Tag: Notebook
Self-Portrait
Saturday, March 20, 2010 | Permalink | Comments [0]
For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you already know that I was knocked off my feet this week by a pretty bad cold. It probably didn’t help that I mixed up the Claritin and Sudafed in the medicine cabinet. Well, at least I didn’t have to deal with allergies on top of everything else.
Anyway, before I got sick, I had been dabbling with a new way of approaching my work in Photoshop. I’ve always relied on a pencil sketch when I work in the program and I wanted to see how things might go if I tried to just paint digitally. No pencil sketches or scanning of any kind — just me and the brush tool and a couple of layers.
So far, I really like the results. Its stylistically somewhat different from the work I’ve done up until now, but it’s really starting to bring me the same kind of pleasure I get from oil painting, but without requiring a ventilated studio space and expensive paints. I’m excited to see where this goes.
I thought for today I’d share a little self-portrait I did yesterday — it’s a bit of a caricature, albeit a subtle one. There’s another piece that I previewed on Twitter the other day, but I’d like to fiddle around with that one a bit more before posting it here.
If you’d like to see me turn into a zombie, I used this self-portrait for Friday’s Haiku Comics.
Haiku Comics
Thursday, January 29, 2009 | Permalink | Comments [0]
I recently began work on a new project with my brother, Robert Olsen. We’ve developed a web comic called Haiku Comics. Bob writes the poems and I draw and letter the strip. It’s been a lot of fun to work on so far.
Neither of us really knows where this thing is going, so our goal is to publish a new strip every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and just see where it takes us. If you’re interested in watching the strip develop, you might want to bookmark the site or add it to your RSS feed. I’m pretty proud of the strips we’ve put out so far and I only think they are going to get better.
New Book
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 | Permalink | Comments [0]
![A photo of Nathan Olsen's new book, Will Someone Open This [Censored] Jar?](http://www.nateomedia.com/images/notebook/newbook.jpg)
I have printed and assembled the first copy of my new storybook, Will Someone Open This [CENSORED] Jar? The “first printing” is a signed & numbered edition of twenty copies made using archival inks and acid-free paper.
One down, only nineteen more to go!
Cue Guitar Solo
Sunday, October 26, 2008 | Permalink | Comments [0]
I’ve been meaning to put this up for a couple of weeks now. It was on display last week in the graduate advancement show at California State University, Long Beach.
This Isn’t What I Expected
Saturday, September 13, 2008 | Permalink | Comments [0]
(from family photo)
I Think It’s Done
Wednesday, September 10, 2008 | Permalink | Comments [2]
Well, after working on it for a good week-and-a-half, I think the illustration I’ve been working on is done. A week-and-a-half? I am ridiculously slow.
New Work
Sunday, August 31, 2008 | Permalink | Comments [0]
Well, it’s been a rough month. After getting back from Japan, I was hit with a couple of health issues that completely blew the deadline I’d set for the animated film I’ve been working on. I’m fine now, but I’ve had to push back the completion date for the film until January of 2009. Fingers crossed.
The main reason why I’ve pushed the date so far back is that I’m back in the saddle again, so to speak. I’ve been hard at work at the drawing desk pulling together some new illustrations. I just scanned in some rough pencils tonight. Here’s what I’ll be working on tomorrow:
Yep, more Lovebot! He now has a nemesis, however — the dreaded Lollypop Squid. Oh boy!
Life Drawing V
Monday, August 4, 2008 | Permalink | Comments [0]
I thought I’d post some more of my life drawing studies. These were done in the Fall 2007. They’re charcoal on 18″ x 24″ Strathmore drawing paper.
Previously in the notebook:
The Film II
Thursday, July 17, 2008 | Permalink | Comments [0]
I thought I’d post an update about the film: a crazy, impossible project that I just can’t seem to give up on.
I wrapped up another scene last night which brings me to, oh, say, NOT NEARLY ENOUGH FINISHED SCENES. As I wrote previously, I really didn’t understand what I was getting myself into with this project. But, now that I’ve invested so much time, I am determined to finish the film.
In the past few weeks, I’ve had some pretty big breakthroughs. In order to deal with some rigging issues, I invested more time in just learning Blender 3D and really got a handle on some of the more powerful ways of using the program. And that means I can work faster. And working faster means that I can finish scenes faster. And finishing scenes faster means that this film might just get completed before I die.
Sigh.
I am proud to report that the scenes that I have finished look pretty amazing. I’m really happy with the way the project is coming together. I’m also really happy that the last few scenes have only taken two to three days to complete. Which, of course, is still too slow.
Anyway, here are a couple of backgrounds from the film. I think they give the film a really unusual look and give the piece a lot of character.
