"You call that art?!": Marcivo Learns To Draw

[Marcivo]

Another one of these threads?

Quickly! We must all blame Thanqol in unison. --Before he fully crosses over into the real!!

What?

Spoiler: Spoiler tagged for depressing motivational exposition

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The last nine months have been weird. At the beginning of the Fall semester, I made a huge personal transition from living alone to living with roommates - four of them, to be exact. I'd contemplated the decision all summer long, but in the end, it was external pressures in my life (money, mainly, as well as irreconcilable family issues) that pushed me to make the decision.

Three weeks later, I got a new job. Well, it was technically a new job if the paperwork was any indication, but I'd already been working for the institute for some months beforehand. Strictly speaking, I'd found an opportunity to change positions from Engineer to Scientist, which meant no more unbearably long hours in the laboratory and more time in front of a computer doing what I'd been educated to do in the first place - dreaming up theoretical abstractions and discussing them with like-minded coworkers until something tangible came out of it, be it a scientific publication or a proposal for a new instrument. It also meant that I had the option to work from home. To me, it was freedom. It was harrowing, exciting and terrifying at the same time, and there I was in the middle of everything, trying to fit in among my new coworkers and roommates and trying to adjust to a new living situation all at the same time. It didn't make matters better when I received news that my grandfather's illness had progressed to the point that he now had to be cared for in a nursing home. Everything was changing so fast, and even though all of my decisions felt right, I had no way to determine whether life was changing for better or worse.

My grandfather finally passed away in January.

He and I never really saw eye to eye - in fact, I'd go as far to say that he never even knew me. We weren't related by blood; the rest of my family had no love for him, but ever since I'd graduated from high school, I had lived with him and my grandmother in a small suburban home on the edge of the city where I attended university. Living with someone for all those years who actively dislikes you because you prefer intellectual pursuits over sports, because you don't understand the appeal of a noisy room where everyone gets drunk and laughs too loudly, because you value time as a precious commodity where not a minute can go to waste, is difficult, to say the least. But I persevered, attended college, and got my degrees.

It didn't change anything in the end.

I grieved my grandfather's loss more greatly for the opportunity I felt I'd lost to develop any strong personal bond with him in the time we had together. I despaired, taking months away from work to visit my family, leaving my roommates to carry on without me. I thought I'd made the right choices, but the one choice I hadn't made was in finding absolution before our time together came to an end.

And in April, I almost lost my job.

Ultimately, nothing came of it, but it was a petty and easily avoidable mistake. I'd thought I could tough it out and quickly return, in some way force myself to move on, but it was far more difficult than I'd convinced myself it would be. I failed to communicate adequately with my supervisor when the time I requested finally lapsed and I didn't report back. Fortunately, my boss is a very nice man, and very nice men don't instantly sign termination paperwork without contacting the employee first. Thank goodness for that.

I returned to work in May with significantly reduced hours. Our rental agreement expired on the first of June, and my roommates and I all parted ways. Right now, I'm focusing on tabletop roleplaying, art, and computer science to bring myself back into the creativity zone, in addition to serving as a sort of self-implemented therapy.

I apologize, as well, for those PbPs I had to leave on very short notice. I hope my departure didn't cause anyone undue grief.

But I digress.

Sorry, but I skipped the entire spoiler block

No problem!

I'm Marcivo, and I do a lot of things! The important thing is I'm just returning from a series of wacky misadventures, and now that I've found some stability I want to continue doing what I enjoy - creating and sharing art with other people on the internet. That means drawing - lots of drawing, but also writing pieces of short fiction and poetry and perhaps even sharing some of my photography. From this point on, I'll be using this thread as a repository of sorts to store my work so I can track my progress as an artist and be appalled by it in the distant, post-apocalyptic future. I may even share some tangentially related work from time to time, including programming code and derived equations because they appeal in a powerful way to my aesthetic sense as an artist, and I think it sheds more light that way on my creative process.

I'm not sure how well I can keep a consistent schedule of precisely one piece per day, but we'll see where this takes us. If I can update just a few times each week, I'll count this a success.

Full-Disclosure
I'm not completely inexperienced at drawing. Or writing. As a matter of fact, I've been drawing off and on since 2011 at Thanqol's original suggestion. However, my progress has been sporadic at best. The time I've dedicated has produced a meager folder of images that could easily fit on a budget flash drive from 2001.

Marcivo's tools of the trade
In case anyone's interested, here's a brief list of the tools I'm using throughout this thread:

• Wacom Intuos 4
• PaintTool SAI
• Autodesk Sketchbook Pro
• GIMP

[Marcivo]

Day 1: Panopticon

Inspired by a sequence from The Invisibles.

Drawn in Autodesk Sketchbook.

Music: Carpenter Brut - Escape from Midwich Valley

[Domochevsky]

Oh don't worry, we'll be here to remind you when you miss multiple days in a row. And if you don't return then we'll turn out back on you and forget this thread ever happened.

[Cuthalion]

Nice... gun thingy?

Anyway, I'll watch you. I know what it's like to have a daily drawing thread where almost nobody posts.

[smuchmuch]

Good luck with that.

out of curosity, it it drawn or vector art ?

Nice... gun thingy?

(Are you being facetious or do you really not recognize a security camera ?)

[Cuthalion]

(Are you being facetious or do you really not recognize a security camera ?)

Ooooh. That makes sense.

Nice security camera!

[AddZable]

Wooo~ I love these threads! I'll be watching this one, just like the others. Good luck!

[Cuthalion]

Wooo~ I love these threads! I'll be watching this one, just like the others. Good luck!

Aaaall the others?

[Marcivo]

Oh don't worry, we'll be here to remind you when you miss multiple days in a row. And if you don't return then we'll turn out back on you and forget this thread ever happened.

Freedom from accountability? Oh boy, you know exactly the right thing to say.

Good luck with that.

out of curosity, it it drawn or vector art ?

Drawn, actually. I began by drawing a huge black blob on the page, then erased strategically until it began to look like a camera; I wanted to give it that vectorized look without actually knowing anything about how vector artwork is made. One of my long-term goals for this thread is to become familiar with vectors, but I'm not entirely sure where to begin or which open-source software to use. Packages like Illustrator are strictly out of the question right now due to their price.

I also want to improve my ability to draw realistic proportions. I've drawn plenty of figures in the past, but I feel like I spend more time at it than I should - I'd like to cut down on the time I spend laying out a drawing so I can focus on the content.

@AddZable and Cuthalion

Thanks for following me! I'll do my best to keep you entertained.

[Madcrafter]

Anyway, I'll watch you. I know what it's like to have a daily drawing thread where almost nobody posts.

Get back to me when you go four months without a peep from anyone...


As for vector art, you could maybe try inkscape. Never used it myself, but it might work.

[Marcivo]

Get back to me when you go four months without a peep from anyone...


As for vector art, you could maybe try inkscape. Never used it myself, but it might work.

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll give it a try as soon as I have some time.

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Day 2: Light And Shadows

I'll be honest. Today's practice involved perhaps two hours of tutorial browsing and only a few minutes of actual drawing. I'll try something more ambitious in my next update.

My lighting may be an affront to lighting at this stage, but I think I got the spatial attenuation right.

Drawn in PaintTool SAI.

Music: Silent Hill 2 - Terror In the Depths of the Fog

[Thanqol]

yet another skull destined to be laid outside thanqol's cave

i have outlasted every challenger who has come before and i shall outlast you as well

i shall still be here when the lightbulbs have burned out and the water has been disconnected and every other human being who dared to imitate me has moved on with their lives

and then i shall stab the internet with one swift motion and drink the blood that pours fourth until even the gps satellites die

you cannot change destiny

[AddZable]

That. Is hardcore. Skulls for the onlinedrawringuploader god!

[Marcivo]

yet another skull destined to be laid outside thanqol's cave

i have outlasted every challenger who has come before and i shall outlast you as well

i shall still be here when the lightbulbs have burned out and the water has been disconnected and every other human being who dared to imitate me has moved on with their lives

and then i shall stab the internet with one swift motion and drink the blood that pours fourth until even the gps satellites die

you cannot change destiny

Everyone needs a hobby, I suppose.

That. Is hardcore. Skulls for the onlinedrawringuploader god!

dont encourage him he only grows more unstoppable with every shuddering breath uttered in his name oh god oh christ

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Update 3: Turing

I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with this, except that a preliminary character design for my Mage chronicle decided to join me suddenly in what is apparently Silhouette Week. In a rush to get someone from the airport, so consider this quick sketch a work in progress that I'll return to later.

Music: Lemaitre - Iron Pyrite

edit: free council 4ever scrubs

[Marcivo]

All right. It's been about three weeks, but in my defense rainbows don't mine themselves. I have a number of works-in-progress that I'll try to finish and post in the coming days.

Update 4: Inversion

Spoiler: Inversion

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A break from the usual fare. This is my first attempt at glitch art using the HxD hex editing software. HxD is freely available online along with numerous glitch art tutorials that could explain its use for artistic purposes far better than I ever could.

I'd like to add that because I find the process particularly interesting, I also tried my hand at hex editing several pieces of music including Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. I would also like my audience to know that I have successfully generated the experience of listening to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony while a chorus of angry, howling cats use chainsaws to cut through rusty scraps of sheet metal within a vast, industrial Hellscape. What is beauty, I ask?

Music: She - 2008

Update 5: Wake Up

Spoiler: Wake Up

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Today is a day for firsts, as this is my first real attempt at a complete digital painting; an effort inspired mostly by a four-hour Night Vale marathon this weekend and somewhat by a conversation I heard over the shortwave today. I think I am perhaps the only person in my age group who does own a shortwave. Let's take a moment to think on that, shall we?

A little mrrgh on how this came out, considering the amount of time and effort I put into it. I'm not yet comfortable working in color. The overall composition feels a little empty, as well.

Notes: It wasn't until I was nearing the end of this piece that I decided to check what that mysterious "New Linework Layer" button does in SAI.

I will never go back. Never.

Music: Disparition - The Ballad of Fiedler and Mundt

[Marcivo]

Update 6: Echoes

Spoiler: Echoes

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No real explanation behind this one, except that the dull reflection of light on concrete has always had a mysterious appeal for me. It's part of the broader appeal that dark urban spaces have had on me since I was a young child. When I was little, my father did carpentry and electrical work for several small businesses around town; he would always arrive after hours, hit the breakers if he had to, and do his work in the middle of the night. Occasionally, if it was a weekend, he let me come along.

I remember exploring deserted hallways with one of my father's Mag-Lites, listening to the sounds that public spaces make when they've gone quiet, like the hum of HVAC, distant, sourceless echoes, or the low drone of traffic outside. Mostly, I remember the stillness, the solitude, like the whole world was holding its breath in anticipation for the sunrise. There was also the smell. Even more than the acoustics, I can still remember every one of those places by their unique smell. Sometimes, it was the smell of freshly cut wood, especially if my father had recently created some structural modification to the building, but mostly, it was the carpet.

My favorite parts were always out of the way - supply rooms, maintenance corridors, and loading docks. They were serene and beautiful in ways I never fully understood. Something about the harsh illumination of fluorescent lights on unpainted concrete, and maybe the allure of being somewhere I wasn't supposed to go.

I was a weird kid.

Music: Disparition - Ratchathewi

[Marcivo]

Update 7: Reach

Spoiler: Reach

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Spoiler: Reach 1

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Spoiler: Reach 2

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A quick one this evening. I decided to upload two versions tonight; I think once I get a better handle on watercolors I'll be able to improve the second version significantly, but it's hard to create realistic color gradient that doesn't come out looking like a watery smudge. Until then, I have to go with the first.

What do you think?

[Thanqol]

The hard exterior lines are sharply at odds with the rest of the picture. I love SAI's linework tool as much as the next guy, but consider turning the layer invisible and correcting around it rather than show it on a finished piece.

[Marcivo]

Aye, agreed. A version without the linework can be found here, but I feel as if it looks less like a skyscraper and more like a smooth, obsidian monolith. I also added a diffuse reflection near the top so that it doesn't appear to blend seamlessly into the sky. I should probably consider adding more structure to the exterior facade, but I don't want to dwell too much on this one.

Thanks!