Miscellaneous

Welcome to the new site!

I have a new website! Dismal.ink is dead, long live dismal.ink! My impetus for starting this website back in 2021 was to showcase my work, which has been primarily artistic in nature. In its first incarnation, it was a WordPress site hosted on the cheap at Dreamhost's shared starter plan. That was my first time using a modern content management system, and it...

Setting up my homelab

A few years ago, I got a nice little year-end bonus from work, and decided to give myself a treat. I bought a cheap Synology NAS device with a pair of fast SSD drives. I didn’t have any special purpose in mind for it at the time. But I was juggling multiple laptops, and sharing...

Smack!

A tasty little drawing of a very cheeky lady having fun with a ruler. Color blends in pastel continue to be hard, but I like the results. Fabric folds I'm less happy about, but are at least serviceable. Let's talk about artistic vision. Many artists are adept at seeing the work well before it is on the paper or canvas...

Vegas

Continuing the series of pet-related tragedies this year, this is Vegas being embraced by her mom. She was a sweet old lady who succumbed this year to the ravages of age. Good bye, Miss Vegas. You are still loved.

Kitty smooches

I made an original painting! I was recently introduced to the world of plus-sized pinup Hilda, creation of artist Duane Bryers, and I was inspired to try my hand at a version of her. I was heavily inspired by the pose of her making a phone from a bike, but most of the elements of this painting are mine. I wanted to...

Seductive textures

I have a sexy new model! She has a flair for seductive poses and an affinity for textures. Representing those textures and the light in monochrome was quite a challenge, but I think these all turned out pretty good. Folds in fabric are a real challenge, but I've been studying up on them, and am gradually gaining...

Vacation to Chile and Rapa Nui

I am back from the best vacation of my life. I had an unbelievable time. I flew out to visit my friend Beylka in New York for a few days. Then we went together to Rapa Nui for four days, and Santiago, Chile for five. All incredible. We packed our time. We saw shows, did tours, met incredible people, had a bunch of great...

First kiss

Introducing a new subject here on the site. Please welcome Tara Âû Jean, a friend here in Chicago. She is primarily a photographer, with a strong eye for composition, and also a beautiful woman. She got excited when she saw my Color notes piece, and has given me a bunch of reference photos to use. This picture is from...

Sunset with friends

This is a painting of a friend of a friend, who will go unidentified, sitting with a gargantuan sweetheart of a dog, looking out over a misty valley at sunset. The original reference photo was taken in a boring office environment (but they let dogs in, so they can't be too bad!), but that was just too boring to have as...

Birthday surprise

This is a portrait of a friend's wife, made to celebrate her birthday. He'd originally intended it to be a surprise, but I made him get her permission before I started. I don't want to spring an intimate painting on anyone. I hope I finished in time! I didn't actually ask when her birthday was. If I'm behind, sorry!...

Album cover sketches

I have a friend in a band called Sunburster, and they're building up to releasing a new EP. I stuck my nose in where it doesn't belong and volunteered to do some cover art for them. They already HAD cover art, of course, but entertained my enthusiasm and let me do some concept sketches. The theme was: A mouth is...

Not exactly Gil Elvgren

This week's Love Life Drawing study group task was to find an unfamiliar style of reference, something that uses edges in a way you haven't tried, and attempt to replicate it. I chose a work from one of the pin-up art books I've been collecting recently. In this case, Shell Game by one of the real masters of pin-up, Gil...

Fancy new MacBook Pro

After several years living in the Windows side of the world, I have switched back to the Mac, having gotten one of the new 14 inch MacBook Pro M2 models. I am quite pleased with it! Apple has stopped chasing slimness as the one and only goal and have made a nimble, quiet, and fast machine with nice keyboard and a great...

Skater

When doing my stick figure training series, I did a set of skateboarders. One of the references really jumped out at me as a dynamic pose, and I decided I wanted to paint it. I'm trying to reduce detail, focus on simpler shapes, along with the usual goals of good representation, improving at the tools, and pushing my...

Kenzo

I had a day with hours and hours of drawing for lessons, and I felt the need to blow off some steam. I drew a quick portrait of the Love Life Drawing instructor, Kenzo Fry. It's not a bad likeness, although it does look a little distorted. If I wanted to spend more time on it, I'd probably beef up the chin a bit, soften...

Milk wars

I decided to abandon this partway through. It is a recreation of the last page of the DC Comics Milk Wars crossover which combined the Justice League with the Young Animal characters, including Doom Patrol. The original, which you can see at the lower left corner, was drawn by Nick Derington. His work on the Doom Patrol...

Me being sketchy

Self portrait ink style. Of the portraits I've done with ink shading, this might be the worst, but it was good practice at controlling value with my shading lines. It looks a decent amount like me, although it is also creepy in some ineffable way. Maybe I'm creepy looking! This is getting closer to the kinds of lines...

Weekly grab bag

I did a bunch of different kinds of work this week. I continue to do these quick-ish paints of the figure drawing references from the Love Life Drawing set. I keep experimenting with different ways of painting and/or sketching. The above sketch turned out quite nicely, I think. I still need to work on control of value...

Erica Slaughter

Painting of Erica Slaughter, lead character from the great horror comic Something Is Killing the Children by James Tynion IV and Werther Dell'Edera. Dell'Edera has a rough, scratchy style that isn't my usual jam, but combined with his design sense, it's wonderful. He draws these evocative characters (look at those...

Prinny

Merry Christmas! It's a Prinny in a Santa hat. If you're not familiar with Prinnies, they are damned souls working off their sins by serving the lords of the Netherworlds in the Disgaea game series. They are silly and fun, who work absurdly hard for the occasional sardine.

Little things

I'm about to go on vacation and it's unlikely I'll be able to post for a while. I'd like to share a few things I've been working on. Just some toys, sketches, updates, works in progress.

Samus

Samus Aran, star of Metroid Dread surveys her works. The game has been on my mind a lot lately. I'm in the final boss fight now, but it might be a while before I'm adept enough to beat it. This was a quick picture. I was trying to invent the lighting aspects, and it's fair. The fire didn't work the way I was picturing,...

Failure, and some sketches

This was an attempt to paint Myrna Loy, an actress from way back in the silent movie era, who so brilliantly navigated the rocky early waters of talkies that her repartee with on-screen partner William Powell in the Thin Man movies formed a legend that continues to this day. Here's the original picture, for reference:...

The restaurant across the street

Back in the old Midway building, there was always a restaurant on the opposite street corner...

Eileen Bradford

Dani suggested her grandmother as a painting subject. She was a pretty lady, and apparently responsible for Dani's level headedness

Nextlander

I made a silly thing to celebrate the launch of Nextlander, a video game... uh... podcast, streaming, personality... thing. Three of the core guys from Giant Bomb left to make their own thing, and I love it. The picture is modeled after the original movie poster for Star Trek: the Motion Picture.

Birthday girl

I woke up in the middle of the night with this notion about birthdays in my head and knew I had to make a painting for it. It's my best friend Dani's birthday, something neither of us tends to be very happy about. I'm glad I can celebrate her, though. Happy birthday, Dani! I'm really digging the cartoon portraits. I do...

Scorpion

A very fast and loose sketch of a Scorpion model that sits on the shelf above my desk. This was just me tinkering around with broad shapes and color in Krita, trying to get a feel for that program. I can't tell you why, but I don't hate this thing.

Self portrait

Self-portrait. I don't think I'll ever like looking at myself, but I couldn't leave the final lesson from Drawing on the Left Side of the Brain in a state of failure. This was my first finished piece on the iPad using Procreate. I captured something good about the left eye, but the right one is a weird, mutant monster!...

Shelby Cobra

I think the Shelby Cobra is the most beautiful car ever made. Did you know they're bringing it back as an electric car? Rough freehand sketch made from a photo I took at a classic car show in California. I feel like I hit the basic shape well, and I really like the headlights!

Dani Ellickson

Portrait of my friend, Dani Ellickson, from a photo taken in Minnesota by Lake Superior. Blonde hair is going to be the death of me. Clearly I need more practice there. Airbrushing is too apparent, particularly in the yellow areas of the jacket. I was experimenting with layered coloring, rather than the pigment and...