FALLOUT » Drawings

Marin County

James Baker — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:52:22 +0000

Here are some sketches from a trip a few weeks ago, up to Point Reyes and parts further North in Marin County. I should have done much more drawing on this two day outing but the fact is that the weather was so beautiful in Point Reyes that Julia and I spent all our time taking in the scenery on the first day of the trip. When I have been to Point Reyes before, most times it is either overcast or, if the sun is out, the landscape seems parched. This time however, there had been several weeks of rain prior to a spectacularly sunny day, so the land around the point was absolutely saturated with greenery.

Another major distraction from sitting and drawing was a spectacular parade of grey whales past the Point Reyes lighthouse. As each whale surfaced and spouted, there were great cheers from the assembled throngs of onlookers at the point. It was like a Whale Pride Parade. We heard that there was a record number of whales sighted that day. This was a happy accident for us; we had only planned to go draw. Everyone ELSE had planned to see whales, as we found out that it was the absolute height of migration season.

So, it seemed appropriate to bask in our good fortune that first day and enjoy the show put on by Mother Nature. So, drawing had to wait until day two. Possibly inspired by the vivid colours around me I tried a little watercolour on this sketch trip, which I don’t normally do.

The paper in the sketchbook is beautiful so i will try to move out of my comfort zone (which is line sketches in pencil and ink) and do more colour studies until I fill the book.

The Princess

James Baker — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:04:41 +0000

Some quick photoshop tones over a pencil doodle. Needs more work but i will do that later.

Rough designs

James Baker — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:25:04 +0000

Here are some rough designs from a few years ago. This project died pretty soon after the design process began, which happens to most projects I work on in development.

What was unusual (but may be the shape of things to come, unfortunately) was that the company went bankrupt before I had even finished the rough drawings.

A Pin-up Book(?)

James Baker — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 07:26:50 +0000

For quite some time I’ve wanted to do a PIN-UP book full of heroines; characters that I like, from TV shows, comics or movies. Once, when I was about to get into that idea in earnest, I saw the just recently released BELLE du JOUR by Bill Presing (not to mention his follow-up BOOK PLATE BETTIES) and suddenly, I lost steam on the idea… not just because BILL is one of those despiring (depressingly inspiring) artists who make you want to break all of your pencils, one by one… but also because I realised that it would be hard to bring anything new to a book of cheesecake; there are hundreds of them already out there, and until I can think of something ELSE to bring to the idea it remains on my (now very crowded) back-burner.

Pondering that weighty issue doesn’t stop the doodles accruing in my doodle book, such as this page of of POWERGIRL scribbles.

Memory Reboot

James Baker — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:06:41 +0000

In an attempt to purge my mind’s eye of images of the BEARDED SLAVE LEIA seen last weekend at Emerald City Comic Con, where he single handedly overwrote the adolescent memories of a thousands of nerds (including myself) here are some quick sketches of the LEIA I would prefer to remember, drawn through bleeding eyes.

Watercolour Sketch

James Baker — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:07:37 +0000

This sketch shows a sculpture in a little park a few blocks from my apartment. I rarely sketch in watercolour but I should try more of these, because this particular sketchbook is made from watercolour paper…

Golden Gate Park Cypress

James Baker — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:47:51 +0000

From a sketching trip to Golden Gate Park, late last year. This one was all done in brush pen, including a pen that had almost run out of juice (for the soft-focus background).

Haight and Filmore

James Baker — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:17:06 +0000

It has been a while since I posted anything from my sketchbook, so I will be clearing up the backlog in the near future. This one was done while sitting outside a coffee shop on Filmore Street, near the intersection with Haight.