OMG, IT'S DONE!!!

After almost 4 years, I finally finished my portrait of John B.! I've been working and reworking this drawing since October 2004. I was never satisfied with the direction and found myself changing backgrounds, changing approaches, changes techniques. But with my recent disillusion with my work, both personal and profession, I decided, dammit, I was going to DO some work, and finish pieces!

It really gelled a few weeks ago when I discovered some new brushes in Photoshop, and tonight, I decided to scrap the darker, moodier background that the photo reference seemed to suggest, and just go clean. It doesn't look as dramatic as the older image I posted last month,(with the better contrast of the olive background, which made the colors of the face pop), but this feels more right. Sure, it's a little Peter Max-y and 80s, but that's my style, I have to accept it. I've always eschewed backgrounds in favor of form and figure, and reducing the background to a single color so that the colors in the individual linework stood out, was the direction I needed.

Damn, I'm so excited to be finally done with this, now I can actually present it to John! I hope it's worth the wait.

note: by the by, since I posted three items yesterday, I'm totally claiming this drawing for Saturday's piece. It was finished after midnight, after all - I mean, check the signing date!

Modelled, part 2

Modelled

Sometimes to get past drawing blocks, I use other parts of my psyche to get me revved up. In the past I've used sexuality to inspire me. I can also use social regulation to get new work done. In that context, a muse can be the social reason I'll want to get a new piece finished, so I can show them and hopefully, impress them. I wasn't born with abilities that gain accolades with the immediacy that performing arts like dance or music do, but there's definitely something to be said for the ego wanting to be stroked. Even if it's as simple as someone saying they like their portrait. What part of that is just a plea for validation versus a sincere contribution to your ouevre is debatable. I think this might be the former.

Lackadaisical

As both an illustrator and a designer, I'm able to do two totally different things - I can plan and draw images as an artist/illustrator, but I can also design things and solve visual problems, whether graphic/web design or otherwise. What I think is less apparent is that this flexes creative energy in two totally different ways, but that if I'm doing one thing specifically, I may not be doing the other (although they can definitely happen simultaneously in a project).

I've been drawing a lot more, and I've been using this site as impetus specifically to keep me drawing, but I've been having a block lately, design-wise. I haven't been able to focus properly on design projects because of my work sitch. I think things came to a head Wedneday and I broke through the block specifically because I was so tired of being uninspired by work. But what that means is, if I suddenly can pour creative energy into design work, then there might not be enough left over to be inspired to draw. I draw creative energy from one well, and need to focus on flexing one part of me or the other, otherwise both things might suffer. Which is just a long-winded way of saying the illustration part suffered when I drew this, as a result of my wanting to design more than I wanted to draw.

One of those days

It was... Went to see my doctor about my wounds and got some results that left me feeling worse the rest of the day. Here's hoping tomorrow is better.

Nebula

Well, here it is, for better or worse, my reinterpretation of Aljira's 'Golden Age' Galaxy Girl character design, done up for present day. It looks like a character DC comics would do, what with the primary colored costume, but there's not too much I can do about the scheme at this point. I do like the hair/galaxy manifestation.... but damn, I really didn't want to have a head-dress. It's soooo dated looking, methinks. I much prefer the Cyanide...

Aljira's Galaxy Girl, pt. 2

Here was yesterday's sketch, as I tried to develop the concept further. It was looking way too 90s (oh, the armored shoulders), way too DC-looking, and I didn't like the direction at all. Knew it would be a bitch...

Aljira's Galaxy Girl

An online acquaintance, Aljira, asked me to redesign his entry, "Galaxy Girl," like I did for Cyanide. I didn't want to at first but thought I'd give it a try. I realized why I didn't want to - keeping the intrinsic elements of the character's look and updating it were going to be difficult without changing it entirely... this was a rough draft with elements I really didn't like, save for the hair....

Backlog, pt.1

I didn't post because I wasn't pleased with the drawing anyhow but here's a sketch for April 4.

Cyanide

I decided to do a Play Along for the 5th Challenge of CBRunway, and I chose a character by an online acquaintance, Hi-Fi, whose character Madamoiselle Cyanide was done as a 40s Femme Fatale. The challenge was to do a modern re-imagination of the 'Golden Age' character from the previous challenge, which Cyanide was a part of. So I took elements I liked from the original and updated them, and made her Madame Cyanide instead... so she got a little older. Heh.

Not There

My face is so swollen and I'm so distracted by all my accident symptoms that I can barely draw.

Slammed

Earlier tonight I was beginning to exercise at the gym and used a pair of Therabands (sp?), not unlike the ones I did before for the very same back exercise Iused to do with my former trainer. They snapped, and slammed into my face, and within a minute my cheek and temple started swelling to the size of embedded golf balls, blood everywhere. I spend three hours at the ER. And I look like Quasimodo.

Weird, I took a pic of my face and tried to draw from it, and I look so much like my mother when she died.

That's Better

Bunny just needed to be fleshed out a bit.

Quirk

I can't seem to do those naively quirky style drawings of animals wearing clothing. It just comes across as too insincere for me... and rightfully so, since I'm just aping a style.

Ryan S.

I found myself missing Ryan, a friend I haven't seen in a while. So I decided to work some more on his portrait, which isn't as relevant anymore because he's looking a ton better nowadays - all chiseled features and hair. And muscles. And abs. Lots and lots of abs.

I'm not quite sure what the style is that I'm going for with this drawing. I kinda wanted to clean it up, but everytime I do, I make sure to mess it up again. I guess it needs to be sketchy. Not done yet... or is it?

Adjusted

This one's been adjusted and is a little better. I like his languid hair, but that's about it.

Quickie

I had no desire to draw (yet again) the other night because I was busy watching Wonderfalls DVDs (love that show). This was a perfunctory (and awful) quickie. The head is completely in the wrong place relative to the torso...

Spyre

"Y?" Because it's a little different. She's definitely working a Starlight Express vibe.
I did this as a possible character for CBRunway, based on New York skyscrapers. But I'm not quite sure what she does...

Spire

"Redwood" has now become "Spire". I just wanted to maintain the elongated theme, but her outfit is getting very Starlight Express-y. Not that that's a bad thing.

Shleep

I got no sleep whatsoever last night, for reasons I can't fathom. I'm turning in early tonight.

Spiked

This was an attempt at drawing a face for 'Redwood' but I'm not sure I like the look - I want her to look more surreal, less urban. Guess I'll have to redo it.

Redwood

"Redwood, as in the tree. That's the codename I've given this drawing - it's loosely based on a magazine fashion editorial featuring Liya Kabede because I liked how elongated she looked in that spread, but this is even more extremely exaggerated. I wanted her to like a freakish walking stick of a woman. I may have to tone it down. Obviously I haven't finished it either. :)

Offline

I've been distracted and hard-pressed to do any drawings. I sketched something perfectly awful on a sheet of paper a couple of nights ago and left it at that - it was a possible pose for a model based on am image I saw. I didn't really feel like sketching, and look, you can see how enthused I was once I upload it.

Fluid

If you go through my blog there are examples throughout of my love for fluid poses, showing bodies with a lot of weird, off-kilter motion. I think that drawings and photography nowadays have too many of the same poses and forms, and I'm trying to go a little beyond that. This here's a study for one of my ideas that I'm getting someone to model for me, so I can get the musculature right. Not sure it would look like how I drew it, but it should be fun trying to get there...! ;-)

Rajesh Pratap Singh

A fashion message board I frequent had a thread on a New Delhi-based fashion designer by the name of Rajesh Pratap Singh. His first FW collection recently shown in Paris was featured on that thread, and I must say, I was quite impressed with his pieces, at least in that collection. I was particularly take by a draped leather cowl/hood jacket, which I decided to sketch here. You know me and leather...!

Bored and Gray

John B., 2008.1

Sometimes it's a good thing I delay on finishing drawings. I have not found a proper way to finish this piece, and tonight I decided to experiment with digital brushes that I didn't have at my disposal 3 years ago. The result is very much in line with what I wanted to do with this piece, but didn't know how. Sometimes, you just have to experiment. Thank goodness digital media allows you to go back into a file even much later... It's not done yet, but definitely getting there.

Squall

Fashion's rediscovered the bouffant once again, manifesting this time around as enormous proto-60s squalls of hair (to borrow a phrase from an article by David Downton), and I'm kinda loving it. Roisin Murphy sports some in her You Know Me Better video. I was channeling her eccentric look and her square-faced bone structure... so 80s and so now....

Tired

I've been in a weird funk all week. It's not depression deep, but I can't seem to shake a lingering sadness. It's not overpowering, but it's making me want to hide away in my apartment. Ironically, I've been out nearly every single night this past week having dinners with friends, and not a trace of these blues affecting me when I'm with people, save when I'm back by myself.

Seer, pt.2

Changed the position a bit and added some effects. Not the most finished piece, but I think it's rendered okay...

Seer, pt.1

My dates are all wonky. This is my drawing for Friday, but since it was so unfinished I decided I would post it o Saturday along with a more rendered version. It's a character designed by an online Pinoy acquaintance or mine called Ajira. I liked his design in the first CBRunway challenge and thought I'd render it.

Blonde

I got Roisin Murphy's new Overpowered CD today, and I was enamored of her wave...

Ick

This is the kind of dreck you get when you're tired, a bit drunk, and trying to sketch while watching Top Chef way too late at night...

Bunny Trauma, part 2

Bunny Trauma

I found a series of drawings I had done over a year ago that were sort of the precursors for my Small Horrors drawings of a month or so back. Bunny Trauma was just a tad darker, and so... bunny. I decided to redo them. Here's the beginning of the painted version, and here are the original ones, below:

Form Study

I've met with a new model who has a great look, but who I'm not sure how to draw him. I took some photos and am thinking fo the best way to use his features. This is one of the studies.

Augur

CBR, the comics message board I sometimes post in, has their annual CBRunway contest, and the first challenge is based on your self. I didn't design anything new, but since it's supposed to be based on me, I decided to use my actual clothing: every piece on this drawing is an actual piece I own and have worn this winter. Very super-hero already, so I said why not?

Bedding

I was watching videos on my Mac and just decided to doodle on a Crate & Barrel catalog that was lying around.

Working

Or at least trying to. A client threw me for a loop when he introduced a totally random element into a layout I've had the worst time designing. So I can barely draw, yet I really want to delay working, because I have no idea how to really attack this piece now...

Project Runway

I was inspired by tonight's Project Runway finale, and the super-chic collection by 21 year old wunderkind Cristian Siriano. Sure, one can argue that the pieces had influences from other designers, but whose didn't? With his age (or lack thereof) plus the extreme attention to detail on a level far from the rest of the oeuvre that you see in the US, he totally deserves to win the top prize in my book.

Race

I started drawing a hairline and it looked a lot like Race Bannon, the cartoon character from Jonny Quest that I had a crush on when I was a kid. He had that white haired Peter Graves thing going on. I wonder if that's why I find silver-haired guys so attractive?

3 Minute Bunnyfeesh

Red Wedge

I had a very 80s image in my mind, very much based on an old Antonio Lopez drawing of a shoe. Even the linework pays homage to that. I like the lines that aren't part of the final drawing left in like they were. It's less neat but seems much more.... I dunno... sincere.

White Queen, 2008.2

So I decided to do a bit of Prouenza Schouler (big ruffly top) but open and abbreviated (slutty) with tailored slacks a la Balenciaga. I was going to do all Prouenza with a slouchy pant, but it just didn't seem super-hero-y enough. She still needs to look slutty, just high-end slutty.

White Queen, 2008.1

I wanted to do another fashion sketch for CBR, showing what fashions comicbook characters would wear in civilian life. The White Queen, Emma Frost, tends to be cast as someone who wears high fashion designer labels, but always in white, and with a slutty edge. Lately they've had her be more slutty than stylish, so I thought I'd try something really high end. This is the initial sketch.