...he stood. he began to doubt. how long had he walked this path? a week? months uncounted and unmissed? had this truly been his road all these long years? had everything led to this moment?
the questions plagued him ceaselessly. every step, every mile left cluck wondering at the wisdom of his choice. true, he had seen things wondrous as he traveled this trail - but still there was doubt. every glance toward his home revealed a path more hidden than before by swirling mists and a longing he had never appreciated. had he come too far to turn back? was turning back the act of a coward?
he sighed and looked to the sky. the vast expanse of black bid him onward in search of destiny. his constant companions, the stars, shone their encouragement. and so he walked on in the twilight alone and yet not.
one day he would go home, but this was not that day.
mike wanted to go to rustico tonight. which i heartily agreed to. i needed a beer and a pizza after last week. but somehow lines got crossed and everyone was supposed to meet at 8:30 in alexandria. disgruntled, but unable to resist the call of winter lager and woodfired pizza, i hung around the office sketching in fairfax. my friend jack im'd me a song called 'Chouwa Oto' by kokia while i sketched. incredibly intriguing. my thoughts turned to my ever beloved lord cluck, last samurai of the ohiki.
i did a warm up sketch as a painting began to formulate in my brain. glancing at the clock i saw it was only 6:00 pm. so the sketch was scanned in short order and i busted out the wacom. photoshop CS4 is probably the best tool i've ever laid my mitts on. a new feature lets you rotate the canvas as you please. i happen to spin my paper around to draw from various angles when working traditionally, so i was instantly hooked into this new feature (you'll notice the sketch is rotated so you see cluck standing!), the brushes are incredibly responsive in CS4 as well - a vast improvement over CS3's palette.
why the giant black rectangle? because another feature lets you change the view you're working in. the screen goes black except for your canvas. it's amazing. since i know all the shortcut keys i don't need the tool palettes to ink. this was the first time i've done something digital that felt real while doing it.
anyways, cluck may get finished tomorrow - right now i've got a thumbnail tucked away for a pretty fun little scene that came to mind while doing this warm up sketch. and it's begging to be done. all told, this took about 1.5 hrs from sketch to finish.
EDIT: wait wut's this? color test for cluck was interrupted by something wonderful. check back on friday, january 9th for the reveal of that blessed interruption.
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