I've always found something relaxing about painting robots in my sketchbooks. Perhaps it's the simplicity of shapes that somehow yield a character almost out of thin air, or maybe the freedom of designing something that doesn't have to necessarily work in reality but lives fully in the realm of my imagination. I can always just sit down at my drafting table and hammer one of these guys out in a few hours without having to do any preliminary work. I start with a severely limited palette of black, white (gesso), and a mixture of burnt sienna and raw umber. I use a few little techniques for texture I learned from Kazu Sano throughout the process, but, really, I'm just experimenting with flat shapes and seeing where that takes me. Obviously I add more color to the palette but there's a lot to be said for keeping everything simple almost until the end.
I'm not going for photorealism or anything like that. I just use my 'bots as a way to escape and do something that doesn't take much thought. On that note, relax, turn off the screen every once in a while, and create something you can touch.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5pOBiagaRGdYbxHyGd7sNjNdDTkCyp7ZPf-DMs3GbfoxTzz1GAuADEkJc8dEdvhB3y0MnbIhfRiBVcjl0SK1EOeBqsJ70gm-au04KFujD6DMgxys5G9hJ90ikRzpZT7-cJvbo/s1600/IMG_5418.JPG) |
The Instagram version of the finish. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGzkJmEw6lTOWkMcuDL-Ug_mPxkSKXEfZX_-lJ1y2toZxeMqX5Ej2v79_nzZK_sCT76XfOoqp1IplKl-IDsweF1VdnXfwDfHmP0zG9Cv7gLy9twcytZP5CxA_usCJFRxPlhzCf/s1600/IMG_5414.JPG) |
It all starts with a shape and some value. At this point I have a pretty good idea of where I want the image to go. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC1rUiAApOAHuxEumyvHVPMeNVM0q2cnYJpjErJhE4vLWCJ86HVyg8MeVx5WvIc_f6JtS4erdAClncnW4LcP6PW0xq2qli_iMLG0_lbhDdpuaurYsAUPaBXnJVMSXw2ALjnVic/s1600/IMG_5416.JPG) |
There's something nice about the quality of this phase. I could have stopped here and I'm sure I would have been happy with it. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6xYQPTmaKmYqtyX1uefZ1d25kchtl_MoHwFfHvBZCDI93aL1H7DERLRR7lW1LpWSY9bhi-56zL112S2DtR4FeZoNNsY7wF0EdSsW7obd1wZnX7_bVGObIVHV9pRUzGkoPWYcW/s1600/IMG_5417.JPG) |
Some unexpected results that I can use later on came from this final. It's more about the experimentation than the end sometimes. |
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