S Line

My friend Wes gave me a CD of Roisin Murphy (formerly of Moloko) and I was so inspired by the music I wanted to make something that flowed visually the way I felt the music did. An extreme fashion pose came into being, heavy on S curves and awkwardly edgy (hopefully) . I like the rougher edgy feel for this piece. For me, it's like a visual dance.

W3

Working on Wiggy again, as the deadline is nigh. Subtle changes...

Hair Do

A warm acquaintance of mine, Tom, who works at a hair salon, lives in my neighborhood, and has been working some really great hair lately. I ran into him several times over the past week and each time he was looking great (and we had similar hairstyles, although my texture changes my look quite a bit), and I was so taken with his anime hair tonight I wanted to do a sketch of it. As a drawing it doesn't look that radical, but in real life, walking the streets of Chelsea? Definitely notable. Tom doesn't actually look like my sketch, although he's a good looking guy.

Wait

I totally knew I didn't do a drawing for yesterday, because I realized it as I lay in bed... one that wasn't my own. But hey, I knew I'd make up for it today.

After getting home this afternoon, I was so hung over from way too much champagne at dinner and at the subsequent movie that I needed some brunchy food to cut the alcohol (especially since last night's movie date seemed eager to get his workday started so I didn't press to get food together). While waiting to get served at La Bottega, the cute waitperson/host became the object of my attention, so I decided to sketch him while I waited for my brunch date Rima to arrive and keep me company. I didn't have anything else in my bag to draw on but an old receipt, but any ol' sheet will do with me...

80s Hair Salon poster

I started out trying to recreate what I did yesterday - a spontaneous illustration that wasn't planned. Ironically, planning to do that 'unplanned' thing was a success in that I planned on a certain look, but the drawing evolved on its own... into an apparentlyly squiggly-line filled, 80s retro hairstyle poster. Which ain't necessarily a bad thing.

Rockabilly Bun

This was a quick sketch just to get something out tonight, but I think it turned out fun, kinda rockabilly, kinda 40s.

Profiled

It's amazing to me how much can be right and yet so much can be wrong about a portrait. I'm basing this drawing on a photo and there was so much I got wrong the first time, yet the client really liked it. I'm working on the facial nuances and trying to make them more true to form. I'm also trying to figure out how to make an appropos torso for someone whose physcique I barely remember...

More Bunnyfeesh

Bunnyfeesh

Another one of my critters from college.

Have A Seat

I went to the ICFF today and bought yet another chair. I've been lusting after these Koi K2 leather chairs for years, and finally decided to get one. I pick it up tomorrow after the show. No regrets - I got a great deal on it and the designers are really sweet, so I feel it's a great purchase. In fact, so much so that I decided to paint it. Yes, I get obsessive.

Wiggy

A friend I met online and then in NYC asked me to do a portrait of his ex as a birthday gift. It's a little difficult since it's supposed to be a surprise but I've only met the subject a few times years ago, and I'm working from difficult photos since I can't get a shot done to spec. This is the initial sketch. I'm sure there will be lots of adjustment as I go along - I can already see problem areas. I hope it's at least starting to feel like him...

Although I have to say, I like the linework. I did this drawing in a very short time, and my lines are definitely there... can you tell it's done digitally? It looks like my pencil work, albeit with a very fluid pencil...

Juvie

Another spontaneous sketch.

Instinct

Sometimes it's good just to let go and draw whatever comes your way. I was partially inspired by my friend PJ, who seems to try and sketch anything and everything he sees at any point in the day. For me, the manifestation of that was to create a drawing on a whim, and to follow through without any set idea of what was to come of it, and not to think of perfection or end result. This sketch looks nothing like my style, or what I imagine my style should look, and I think I like it that way.

Then again, judging from the range of different looks on this blog, do I have a discernible style to you? From fashion to comics to cartoons to nudes, it's such a wide, inconsistent range. Is that bad?

Scott Revisited

I decided to paint Scott's drawing again tonight. I'd been wanting to but the versions I had saved didn't sing to me. Interestingly enough, the previews I had on my Mac of this file inspired me with whart I thought the colors should look like on the enlarged version, so that's what i tried to recreate. It's not done yet, but I need to stop for a bit.

Just Jake

Trying to sketch the profile of a new friend....but at 3 in the morning, don't expect much... Heh.

Naive

I'm working on a website design study that includes images of proposed editors. For years, I've wanted to use pencil-style drawings of people in a website, reminiscent of tacky stock illustrations from the 60s and 70s. As a post-modern motif it's way past its freshness date now since so many sites and magazines are using it - I remember trying to get Rafe to have one as his portrait two years ago but all he could see was that it wasn't a perfect portrait (which was the whole point). In any case, I thought I'd try one as a way to show the technique. I basically traced a photo without paying too much attention, because otherwise my work looks too studied. I don't even know if this qualifies as a drawing since I traced it, but I suppose deciding how much linework to do (or not to do, as the case may be) is part of the drawing skills. So here it is: some unidentified stock photo woman drawn in a quick, retro-naive style.

Ooh, I just noticed - she's such a lesbian! I drew her wearing a man's shirt...!

Brights

Fashion's all about bright saturated shades this season, and this standard George face was looking even more masculine than this finished version, so I tried to soften it up with color. Much softer than it was... but like I posted before, I have an 80s sensibility and my women tend to have strong, square faces (heck, one of my fave all-time models is Cordula Reyer).

Pared Back

I was in a relatively pared-back, color blocked outfit today for my day at Brooklyn Designs with my friend Rima (part of the ongoing Furniture Week festivities here in NYC) as well as to dinner at Cafe Cluny with Rafe and our Japanese friend Mana. I wasn't feeling like any particular style of sketch tonight so I decided to do a drawing of my look as if I had cut it out of colored paper, or some similarly crude rendering. I kinda like the possibilities of this style - it reminds me a bit of the naive illustrations that have been really popular in the past decade.

Eye

I didn't want to draw, so I tried an experiment - do a clean, thick-lined eye in Photoshop, since I've been drawing so much in Painter. It has a cartoonish quality to it...

About Face

Just a quickie sketch tonight...just came from the theatre and wasn't really in the mood to start anything too involved.

Storms

Well, I decided I couldn't leave well enough along and cleaned it up. It's not very 70s with the solid, bootless tights, but I tried it with white boots (see below) and while it seemed very Lightning Lad, and much more in the style of the Cockrum/Grell legion days, I decided it was just too masculine looking. Hell, this one is looking pretty butch already, although Storm did get pretty roughtrade for a while...

Cut It Out!

Cut out those holes! Agh. It just doesn't feel right, even if I intellectually feel that's what I would have done at age... what, 13? 14? I can't design old-school futuristic (how's that for ironic?) super-hero costumes like I used to - not the way it used to be and be considered hot (or cool?) in the Legion of Super Heroes. But there were the cutouts, and unitards were always modern, and you had to have some sort of repeating motif somewhere to draw...

The drawing is crap, but it's just a croquis for the costume. I don't know if I'll clean it up for presentation though...

Cutwork

The quintessential Legion 'disco-era' motif was definitely cutwork, specifically cut-out circles on arms and legs. But I'm having a hard time getting behind this project, maybe because I spent so much time redesigning Storm's costume before, trying to get the ideal version that incorporates past and present, and I'm burnt out on the character.

Storm Brewing

I started a drawing of Storm for the next CBR challenge, but kinda lost interest halfway through last night. Guess I have to post it anyhow... I was kinda going for an old school John Byrne feel.

Kids

I was looking at some other artists' websites and the people they draw all have very current hairstyles that I never render. I realized my age shows when I draw my default hairstyles because I don't do what the 'kids are wearing nowadays.' This was an effort to try and do that. Just a couple of studies...

Hoodie

I thought of this after seeing a girl in a Starbucks wearing her hoodie up. It was also short-sleeved, which I liked, so I thought about sketching it. I decided to be all faggy and throw some latex above-elbow gloves on her as well. I think the gloves are my thing right now.

This looks very mid-range Trade Fashion Illustration...

Guerilla Pinups

I draw these cartoon girls from time to time. They were always something I did, but I really got into them one day when I ran into a Citibank ATM vestibule to take shelter from a sudden thunderstorm. To while away the time while it poured outside, I took out some deposit slips (they had three copies at that time) and drew these bikini-clad or naked cartoon pinups cavorting all over the 2nd (and because of the carbon copy, third) copies of the slips. Then I put them back into the paper slots. That way, when people made deposits and filled in the slips, it wouldn't be until they took out the middle customer copy that they would see it full of naked girls. Ever since then, any time I would go into an ATM machine vestibule, I'd doodle on deposit slips and put them back into the slots for unwary bank customers.

Jacket

This was a doodle. I was so unsatisfied with yesterday's nudity (they were okay at the time, just not after I photographed them and uploaded them), I needed a sorbet of sorts. But I didn't have it in me to draw another sexy womanthinggoddess. So I went with whatever came out. And voila.

He reminds me a little of that guy who played Helen Slater's love interest in Supergirl, that ex model my sister had such a big crush on. What was his name...?

edit: I remember now: it's Hart Bochner.

Queer Man's Workshop

I more than made up for last night by attending the Queer Man's Workshop tonight. I knew I would do more than one sketch from there even if I arrived late (as usual for me). Fellow artist PJ was there, someone whom I apparently inspired to start his own drawing blog. Well tonight he returned the favor by inspiring me to not only go back to color but to also do watercolors for the first time in years! I'd seen quite a few of PJ's sketches over at his blog and thought about bringing my cheapo set of Prang from my FIT days 20 years ago (!) just in case I wanted to do some Antonio-esque stuff. I'm quite out of practice and the paper I brought didn't lend itself to the wet techniques I wanted to do, but I think it's not too bad a start, considering I think it's been over 10 years!


PJ was churning out the watercolors and he did a piece that I liked the most because he achieved a wet-on-wet technique. He'll probably post it on his blog. On a side note, PJ's quite the handsome one himself, so there's always the possibility he might show up as the subject of one of my drawings here too. Whaddaya say, PJ? :)

Double Time

Gonna have to make up for yesterday. I was working so much on...well, work, so I completely forgot to make a drawing. Bad George, bad!

I'm going to a drawing workshop tonight, so I'll definitely have more than one to show...