CongerArt.blogspot.com

Followers!

2010-07-10T00:23:00.002-04:00

I finally made myself a wordpress blog, hosted on my domain. So, I will no longer be posting on Blogger. I'm sorry!

Most of you have me added on Facebook anyway, so you'll see updates that way. Or, you could bookmark my website, and check my blog every once in a while!

Click here to check out my new site layout, and blog. =-D

I lied...

2010-07-09T13:48:00.001-04:00

Here is the final version of Bryan.

Bryan Cranston as Walter White as Heisenberg

2010-07-08T03:01:00.003-04:00

I lengthened his chin/jowls area, and widened his chin a bit. I think the likeness is a lot stronger, though it loses some of its exaggeration. Also, I made it green because green is a really symbolic color in the series, Breaking Bad. I'm really happy with how this came out. I think I'm calling it finished.

Bryan Cranston

2010-07-07T17:05:00.005-04:00

I spent about a half hour on the sketch, and another three hours rendering it out. I'm not entirely done with it, but I'm really happy with it so far.

Rock Stacking

2010-06-24T18:30:00.003-04:00

I went to Stony, today, with the idea in my head that I would ride 24+ miles... it turned out to be ridiculously windy, so I only did about 10. I stopped at my favorite bit of shoreline, and found a pile of large rocks on the trail. There was no particular order to them... just laying there in a pile. So, I decided to stack them as high as I could. I got the first stack to be about 6'2" tall, and then tried to use the rest of the rocks to make an interesting composition around it. I've always wanted to do this, so I guess I can finally cross it off my list.

Zoo photos

2010-06-24T18:25:00.004-04:00

Most of you have already seen these, but I figured I'd throw 'em up here anyway.

Check 'em out on Flickr!

Caribou Coffee sketches

2010-06-03T00:47:00.000-04:00

I went to Caribou Coffee with Danielle, today. With the exception of the top left, these other guys were there. I wish I could have drawn more.

Zoo

2010-05-26T21:27:00.003-04:00

Tada!

Flickr

Final!

2010-04-30T23:08:00.000-04:00

So I've had this on my hard drive for like... 4 days, and I haven't posted it. Sorry about that!

Peter

2010-04-22T17:00:00.001-04:00

We did a 3-hour pose today, in Figure. Here's what I managed to work out.

Lines!

2010-04-20T20:06:00.005-04:00

This is part of the line drawing for my final project. Right now, this is on tracing paper, so that I can transfer it to my final paper, later. I'm doing all the elements of separate layers, so I can move them around and get the exact composition that I want.

I had to age Jon significantly, so that he would realistically look like someone with a 20 year old son. I think I might have to change his hair, too... but I might just make it grey by the ears. Also, his left hand is too small... I'll need to redraw that.

Here is the (mostly) final composition. I need to add a few more elements, and fix that wall line... no idea how it got so crooked. Anyway, I hope y'like it.

Charcoal! And some portraits.

2010-04-15T19:47:00.003-04:00

Niles, Camille, Soon, and E, from top to bottom.

We worked in charcoal for a while today... it was pretty fun.

Captivity

2010-04-10T22:06:00.002-04:00

Check 'em out on Flickr!

Figure stuff and Zoo stuff.

2010-04-09T23:52:00.004-04:00

Check the photos out on Flickr!

Final final final.

2010-03-31T23:16:00.003-04:00

Alright, I'm done messing with it. I went back and fixed some stuff with graphite, took a new photo, and touched it up in photoshop. Hope you like it!

Dad, Final Rendering (?)

2010-03-31T17:46:00.005-04:00

DISCLAIMER: The values represented here are not entirely accurate to what would be seen when looking at the actual piece. I made some adjustments in photoshop, including paintovers to darken the pupils, irises, and hair, to get rid of the glare from the light on the graphite. It looks MUCH better in person... but this gives you an idea of what it looks like.

I need to find a better way to get large stuff like this on my comp in a more faithful-to-the-original manner.

Old folks, and horses.

2010-03-26T23:02:00.002-04:00

My gesture class went to an old-folks' home today, to draw some old people. It was pretty fun. All the women were really excited to get portraits.

After that, we went to a horse stable down the road.

Still working on this.

2010-03-24T01:24:00.003-04:00

This is the final line drawing, which I will be adding value to over the next week. You can see I got excited about value, and started on some of the ears... but, it'll look awesome when I'm done. The left-most head has the weakest resemblance, in my opinion, but I'm not sure how to fix it.

Oh well, I'll post the final version on Wednesday night, next week.

Glass and sketches

2010-03-23T23:33:00.002-04:00

This is part 1 of my self portrait goblets, conveying my introversion.

This is part 2 of my self portrait goblets, which conveys my extroversion.

This is my goblet to be used for a ceremony. I had a great idea, but realized I'd better not do it... so I came up with this. The ceremony for which this goblet is designed is re-marriage.

And, here are some sketchbook pages.

Gestures

2010-03-22T00:54:00.002-04:00

So, you'll have to click the image to see anything close up... but I'd appreciate it if you could do that! =-D

There are two guys here... the top left bunch (and the bottom right) are of some old white dude... The rest are of a young black guy.

Figures from my sketchbook

2010-03-11T22:17:00.001-05:00

Some quick, 20-minute drawings from photos. I really like the bottom right drawing.

Sophia

2010-03-11T00:55:00.004-05:00

Three of the 15-minute studies we did before the 3-hour midterm, which you can see below!

This was taken with my camera phone, so it's not of great quality. However, I'm decently happy with it.
And here it is after 5 minutes of painting in photoshop. I just wanted to get a more realistic contrast in the values. This is closer to what the original looks like... just not so dark, I suppose.

The Girls

2010-03-05T14:19:00.000-05:00

Flickr!

Glass!

2010-03-02T22:42:00.003-05:00

This is my first finished project done for my glass class. I have two others near completion, but I need to wait for my teacher to pull some glass for me. This assignment was to make a non-utilitarian goblet. So, I cut up the lip, so you can't drink from it, and I made the stem with sharp, colored glass, so it's difficult to hold.

Gesture

2010-02-26T23:34:00.003-05:00

This is Marsha... We drew her in Gesture, today. The second one took about 45 minutes, i think... it looks way better in person. For some reason, my camera loves to distort my drawings in a weird way.

Anyway, I hope you like 'em.

Brigette and Lilah!

2010-02-24T23:56:00.000-05:00

Check 'em out on Flickr!

Figure illustration!

2010-02-24T23:17:00.004-05:00

The first is the final composition of my portrait piece for Figure Illustration. Bear in mind, they're simple line drawings - not the finals. The rest are from last Thursday's session. We had a long lecture about the muscles and bones of the neck, face, back, and chest. So, we focused on those, all day.

M'dad

2010-02-18T00:52:00.002-05:00

The right (his left) eye is too high, but meh. It's just a test on tracing paper for a final piece which will contain 4-6 portraits. Also, there's some distortion from how I photographed it (my scanner isn't big enough), so some of the proportions are a bit off. Oh well.

I'll have the final one in a few weeks.

Zoo in February

2010-02-13T01:07:00.004-05:00

We went to the zoo, today, for my gesture drawing class. I'll post some of my drawings soon... I left my sketchbook in my car, and don't feel like going to get it. However, it was really cool seeing all the animals so close. We spent most the day inside, with the apes, giraffes, and rhinos, so it wasn't all that bad.

Anyway! Please, PLEASE, check them out on Flickr. Blogger, as always, blurs and desaturates my photos.

Final Figure Illustration!

2010-02-11T00:39:00.004-05:00

Drawn with a 9B and 4H pencil, over the course of about 10 hours, including planning, and tracing from my original line drawing and such.

Whattaya think?!

More figure studies.

2010-02-04T22:34:00.003-05:00

So busy with school.

Some stuff from Figure and Gesture

2010-01-28T00:28:00.002-05:00

The first is a collection from my Gesture newsprint pad. The second, from Figure. And the third, the line drawing for a piece I'm doing for Figure. Value comes next week.

Photos!

2010-01-27T20:14:00.004-05:00

The first one was taken with Lisabeth's camera, which is very nice. The last three were taken with Danielle's film camera. Film is such a laborious, painful process. I love it and hate it at the same time. I touched the last three up in Photoshop a bit, because my scanning bed is dusty... and the film came out really grainy.

Check 'em out on Flickr, please!

Gesture drawings

2010-01-14T16:29:00.000-05:00

So, we did some gesture drawings in Figure Illustration, today. I'm pretty excited, because tomorrow I have my gesture drawing class where I'll be doing more of the same... for 16 weeks. haha. But, I really need to learn to draw humans in various poses, from my mind.

Hope y'like 'em.

Walk!

2010-01-13T20:35:00.003-05:00

http://tomcongerart.com/stuff/walk.gif

Blogger sucks about gifs. It runs pretty quickly, because I forgot to change the timing for each frame... and I can't open it in photoshop to fix it.

Oh, and check out:

Flash Walk
Flash Walk 2
Flash Ball test

Satyr-type thing

2009-12-26T22:36:00.002-05:00

Not exactly what I had hoped for... especially when the program crashed while trying to paint the guy. Luckily I saved these screenshots before attempting that step.

The Eve of Christmas

2009-12-25T18:07:00.003-05:00

Yep. Whattaya think?

Flickr, please!

Photos

2009-12-22T19:00:00.002-05:00

The first is from yesterday, while the second is from the end of September. I just noticed it on my card, today.

Almost forgot...

2009-12-17T02:37:00.001-05:00

Not the greatest, but it's the best from last thursday. Sorry it took me a week to remember to post it. I nearly forgot tonight!

News

2009-12-16T19:33:00.003-05:00

So, my domain seems to be unlocked, as the old layout is now up there. However, it's still being hosted on a different server from the one that I want it on. So, I emailed Yahoo, which manages my domain, and asked them to resolve it. Hopefully, that'll be taken care of soon.

Loans. Loans suck. I finally finished the info portion of the loan process with chase. Now I just need to sign the forms which chase was supposed to have sent me about 4 hours ago... but they did not. Ugh. But, since I've been conditionally approved, once I send them those forms, they should send certification to my school, and I can register for classes. Then everything will be perfect... for a little while.

Sorry I don't have anything visual to post. I'll post a photo of Lilah when I get home tonight.... if I remember.

I hope you're all doing well (the two of you who actually read this... Dad, and Lisa.)

Sneak peak at my new site design.

2009-12-02T19:13:00.002-05:00

"Home" has a drop shadow to indicate that you are on the home page. "Work" has the outer glow because my mouse was hovering over it. I just need to add lightbox to my work page, and fill my Home and About pages with text.

Then I need to set up my new account with FatCow, and dish out ~$70 for my first year with them. And finally, I'll have a website again.

Sorry!

2009-11-25T16:41:00.001-05:00

I know I haven't posted in a while... but I haven't really been doing anything visual in any of my classes. And, unfortunately, my classes are taking up all my time.

I'm working on redesigning my website. I'm going to move the domain over to a different server over winter break, probably, so get excited about that! I'm really excited about the ideas I have for it.

Animated GIF!

2009-11-12T22:29:00.004-05:00

I can't believe I forgot to post this. I saved this every hour, so I could make a GIF of my progress.

Click here to see it... Blogger won't let me post animated GIFs

Danielle Painting!

2009-11-12T18:15:00.001-05:00

About 8.5 hours spent on this. It was pretty fun.

Check it out on Flickr!

Digital Fundamentals

2009-11-11T18:12:00.003-05:00

I had to focus on a word, and make the image convey that word... my word was "analytical."

20-piece project!

2009-11-10T22:48:00.000-05:00

Yep.

Digital Fundamentals Project

2009-11-10T00:59:00.002-05:00

It's not finished - I've yet to add all the design elements which will surround and overlay me - but I AM finished building myself with the pen tool. Everything you see was meticulously traced out with the pen tool, in photoshop. I kinda sped through the hair and hoodie, but... meh.

200TH POST! HOLY COW!

2009-11-09T02:21:00.002-05:00

Danielle and I tried to do homework tonight. We ended up watching Groundhog Day, and 500 Days of Summer. It was fun.

As always... Flickr, please! Blogger ruins my photos.

Photography from Yesterday

2009-11-05T14:50:00.002-05:00

See 'em on Flickr!

Goatee

2009-11-03T02:10:00.002-05:00

Scarf dude

2009-11-02T00:48:00.003-05:00

Design Stuff

2009-10-29T22:41:00.002-04:00

This first one is a few angles of the project I worked on for three weeks. I hate it. Haha. It's made of foam, and spray painted with car paint.

This was an assignment for which I had to make a 30" tall structure of 1/8" dowels, thread, and wood glue. It had to be able to support 10 pounds at its highest point. Originally, it stood the other way, but I realized that it wouldn't be able to hold 10 pounds that way. I flipped it over, and actually liked how it looked, that way... It also held 10 pounds this way. =-D
These are all the same piece, I just photoshopped them into one image to save space. I need to make 20 of these, and create a larger composition with those pieces.

And that's what I do in my Design Concepts 2 class.

Rough Jimi

2009-10-26T02:16:00.002-04:00

The likeness isn't completely there, but it was just a quick little exercise before bed. G'night everyone.

Final?

2009-10-19T03:04:00.001-04:00

Sorry if you're sick of Diah... but I think I'm done. I pulled it into photoshop and tweaked some levels, colors, and textures.

More progress

2009-10-17T20:19:00.003-04:00

Changed her right hand... she'll be pouring candies into her mouth. I changed the color of the to match the surrounding colors, and I've added tones of value. I've got to finish that left hand, the cup, and some more colors... then I think I'm done.

I'll probable spruce it up in photoshop, too.

Diah Beedus

2009-10-15T03:09:00.003-04:00

This is a character I'm developing for a Creative Visualization project... in fact, this image IS the project (there's a white border when you print, thus explaining the nice, vignetted paper texture). However, I'm neither done with the linework, nor the color... this is just my first night of work. The legs took forever to figure out, and I'm still unhappy with them, but that may be the best I can get it.

From the Sketchbook

2009-10-09T14:22:00.002-04:00

All with a Bic pen.

Octopus dude.

2009-10-09T03:31:00.001-04:00

This started out as a sketch of Cthulhu, but his nose looked like a little mouth, and I thought it was kinda funny. So, this came out, in the end.

I'll post what I've been drawing in my sketchbook, soon.

Elf and a coked-out zombie dude.

2009-10-02T03:08:00.002-04:00

I should be in bed.

Today, at CCS.

2009-09-30T23:15:00.002-04:00

I should've taken more pictures.

And of couse... Please view 'em on Flickr!

This is what I'm doing instead of homework...

2009-09-25T14:24:00.004-04:00

Joe gave me a pair of polarized sunglasses... pretty awesome.

Check it out on Flickr, since blogger desaturates and blurs photos like crazy.

And how about some photoshop fun?

Storyboards for Creative Viz...

2009-09-24T14:52:00.002-04:00

I left it kinda big so you can click it, and see the individual boards easier.

We were given the outline of, "Two people are on the CCS campus doing everyday things, then all of a sudden... ALIENS!" I'm going to have notes that go along with the boards, but it was easier to photograph them like this. Essentially, the guy tells a joke, the girl spits her drink. He goes to the bathroom, and sees an alien. He screams, not because of the alien, but because the water is too hot. He apologizes, and explains... the alien is confused. Great story, eh?! Haha.

Peppers!

2009-09-24T00:38:00.002-04:00

Ok, so it's not really creative in any way, but I feel accomplished. We had to take the photo (left) and duplicate it using the mesh tool... which is a pain in the ass to work with. Anyway, it's not perfect, but it's damn close... especially if you look at it from far away, or shrink it down on your screen.

Sculptures for Design Concepts 2

2009-09-21T00:34:00.002-04:00

I really like the second one... the first one, not so much.

Eddie...

2009-09-19T01:03:00.007-04:00

Eddie trying not to laugh... he needed to make a serious face. We took at least 20 shots before he could manage it.

We were shooting for a project I'm working on for my Creative Visualization class. Just a short story told through photographs. He's playing a really sleazy dude who shoots me, the door to door salesman. That's important to know before you see this next image. Eddie and I do NOT hang out in our underwear. Haha.

Click here to see Eddie's dance!

Frenchy

2009-09-18T02:03:00.003-04:00

Everyone's favorite french superhero.

I'll try to get some real nice sketches done soon. I've got two projects to finish this weekend.

Coffee

2009-09-14T01:33:00.001-04:00

Check it out on Flickr.

Lilah!

2009-09-12T18:22:00.001-04:00

Jon brought Lilah over today while he hooked up our wifi. It was really sad when she had to leave... she cried. =-\

Handlebars!

2009-09-06T23:09:00.000-04:00

Yep...

Old man

2009-09-04T02:48:00.003-04:00

I spent nearly an hour on this guy... still messing around with different tools and such. I'm really happy with the result.

Demon

2009-09-02T13:08:00.004-04:00

This was just a 20 minute exercise to see if I could recreate my demon character from my painting. I started out with the same basic human head as my last post. I have yet to learn how to add more polygons, which is why the fat parts look faceted.

Also, I have yet to learn how to change the direction of the light source, so I couldn't match it to the painting.

Working in 3D

2009-09-02T02:03:00.003-04:00

Ok, so they start you off with a basic human head in ZBrush, the program in which I made this... but I changed it a lot! Just messing around with the program so I'll be familiar with it when I get to it at CCS - even though that may be another year or two.

So I got carried away in Photoshop...

2009-09-01T22:29:00.001-04:00

Oh well.

Plympton-inspired faces

2009-08-24T01:25:00.003-04:00

Just watched some Bill Plympton animations... the man's a genius. I forgot to shrink this down, so if you click it, you can see how big I work.

Anyway, it's time for bed. G'night.

More photography

2009-08-17T00:26:00.004-04:00

(I like the first one more, but I figured my dad would like the more realistic one)

(Couldn't decide which crop I liked more.)

Ugh... not only does Blogger make the photos look blurry, but it also desaturates them. I wonder if wordpress is any better about this. Anyway, check 'em out on Flickr, please! They look way better there.

Flickr

Another update...

2009-08-07T01:19:00.003-04:00

Still playing around. I don't know what direction this is going in, for sure. I've got some ideas for the other parts of the series, too. =-D

Color and value tests...

2009-08-06T13:31:00.003-04:00

Just playing around with color and value. Like before, this probably won't be the final pose, colors, or light source.

Ideas!

2009-08-06T02:07:00.002-04:00

I've been in a creative rut for the past couple of days (some might say weeks) but I've also been having these intensely vivid dreams right as I'm about to wake up. This morning, after hearing my alarm, I got an image in my head for no more than a second that looked an awful lot like this. I've decided I'm going to do a series of drawings (maybe paintings?) of children becoming the subject of their nightmares. This preliminary sketch is just to get an idea for the pose and composition, so it'll probably change a lot before it's "done." I hope you like it!

Went to the zoo again...

2009-08-02T22:11:00.002-04:00

... boring crap.

'Nother selfy.

2009-08-02T01:41:00.004-04:00

Killing time... trying to get tired. I might go to the zoo, tomorrow.

Hope everyone's doing well.

This is how dumb Movie Mania is.

2009-07-25T19:12:00.002-04:00

Need I say more?

Gracie's birthday.

2009-07-20T01:00:00.002-04:00

Gracie turned to blow out the candles, only to realize that the wind had already come and done the job.

Flickr!

Family Pics (more artistic stuff in previous post)

2009-07-18T23:54:00.001-04:00

Papa's 75th!

2009-07-18T23:34:00.005-04:00

More general family pics coming in the next post.

Oh yeah!

2009-07-16T15:02:00.005-04:00

Kinda forgot about this site for the past few days. Haha

Two bathroom shots, and the DIA.

Flickr!

Dad Picks Pics.

2009-07-12T23:44:00.006-04:00

Dad wanted me to post some more, so he went through my camera and found the ones he liked. Here they are... some are more polished than others. (I added two to my Flickr account). - Dad, any that aren't here are in my previous post. -

Nathan's Wedding

2009-07-12T01:13:00.008-04:00

Ok, ok... so I didn't get a picture of the newlyweds... or even the bride. But! It's only because I forgot my camera for the ceremony, and mostly stayed at my table for the reception. So, I guess it's entirely my fault. Haha.

Oh, and any photo containing me was taken by Jessy or Joe.

Check out Flickr if you want to see which photos I really like.

Courtney

2009-07-11T01:08:00.002-04:00

Here's an animated .gif comparison.

Snap snap!

2009-07-06T15:07:00.003-04:00

The second photo is just to get a sense for how big this guy was... those fish behind him were about 3-4 inches long. I'd say he was close to two feet long...

Dragonfly

2009-07-05T23:31:00.003-04:00

This guy sat there for about 5 minutes... it was pretty cool.

Flickr!

Duke

2009-07-01T14:10:00.002-04:00

The light that comes in through our living room window is awesome.

Flickr!

Last Zoo Pic

2009-06-23T18:19:00.003-04:00

Flickr!

More from the zoo...

2009-06-19T01:15:00.001-04:00

Yep... I went back and picked a few more out.

See 'em on Flickr!

It's been a week, but I think it was worth the wait.

2009-06-17T04:05:00.003-04:00

Spent the day at the Toledo zoo with Tony and Lisa. Good times.

See 'em all on Flickr!

Yet another day at Stony.

2009-06-10T02:49:00.002-04:00

Toldya I probably wouldn't use any caterpillar pictures, Lease. Haha.

See 'em on Flickr!

Demon Repaint!

2009-06-09T04:16:00.003-04:00

This is the repainting I did of a painting that I had originally done just over two years ago. It was June 5th, 2007 when I finished the original.

I'm even amazed, myself, at how much I've improved. Especially considering that I had only painted one thing in those two years, and it was within a month or two of finishing the original of this painting. Also, bear in mind that the original painting is the best I felt I could do when I had painted it... it took me about 8 hours, I think.

Check out the animated .gif to see a comparison! (There is some quality lost, and the colors are a bit more vibrant in the gif)

150th post!

2009-06-08T02:59:00.001-04:00

One more shot from Tuesday. I really like this one.

View it on Flickr!

Lease.

2009-06-04T17:48:00.003-04:00

Didn't expect me to post one like this, didya Lease? =-P

View it on Flickr.

Just a bit closer.

2009-06-04T04:19:00.002-04:00

I stacked all four of my macro lenses to get as close as possible. If I had the patience, I could get much closer... but it's really hard to get a good focus without being able to see through the viewfinder.

View it on Flickr!

Macro Filters!

2009-06-04T00:34:00.002-04:00

I bought some filters that allow me to get much closer macro shots. I'm pretty happy with the result.

View it on Flickr.