micron .05 pen. And the end result:

As requested, a couple of close-up images.
The upper wing:

And the close-up of the head:

Back to Black

2009-11-12T13:07:00.000-08:00

While I have done some color pieces for work, it's all been concept for projects that aren't public yet, so here's a few more ink spots that I've done lately. On the homefront, I am working on a couple of pieces, but they are still WIP.

Here's a whitespotted bamboo shark:

A porcupinefish, no species in particular but the markings were modeled after a Diodon holocanthus:

A male American Kestrel:

A Harris's Hawk; I feel like the head's too big:

And while not strictly black and white, it is fairly monochromatic. Here's an octopus done in Adobe Illustrator in the style of Live Trace for a volunteer name tags board:

Working on a Crested Caracara pen and ink drawing now. Otherwise, mostly working on new signage.

Mural Madness!

2009-09-06T10:15:00.000-07:00

Finally getting around to posting pictures of the murals I worked on this year.
The murals are © to Aquarium of the Pacific, but the photos are © to me.
Here's an overview of the Watershed Exhibit mural:

You can see that the mugwort's starting to overgrow the right side of the mural.
These days it's 6 ft tall and completely covers the bottom half of the mural.

Here's a shot of the left side of the mural:

The middle of the mural:

Several close-ups of some of the animals:
Great Blue Heron

Harvest Mouse

Black-Neck Stilt

Here are some photos from the Shark Zone murals on Harbor Terrace. While the watershed mural was painstakingly scientifically accurate, Shark Zone was done to brighten up the area. While the colors are truly that bright on some of the different species, I punched up some colors and shifted others. The mural is also a mix of tropical and temperate species.
The main part of the wall mural on the left wall:

The other side, on the right wall:

The two computer murals printed out as stickers. The one on the food cart is a combination of a watercolor whale shark with some Photoshop filters and a lot of copy-paste fish. That one had a short deadline and was done in a day. The one on the window is a Photoshop creation based on a rough pencil sketch. All the corals are put in there more for aesthetics than for the actual zone and place they grow in:

Here's the actual computer image of the window image, "Harbor Reef."

Some close-ups of the wall mural:
bat ray

bluespotted ray

Anemone! Based off a whitespotted rose anemone.

Hope you enjoyed your tour of the recent murals I worked on. I finally have them up!

From Concept to Completion

2009-07-20T12:12:00.000-07:00

Here's a small insight into the process of creating a scientifically accurate mural.

Near the end of last year, I was tagged to create a mural for the 42' white wall in our new watershed exhibit. My approach to murals is through the limited experience and experimentation that I've had working at the aquarium and the years of painting on a smaller scale, so my approach is very much my own. I started off the image in Photoshop for the quickness and ease of changing placement.

My first instructions were to copy the mural that was done on the fountain in the front, so I after a couple of revisions of bird placement and how much of the mural to copy, this is the mockup I made:

The thought was that the image didn't really do what they wanted to do, which was, essentially, to cover the white wall and in effect, make it disappear. So the bosses scrapped the idea of copying the fountain from the front, because the shape of it was completely wrong for the wall in the back and it would have taken some major distortion and extension to work with the dimensions of the wall. Instead, I was given free reign to create my own image, a sort of "do whatever you want" with a similar idea. So I decided to put some of the garden plants on the wall to create the illusion of an extended garden and since it's an aquarium, an ocean scene. I also carried over from the fountain mural the locally found endangered bird, the Least Tern, as the main focus of the mural and few native butterflies to round out the animal population:

Once given an image to work from, my bosses decided on the theme "Urban Wetland," to reflect the characteristics of the local wetlands and the interactions of people with the natural world. It's a large part of what the aquarium wants to convey through the new watershed exhibit, which this mural is a part of. So another couple of revisions deciding what should compose the "urban" portion and this was the result:

So we had power lines, cars, and a shopping mall to represent the urban part of urban wetlands. The next request was to see a 20% tilt in the "camera angle" of the image in order to see more of the wetland:

For the sake of scientific accuracy, since this was no longer an ocean scene but a coastal bluff overlooking a wetland, the brushy hill was converted to a sand dune, a prime nesting spot for the Least Tern. Also, an additional revision called for the inclusion of an osprey, a common bird of prey, hunting for fish in the wetlands:

Now, I had a full collection of local residents of the wetlands, mostly birds, because they are the most easily seen and recognized. The image was sent off again for review, this time including a professor that was familiar with the local Los Cerritos Wetlands. The species list was updated to include more of the local plants and animals.

The final concept image can be found in the previous post.

Next post: Photos from the actual finished mural.

Instead of Wallpaper

2009-04-07T19:24:00.000-07:00

A while ago I posted a couple of images I did for a mural of the Sea of Cortez, the Vaquita and the totoaba. I finally got around to taking a photo of the mural. Here's the main section. It's about about 12' wide and 9' tall. There's another portion on the opposite wall where the Baja peninsula is blown up, but the lighting is pretty bad in that gallery.

Currently working on another mural, larger than the last, at 42' x 8' though the wall dips down to 5' for about 20' of it, so that's why the mockup has a strange shape. I will post more about the process as this mural goes along.

Respectfully Dead, Happily Living

2008-08-24T21:41:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I went to Artist's Night at the Body Worlds III exhibit, live models posing next to the plastinated bodies. It's taken me a while, but I'm finally putting up the sketches I did. Now, bear with me here, most of these are pretty rough, and I can't say I'm happy with some of them, but I was glad to have the opportunity to work out my rusty figure drawing skills. Many of the people that went sketching that night had skills that I envied. So, onto the sketches. I find that I really only like the first one, and that my skills were kind of sporadic after that. Forgive the quality of the reproductions. I took the photos hastily in the evening. WARNING: Artistic Nudes ahead.

Spreading the Ink

2008-07-20T21:19:00.000-07:00

Tried out some pen techniques at work with a few duck and other recent illustrations. I realized I don't really have a good brush for inking; at least it worked for the large patches I had to cover. So, the duck foot was done in the precise, careful inking I normally do, same with the buffalo sculpin. The generic duck was done partially with a brush, and the duck head was done with some looser, more varied strokes. The desert tortoise was a slower process with more detail, but I fiddle with stroke variation on the shell.

Holding onto the Edge

2008-04-19T15:11:00.000-07:00

A couple of Gulf of California's critically endangered residents, the vaquita whale and the totoaba fish--both are about the same size at about 6 ft. Overfishing of the totoaba using gillnets have decreased both populations to the point of near extinction. The decreased flow of water from the Colorado River hasn't helped either. Current conservation efforts include the creation of a nature preserve between the Colorado River delta and the upper portion of the Gulf of California.
Originals are 11X14 done in pen and ink for work.

Slither and Slink

2008-02-13T19:20:00.000-08:00

Some eels for your viewing pleasure. Eels can be more beautiful, with more complex patterns than you'd think, especially since most people jump to the California moray eel or perhaps the eels in The Little Mermaid when thinking about what eels might look like. They are certainly more diverse in form and pattern than I'd ever thought before seeing so many different species. All in black and white with pen and ink of the species that can be found at the Aquarium of the Pacific.

A Few Sharks

2008-01-24T17:26:00.000-08:00

So these are some of the watercolor spot paintings I've been doing at work lately for ID signage. For some reason the "save for web" option in Photoshop always makes the images darker. I understand the more limited color palette, but I'm not quite sure why the colors would be darker overall.
As they are:
sandtiger shark Carcharias taurus
blacktip reef shark Carcharius melanopterus
nurse shark Ginglymostoma cirratum

The Simplicity of Black and White

2007-12-13T13:31:00.000-08:00

Been working on images for the volunteer information cards at work. I've forgotten how quick and simple black and white can be, plus I really like working with the ol' croquil and ink bottle. Some microns tossed in as well for the stippling. It's a fairly pleasant way to fill the hours. Besides, I can eliminate any major ink smudges with the erase function in PS. Here are just a few of the images.

Dead things don't move as much

2007-08-24T13:34:00.000-07:00

K and I went to the World Museum of Natural History in Riverside this past weekend. Unlike drawing from life, all the animals there kindly sat in the same position for hours on end (not that I have a thing against sketching from life; this was just a different take on things). K is a much faster artist and therefore got a ton done, in the two hours we spent there.

On the other hand, I concentrated on one kingfisher specimen with some beautifully colored plumage. As far as I can tell, it's a White-throated Kingfisher, Halcyon smyrnensis from Asia, but since that's only a guess from googling, I can't tell you for sure. Not many of the animals there had labels, and I don't have a bird guide to Asia. Some well done taxidermied animals there. Will have to revisit. Some minor post work done afterwards.
Colors changed from the scan.

Work-art

2007-06-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

A rendering of a 4 year grant project from work, started by my old coworker
and rerendered with his initial thoughts by me.
So, actual size is 4' x 2', made in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
Includes elements of scanned sketches, actual photos, and token Sketchup models.
Right, so my workplace owns this one.
I might post a detail at a later point.

Diversifying the Portfolio

2007-05-13T02:05:00.000-07:00

Haven't put up a werewolf in a while. This one's been sitting in my unfinished folder for a while. A few things off with the anatomy, but overall, I rather find him quite dashing. Titled simply: Jump.

Still more to do on the pic, some polishing needed, but rather like this one. Done in Painter with a somewhat imagined background and based off an old sketch I did while at my old job.

In Comes Some Art

2007-03-17T00:36:00.000-07:00

So some stuff from Corel Painter. I will post here first and throw them up on DevArt tomorrow or so. Keep in mind that they are stuff a little rough around the edges, as they are from my vastly huge unfinished folder. These just happen to be a little more finished than the others.

2007-02-27T23:24:00.000-08:00

So, it's been a while, but it's time for me to go to bed, early work mornings.
I shall leave you with a direct cut and paste from
my LJ

So, this weekend was another trip to Disneyland with my annual passholder cohorts, Mary and Kathy. Mostly to celebrate Kathy's b-day a bit late with dinner at the Blue Bayou. First time there, good food, nice dessert, disappointingly no pin. It was insanely crowded in the morning, but did die down toward evening. Seemed like we did a lot of running around getting Fastpasses this time, less riding rides.

This weekend was also spent putting together my new bike; yes, as in the pedal-it-yourself kind. Why do I need a bike in LA? Well, I'm just more green like that. Besides, it's a good way to attempt to destroy flabby thighs. Anyway, a softer seat and breaks that actually work are also definite improvements.

I finally finished the double trouble paintings at work and now we just have to get someone to take photos of them, so they can be blown up 4x their size. But, since that's done, it's off to the project that I shoved on the wayside while trying to get this project done. Back to the shorebirds. At least they're more fun to draw, and smaller too. Making myself blind in front of Google Earth, trying to see where the "rivers" come from wasn't much fun. Besides all that city gray was kinda depressing. Anyway, I probably only have a few more days to finish the current shorebirds paintings and be bombarded with more requests.

A Most Recent Painting

2006-10-14T11:20:00.000-07:00

So nothing gets me painting like a deadline and an actual show. This one was for the Bidwell Park in Chico, California in a small art show called Bidwell and Beyond about people and how they use park spaces. My thing was showing how everyone could enjoy nature's beauty in Yosemite since it offers easy hikes like the one to Upper and Lower Falls to more difficult hikes like up to Half Dome. More nature conservation! Appreciate our parks! So watercolor and acrylic, here it is for people who can't go see the original.

For Your Eyes Only

2006-09-23T18:29:00.000-07:00

Wee! Tablety goodness. Here's Aeroneth, another of my dragon characters. Note: Aeroneth and Changewinds both have rather simplified forms since they've been around a long time, i.e., their look is pretty much the same as what they first looked like with a few years of improvement. Anyway, Aeroneth is a Gandalf, Yoda, Merlin, Carolinus-type character. In other words, his absence promotes character growth. If you had an all-powerful wizard around all the time, you wouldn't get into much trouble now, would you?

Strolling in on a Draft

2006-08-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

So this is for those crazy friends of mine who believe that it is easier to show art on a blogger. Go fig.

Also visit:
Kathy Jaramillo
Mary Lai