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Sol-Caninus

Ars longa; vita brevis
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Deviation Spotlight

Resource Center by Sol-Caninus, literature

Deviation Spotlight

Sundog, speak! (Good boy!) by Sol-Caninus, literature

Deviation Spotlight

QUICK PICKS by Sol-Caninus, literature

Twelfth House Retreat Newsletter by Sol-Caninus, literature

Persona Non Grata, or Amazing Grace by Sol-Caninus, literature

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Artist // Varied
  • United States
  • Deviant for 15 years
  • He / Him
Badges
Super Albino Llama: Llamas are awesome! (481)
Quartz: It's a big honor to be awarded a Quartz badge! (2)
My Bio
My Childrens Judo Class

In 1969, at age fifteen, while still recovering from the last in a series of operations on my leg for post-polio effects, I got my mother to drive me to CHARLTON Publishing Co. in Derby, Connecticut. There I showed my portfolio to the late George Wildman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wildman

who offered me an entry-level position. The perks: learn from the best ("on your own time").


This was near the end of Charlton's hay days. They had Giordano, Ditko, Boyette and a bunch of other great guys (like Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez). But my mother said, "No!" (About 35 years later when I asked her why she wasted everyone's time bringing me to the interview if she had no intention of letting me work, she said, "I never imagined anyone would take you seriously." )


After that I got into wrestling and martial arts, motorcycles and girls, continued my education through graduate school, then started work in a "serious" profession. Nevertheless; in the mid 80s, I took a half-time position so I could write fiction and do a full time stint at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Fleischer Art Memorial. But, when push came to shove, I returned full time to Human Service and Psychology.


Some years back, I wiped the slate clean and decided to start over - to pick up where I'd left off as a teenager - to do graphic novels, or bust. That's where I am, now - BUSTED. . . BIG TIME! Nowhere to go from here, except up!

_______________________________________________________________________


Current Residence: Mt. Effort, (What an appropriate name!) Pennsylvania

deviantWEAR sizing preference: Loose, so, large

Favourite style of art: Scientific Illustration, Comic Book Illo, Genre Fiction Writing, Technical Writing

Personal Quote: 'From my weakness I drew strength that never left me.' - paraphrased from Borges


Tools of the Trade
Switched over to Digital end of April 2015 and haven't looked back
Other Interests
Animals of all kinds. Plants, not so much, but I'm learning to give them benefit of the doubt.

The Far Eye

10 min read
Quicksketch Countdown Challenge: I mentioned last week the advice of Kimon Nicholaides in "The Natural Way to Draw," which is to draw the figure using timed intervals of five and ten seconds, in this way to attune oneself to capturing what Carl Gnass calls "the spirit of the pose," instead of literal likeness. I had to open my big mouth and go on about how I had done this decades ago by methodically reducing the time interval. I don't recall how long it took, whether I reduced the limit weekly, monthly, or geared it to ability, so that I moved to the next level only after adapting comfortably to the previous one. Likely I combined all of them, because I aimed to grow, not test. In the last few weeks, I got into it, again, but this time to gauge and humble myself by indulging in reckless play, which I don't recommend for everyone. But I do challenge you to do it the right way, the first way described above aimed for conditioning perception and getting the different parts of the
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The Weekly Journal is Back: As part of settling back into an Art Head, I'm resurrecting the weekly journal, going back to what it was originally, a weekly note on progress peppered with whatever else comes to mind. One of the things I did, until I got lazy and distracted by topics other than art, is to include a section at the end of each entry for references and resources. I'm going back to that starting today. Head Study Continues: The efforts this week continued the study of the head. As you know, I've gone back to basics, addressing the basic skills for illustrating comics and graphic novels and found the head turn-around challenging when it came to the 3/4 view. It made me realize that I needed a method on which to fall back when raw talent failed. So, I investigated various ways to do it, such as the perspective box - which is the only way to do it methodically. This however takes one on a journey through perspective, anatomy, and design that has a way of cutting up
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In my pursuit of more ways to use the box, or glass cube, as a construction method for the human head (and as a way of checking for distortion and errors after the fact), I cracked open Gary Faigin's, "The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expressions," and found it. Like the Great Masters, he makes use of the box to draw the skull in the round. But unlike them he divides the head differently. Instead of putting the whole skull in the box, then adding the jaw beneath (e.g. as Leonardo DaVinci did), he cuts a horizontal plane at the nose line for the base. In the side view this is also the ear line. So, the head in the box rests on a line right under the nose and ear. Everything below that is cut off and relegated to the jaw. To square off on top, he cuts another plane at the widow's peak - the angle just above the hairline where the face turns to become the top of the head. This is a landmark with which I was not familiar. My understanding of the term referred it to the
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Profile Comments 1.1K

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You are awesome.

Thank's for saying so. sorry for the late reply.

Ah, many thanks for watching!

Any time. Nice chatting with you. And if you don't already have it, here is my list of reference and resources for art and writing, Quick Picks

I consider it unlikely I'll ever use those, but thanks all the same.

NP. Pass it on when occasions warrant.