Foliage

I'm just home from al ong dinner out with an old friend, so after several glasses of wine and a Sauterne, I can barely come up with a new drawing. So I'm adding foliage and a snail to my froggy sketch from the other night. Although, wouldn't the frog eat the snail if this were a real life scene? Hmm, maybe that's another drawing... okay, also, no...

Gay Ol' Time

I introduced a new friend to some of my friends at the John Varvatos party at the store this evening, but also to the Queer Drawing Salon I sometimes attend. I wasn't really all that eager to go tonight, but I was happy to accompany Mark. The model had an amazing body and a great personality, but after one snaffu with a foreshortened hand, I kinda lost the plot and coasted for the last several poses. This is the first set of drawings I did, which I normally do as vignettes in a composited page.

note: finally found my camera so now I can upload the drawings

Landscaping

Thought I'd add a bit to the background of this froggie and see where it went...

Nature Trip

There's a whole movement in decorative art to do all sorts of fauna as themes for illustrations that harken back to older, non-computer-aided styles. I often wondered if I could do any pieces like that. Yesterday's piece was one, and here's another. I only took a few minutes to do it - not really that keen on it. This frog is totally from my head - I don't even know if it's anatomically correct.

Caged

There are some days that I feel inexplicably trapped by things I don't even know are there. Mondays are usually a good reason for that, with all its beginning-of-the-week drama. But even when the day is going really well, a strange moment or a sad song can just drive me to tears. And I know it's something deeper, but I don't know what it is, because the song itself is just a vehicle, not the reason. I know I'm still dealing with grief issues, but I can't find the reasons for these moments. They're just there. Or maybe I don't know what I'm looking for. Is this depression? It doesn't seem like, but these moments have been around a lot lately. It's all so strange.

Fishy

This is one of my telephone drawings: I just keep doodling away - usually leather fantasy clothing accoutrements - while blabbing away on the phone. There's usually no intended finished piece - just whatever happens, happens.

Hmm, her lips are too small for my liking...

Midnight Blue

I was inspired by a friend Marco's enthusiasm for fashion illustration, an energy I'm afraid I lost in my older age. I still love drawing, but I think I love creating for creating's sake, and no longer for the sake of making pieces. Every step is an end in itself - sketch, doodle or opus.

Anyhow, Marco is so in step with the very collage-y work that is currently in vogue, and I had an idea that I would try and do a piece like that. But I found myself disliking the face I drew, thinking it was too passé, so I just kept sketching with no layout in mind. But I wasn't too pleased with it. She became more interesting when I brought her into Photoshop to do her color though. I dunno.

White Tie, White Shoes

On my way out of the office this afternoon I ran into a young actor named PJ who I saw at the "Curtains" premiere last night. We recognized each other from the event. He was the lone (other) guy with a fashion forward outfit at the whole event, wearing a Dior cropped jacket, white leather tie, slim black pants and white Prada leather shoes. Made me wish I was wearing more than my short Lad suit and some of my usual fashion-forward looks, but my date is more conventional/theatre than fashion so I was toning down for the occasion. I mean, I did okay, but I could have amped it up so much...

I drew something last night

But didn't post it immediately. Had a date.

I went out to a Broadway premiere with one of the show's stars' agent, and he was the perfect gentleman and so affectionate throughout the evening. It was a nice, conventional date: a show, dinner, drinks at a party at Tavern On The Green, all dressed up in suits (well, it was a theatre crowd, so I toned things down a bit - me in my Japanese cropped Lad Musician suit, no leather tie, plain white shirt, silver belt and patent leather pointy shoes). We got a bit sloshed, so I really didn't have the time nor wherewithal to do a full drawing. So I did this. But I so rarely have A Date. Hell, I was a corsage away from being a high school girl. The conventional nature of it all was kinda thrilling.

Handy

I wanted to draw Top Design judge Kelly Wearstler tonight because she's such a fashion character (proto- religious icon waved hair and enormous poufed sleeve blouse - love her!) but didn't think I would have the energy to follow through. So I just drew what was on hand - literally. It looks wrong to me somehow, but this is just what I put out in front of me. Granted, it's hard to draw with one hand doing the modelling, but maybe it will look better after I don't look at it for a while.

Back

What a crap sketch.

Ghost To Show You

This was an absolute quickie. I'm still kind of in the dumps, and it's showing in my work. Ah well, it's gotta improve soon.

Gad, I'm such an emotional wreck, aren't I? I keep on having these weird moodswings. I wonder if I'm manic depressive?

Of course, it could be all that death I went through...

Shoulder

Decided to riff on the shoulder idea from the earlier drawing. Would it be too crazy to extend it to the collar? Of course it can't be too deep to meet up to a normal straight collar, so I tried it with a small, offset version that questionably would have a notched nehru-style opening. Hunh. I wonder if that works? I like the idea of doing the button down detail set in the collar itself, to prevent the whole construct from flapping open...

I wonder if Perry Ellis has an exclusive on that shoulder sleeve pleat detail? It resolves the "efauxlet" design nicely.

Missed another day

Dammit. I'm really socializing too much, to the detriment of my work. I'll have to double up today then.

I used to design menswear back in Manila, but that was a lifetime ago. It's been over 20 years, and while I shop a lot and know what I like, it seems to be a different part of my brain that designs versus the part that knows what I want to wear.

I love a white shirt with a twist, and I'm still thinking about how to resolve the gathered waist-back idea I had a few posts ago. A menswear designer friend at the gym suggested I add tabs to resolve the back detail, and once I put that in, it was tab and button details all over the place. I suppose in white these will just be interesting but inconspicuous until inspected, but in a drawing it just looks to overdone. Is it just me? I know I love a detailed pattern, but maybe I'm looking at this as a drawing? (and thinking, is this too banana rep? That's so not me. I could barely make the guy look hip enough). Guess this is where extended - and recent - experience would be important.

I love the buttoned-down shoulder pleat detail. It's like an epaulet but not.

Fishything

It was a busy day. All I had time for was...erm... this fishything.

Continuation

Life has been difficult for me lately. I've had great days, and I've had terrible, terrible days like last night until today completely blindside me. This rollercoaster is... not easy.

I can't get past things as easily as I'd like. But to be fair, I'm fitting in a lot of progress in a really short span of time. It's a weird transition time for me, and it's not always easy. Now I know what the psychic meant when she told me I would have a hard winter. So much of what she said would come true, has - starting with my father's death. But I have hope things will sort themselves out in the long run.

I can't focus enough to work well, so this drawing is just one on automatic. It's a continuation of yesterday's drawing, like tody is just a continuation of last night. The end result is still in question.

Wrecked

Had a bad night. Started this drawing last night then decided to go out, but the evening went from bad to worse. So I'm posting at nearly 4 in the morning Thursday. I need to end this day.

Bountiful

Zenaida is a character I created back in 1990 or so, because I saw her in my mind as a reaction to the Venus of Willendorf. I call her my Venus of The Rice. She's an unabashedly voluptuous character I've drawn in charcoal, in pen and ink drawings, fired on plates and cups, and even animated. She just seems so happy to have such enormous.... nipples.

Nosey

She reminds me a bit of Tracey Thorn.

Shirt

This is such a bad drawing. I was looking in a store and saw a guy wearing a white shirt, and I thought he was wearing something like this, but he wasn't, I just imagined it. I thought it would be a cool idea to have a shirt made with an elastic waist only on the back, but I will probably never get it done. So I decided just to sketch it and post it here as a way of owning the idea.

Trench

Just a quick fashion sketch. It's very old school. It looks like a bad fake Danilo Franco! haha!

Lip Service

I liked Catherine McNeil's lips. I wanted to do a closeup.

So 80s

I had a vague idea what I wanted to do with yesterday's quick sketch, but I didn't want to work too hard. Essentially I just played. I experimented a lot with Photoshop's brushes, tools I seldom ever used before. The look is very goache but much flatter. I think it's an interesting experiment, although the look of the woman is very Gianfranco Ferré 1983, which may not necessarily be a good thing! Haha!

Pleats

I saw this in my head and made a really quick sketch. In the end, it's not about what she's wearing for me, but the expression that sorta came up after I drew her right eye and her mouth. I have some ideas where to take this drawing but I'm too lazy right now...

Blue Nude

I loved the drawing I did yesterday, and the pose remained in my mind today. I didn't have the energy to actually create a brand new piece, so I just took yesterday's drawing as a base idea for a quick sketch of just a few minutes, maybe five or so.

Modelled

I decided to try and draw from a picture this time, just because I was tired of drawing from my head and trying to perfect it. I didn't care about maintaining a likeness (here, of Next Big Thing (?), Aussie model Catherine McNeil) so much as getting the feeling and trying to render features in ways I never normally would ... and hopefully eventually incorporate it into my repertoire of faces. Interestingly enough, I found myself staying really loose, and all in all this drawing took less than 30 minutes (I started around 11:30 and finished just after midnight). Comic book aficionados may spot an Adam Kubert/Marc Silvestri kind of sketchiness to it (it's a very Silvestri face, actually).

Finally!

After going through so many coloring and seam variations, I realize that the design I dreamed up wasn't going to cut it as a comic book costume. So I decided to make it more graphic. If you don't know who the original Marvel Girl was, one of her most popular costumes involved a green belted mini-skirt with a red buckled belt. Rachel is her future daughter from an alternate timeline (don't ask). So I had to incorporate a mini, but the previous designs were looking too go-go dancer, so in came the graphic black lines and out went the leathery green coloring and seamwork.

I like the boots. They're actually open heels, and Rachel is just wearing red stockings. When seen from behind, the black outlines form an X (X-men, natch), and they actually also function like a slingback. Hey, the outfit was gonna be really boring from behind - had to do something!

Costume: colored

Well, I've been working on the CBR submission, and after posting an earlier version, I was so unhappy with how her face looked reduced that I changed the structure of it so it would render better when resized. The harder, longer face has been replaced with softer expression that I think works better at a smaller size. The newer version is above, the original below. See if you can see what I mean.


Still have to clean up the linework, and perhaps change that uninspired belt buckle, but I think it's almost there. Maybe a more original-looking aura too...

Costume

I spent a lot of time refining the Marvel Girl costume, but I'm not sure I want to post it tonight. Maybe I'll add it on later when I've got it all colored - I'm still not done with it and loathe to post it until it is. In any case, I saved a version as it was finished tonight, and maybe the colored version will go up simultaneously with it tomorrow...

edit: well, here is the 'pencilled' version.

Mark

One of the things I'm known for at the Queer Man's workshop I occasionally attend is the fact that I tend to draw faces more than anything. Hell, even looking at this blog you can tell I like faces. So it was with a weird sense of recognition that I drew this man tonight. I was watching him throughout the evening, thinking it might be someone I was acquainted with from over a decade ago. Granted, he looks much older now (it has been at least 10 years) but he still had the great smile he did from way back when, on the occasion that he would break one out. I finally got a chance to ask him and he confirmed it outright. Funny. Nice to see you again, Mark. All of you. ;-p

Another Face Study