Craig Bowers

Chinese City- In progress!

2012-02-08T23:21:00.001-05:00

next step: COLOR!

The Piano Man

2012-02-08T23:17:00.000-05:00

Part of a series

Cincinnati Krohn Conservatory

2012-01-12T01:36:00.000-05:00

pen

Roommate Life Drawing

2011-10-19T14:17:00.002-04:00

There's very little privacy in our apartment

Recent sketchbook pages!

2011-08-21T14:02:00.005-04:00

mixed media

Yet another sketchbook page

2011-08-06T11:31:00.003-04:00

I don't have much to show at the moment, but I'm starting a small project for an anthology that I'm taking part in. pumped.

Here is a sketchbook page of a cowboy doing cowboy things.

ink

Don't Be a Square

2011-07-09T01:18:00.002-04:00

My piece for VEND SEND MEND.

Graphite, Ink, Watercolor wash

Westernz

2011-07-06T15:19:00.005-04:00

Here's a background and a color key for a personal project I was working on about a month ago. I've since scrapped the idea and am now brainstorming for my thesis project. I have a bunch of other color keys that I might post.

graphite, charcoal

Frenemies

2011-07-06T15:15:00.001-04:00

ink, graphite

Small drawing I did today. That is all.

VEND SEND MEND

2011-07-02T18:22:00.007-04:00

For the past few months Jee-Shaun and I have been developing a fundraiser for Japan called VEND SEND MEND to raiser money for Doctors Without Borders to help victims of the disaster in Japan. We've received an excellent response from the illustration community and had over 60 illustrators from around the country (and Sweden!) contribute original works of art using vending machines as the theme! We hosted the event last night and will now sell the rest of the work online! Stay tuned!

see the work for the show here

Below is the finished version of our poster image. Jee-Shaun painted the actual machine and I handled all the objects inside. It was a fun collaboration!

gouache on paper

www.vendsendmend.com

I always forget how awful I am with taking pictures of events until it's too late. I forgot to take pictures for most of the show! Oh well, here are some pictures of what the gallery looked like filled with the art. It was a lot of fun and we're well on our way to raising substantial money for Doctors Without borders.

Zankel Finalist

2011-06-27T01:14:00.009-04:00

This past week I had the privilege of spending a few days in New York along with the three other Zankel finalists Neiko, Alyssa, and Paige . It was a tremendously awesome time, my favorite part exploring the permanent collection of the Society of Illustrators. The people I met were incredible. The judges were among the nicest people I've met and gave me literally the best critique of my entire life. I feel kind of silly preaching on my blog, but what I gathered from it applies to everyone. My highest thanks to everyone involved at the Society of Illustrators.

Never compromise your personality in your work, and never censor your work to try and appeal to others' expectations. It took 7 highly esteemed professionals for me to truly understand the importance of this.

And a big congratulations to Paige Vickers for wining! Check out her work!

story structure

2011-06-04T14:15:00.001-04:00

baseball

2011-06-02T12:49:00.002-04:00

I really don't like baseball, but I love watching pitchers' arms contort when they throw a ball. It momentarily looks dislocated then sends a force rippling all the muscles out of place. It's awesome the human body can do.

Scoreboard of Life:
Artist: 1 Athlete: 0

Kwakiutl spirits

2011-05-03T13:40:00.007-04:00

watercolor on paper

Based on Kwakiutl native americans, originating along the North Pacific. Their mythologies and ability to convey them through clothing and dance really fascinated me. I mean look at that octopus on his head.

Sketch book

2011-04-25T23:45:00.003-04:00

Some spreads from my 2011 sketchbook so far. I'm posting every page in order over on flickr

Tycho Brahe Visual Development

2011-04-20T02:36:00.006-04:00

So this past semester I've had an independent study with prof. Daniel Krall, working on some pre production art for a hypothetical animation. I chose the story of Tycho Brahe, the 16th century Danish astronomer who lost his nose in a duel against a rival mathmetician. I wish we still settled feuds this way. When did that become out of vogue?

Character designs

An environment for the ballroom

Side characters. I wanted to emphasize how the female interest contrasts with the globular side characters.

Same with the rooster.

Samurai flair.

Creepy baby paintings

2011-02-11T00:51:00.001-05:00

Done for painting class. Left is acrylic, the right is oil.

Forgot to post this

2011-01-31T23:06:00.003-05:00

I did this a couple months ago in my "Narrative Color" class. I definitely miss painting in that class each week. That's a very rough Greg Murphy in the background.

Zombie School Girls

2010-11-28T19:24:00.003-05:00

I started this awhile ago after my friend dreamt about it and only recently picked it back up. I'll probably go back and fix some of the anatomy when I make time, but for now here it is. I have a newfound respect for inkers. They make it look deceivingly simple. It's not. Thanks to everyone who helped critique this.

Ink, photoshop

I promise I'm not obsessed with zombies. No more zombies for awhile.

Arabian Market Place

2010-11-09T12:56:00.007-05:00

This is an environment for my character design class (ironically) where my group is redesigning Aladdin for a live action film. This would be the market place. I absolutely love the sketches Shinji Kimura did for Tekkonkinkreet, so I tried to emulate some of those qualities.

graphite on bristol

Here are some color and atmosphere studies. I mostly took saved some photos and paintings I enjoyed and grabbed the color to get different results.

Life painting

2010-11-02T12:49:00.003-04:00

More life painting from my Narrative Color class. Super fun 80's look with the orange and turquoise lights against her neon colors. Unfortunately I didn't make time to get the hands down.

Acrylic on illustration board

Depression's Upside

2010-10-30T13:56:00.005-04:00

This is based on an article regarding how studies show clinically depressed people are typically more analytical thinkers, better problem solvers, creative, etc.
You can read the article here.

I've been trying to focus on a quick solution for images. Still trying to use photoshop textures.

Photoshop

Baltimore Zombie Map

2010-10-29T14:40:00.002-04:00

For concepts we were assigned to make a map. Naturally I chose a zombie apocalypse in Baltimore. I focused on key safe houses throughout the city to hide at rather than drawing each building.

Where's Waldo?

Graphite and watercolor on paper

Figure painting with extreme color

2010-10-25T22:49:00.005-04:00

For my "Narrative Color" class we've started utilizing a full palette to paint from the figure. She had intense an intense red light on one side and a green on the other. The model didn't look like this at all, but not worrying about a likeness made the whole process a lot more fun.

acrylic on illustration board.

Today's sketch

2010-09-16T19:52:00.004-04:00

This is a beautiful cathedral in Mt. Vernon that doesn't actually have a giant bird's nest on top. I'm spending too much money on croquils because this paper wears them out so quickly. If any inkers out there have advice on how to preserve them I'd like to hear it.

Sat down by the railyard today to sketch for a few hours. It was fun! I get pretty sloppy so I make a ton of mistakes, but sometimes they grow on me.

Unappetizing

2010-09-09T23:30:00.003-04:00

Here's a quick illustration I did for class. I've been using a croquil lately for some projects since I've never been much of an inker. It's a lot of fun and super satisfying to just lay in such permanent lines. I usually try to plan everything out from start to finish for better results, but this one was start to finish in one afternoon.

Lace

2010-07-05T12:39:00.012-04:00

I started this about a month or so ago, working on it on and off. I mainly wanted to practice skin tones and create a transparent lace effect. As usual a bunch of the colors are totally shot from inadequate documentation/scanning.

This piece is going to be included in the ICON 6: A Labor of Line show at Gallery Nucleus. It's pretty surreal to be showcased in a gallery I've admired for so long. Many thanks to Gallery Nucleus for giving me this opportunity!

The show opens July 16th and runs though August 9th.

Oil on linen, 9x12"

Here's my piece in the show! I'm fortunate enough to have attended the opening. If you're in the area I highly recommend checking it out.

Sorry for the severe lack of updates.

Vague Painting- Sold!

2010-05-04T01:15:00.005-04:00

Someone I don't know recently purchased this. I guess they just stumbled upon my blog. You never know who's looking!

Oil on wood panel

On Helmets

2010-04-30T11:10:00.003-04:00

Watercolors are tough.

2010-04-04T21:25:00.002-04:00

This was a warm up to re-familliarize myself with watercolor for a project I'm working on. A six panel series to illustrate a famous japanese myth, Momotaro (Peach Boy). As much as I enjoy the watercolor process, I'm very hesitant with it and have very little idea on how to do backgrounds without spending an insane amount of time on them. I hope throughout this I'll gain more confidence and knowledge in using it.

Self Portrait for Life Drawing

2010-04-03T14:40:00.003-04:00

Self portrait assignment done from a mirror. I've always enjoyed ridiculously snobby looking portraits. I think i should add a huge burly mustache.

HB, 2H, on plate Bristol.

Crumbs: The Story of a Homeless Guy

2010-03-06T14:52:00.003-05:00

For Visual Journalism we were assigned to make a short sequential piece about Baltimore, namely Fells Point. This was pretty fun since I just kind of went with it and planned very little. The negative effect though is I lose track of how well it conveys, which this falls victim to. If you can't tell its a baguette.

Zodiac Assignment

2010-03-03T14:31:00.010-05:00

We were assigned to make some spots for a magazine astrology column. I chose a Men's lifestyle magazine since my new years resolution has been to regularly work out (and I'm actually sticking to it!) Anyways, I feel like those things are usually cheesy as hell, but I kind of dove into the cheese factor by thinking up accompanying pieces of advice for each image depending on the sign's personality traits.

Sagittarius- You suffer from the mundane walls of the gym. You foster doing out doors and extreme sports. No one ever said you need to lift weights to get fit. However, don't tempt yourself with eats because when it comes to food, you can't resist.

Pisces- You feel swamped and intimidated from starting a new regiment, leaving you feeling stiff and tired. Don't fret, you don't need to start guns blazing. There's no shame in easing into it, increasing your commitment gradually.

Gemini- Don't get too bored while on the 'mill. Time doesn't have you be your enemy. Enjoying your favorite songs helps run the clock.

Ares- Calm down buddy, and don't burn yourself out. If you don't lay off the creatine soon people are going to think you're pumping 'roids.

Ink and photoshop

Entry to Society of Illustrators

2010-02-01T12:05:00.003-05:00

Doing this has really made me realize the importance of pursuing one's own vision. The strong reference to Norman Rockwell was completely intentional, but over all it has left me feeling pretty unfulfilled. Though I'm happy that I hammered this out in around two weeks. The composition is also fairly similar to that piece I did last year here. I definitely feel like it's an improvement, mainly in lighting and color.

Here's the underpainting.

Oil on Rives BFK

I'll give you $50 bucks if you can guess whose face was referenced.

Just kidding.

Mucha and Rockwell Studies

2010-01-15T02:57:00.003-05:00

Here are some studies I've been working on. My main goal with the Alphonse Mucha painting was to figure out the colors he used and their relations to one another. The greens, blues, and purples among the yellow folds really caught my attention, and I learned a good deal trying to replicate them. The exact pose and expression weren't really my concerns. I'm pretty satisfed with the result given it was painted on the much dreaded canvas panel. It's pretty tough to blend on such that stuff.

The final Study

The under painting

The actual piece by Mucha

This is one of my favorite Norman Rockwell paintings. It was a quick warm up study for the Mucha study.

The original

both in oil

Old Wives' Tale zine

2009-12-29T16:15:00.006-05:00

One of my finals was the make a zine about anything. I chose 10 different Old Wives' Tales (kind of like an urban legend or folkloric belief). Here are the better ones from the batch. I basically just have a peculiarly strong affinity for bellybands.

"If you knit your hair into a garment, it will bind the recipient to you."

"If your cheeks feel on fire, someone is talking about you."

"If a bird tries to come into your window, there will be a death in the family."

graphite, matte duralar, ink

Empty pool (revised, now with a leaf!)

2009-12-21T15:50:00.006-05:00

I've been chipping away at this for awhile, but I finally feel it's at a presentable stage. You can view the previous stage here.

All done in photoshop.
Blogger kind of messed up the color.

where i end and you begin

2009-12-13T17:28:00.005-05:00

I was assigned to do an album cover for a specific song. Predictably I chose Radiohead. I'm having fun playing with the masking effects of duralar. . I think I'll use it more here shortly.

graphite, oil, matte duralar

sketch deuce

2009-12-09T12:04:00.002-05:00

These were fun. I tried to have a every aspect shared between the pages, sort of like opposites.

acrylic, pen, oil, shellac, ink, aka mixed media

Four page comic: Urban Golem

2009-12-07T17:03:00.003-05:00

So I used the same theme for two of my finals. For narrative we were assigned a four page comic. It was hard condensing this into four pages, so the storyline seems kind of unclear and rushed. But I had fun doing it. My goal was to just keep the pencil moving and not to over render it, which I'm happy that I stuck to.

I wanted to use a style similar to how I draw my thumbnails. Quick and sticking to relatively few, flat tones.

side note: I'm not a fan of destorying historic buildings, I just had to come up with something to tie it together -.-

Thumbs for illustration final

2009-11-29T00:33:00.013-05:00

after the advice, here's what im working with. every thing is still up in the air though, esp. regarding the action of the debris. it needs to look more like an arm but still have the movement.

Okay guys, I really want some advice as to which to do. I included the first image just to explain that the debris is actually the golem's arm, it's actually a sidewalk that came to life yada yada. anyways, im pretty set on doing it in a horizontal format, despite action scenes usually being vertical. Some here are more effective than others, but i can't really decide which to do. if you guys have some advice on any particular one to make it more successful, please tell me!

note- im not sure if im going to do it traditionally or digitally. ill decide that later.

thanks guys!

Shellac-filled fun!

2009-11-22T16:33:00.004-05:00

Graphite, gouache, acrylic, amber shellac.

This is a four page spread in my sketchbook. That's right, not two but four. Had a lot of fun doing this. It's sort of a preview of something I'm working on for narrative class.
Unfortunately the scanner was converting them to black and white despite it being in color mode. I'm not too good with the machines, so I'll upload the color version at some other time.

Sketches

2009-11-16T14:49:00.005-05:00

We had to do a movie poster, so a friend recommended me the movie Cashback. Long story short this guy freezes time and draws pretty girls. I tried drawing her eyes five times until the matte duralar was too scratched to even hold the charcoal. I just couldn't get them right. So it goes.

Influenced by Sam Weber and early 20th century surrealist Oscar Dominguez. Oscar pushed and pulled gouache in a similar way to create really nifty textures.

charcoal, ink, a bit of photoshop

Here are some fairly quick sketches of my friend who really don't hold too much of a likeness, but were still fun to do with a 4B

graphite on toned rives

This is just outside my bedroom window. I don't draw observationally enough, but I'll be doing much more if it next semester.

pen on lightweight rives

Entry to Tata Gala

2009-11-15T22:53:00.005-05:00

I combined an assignment of "Modernizing a Myth" with the show TATA GALA that opened yesterday in Florida. Not only are there some awesome illustrators there but it's a fundraiser for breast cancer research. Since amazons have one breast for their quivers in archery, i associated it with mastectomies.

Usually I'd say crits welcome, but I think I've scrutinized this thing so much I've just kind of killed it. Oh well, I learned a couple things. The foremost being that I need to paint more often. The second being that female anatomy is the bane of my existence. I actually edited this more via quality print after sending it into the gallery. She used to have quite a butt.

Your picture is finished if it is one-third as good as your original idea."
-Howard Pyle

Oil on Wood panel

Three Fears

2009-10-24T20:19:00.005-04:00

For sketchbook class we're assigned to illustrate our fears. I went for the obvious on this one. I'll post a couple more when they're finished. I also haven't really rendered something in quite awhile, so it was kind of nice to get back into that.

Fear no. 1: loss of eyes

Fear no. 2: loss of teeth

Fear no. 3: loss of left hand

Graphite, pen, Acrlyic, Oil on toned Rives

Grandma

2009-10-19T14:05:00.002-04:00

Ink Test

2009-10-12T13:42:00.002-04:00

I've recently taken down squishing ink onto a page and toying with the results. The one on the right is actually the other side of the semi-transparent matte duralar. I didn't plan for it to be a Rorschach test but Ink splotches usually go well when mirrored together.

Sumi Ink, Graphite, matte duralar

In Progress

2009-10-06T00:21:00.002-04:00

So I've basically been in a rut for most of this year, as of now. The end result of my projects haven't really been fitting my expectations, so I've been severely lacking with the blog updates. As the semester progresses I'll have more work, for better or for worse. Hopefully for better!

This piece isn't really close to being done yet. I've spent most the time establishing the lighting and values. It's actually a real pool I saw a few months ago and have been dying to have a go at, and I was fortunate enough to be able to incorporate it into one of my assignments. I'm debating adding another figure to help balance the composition.

100% photoshop. Feel free to crit! There's still some changes to be made/major refinement, but still.

Fire and Flowers

2009-09-11T12:41:00.002-04:00

Finally some new work to post. I'll be adding images on a weekly basis now that classes are going on. For this we had to use a medium we're not familiar with, so I dried some flowers and grabbed a lighter to see what I came up with. Also I made myself another sketchbook for sketchbook class! This one far better quality than the one before.

Warms and Cools

2009-07-20T19:59:00.004-04:00

oil

French Comic Exhibition

2009-07-17T19:09:00.005-04:00

I recently received pictures of "Bulles a Croquer", a comic exhibition in Brittany, France this past June. One of the Illustration professors at MICA, Alain Corbel, displayed his student's work from his Sequential Art class but also extended the invite to Illustration Club. I haven't taken the class yet, but I made a six page comic to contribute to the show. Looks like it went well, some tremendous European comic artists attended.

My work hanging in the background.

The show was in an old car factory!

More Old Man

2009-07-12T17:55:00.002-04:00

I started this sketch a few weeks ago but just got around to the watercolor today. Unfortunately I don't have a scanner handy so the powershot will have to suffice for now.

Graphite and watercolor on Rives BFK

Spidey Sense, Tingling!

2009-07-03T21:07:00.003-04:00

A local gallery is having a show with the theme "Superheroes."

Needless to say, I had to hop on it.

Unfortunately, I only had a week to do it. Im pretty happy with the traffic light, but Spidey could still use some work. Oh well.

oil on rives BFK

Keith Progress/change

2009-06-22T18:43:00.004-04:00

The left is after matte medium and a few ink washes, the right is after more medium and really thin oil paint. I'm trying to make a bunch of stages with it, but still keep it complete at any given one. it's fun.

oil

Keithers

2009-06-10T00:18:00.005-04:00

I've been wanting to do a portrait of my brother, Keith, for a loonnngggg time. This captures his personality pretty accurately. I think im going to paint over it, or at least do some washes.

Once again, now the photo reveals the errors in my proportions. His arms are too short! Also poor camera angle, making them even shorter.

charcoal, graphite, on tan rives bfk

fun preliminary stage here

william bouguereau study 1

2009-06-02T23:54:00.008-04:00

I've been doing some master studies both on paper and on photoshop, here's the first one. This sorta debunked my opinion that rives didn't hold graphite well. It does. I don't have a scanner back home, so the quality from my powershot isn't the best.

I always love how the inaccuracies always become SO much more apparent once it's on the computer. Oh wait -.-

graphite on rives

Progress in Oils

2009-05-06T01:41:00.010-04:00

Oil on 240 lb. Hot press Arches WC paper, 19x25"

I've been working on this painting for almost 3 months, on and off. It reaaally tested my patience at times, but I learned a lot from it and where I want to go in my future painitngs. The scan didn't really capture any of the luminosity and made his skin too purpley, but it's interested seeing some colors the scan revealed that I hadn't noticed.

The pages read from right to left in a pretty scattered way to tell the story of the boy/old man's life. I used really thin oil paint for the crayon marks. It was fun to jump back into my early days of drawing.

Details

Sketchbook pages

2009-05-01T00:00:00.005-04:00

This is a prelude to the sketchbook remix class I'll be taking next semester. This was great to do in the middle of other projects during finals.

Placemat from Chinese Restaurant, acrylic, watercolor, matte medium, sandpaper
I realized I need to know how to draw ears from memory, so I drew a few of some friends and a few of mine. I also really enjoy painting with oils on unprimed rives. I kind of emulated a few of my favorite pages from James Jean's college sketchbooks.

graphite, oil, acrylic, colored pencil.

This is on the last page of my current moleskine, but I think im going to work more with my homemade sketchbook now (the one above). The three women on the right are actually from the same image by Norman Rockwell. It's one of my favorite pieces by him, so I spent a lot of time redrawing the same portrait, trying to capture her perfect expression. The middle one is the closest, but I still didn't get it completely.

graphite, acrylic, gouache.

Speed paintish

2009-04-29T01:06:00.003-04:00

Here I did a self portrait with a similar palette to what John Singer Sargent would have done. Or at least that's how I saw it. I always make myself look way too young.

About 2 hours in photoshop.

colored

2009-04-26T18:11:00.003-04:00

I'm happy to say this piece got into the foundation show next year, so I decided to spend a little more time and give some dramatic coloring to it.

Still all photoshop.

I haven't had much work to post because it's all in progress, but in the next week or two I should have a plethora of stuff from sketches to paintings, and hopefully my first comic short story!

John W Waterhouse Master Study

2009-04-18T13:26:00.005-04:00

So I drew this master study of Waterhouse's The Danaides in Critical Inquiry. It was great to loosen up because lately I've been slaving over the technical aspects of my work so they seem pretty stiff. I'm really drawn to the lighting and composition of this one.

graphite on large moleskin
I can't find the exact piece i replicated but here's a very similar version. I guess he did multiple versions.

Here's a website with great documentation of his work
http://www.jwwaterhouse.com/

Self portrait

2009-04-07T00:31:00.008-04:00

Here's the final (i think?) of a self-portait I've been working on for a while. I've seen a ton of artists who are blatantly inspired by Phil Hale, so I thought, Hey, why not me?
100% Photoshop.

And a detail.

Robotoad

2009-03-26T19:55:00.002-04:00

This was just for fun

graphite

photoshop

Detail

2009-03-19T20:55:00.003-04:00

Here's a detail of something I've been working on. I've had some fun painting in photoshop for the first time in a few months. I'm definitely going to experiment a lot more with textures. No, it's not for Bioshock, but yes I do like Bioshock.

2009-03-11T20:33:00.006-04:00

Here's an oil painting I've been working on pretty laboriously, but it's still nowhere near completion. I've got a lot of paintings of crayons and paintings of crayon drawings ahead of me. oh yeah, the kid is wearing a mask.

Sorry im already terrible at updating this thing! Hopefully Ill have more stuff to put up around once or twice a week.

Sketchbook 2

2009-02-25T00:52:00.001-05:00

Some decent and not so decent attempts at drawing friends.

graphite

The Vibrant Sweater

2009-02-22T14:30:00.002-05:00

This was done in my new watercolor sketchbook and was my first time with gouache. I'm definitely going to work more with it.

gouache, pencil, matte medium, white acrylic

Interior, Inked

2009-02-22T14:27:00.003-05:00

Here's the inked version of the interior I did for the Fall of the House of Usher production we had. I like the pencil more.

india ink

Sketchbook

2009-02-22T14:16:00.005-05:00

Here are some drawings I did and studies from Norman Rockwell

graphite

A model from last semester.

ink wash

The view from my window

ink, watercolor

Prairie Dogs

2009-02-21T13:38:00.003-05:00

Just a random drawing in my sketchbook recently.

Last Semester Work

2009-02-19T13:22:00.000-05:00

This was the first half of my Illustration Final from last semester. We had to make a magazine cover.
I like Steampunk.

My buddy's going to West Point next year, so I made him something to keep him company.

Garbage Golem. When I revisit this idea, it will be much different.

2009-02-19T03:12:00.001-05:00

Here's the pencils (3H, HB, 2B) for what I'm later going to ink (well already have, but I'll post it later). Oddly enough, it was really inspired by Shinji Kimura's Tekkonkinkreet concept art.

Comments and Crits Welcome!