What a year. It's been so awesome I decided to make a site like this.
I pass by a beautiful grazing pasture with a small river frequently and, ever since taking up art, have wanted to paint it. This is my third attempt. I still have a lot of practice to do. Back to the original, did I intend to paint this pasture with the forethought it'd go on this site and be related with a story about wealthy death? No. And that's okay, too; my site, my rules.
I found a reference photo from an old TV show that would be perfect for the diner who loves the lobster bisque. I'm still learning how to draw people. Obviously. There will be lots of uglies in the future. What I didn't realize, until a few weeks later when I watched the episode that the still came from, was that this Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode featured a secret restaurant of wealthy old men where the prized special entree wasn't a rare meat from the stepped of Africa. No. The meat in the special comes from one of their own ranks, selected by the matron at her discretion. Which I think is neat.
Ever wonder if an escort snaps and kills their client because of their dumb requests? Yeah, me neither. This isn't about that. It's about how I struggle to draw from a concept that isn't clear in my head. Thankfully, the Internet is a huge repository of things I can draw from for my own detestable creative desires. Mental note: subtle curves of the body are just as difficult as facial features. I can botch a line for a door frame and it will still look like a doorway. Get the arc wrong on a person's calf and it becomes a blemished focal point.
The reference image had thick batches of thorns throughout and I'm not sure how to paint those in. Anyway. Bits of progress. And a lucky guy bagged a billionaire. On accident. Because when you sight in a rifle atop a desert ridge amidst blooming cacti, the beautiful scenery can be a distraction. I'll be excited when I can paint such scenes.
My first attempt at quick color studies after the initial sketch. Are they awesome? No. And that's okay. I found I enjoyed the low risk, quick exercise. Disconnect myself from expectation and play with swirling together colors and see what happens when applied to paper. That's a couple of steps out of the many that requires practice. Muscle memory. Oh, and don't forget the dude without the parachute because that's important. Death comes for us all. Especially for those who exit an airplane in flight without a parachute.
Something amuses me about staff murdering their boss. And, until I can draw that, especially the people part, these concepts will have to do. What was the final straw? Was it an offhand nasty comment? Complete lack of recognizing humanity in another? Was it a team effort and how many people were involved? Do the wealthy with servants ever wonder if their staff wants to kill them? Do they worry?
I suck at watercolor and need practice. This is a couple of versions of a cab, both not awesome. Oh, and wealthy hedge funder gets rolled over. Did the idea to paint a cab come before the thought of running over a greedy person? I was so focused on trying to get a brush with just the right amount of paint and water applied to the right spots on the paper, I have no idea which thought came first. Doesn't matter. That insurance would cover a new bumper in such a situation brings me joy.
I dig pen and wash type images and tried an ink and wash version of a California mission. Article is about a bludgeoned-to-death billionaire. Because it's easy to think of reasons to accidentally disperse with bad people, ala every. single. movie. with a hero that kills bad people. Also, I couldn't help my brain from connecting the statue to a scene from a movie and I wanted to nurture that connection. Scalp the scalpers!
I'm not a hardcore manga fan, though I do dig the style and the artists' ability to handle complex perspective. These are examples of how not to handle perspective. Unless the perspective is about what's more of a loss to the world: a beautiful musical instrument or a greedy dick head? Yes, murder is wrong. Except when the Grim Reaper or Fate does it like in those Final Destination flicks. That last one with the high restaurant had some neat perspective shots, maybe I should hunt down some stills.
Want to see a couple of ugly sketches of a maid? Here they are, because I need the practice. It's not that I wanted both of these to arc. Am I going insane? Do I need to draw a clock and have someone confirm I can draw a clock with hour and minute hands pointing to the correct spots? Did watching an episode of The Expanse while drawing this subconsciously skew my perspective or some wacky thing? Like, I did it once in the first image and then did it again. WTF? Anyway. Though the plot of a poor murdering a wealthy asshole is as old as time, I like the idea of regular people making the world a better place.
These are a couple of sketches of waitstaff with subtle knives. I wised up and decided to use stock photos for a crutch. Why would I feel bad about that, I don't know. Should I feel bad about thinking up images to create and stories about death to go along with them? I blame horror movies! That's it. Because, in my head, the blood splatter of an accidental stabbing of a patron by waitstaff showers about like the severed limbs did in the club scene from Kill Bill.
Who misses being a delinquent youth that causes trouble? The thought of today's youths causing havoc with drones amuses me. These sketches are about one idea. Maybe, one day, I'll pick up a newspaper and read about some gifted youth who developed an open-source tracking and payload delivery system for drones armed with water balloons. And that system gets used on the regular to spread mayhem among the wealthy in their own backyard.
The sketch and article that inspired this silly site: a crude drawing of a head in a noose. And an article about a beheaded billionaire. But why? I don't know. Maybe the angst of growing older and things not getting better and I look around at the shitty things the wealthiest among us do for greed and... It's fucking frustrating. So I'll learn to draw and paint and other creative tasks away from the computer and post all the nonsense I want to post because I can.