Doodle

I drew really late tonight. I didn't even want to. I thought, oh, I'll throw something up just to have something. And I let go. I just started doodling, and this face took shape. I like it. He looks like he could be someone real, someone I didn't just dream up, like a model maybe. And I was surprised how easy it was just to keep on sketching, even if only for a few minutes.

This is why I'm doing this blog. For moments like this.

Self Portrait

Feeling sick today, might be a cold or the flu. Read the latest issue of L'Officiel Homme and saw an article on portraits, and realized I haven't done a self-portrait in a while. I used my webcam to copy myself, and it's not the most flattering shot, but hey, it's as real as I see it.

Piggy

I went to a neighbor's apartment to preview their work, and I ended up drinking way too much red wine. So have a British Pig.

Are you sick of Marvel Girl yet?

Seems like all I'm drawing lately are bits and pieces of this Marvel Girl drawing. I actually drew several variations on the costume, and the shag drawing I did yesterday was actually sketched the day before but colored in a bit today. Anyhow, here's a pencil sketch I did while waiting for my computer programs to boot up...

Shag

I've been redesigning Marvel Girl's outfit, but I also realized her hair needed to be updated. I keep going back to a shag instead of the horrible bob they've had her in recently, but I'm trying desperately not to have her end up looking like Lisa Rinna >shudder!<. I'll upload an image later.

edit: I played with it a bit more. I guess i like it now. I'm keeping it a bit messy because it's supposed to look dynamic in a comic book, plus I'm thinking I'll still add some flame effects to the hair for her power signature.

Porcelain

Saw an article about Noshitomo Nara's work, and I liked the heads he had cast in porcelain. These are kind of a mix between Nara and Mark Ryden's faces. The end result is just... freaky. But I like it. I think it should be part of a bigger composition...

Marvel

I worked on my Marvel Girl drawing a bit today, but really didn't do anything I think is worth posting. Just this form for now.

Jam

I decided to join one of the drawing jams on CBR again, just for the heck of it. I go in and out of that site, but I used to frequent it a lot. This is the beginnings of a Marvel Girl sketch I'm doing for it. Don't really know what to do with it just yet. Although I started out very unhappy with the face, once I colored it in a bit as a study I realized that the features I drew in 'pencil' (actually, a fine digital airbrush) actually worked when filled in. Hunh. Shows you what I know. It's always a learning curve. I like the lips. I attempted something different, and these kinda work for me... there's a lot of features that aren't symmetrical, so I'll have to go in and correct those later...

Dollface

This is a continuation of yesterday's drawing. I tried to refine the face a bit more to resemble the recent trend in 'doll-like' fashion models like Jessica Stam. I like how the face developed on its own with the idea, as opposed to me copying a picture. It's still a rough sketch, but I like the quirkiness of the features, down to her lazy eye. And I realize that it still looks like my old drawings from over ten years ago, just with a bit more knowledge of facial structure... not much more, but definitely enough to make me feel like I've made some progress in the past few years.

50s Slouch

I was on the treadmill watching music videos on the tv, and Madonna got into this pose. I loved it, but then as I was drawing it, I remembered it was a 'trend' pose last year - Rootstein even came out with mannequins doing it. I started out drawing with no set woman in mind, and it kinda turned into Linda Evangelista, when I wanted someone more current looking. So I turned it into Sasha, or at least what I think looks like Sasha or Jessica Stam. I like this unfinished version - it's a little Gruau. Maybe I'll clean up the linework and do it high rez later.

Swimmers

Yesterday's sketch got me me into practicing the male form more. I've definitely changed my ideal from a more muscular frame to someone much more defined and leaner... with a bigger butt. I'm gonna have to look at a reference and see if I got the musculature right, because I can never remember everything exactly...

Twink

I've had a reference I downloaded from the net ages ago, of some barbarian type character drawn in a very French, Mobius-esque style. Well, the shading in this drawing was nice, as was the hyper-lean musculature. I just drew some really young-looking face originally (hence the title), trying to keep him a little innocent and with someone odd features, and I thought of the young guys at my gym who have these incredibly fit bodies. This was a quick sketch, and definitely needs tweaking.

Caramba!

I've been designing a high-end watch website all day and felt the need for something completely crude. This thing came to mind.

Back in 3rd year high school I had created graphic-designed, color-coded notebooks for each and every one of my subjects for the school year (so gay, right?), with round-edged fields of cut-out colored felt on the white, high gloss paper covers (matte against gloss!), and I decorated each with a color-coded sketch of a made-up critter, each with its own original description and origin. These critters were part of my menagerie for what was supposed to be my comic strip, Critter City. Anyhow, for Chemistry I had chosen the color purple, and came up with these Carambas, mutated bedbugs that had been discovered by a cleaning lady in an old mattress, named for what she exclaimed upon discovering a whole nest of them. I think they were so dopey looking because they had acquired a taste for tequila and were constantly drunk.

Pixie

I really liked the quick face I made for my sketch a couple of days ago, so I wondered if adding more lines would change it much. I like the original, minimal linework, but I do like the fact that adding details didn't really change it much.

Even The Bunny Knows It's Bad

I'm killing time. I wanted to just keep drawing without correcting any lines. Well, there's a reason you need to erase certain things. But I kept them all in, and added some more, hoping to camouflage the bad. Enh, it's a doodle.

I like the bunny though.

Leap

I'm drawing women more and more, just for the heck of it. I can't believe it. After mom died, I stopped drawing women and fashion as much as I used to, and it wasn't until recently that I realized I wasn't sketching them much at all. I used to just draw female forms by default, trying to see what new ways of rendering faces and positions I could muster up - the result of 17 years of objective Playboy reading (those Playmate poses aren't natural!). Guess I'm coming out of my funk a bit...

This one reminds me of the old days when I used to contort women's bodies into extreme poses, still trying to keep a fun line...

Blue Sun

Some days more than others, I miss my mom.

Sold

Well, I just got a call from the gallery that my entire series of Dirty Little Drawings sold nearly twice over. I had done only artist proofs for the exhibit, because I hadn't settled on a final format, and apparently 5 out of the 8 exhibited pieces were sold after 4 days, and the curator called me today to tell me that someone wanted to purchase prints of the entire run as a donation to the gallery. Cool! That'll be more pieces of mine in their permanent collection. I wish I had done more, but I suppose I'll just keep making more later... it's not like I don't like the subject matter! ;-)

Fashion Weak

I used to draw fashion illustrations so effortlessly, but I'm outta practice. I need to try and find those strokes again... the quick, sweeping slashes of ink or watercolor that define a pose and a feeling in one strong line. I pulled out a brush tip sharpie and tried to do a variation on a Prouenza Schouler FW07 outfit which I particularly liked from the recently concluded NY Fashion Week (loved the low-rise, big, flowy, pleated pants with the sheer, detailed top, but I added the shrug and gloves myself based on what seems to be an edge trend this season). But this isn't what I would call best effort. Well, at least there's an effort.

And yes, I'm kinda obsessed with bangs. They're easy to do when you wanna just bang out a drawing... erm, no pun intended. So this is officially today's drawing. There, I'm all caught up.

The 80s Hair Again

I've had this postcard from a cashmere company laying around on my dining table, and I totally wanted to do an Antonio-style profile sketch based on the model (he had that hair and layers of scarves wrapped around his neck like Antonio used to draw). I normally try to draw completely from my imagination, but I decided to pull the postcard after I'd started the sketch because every so often, it's good to base a drawing on real models, because you can see how the features can vary beyond your typical aesthetic. Interestingly enough, my original sketch wasn't that far off from the model's own profile, save for a few tweaks here and there for details and proportions.

I had completely intended to do this yesterday, but in the rush of things I was doing (plus the fact that I've been recuperating from feeling ill for various reasons), I completely forgot. So this is a make-up drawing. I kinda like it. Photoshop doesn't give me the same kind of control natural watercolors do, but I like the chunky effect.

Totally screwed up

Completely forgot to draw something yesterday. Ah well, it happens. Guess I'll just have to make up for it today.

Fanning The Flames

Thought I'd adjust the Phoenix sketch a bit more, but I've been feeling sick today (must be a combo emotional stress AND this extreme winter we're having) so I just cleaned up the black and white layer. Thank goodness for saved versions!

Go With The Flou

It's fashion week. I used to do fashion illustration a lot, and when I went to FIT, my strokes were very confident. It's not as easy in Photoshop - you have to tinker with the settings to get a natural brushlike feel. Maybe I should have tried this in painter.

Phoenix

I was angry today. Angry with myself, for unloading my personal baggage on a new friend - much to his horror - like some exploding airport carousel catapulting errant Louis Vuittons all over the place. Man, I need to learn to forbear. But the anger is motivating me to do things about my life and recent events, and to hopefully get them right.

When I was younger, I was obsessed with the X-men character Phoenix, and her evil incarnation Dark Phoenix. I used to draw her endlessly. I thought that, with what I was going through, she would make a good subject to let off some steam: draw something I haven't drawn in a looong while, do something angry and powerful to manifest my mood, and do something that I could maybe post on the comic book message boards that I used to frequent. Plus, you know, Phoenix: rebirth and all that.

But I found out something interesting. I drew her exactly the way I used to, with all the same strokes and lines, the same shadows and expressions, but it wasn't working. The old formulas didn't work, the lines weren't right. Everything was as I used to do it, but it wasn't how I wanted to draw anymore. I eventually changed things around a bit and am making it more to my liking. In any case, I left the sketch somewhat raw and unfinished.

Kinda sounds like my life.

Interlude

You know what? I'm done with being a victim of myself. That's gotta change. I'm over it.

On to prettier things.


Yes, I know this is all bizarre and non-sequitur-ish, but I had to write it. Those who know, will know.

And those who don't, will see.

Wish me luck.

Rough

It's been a rough night.



I wish I could look at myself and feel what others see.



I wish I were stronger. More whole.



I'm only human. Gotta remember that. Gotta work on it.

Ruffles

Y'know, I still haven't figured out what to do about finishing this flowergirl. I cleaned up her face a bit and added some ruffles. Can you tell?

Reworked

I was chatting with an online acquaintance about putting in backgrounds and I told him that I was so influenced by Robert Longo that I preferred plain white backgrounds. But just to try it, I decided to pop another blue into the background of an existing drawing, just for shits and giggles.

I can't believe I've been drawing so much in the year so far. It feels good to be doing so. I aim to keep it up.

edit: I told someone about how his boyfriend's drawings affected how I made the hair on this one, but his first impression was that she looked like a tranny. Well, harrumph I say. So I softened up her jawline a bit, which I knew ahead of time looked a little square. I guess that's another thing I tend to do - very square jaws. I used to be obsessed with them in the 80s...

Slouch

I grew up loving the 50s-style pose where an elegant slouch contrasted an upturned jaw and craned neck creating an S curve. The hairstyle came via an image I saw in my head while at the gym (where I seem to imagine a lot of things). It's very shampoo commercial, isn't it? It was supposed to be an illustration to accompany the clutch I drew yesterday, but I didn't have the time to finish it in time.

Work

So I'm crazed designing webpages for a new client, but I also got some 'homework' from Rafe to do a rushed sketch to send to Japan. I'm enclosing a crop of it here, since it's really the only thing I drew today. It's funny, but if I look at all the sketches I've done in the past week or so, it seems like my style mutates so much depending on the subject matter. I suppose that can be a good thing, because it's not like I don't have my own style. I apparently have several.

Detail

I wasn't sure about the left hand so I tinkered with it further. I'm not completely satisfied with it. I wanted a degree of awkwardness, but in a realistic way. I added some draping to the shirt. Not much time with all my work today, but I did do something.