An Exercise in Refinement: A Sketchblog

Moving

2011-10-25T22:38:00.001-07:00

I've decided to move my artwork posting to tumblr! You can catch all of my sketches, some finished works, crafts, and design-y stuff I come up with there. Check it out!

I'll still use this blog for musings and the like, but if you watch me for my art exclusively you'll probably want to turn your attention to tumblr. See you there!

Hunger Games: Finnick Odair

2011-09-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

More Hunger Games art, this time Finnick Odair a character who shows up later in the Hunger Games trilogy. His character development was quite a surprise.

What If? 2001-2005

2011-08-29T21:32:00.000-07:00

So this isn't a sketch post. Heck, it's not even art related but I think we can all agree that I'm not exactly liberal with the art related posts so let's shift our focus from art for a second.

I think we all have those moments where we wish we could go back to a point in time and do it all again. Usually that "moment" is all of high school. I wouldn't consider my tenure at high school horrible. In fact, for being a fat kid in a school of predominantly athletic students I think I fared very well. However, I'm much slimmer and much more fashion savvy than I was six years ago, so let's pretend that I could guide a younger me through the trenches of adolescence. If I could work my will, the high school me would be skinnier and better dressed, as such, here's a compilation of outfits, accessories and even school supplies that I would equip the new younger me with:

Of course one shouldn't dwell in the past and you certainly can't change it, nor would I want to. I believe everything that happens in our lives shapes us into who we are today, and I happen to be in love with who I am. BUT it was fun to think of a younger, more hip, well dressed me.

Hunger Games

2011-08-16T01:24:00.000-07:00

Over the past five or so days I've been immersed in the Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins. If you haven't had the pleasure of reading these books I suggest you get your hands on them. In my current obsessive state, I drew my favorite scene where the main character Katniss receives a gift from another District during the games.

Lost Crates

2011-08-10T23:26:00.000-07:00

I’ve decided I’m going to start doing little reviews of the art supplies I use (forgive the rhyme). It won’t be anything too heavy or cerebral, just a showcase of my favorite tools of the trade. Today we’re going to start off with something a little fun and unusual.

A month or so ago, my friend turned me on to this website called Lost Crates. It’s a website that you can join and for $38 a month will send you a small crate of stationary miscellany from a variety of companies, some as well known as Moleskine and other small companies that offer handmade products. Needless to say as a lover of stationary and a frivolous spender I had to try it out for a month to see what they had to offer. You take a brief personality quiz, enter your billing and payment information, and anxiously await as you are placed in the queue to receive your lost crate.

Mine came today!

The hand packaging and the personalization is a nice touch. Let’s take a look to see what $38 can get you in the wide world of stationary:

The crate included:

State Field Notes Notebook

Behance Action and DotGrid Notebooks

Stabilo Pens

Moleskine Notebook

An Eco Stapler

Overall, I’m a little unimpressed with the crate’s contents. But let’s get review what we have here:

State Field Notes: I thought this added a little personalization. The notebook was from my home state, but honestly it’s a little obvious. That’s like saying “oh you’re from the US? Well we’ll send you baseball cards and apple pies!” The inside is graph paper and reminiscent of the small, paper cover Moleskines that you buy in a package of three. To their credit, one can never have too many notebooks.

Behance Action and DotGrid Notebooks: To be honest, I had no idea what these were which momentarily piqued my interest. These notebooks revolve around the concept of the “Action Method” which pretty much is a series of list making and brainstorming and the realization of these goals. List making is one of the things I do best but I don’t need special notebooks for them. Usually a note in the side margin of my sketchbook or a Word document is where I write down my ideas. Not to mention every time I’ve tried to use a notebook for writing down assignments, it’s usually ended up obsolete because more often than naught I can just remember what I needed to do (not to toot my own horn or anything).

Stabilo Pens: I’ve never heard of them. As you can see in the photograph above, I received a black and a red one. I tried them out and they are really nice to write with and the lines are very crisp and precise. I’ll definitely be using the black one at least to ink my artwork. Maybe I’ll make people take pop quizzes on subjects I deem appropriate at the time and use the red one to correct their work.

Moleskine Notebook: Hey, who doesn’t love a Moleskine? Overall though I think it’s a bit of a cop out. I think everyone loves Moleksines and since the average retail value is $15 it’s a nice way to fill up the $38 quota for your crate. But again, I’m certainly not complaining. I would have had to buy one in the near future anyway.

Eco Stapler: I’ve seen these before and would probably never have bought one which was why this was a nice surprise. This is why I signed up, to get something new and unusual. The Eco Stapler boasts no staples and essentially punches a whole through the papers you want together and uses the excess paper as a sort of tab to keep everything together. It’ a really neat concept and an interesting device but, overall I’d say stick with staplers. The staple-less staple is flimsy and if you’re handing in a report to a teacher who will invariably have a stack of reports that will most likely shoved into a briefcase or tote bag; your paper will be disassembled by the time they start grading.

Final Prognosis: Overall, I think it was an interesting experiment and I’d love to see how other people made out. I don’t’ know if I would boast too much about everyone getting a personalized crate. I understand that it’s impossible to have a completely personal crate; that would take too much time, effort, and probably raise the price of the crate itself. Obviously, they have to cater to a number of people and only have a specific amount of time to assemble these crates and send them out, but I was expecting a little more recognition from the personality quiz than “here’s your home state on a notebook!” Not to mention the contents of the crate pretty much matched the promotional pictures on the website. Maybe my personality is just generic? That’s a harsh realization, especially coming from a crate of stationary.

I definitely don’t regret my decision to sign up. I knew my life wasn’t going to be changed and did it for the experience, but I won’t be paying for any more Lost Crates to be sent out on my behalf. Having said that, I would encourage others to sign up as the whole process was very unique and all in good fun. I would suggest going into it with a light heart and an open mind. If you love stationary and surprises you definitely won’t be disappointed. I would also suggest giving these as gifts (so long as you know the recipients personality well enough).

Snow White and the Seven Satyrs

2011-08-07T17:18:00.000-07:00

In my last entry I took on Snow White's wicked stepmother in an Ancient Greek setting. Well the assignment after that in my class was to illustrate another scene from Snow White, this time involving her dancing with the dwarves. I decided that, since dwarves really weren't a fixture in Greek Mythology I would have to choose from the plethora of other creatures the mythology had to offer. I ended up picking satyrs, creatures that could conceivably be smaller than snow white, and capable of being enchanted with a pretty girl. So here we have it, I really do like this concept. I would love to make it into a book one day.

Mirror, Mirror

2011-07-29T19:12:00.001-07:00

This blog needs some serious art love.

In one of my summer classes we had to practice reflections. To help us with said task, we were given a passage from Snow White where the Evil Queen looks into her mirror and had to interpret it in our own way. My first thought was the traditional fairy tale route, Western Europe, castle, whatever but I wasn't jazzed so I decided to go Ancient Greek on this fairy tale's ass an here we have it.

2011-06-18T01:02:00.001-07:00

Me oh my where has the time gone? It appears this poor neglected sketchblog has taken a backseat to my other pursuits. And those have taken a backseat to school and work. Well here's what's going on in my vast Empire.

My Harry Potter sketchblog The Daily Hogwartian is about to celebrate its hundredth entry.

I've also caved in and started a Tumblr. I would say that it's part of an experiment in testing various online social mediums but really I'm just incredibly vain. I'll be blogging about the wonderful assortment of things I purchase; from clothes to books and even art supplies. It's worth a quick browse through, if I do say so myself.

Lastly, I've finally updated my website with some of my school assignments and even something from a paying job! So check it out. Just so this isn't an artless post, I'm leaving you with a preview of the updated art on my site. This was one of the last assignments I did for the semester, we had to make an advertisement.

Hopefully I'll get some sketches up here soon.

I'm also working on my thesis project, so look out for more on that.

Superdoodles

2011-02-13T01:32:00.000-08:00

I idly doodled this caricature-esque version of the X-Men's White Queen from her early days as a villainess (before she came over to the good side). I enjoyed the result so I thought I'd share it!
I'd like to get into the habit of drawing more superheroes, both men and women. I've grown too complacent with drawing students from magic school and old men and woman in long robes.

Who, Me?

2011-02-09T01:05:00.000-08:00

Here's a little something from one of my comic pages from my Graphic Novel I class last semester. The comic was a little slap dash but I really liked this panel. The comic featured the characters from the much loved board game Clue, this panel meant to introduce the ravishing Miss Scarlet (with a very interested Mr. Green in the background.

Here's hoping that this semester will provide more post worthy artwork!

And again....

2011-02-02T22:01:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I say you can look forward to some project or another and nothing ever comes from it, and sometimes I say I'll do something and then post it a few hours later.

So here's old fashioned British Psylocke, before her mind was placed into the body of a Japanese ninja.

Psylocke, again.

2011-02-02T14:00:00.000-08:00

A while ago I did a version of Psylocke from when she first appeared as an X-Man in the eighties. Here she is as she appears today, in her Japanese body (long story)

I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but one of my gripes with comics is that so few artists focus on ethnicity. Is someone is asian, they're usually just drawn with exaggerated slanted eyes or sometimes without any identifying markers. Why bother having a character of a different ethnicity if you're just going to draw them all the same? Anyway, hopefully this Psylocke does indeed look Japanese and not generically Asian, and hopefully not Caucasian with slanty eyes.

Also, here's a sketch of old fashioned Psylocke. I think I might ink and color this, so look out for that.

The New Year

2011-01-10T23:07:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a happy and safe New Year!

I am well into my Winter Holiday and don't have much art to show for it except for this little doodle.
I don't know why but I've been on an owl drawing kick lately and here's one of the more interesting results. I don't know why he's wearing a gladiator helmet but I certainly wouldn't want to mess with him.

A Belated Happy Holiday and a Happy New Year

2010-12-27T19:04:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a Happy Holidays. To say that this holiday season was busy is a bit of an understatement. Between work and school and general holiday what nots I have scarcely had time to sleep owing to this wonderful cold I am now sporting.
Anyway, I've updated my website with some holiday artwork if you want to check it on out.

I really hope to use this month long vacation from school to work on some of my own artwork. I've been really inspired by 50s and 60s advertisements and book covers so I'm hoping to incorporate some of that into my work.

For now I'll leave you with one of my final assignments for my Portrait Painting class. I wish I had taken more time to polish it up but I'm afraid it will forever remain at this level of completion. After a semester of staging formal portraits, I wanted to do something informal.

Woah.

2010-10-27T18:09:00.000-07:00

So it's been about three months since I last posted, I hope you've at least been enjoying some postings over at The Daily Hogwartian.
I've been working and going to school so there hasn't been a lot of time for recreational art but here's an assignment from my Graphic Novel class. We had to illustrate a story in nine panels, I chose Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

Hopefully I get back to posting here on a semi-regular basis. If not, see you in another three months!

The Daily Hogwartian

2010-07-13T14:13:00.000-07:00

This summer (and hopefully for the foreseeable future) I'll be doing a Harry Potter character every day as a warm up. Said Harry Potter characters will be posted over at The Daily Hogwartian along with other Harry Potter-related goodies. If you're a Harry Potter fan, mosey on over! There's not much in terms of new art for now, but that will soon change!

Another Hera

2010-06-07T20:31:00.001-07:00

I've actually been sitting on this drawing for a few months now, it just needed a few final touches and some inking. I was a little dissatisfied with how I portrayed Hera in the sketch I posted a month or two back so I redesigned her making her a little younger, more beautiful and more decked out in finery. As a fun little addition, the design on the pediment on the top of her throne is the myth of how she and Zeus wed, an appropriate story for the goddess of marriage.

Hera actually spurned Zeus' advances for many years. At his wit's end, Zeus remembered Hera's fondness for birds and created a violent storm, transformed himself into a cuckoo and let himself be tossed about by the winds and the rain. Hera saw the poor bird and took it in claiming that she would love it forever. At this point Zeus transformed back, held Hera to her promise and they married.
Because of this myth, I've always thought of Hera as a goddess of vows, promises, and contracts. I mean, what is marriage but a series of vows?

Old School Superhero

2010-06-06T22:39:00.000-07:00

While I prefer the digital medium I will occasionally venture into the realm of traditional, usually under peer pressure. Today was such a day and I decided to mix pen and ink with Prismacolor markers, Sharpie markers and a touch of colored pencil to blend the two. Here is the result!

This is Psylocke a member of Marvel Comics' mutant team, the X-Men, or rather how Psylocke appeared in the 80s when she first joined the team. I always found this outfit quite ridiculous, bright pink, poofy sleeves, and those ribbons hanging from the cuff. It was a tough time being a superhero in the 80s.
Anyway, I like this technique, I think I might do more of it.

New Look

2010-05-31T12:11:00.000-07:00

I hope you're enjoying the new face of the vast Michael Bucci empire. This new theme extends to my site and my twitter account as well.

I've been out of school for about a week now, I have a great new job and I hope posting lots of art here as well as new pieces for my portfolio over at buccillustrations.com so there's a lot to look forward to in the coming month (unless of course you're not a fan of me then you'll be pretty disappointed).

Schoolwork

2010-04-25T20:51:00.001-07:00

A question I get a lot is "Michael, when are we going to see the work you do in school?!"
Frankly, most of the work I do doesn't really relate to the body of work I wish to convey to the public so I don't post it, but since I'm not really making anything else at the moment I might as well dazzle you with something other than abandoned sketches of mythological figures.

This is a much cropped version of an assignment for one of my classes. We had to depict a figure in an outdoor environment, I chose to work from a photo of my longtime friend and fellow artist Carol.

Quick Update

2010-04-08T21:08:00.000-07:00

I almost wasn't going to post these because I realized I had drawn them at the end of February, it honestly seems like mere weeks ago.
Anyway here are some personal studies of the goddess Harmonia, daughter of Aphrodite and Ares and bringer of peace after war. She was a lot less chaotic than her parents and enjoyed helping people. Below her is a study of Dionysus, god of intoxication. I always picture him having some sort of mischievous smile.

Second is Hermes about to slay Argus. You see, Zeus once took the mortal woman Io as a lover, but feared his wife's Hera's suspicion so he turned Io into a cow. Hera, who was indeed suspicious (and rightly so) claimed the cow (as cows were her sacred animal) as her own and tethered it to an olive tree in her private gardens and set the ever-watchful, hundred-eyed giant Argus to watch over it. Zeus sent clever Hermes to free Io, so he lured the giant to sleep so all one hundred of his eyes were closed and slew him. Some versions of the myth say he slew him with a stone (the theme of youth slaying a giant with a stone is also featured in Biblical account of David and Goliath), some say with a sword, others say that due to Argus' unique nature of being constantly alert, when all of his eyes closed he merely died.
I obviously chose the stone version and we see Hermes carefully reaching for a stone as Argus slowly falls asleep.

Quick note, the pedestal on which Argus is reposing bears a statue of Hera, as she is the reason for the events that transpired.

So there's your Mythology lesson for the day, do with it what you will. And enjoy the wonderful weather!

Poor Unfortunate Soul

2010-03-13T00:23:00.001-08:00

Here's a surprise from the pages of my current sketchbook! It's Disney's Ursula from the Little Mermaid and my personal favorite Disney Villain.
This is a rarity for my sketchbook as I usually don't work in color nor at there many finished pieces in it, just angry doodles of things that could be.
Anyway, my friend Nina (whose Etsy shop can be seen here) and I were cranking out some art one day and her highly experimental nature inspired me to break out my Prismacolors and go to town. This was the result.

Queen of Olympus

2010-03-06T20:31:00.000-08:00

Lordy! Is it March already? I can't believe I haven't posted in a half a month! Well I'm sick of looking at this screencap from my flipbook so I decided to finish a drawing that's been in the "In Progress" pile for over a month. I present to you Hera, goddess of matrimony and queen of the Olympian gods.

Late last summer I drew a picture of Athena for a friend which you can see here. One day I'll do one for all twelve Olympians (as well as Hestia, Hades, and Persephone) and I might even redo Athena and Hera but for now enjoy. As queen of Olympus, Hera is usually depicted as elegantly dressed, adorned with jewels, wearing a diadem, and holding a scepter. Much like with Athena, I depicted Hera with her bird the peacock said to be made in honor of the hundred-eyed giant, Argus who was in her service. I might do an Aphrodite one of these before I revamp the whole series. I'd like to have the three goddesses not to mention it would help me refine my design for Aphrodite.

Flipbook

2010-02-16T01:42:00.001-08:00

My Flipbook

Ideally I could have gone to bed about an hour ago, but I was talking with a friend and through our conversation I remembered this little site so I made a flipbook! It's essentially Aphrodite turning into seafoam and then reconstituting and then disappearing. It's nothing fancy but very fun!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-13T22:16:00.000-08:00

A valentine from me to you! Thanks to everyone who watches this blog of mine.
The woman on this valentine is none other than Erato, the muse of love poetry. Crowned in roses and myrtle, Erato plays a romantic tune on her lyre and is accompanied by two amorous turtle doves.
Happy Valentine's Day!

More drawings.

2010-02-04T22:56:00.000-08:00

It seems that every time I say that I won't be posting much art in the near future I come back with some more art. It would be a problem but I can't do many of my assignments because I lack the necessary supplies. Here's an art school tip, when you think you're done buying supplies for your classes, you find out that you missed the most essential supplies.

Anyway, here is Hecate. Greek goddess of magic.

High Maintenance Damsel

2010-02-04T22:51:00.000-08:00

This came to life through a late night conversation.

Percy Jackson + the Olympians

2010-02-02T20:28:00.000-08:00

I know I said I'd be a little lax on posting art in lieu of my schoolwork, but I was so close to finishing that I just I couldn't leave it be.

This past fall I started reading the Percy Jackson + the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. I remember buying the first book (The Lightning Thief) with hopes to read it before the movie came out in February. Needless to say I devoured the whole series in about a month. It was such a great read and, being that it's way out of my age group it was also a quick read; win win. Percy Jackson + the Olympians revolves around the premise that the Greek Gods are very much alive and have been consorting with mortals since the ancient times. Their children or "demi-gods" are forced to deal with terrible creatures of ancient myth (the Minotaur and Furies to name a few) constantly seeking them out and attacking them. I definitely recommend it for people who love Greek Mythology and a good adventure.

So here's my tribute to the series. A colorful line up featuring a heaping handful of characters. (Percy Jackson is in blue, right next to the Cyclops).

Spring Semester

2010-02-01T00:54:00.000-08:00

Today marks the first day of my Spring Semester. Soon I will be re immersed in the hustle and bustle that is an MFA program.

Of course I haven't finished any of the art I wanted to accomplish over my month plus long break. All of those projects will have to go on the back burner for a rainy day or a time when I'm fed up with schoolwork and need to retreat to a safe place.
Also, I've been reworking my coloring style which I've been displeased with for quite a while now. It's working well with black and white paintings, it just needs to be put to the chroma treatment.

Because I have so many projects on the back burner (being my Saints bookmarks and the bevy of Christmas card sets I would like to do) I came up with another one!

My ultimate goal, aside from teaching, when I get my MFA is to go into the comic book industry. When that day comes I should probably have a sequential piece or two in my portfolio. It's been a dream of mine to get paid to turn myths and/or history into graphic novels. And so, I give to you a thumbnail from "The Birth of Aphrodite." I've only spent a few hours toying with the layout and the progression of her birth, but I want it to be really fun and colorful.

I would wager that about 90% of the population is familiar with Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus," if you aren't wake up and join the rest of polite society!

My comic, when completed will be a few pages (maybe four or five) and detail the goddess's birth from the sea foam and her scallop shell ride to Cypress. I don't know if I'll do anything further but I think it makes for a good introduction.

My postings have been pretty infrequent as of late and I don't know how better or worse that will get as the semester progresses. But let us progress forth into the unkown with the highest hopes and a light heart.

2010-01-18T21:39:00.001-08:00

So it's been a month since I last updated my blog. Since then Christmas and New Years has happened. Let's start of this year's postings with some New Years resolutions.

1. Tweet more on Twitter. I put this at number one because it's so important.
2. Work on my handwriting. I wouldn't say there's anything wrong with my handwriting, I just want really nice handwriting. The kind of handwriting that freaks people out because it's so nice.
3. Stop procrastinating. That's going to be a tough one as I've done nothing but procrastinate since the New Year.
4. Get a new job. Preferably one that has to do with art.
5. Draw more action poses and just continue getting better at drawing in general. I would like for my style to get even more realistic so that's something to work on.

In other news, I wanted to use my month long vacation as a time to produce lots of art. As always I have come up short on my goals (see resolution 3), however I have some in progress stuff that might interest you.
I read somewhere that having copyrighted characters in your portfolio isn't the smartest thing to do. As such, I've been toying with myths, historical events, and now saints.

As you may or may not remember I drew some saints about a year ago and today I'm revisiting them. Eventually I plan to have both of these fully colored, but I like how they are at their respective stages of completion. You may be thinking that these look an awful lot like bookmarks and indeed you would be right. I don't know why I made them bookmarks, I just envisioned all of my compositions formatted into a thin, vertical frame and perhaps when they're all complete I could sell them. We'll see. Enjoy these for now, I hope to have more finished work on here soon or at the very least fun doodles.

Christmas

2009-12-24T23:58:00.000-08:00

Wishing you a Merry Christmas this year!

Wreaths

2009-12-23T17:02:00.000-08:00

Along with school and work this holiday season I also decided to make wreaths. This was my first year making them; I'm especially proud of the bows. I made six of them in all for various friends and family.

Humbug

2009-12-18T19:47:00.000-08:00

'Tis the season, and so I honor it with a picture from my favorite Christmas Story "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. My favorite part about "A Christmas Carol" are the ghosts, so here are my versions of them along with a scowling Scrooge.

Christmas Past is my favorite of the spirits and I think the most difficult to portray being described as young and old at the same time. He has subtle allusions to a candle so kind of wanted to make him alight. His hair would be in constant movement and flickering with fire and his eyes would be extremely bright and his garments would move like they were weightless.
I think the most consistent of the ghosts in every version of Christmas Carol is the ghost of Christmas present, so I really didn’t feel like I needed to change him.

I also wanted to add my own little spin on the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, so in the darkest parts of its robes, I added a sprinkling of snowfall against the bleakness so there would be an ominous sort of movement from the depths of his robes.

Enjoy and have a happy holiday!

Harry Potter Bookmark

2009-12-03T15:18:00.000-08:00

If you'll remember in August, The Leaky Cauldron, a Harry Potter website held a Wizarding Postcard contest which I placed second in. Needless to say, their monthly contests didn't catch my eye until November when the task was to create a bookmark featuring the characters of Harry Potter.
After some debating, this is what I came up with. I have an unnatural obsession with the four founders of Hogwarts (who aren't so much characters since they are only mentioned in the book), but I love them just the same. We have here Rowena Ravenclaw, founder of Ravenclaw house reading to the other three founders by firelight.

I just found out today that I won first place in the contest which is a great honor since the other submissions were really creative! Check them out here.

A bit of interesting information on this piece. I realized well into rendering the drawing that I had accidentally deleted the folder with everything in it. Luckily, I saved a progress shot and was able to digitally paint over that in order to finish in time. I also had to recreate the format. It feels great to have my hard work and trials and tribulations pay off.

Coming soon... A piece to celebrate the holiday season.

Aphrodite Wants YOU! Nearest Recruiting Station.

2009-11-12T22:24:00.000-08:00

This was done for a challenge over at Open Sketchbook Society. The challenge was to create a pin-up and while this isn't exactly a pin-up in its traditional sense, this is the first thing that came to mind.
So the concept here is Aphrodite is using her natural charms (as well as her magical golden girdle)to ensnare the men of Troy to fight the Grecian forces in the upcoming war.
The Trojan War started when Paris, a prince of Troy was made to award a golden apple to the fairest goddess of Mount Olympus. His choices were Hera queen of the gods, Athena maiden goddess of wisdom and warfare, and Aphrodite the goddess of love. Each offered Paris a hefty incentive if they were picked but Aphrodite, who offered Paris the love of the most beautiful woman in the world won the contest. The most beautiful woman of the world happened to be Helen, a woman who was married to King Menelaus of Sparta. Of course all of this were minor details to Aphrodite who saw to it that Helen of Sparta became Helen of Troy and thus the Trojan War ensued!
Naturally, Aphrodite would see to it to encourage all able bodied Trojan men to help protect the city, and so she has!

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T19:26:00.000-07:00

A little late, I know, but I decided it was the perfect excuse to post new art here. My Halloween was fairly uneventful, I did however celebrate the holiday with two parties earlier in the month one of my own and another held by a friend and last night I went to the annual costume ball at the New Britain Museum of American Art.
Like most people, now that Halloween is over I can focus my attention on the anticipation of the Christmas season. Speaking of which, I have decided to post my historical Christmas cards until next year. At the moment I only have rough sketches done for all of them and I would have to finish drawing coloring and formatting all six designs on top of school and work and I don't want these to be rushed. So next year save up your pocket change so you can buy a set (or two) of my historical Christmas cards. You will find them educational as well as aesthetically pleasing.

In Business News....

2009-10-15T09:35:00.000-07:00

I have opened up an Etsy Shop!. Right now it's empty, but soon I plan to fill it with delightfully illustrated things. For those of you who don't know, Etsy is a website where you can buy or sell wonderful handmade goods. If you haven't checked it out yet, it's worth a browse.

Also, I'm planning on making historically based Christmas card. There are going to be six cards in total (2 cards per 12 card set) each based on an individual time period and a Christmas tradition from that period. There will be a colored illustration on the front and a brief explanation of the tradition on the back. So look out for those! Coming Novemberish/December 2009!
Ideally, I would like to have them out by Thanksgiving which means I would have to send them out for printing in mid November which means.... I have to get started! When I do eventually make them, they'll be on sale on my Etsy shop (or personally, if you're a family member or friend).

Also, one day I plan to make a sketchbook full of doodles, preparatory sketches and a few finished illustrations. And I recently came into some fun sticker paper, so I might be selling stickers. All of these will be available from me on Etsy.

Let the adventure begin!

2009-10-02T09:02:00.000-07:00

I'm recovering from my bout of food poisoning/some unnamed stomach bug so here's some few days old artwork. One of the things I got for my birthday was Manga Studio 4. Wizard Magazine called it one of the best programs for comic book artists, and at the affordable price of $40, how can you refuse?!
I haven't been able to discover all of the magic that this program contains, but I really like their realistic pencil and inking tools. The head above was inked with Manga Studio and then colored in Photoshop. I'm iffy on the coloring process of Manga Studio, and since I have Photoshop I might as well use it, right? I'm also in the process of trying to improve my coloring style as well.

Flour Sacks

2009-09-25T23:54:00.001-07:00

It's 3 am and I'm waiting for my virus scans to finish so I thought I would regale you all with what I'm doing in school.

This exercise is supposed to teach how folds and things react to form and dimension. Usually with an assignment I start losing momentum the more I work on it, but I seemed to gain it with each new idea I had. More of this and less of drawing ellipses please.

RIP Sketchbook

2009-09-22T22:37:00.000-07:00

Today marked the end of my sketchbook, but the circle of life keeps on turning and a new, clean crisp sketchbook awaits! But for now, here are some more notable drawings from the past three months of drawing and doodling.

During the summer I was listening to the Harry Potter series as read by Jim Dale. I can always tell when I'm listening to the Harry Potter series because my sketches will divert their attention to the scenes from whatever book I'm reading. In the case of the first group, it was Deathly Hallows mainly during the Battle of Hogwarts. The second group just has various heads or other body parts from Harry Potter as well as the Green Lantern comic book series and of course, it wouldn't be a Michael Bucci Sketchdump without Anne Boleyn!
So there we have it, I shall see you again at the next sketchbook clean out day.

Stern Woman is Stern

2009-09-12T14:18:00.000-07:00

Has it really been ten days since I last posted?
School has started for me, and it's going to take a while for this whole online routine to sink in but I'm liking it so far. Not to mention I'm probably one of the few people in my class who are in their early twenties, but I am enjoying it; it's certainly a new experience.

The drawing above is one of the many faces in my sketchbook. Usually when I'm bored or uninspired I'll just draw a face in profile, this one happened to take the form of a stern Victorian matron. I don't know what it is, but this drawing always makes me laugh. Why is she so stern?! I certainly know my values would never be compromised so long as she was my chaperone.

Goodbye Summer

2009-09-02T23:42:00.001-07:00

Good bye summer, we hardly knew ye. I am convinced that even if summer vacation lasted for two years it would still seem like I was on vacation for a week.

Today is my first day of Grad School so don't be surprised if this blog gets even less attention; although I fully intend to keep updating with sketches produced from my downtime and re-tellings of my graduate adventures, but until then enjoy Athena.

I drew this as a gift for a friend and just loved how it turned out. Athena is the Greek Goddess of Wisdom among other things. Along with the owl and her classic Medusa head shield I also stuck in a little bit of iconography of my very own. The tree on her helmet signifies the olive tree she gave to Athens which won her the title of the city's patron goddess.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great summer and is prepared for whatever responsibilities lay before you.

Wizarding Postcard

2009-09-01T21:16:00.000-07:00

I'm ending my summer with a bang!
The Leaky Cauldron, a Harry Potter fan site (and arguably the world's best Harry Potter fan site held a contest through the month of August to create a post card that a character would send from some kind of wizard vacation. It struck my fancy and I figured entering a contest (even one as obscure as a Harry Potter fan contest) is a good way to get my name out there.
The problem I was having was I wanted to so a character that wouldn't get a thousand entries, like Luna Lovegood (well actually, I wanted to do a Luna postcard but I was wisely advised against it by a friend). After a long time I decided to do Charlie Weasley, the seldom heard of brother of Ron who studies dragons in Romania. I thought it would be fun to see him with a group of foreign wizards (in this case, Aborigines) trying to capture a dragon. And so here it is!

Oddly enough, I think my favorite part of this postcard is the stamp on the back which I designed myself. "Par Hibou" is French for "By Owl" as a throwback to "Par Avion" which is "By Plane" I believe. It's just one of those touches that makes an illustration and Michael Bucci original.

But the story doesn't end here! You see, I had an original idea to do Elhpias Doge, the obscure childhood friend of Albus Dumbledore. For those of you who have read book seven you may or may not remember that right after school, Doge and Dumbledore were supposed to go on a magical Grand Tour of sorts and while Dumbledore was detained due to family tragedy, Doge still went. I believe somewhere in the description Doge mentions escaping Chimera (a mythological animal) in Greece, so I thought it would be fun to capture that moment and have Doge describing the incident in a postcard to Dumbledore.

Et voila.

Well, before I started on the tricky background I went to read over the rules of the contest and it said that the time frame for this vacation had to be within the scope of the seven books. Needless to say I worked my illustrative abilities at the eleventh hour and came up with the substitute concept of Charlie Weasley which I ended up liking better anyway.

Bottom line kids, read the rules to a contest THOROUGHLY before committing to anything.

Edit: I ended up winning second place. Yay!

2009-08-22T14:37:00.000-07:00

Last week my aunt brought up all of my late grandmother's photos. Among them were some gems from my mother's childhood. I particularly liked this photo of my mother when she was nine (I'm sure she would appreciate me not mentioning the year and preserving the most sacred secret, her true age).
In general, I wouldn't consider myself a perfectionist, usually the necessity to finish a piece wins out over my anal retentive tendencies, but when I'm working to capture someone's likeness from a photograph I end up getting very picky and finicky with my own work, it's probably why I don't like working from photographs.

Back By Popular Demand

2009-08-10T23:59:00.000-07:00

I was recently requested to post some artwork on here, and I see my blog is in dire need of new material. I'm going to try and post a sketch a week here, so hopefully we'll have that to look forward to.
I can't believe it's been a month since I posted! Where has the summer gone?! Soon I will be starting Grad School and doing some serious job searching and other adult stuff. Anyway, here's the real reason you're here:

It's Albus Dumbledore, the wise old headmaster from Harry Potter and one of my favorite characters from the series. I'm using him in order to practice drawing old people.

Life of Lesiure

2009-07-09T22:57:00.000-07:00

This was the product of an art trade I did with my friend. I rarely post trades because they are usually quick sketches that I have no attachment to. However, when my friend told me she wanted a lady of noble breeding reading a book by lamplight how could I not help but fall in love?!

Tudors

2009-06-17T23:53:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm a part of the Open Sketch Book Society a group started by my friend and fellow Art School alum. It's been great, the blog has been a real motivation to draw a little something every day. Anyway, for the past two weeks or so I've been doing brief sketches of the members of Tudor family and adding a splash of color with my Sharpie collection. Wednesday marked the end of that series, and I have compiled them for all to see. To view bigger versions of the individual characters head on over to the Society and pick through the entries, and while you're there enjoy the other quality art that has been posted.

News

2009-06-03T10:18:00.000-07:00

I have recently joined the Open Sketch Book Society, agroup based mostly of recent Hartford Art School alums. We're doing a sketch a day for the month of June so to see daily sketches by yours truly visit the Society.

Also, I'm working on a new project for my portfolio so look out for that. Here's a teaser:

Website

2009-05-16T15:16:00.000-07:00

buccillustrations.com

My website is now live! From now on, this will be a place for all of my sketches and doodles, my site will be for all of my finished pieces. Enjoy!

Show Tonight

2009-05-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

The Illustration Department is having our BFA show tonight. Four years of hard work comes down to this.

The Thousandth Day

2009-05-07T18:13:00.001-07:00

Middle Ages Crisis

2009-05-04T13:07:00.001-07:00

This is the fourth illustration for my portfolio class. I have to admit that this was the last one I thought of and was kind of a slap dash attempt. I knew I wanted to include Medieval costume in one of my illustrations and I knew that I wanted it to be vaguely humorous.
Ever since I saw Norman Rockwell's "The Art Critic" (below) which became one of my favorite illustrations, I've wanted to include some sort of jaunty humor in my work.

Anyway, in this illustration we have a Medieval Queen scolding her husband for commissioning stained glass windows of several anachronistic 1950's style pinups. I'm fairly pleased with the result and very relieved because this illustration wasn't very easy to convey verbally, so I had some trepidation about conveying it artistically but I'm happy everything worked out the way it did.

Her Majesty's Silent Brigade

2009-04-30T19:17:00.001-07:00

The third piece I did for my portfolio was a team of Victorian superheroes I created myself. I formatted them in what I hoped would be a book cover or some kind of promotional item. During the process of this illustration I ended up growing fond of these characters so I might do something with them in the future... Who knows? But let me introduce you to Her Majesty's Silent Brigade.

As long as there has been a king (or queen) of England, there has always been a Silent Brigade meant to protect England from any paranormal threat. Appointed by Queen Victoria, this band of individuals exist to protect in an age when magic is dying and science and industry are emerging at a rapid pace. The members are:
(top left)Professor Archibald. A former professor at Caimbridge, an experiment gone wrong has turned the always inquisitive Archibald into a being of pure energy.
(top right) Lucy was a pickpocket living on the streets of London with the ability to discharge energy from her hands at an alarmingly hot temperature. She was discovered by the Silent Brigade and has since reformed from her destitute life and has put her skills as a thief to good use in the field of espionage. Lucy's greatest task is resisting the pressure put on her by Lady Cecilia to become a lady.
(bottom left) Lady Cecilia is never far from her umbrella, for one never knows when there will be a change in the weather especially when you can control it like she can. Lady Cecilia often has trouble breaking free from the bonds of a high society lady in order to fulfill some of the Silent Brigade's more active roles.
(bottom right) Lord Hawksmoor is the second in command for the Silent Brigade. His wealth and family home provide a means of support and a base for the Brigade. Among his many charms and talents as a gentleman, he can boast the abilities of Telekinesis and Telepathy.
Mr. Braddock (middle) is a man of standard breeding with no special abilities. However, when an assassination attempt is made on Queen Victoria during a procession, it is his courage and quick thinking that Queen Victoria cites as she appoints him leader of the Silent Brigade. Just an ordinary man, Braddock is suddenly thrust into a world of the paranormal.
When the Shadow Monger terrorizes young ladies on the streets of London, it will take much more than special abilities to thwart the villain's master plan.

And that is my Silent Brigade. I hope you enjoyed the lengthy introduction. I look forward to seeing what happens with these individuals in the future and I hope you do too!

Then and Now

2009-04-17T09:43:00.000-07:00

We interrupt this busy schedule to present you with some art!
The Illustration Department is creating a Zine for our show in May where we all take a childhood drawing and redraw it.
I love to look at my older drawings and redo them anyway, so naturally I was super jazzed to do this.
The character depicted is Virgo, a superhero I invented based off of the Astrological sign. She could blend in with the stars in space and shoot energy blasts.
Alright, now it's back to work.

Progress

2009-02-27T10:32:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd update with what I've been working on. I've been doing a four page comic based off of the execution of Anne Boleyn for my portfolio. This is a preview shot from the last panel of the last page. That's the future Mary I holding the future Elizabeth I. I had quite a time trying to get the right pose and anatomy for this scene, owing to the fact that Elizabeth is about three when this would have taken place and I have little to no experience in drawing children. Anyway, I'm fairly pleased with the overall result.
I'm going to be leaving these pencils for a while to work on non-sequential illustrations for my portfolio, but I plan to revisit these in April for coloring and text so more on that as it develops.

Let the Wooing Begin

2009-02-14T08:06:00.001-08:00

The Illustration Department had a Valentines Day fundraiser where among other things we sold valentines that we drew. This is mine, I was trying to bring back good old fashioned romance. I hope everyone enjoys today whether you have someone special to be with or you're swinging single and proud to be so.

Dry Spell

2009-01-24T23:45:00.000-08:00

I will regale you with art soon enough, I've been going through an artistic dry spell but the semester has kicked off once again and I find myself (if not more or less forced) into creative thinking. Never the less, this blog will be returned to its former glory soon enough.

Saints Alive!

2008-12-27T11:12:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I was looking through James C. Christensen's art book "Men and Angels" and he has a whole section of beautiful depictions of saints. As a Catholic and an Art History enthusiast one tends to be surrounded by the saints and their miraculous feats so I decided to pay homage to them, if only with some doodles.
Up top is Saint Ursula, Saint George after his defeat of the dragon, and beside them is Saint Mary Magdalene.

Life.

2008-12-26T17:04:00.001-08:00

Everything I love about life is depicted in this painting.
"A Place of Her Own" by James C. Christensen

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T22:40:00.001-08:00

I would like to wish everyone out there a very Merry Christmas with greatest hopes that all of your Christmas wishes come true!

One of my Christmas wishes is depicted in the illustration above. Actually, the idea came from a message my friend wrote me in a Christmas card. Here is the Queen and I partaking in the delight of opening a Christmas Cracker! One day I hope for this to be a reality rather than a hasty doodle.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Artless Longing.

2008-12-16T21:21:00.001-08:00

Oh Sketchblog... How I long to lavish you with drawings of women in beautiful period costumes. Soon though.

A Hot Cup

2008-12-05T18:35:00.001-08:00

We interrupt this time of chaos and stress in Christmas prep and end of semester work for a sketch of my final project in Advertising. We have to design a tea label from a specific country so naturally I chose jolly olde England and made Anne Boleyn my poster girl. I won't divulge much else, lest it ruin the final (for those of you who don't already know what that final will look like). Seven more school days and then sweet, sweet freedom.

More Tudor Women

2008-12-01T20:11:00.001-08:00

So it’s been ten days and rather than enchant you with new art I thought I’d dazzle you with some old art. These sketches come from early May of this year and they depict Kathryn Howard and Jane Seymour, Henry VIII’s fifth and third wives respectively. Overall they lack any physical characteristics of the actual women they portrayed, Jane Seymour is extremely muscular here and her dress recalls medieval more than Tudor. However, I do like the poses which you’ll recognize (or not) from my Tudor Roses and Thorns picture.
When thinking of the poses that would depict Henry’s wives, I wanted to choose something obvious so the uninformed viewer could get an accurate impression of the women without knowing who they were and the informed viewer could recognize them right away. It was also my intention to depict these women in a way Henry might remember them. For Jane, I gave her a subservient curtsy, something humble to depict her loyalty to the King. For Kathryn I gave her a playful, over the shoulder glance back at Henry. If I ever make a final version it will be a little more salacious looking, but never-the-less it gets the point across.
When I redo these in a final composition, I will be paying attention to the portraiture of the time to get correct facial features and builds. But these served as diverting sketches while waiting for my portfolio review at the end of last semester.

The Fourth Wife

2008-11-20T21:22:00.000-08:00

I never draw enough of Anne of Cleves, despite my love for her.

This is Henry VIII's fourth wife. After the death of his beloved Jane Seymour, Henry's Reformist advisers sought to seek an alliance with a Protestant nation. The result was Cleves, where the Duke had two eligible daughters. Henry sent Hans Holbein the Younger, the most accurate portrait painter of the day to go and paint their true likenesses. When Hans Holbein returned, Henry was so enraptured with his portrait of Anne that he quickly made the match. However, when he finally saw her her was less than pleased. So less than pleased he couldn't even perform on the wedding night. Henry hated Anne, who wasn't very well educated and could barely speak English, the best endearment that he could attribute to her was "his Flanders Mare." Eventually Henry became bewitched by one of Anne's ladies in waiting, Kathryn Howard (Anne Boleyn's first cousin) and sought to divorce Anne citing that the marriage had never been consummated.
Anne, however, disagreed. That being said, Anne was never taught about marital duties and therefore thought the kisses she received from her husband was sex. Needless to say, the two divorced. Henry was very generous and gave Anne a handsome allowance as well as some properties and Anne accepted the title of "The King's Sister" and happily danced with Kathryn Howard at her wedding celebrations to Henry.

And there's your history lesson for the day.

Beauty Rare

2008-11-16T21:20:00.000-08:00

At long last some studies for my upcoming Snow White book project. These are some design ideas for the Wicked Queen. I know none of them are really consistent with each other but I was trying different stylizations to get different effects. Although she will only appear once, I wanted to cement the look of the Queen down. My favorite study of her is her shocked face on the far left. The way she'll appear in the book is in her moment of outrage when she finds out Snow White is the fairest in the land. I toyed with the idea of having her lose all of her beauty and composure when she gets angry, but in the end I decided to keep her fairly elegant although extremely outraged.

More Fables Love

2008-11-07T21:28:00.001-08:00

I was going to draw and post some Snow White studies for my upcoming project in honor of my finishing Snow by Tracy Lynn; instead I present you with yet another character from the Fables comics. This here is my favorite character Frau Totenkinder. For those of you who speak German you are not misreading the name. For those of you who don't, Totenkinder is a rough translation of "dead children." This lovely woman gets her greusome name for her deeds as the witch in Hansel and Gretel, but in Fables she can attribute her mystical mischeif in other tales such as:
The enchantress who turned the prince into a Beast from Beauty and the Beast.
The enchantress who originally turned the Frog Prince into a frog.
The person who created the Billy Goats Gruff.
The creator of the enchanted flute used by the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
The witch who trapped Rapunzel in a tower.

Despite these past misdeeds she is one of the good guys and is quite a force to reckon with. To get a nice background on her, I suggest buying the Fables OGN 1,001 Nights of Snowfall. Apart from having really great stories it features some fantastic art.

Oh, if only!

2008-11-05T19:15:00.001-08:00

So here's a little doodle I did this morning before having to enlighten young minds about Adobe Illustrator. This is a scene from Snow White, not my upcoming illustration project, just the story in general.
This scene is rarely depicted in versions of the story, but it actually lets us in on how Snow White became so beautiful. The story goes that a kind Queen was doing needle point by a window and she accidentally stuck herself with her needle. She let the blood drip on the snowy ebony windowsill and the effect made her exclaim, "Oh! If only I had a daughter with skin white as snow, lips red as blood and hair as black as this ebony frame!" And nine months later, bam. Snow White.
My reason for drawing the Queen was a. she doesn't get much play in the Snow White mythos and b. I wanted to compare her to character studies of the Wicked Queen who will come later. I always pictured Snow White's birth mother as kind and pretty but fairly plain which is quite the contrast to the decadent and beautiful step-mother that Snow White will later have.

The Good Prince

2008-11-01T21:30:00.000-07:00

I've been a fan of the Fables comic books written by Bill Willingham for a number of years. In my opinion it's the most well written, imaginative comics out there now. Anyway, I've decided to show my love for Fables with a sketch of Ambrose aka "Flycatcher" who was the Frog Prince. He's always drawn a little weird, sometimes he'll be handsome, some times he'll be really weird looking so I took a stab at him to see how I would draw him. I'd say he's about 50/50.

The Temptation

2008-10-29T19:02:00.000-07:00

For the past two years I came up with ingenious idea, like so many before me, of showing the presentation of the apple in Snow White using the apple as a reflection. Most of the time, it was Snow White, enchanted by the apple with the wicked smile of the Queen in the reflection but I switched it up a bit. This particular scene was really just in exercise in making the Disney Snow White outfit work in some time period however I will be starting a Snow White project in the near future so expect character sketches, thumbnails all sorts of crazy things. Who knows.

The Tudor Roses (and Thorns)

2008-10-28T20:31:00.000-07:00

So this drawing is from May of this year. Originally, this was going to be part of a series of three based on the relations of Henry VIII. The other two being his parents and siblings and this children. This of course, is Henry with his infamous six wives. Jane Seymour, Anne Boleyn, and Anne of Cleves in the foreground and Catherine Parr, Kathryn Howard, and Katherine of Aragon in the background with Henry angrily looking on. I doubt he'd remember any wife except for Jane Seymour perhaps with any fondness.
Anyway, I've abandoned this triptych of sorts for a more exciting project for my show but you might see this idea come to fruition in the near future.

And while we're on the subject of the Tudors, on Monday in my Art History of the British Isles class we covered Tudor Portraiture where I corrected my professor no less than four times... It got embarrassing for the both of us real quick.

2008-10-25T07:49:00.000-07:00

Last year I started a new tradition of painting pumpkins (since I'm useless at carving them) in a character of my choosing. Last year my love of Wicked, only heightened by the season inspired me to paint an Elphaba pumpkin and a Glinda pumpkin. This year I took a non-seasonal approach and painted my favorite historical figure, the second wife of Henry VIII Anne Boleyn!

I'm especially proud of the french hood, which took longer to make than it did for me to paint the pumpkin itself. I guess my tradition shouldn't so much be pumpkin painting as it should be desigining fun accessories for the pumpkin.

Shameful, but Necessary

2008-10-20T19:09:00.000-07:00

I've created this blog in order to post sketches/finished illustrations/general musings. For now this will act as a sort of professional page as well as an insight to what I've been drawing between my illustrations; I hope it thrills you.