Soft Pink

I spent so much time over the past couple of days designing a hard-edged boxing site that I wanted to do something unstructured and soft... and without having to think (design involves so much thinking). Thank goodness Rafe called after I had just started, so this sketch was pretty much an unconscious effort. It's loosely based on a model from an ad, and when I say loosely, I mean I didn't even bother maintaining anything more than cursory use of her likeness. I just used her for some shaping and some shadows. As I made departures from her look, I just went with them and kept adding on and adjusting to taste, so she's completely a made-up face now. A little lopsided, but nice and soft.

Knocked Out

I've been designing all day for the past 24 hours it seems, working on a ...>groan!<... boxing website. The good news is I've gotten a groove on again after not designing for so long! The bad news is, no energy left to draw! I'm completely tapped out. So just this doodle...

Sideways

I just drew a line that became the lats of this drawing, and the rest fell in quickly for a quick sketch.

Dutch Treat

I received a new (well, vintage) chair from an ebay auction I won, all the way from Holland! it's such an amazing vintage find, I spent some time tonight assembling it. I have some work to do so I don't have time to continue my fashion sketch, so here's a quick Photoshop drawing of my new T.V. seat!

Ugly Shoes

I'm intrigued with fashion's current fascination with 'ugly' shoes: the shapes are so unweildy, yet so interesting. You know these are either going to be highly prized or much reviled in later years. And they're hard to draw! It's hard to make something look more flattering yet grotesque enough to seem like current fashion (as opposed to just a badly rendered foot) if you don't get it juuuust right.
And I don't know if I did.

The Rest

I continued yesterday's model with emphasis on current styles. Here she's wearing a variation on Prada's grotesquely beautiful hooked cone heels. Haven't decided what dress she's wearing though.

Softly Current

I admit that my style can be old-fashioned, literally: I draw women the way I used to way back when, with specific features and the strong aesthetic I grew up with back in the 80s. So I have to make an effort to update my sketches with more au courant stylings. This was a test, to do a softer, more current face and hair. Hopefully I can adopt and adapt. I'm quite happy with this experiment though - I didn't even refer to anything but the idea I had in my head. Well, except to look at some ads to confirm hair volumes...

Ginger

I was at a loss for what to sketch tonight, so I opened up yesterday's file and tried to continue it. I ended up doing a portrait of the red-headed guy I saw yesterday, with just a vague idea of how he looked.

Fall Colors

Last season's Yves Klein Blue is still hot for Fall fashion, but I'm loving the influx of Russian Red, and a very brick/rusty/reddish brown color that hasn't looked good since perhaps the 70s. Together they're such a sick combo, I'm planning whole outfits around them. On my way home from the gym, wearing my new rust cords (it was cool today, despite still being summer) with my cobalt blue belt, I saw a guy in a store with strawberry blond hair and an electric blue shirt, and it looked really right. Definitely feeling this bizarre color pairing.

Bunny

We all need somebunny.

Lash

New York magazine did a Fall feature on feathers as a seasonal theme, and one of the items shown were fake lashes made out of feathers, by MakeupForever I wanted to draw them on an eye to see just how interesting they might be. Perhaps I should have done the whole face...

Tats and 'stache

I found myself drawing my typical proto 80s guy, so I tried to update him a bit by making him leaner, with hipper hair and a few tattoos. Can't say it looks typically me, but it's not a bad quick sketch.

Fashion Sketch

As much as I love the possibilities of digital illustration, there are some things that just don't turn out the way they used to. Okay, so I'm rusty as well, but doing a fashion croquis just isn't the same with digital media: the quick, fluid strokes just aren't so quick nor fluid. Heck, my fashion instincts aren't so fluid either - I couldn't dream up a dress off the bat, so I used one of my friend Peter's as a sample to sketch

Modesty

I was doodling while on the phone with my friend Rafe and I thought that the result looked a little like Modesty Blaise.

Suitable

My very comicbook linework. I'm not loving it but, enh, it's tonight's drawing.

Flow

Last night I went to the Queer Man's workshop again, partially because I'd thought that the new model was promising (not so much) but also because my friend PJ was going to be there. It's always nice to have peers you can bounce ideas and energy off of. PJ is inspiring in the sense that his weapon of choice is watercolor, a former fave medium of mine that I've let languish in my recent trading of pixels for paint, and his enthusiasm for drawing and painting is infectious. I was just thinking the other night that I haven't done a happy dance after any particular piece of work in ages, when once upon a time, getting something right was cause for immediate and unbridled elation. Well, I didn't do any sort of dance last night, but I did get to get back into watercolors the way I used to when I did a lot of Antonio-esque fashion illustrations. In fact, last night was all about exploring without expectations. PJ lent me some old watercolor sheets which just brought the medium flowing back to me (if not as deftly as I remember, then at least a good reminder), and I alternated between them and brush-tip pens (ode to Yoco from the previous post). Can't say I loved the subject matter (I'm hesitant to post the overly raunchy poses here), and frankly, the costuming in the less overt poses did little to spur my interest (leopard print spandex. ugh. ). In any case, here's a quick, fashion-y sketch of the model. Yes, he's grabbing himself.
Not loving how simple the washes are. I have to go back to my old fashion sketches and see if this was the way I used to do them, and I'm just not liking my old style. Definitely don't like how blobby the chest hair turned out.

A Hint of Japan

I saw a book today at Urban Outfitters, on 150 top fashion illustrators in Japan, and the website link was a treasure trove of inspiration. I was particularly taken by the beautifully retrained style of Yoko Nagamiya. Her simple, pared-down brushwork and shots of soft-edged color are amazing, improbably reminding me of both René Gruau and Mats Gustafson at the same time, along with more than a few hints of seventies and eighties Lord & Taylor ads... yet still very modern and fresh. I wanted to try her style, just to see if I could even imitate her soft but confident strokes. I'm afraid this sketch is a pale comparison, but ultimately it's an homage to a woman with a wonderfully original ability.

Re-Pose

For some reason, last night's sketch of the artist/musician's possible pose for the demo cover didn't stick in my head, and without looking at it because it was such a quick gestural sketch, I didn't think it was right. Sometimes trying to do too much detail detracts from the essential spirit of the drawing. I think that's what happened tonight. When I went back in to replace the original gestural sketch, I found that the new version just didn't have as much of the attitude I wanted, not as much of the essential laid back spontenaity. Ah well, that's what happens sometimes.

Pose A Suggestion

The album demo I was drawing requires a particular scale and pose from the artist to be overlaid on top of it. so I created a few roughs to suggest how he might take his photos. Not much so far as sketches go, but after tonight's drunken dinner party, it's all I can do!

What The Flock

So I composited more sheep into wings into... a whole pseudo artsy collage. Why does it look like it should be on a Rogue's Gallery t-shirt?

One To Tree

I continued with my sheep tracings, just a lone one this time, plus a free-form tree loosely from a reference. It's kinda fun, because you don't have to worry about proportions, merely line weight.

Sheep

I'm tracing sheep for a friend's demo cover. Not sure it if counts as drawing, but I guess how I'm being selective about my linework is. I think. Is that good? Is it... baaa-a-a-ad?

sorry, couldn't help myself.

Octopus

I was working on a file of an octopus, but for some inexplicable reason, the file didn't save! Grrr. I tried redrawing it on a sheet of paper, but by then, I had lost interest. Guess I'll post the sheet version (what I got done of it) later.

Demon Panda Bear

Okay, first first, this is not an original idea. I went to the Kid Robot online store and was just entranced by their nasty looking panda in the Kid Woebot flyer/ad so much that I had to make my homage to it. It's just so twisted, I had to draw it for myself! So let's be clear, it's an homage, and I have no desire to infringe on copyrights, but whoever did that original drawing concept is a sick genius and my sick sensibilities tip my hat to you.

Abandoned

You know how it is when you start a sketch you don't want to finish? This is one of those abandoned drawings.

Lil From "Ergo Proxy"

I just started watching a very noir anime series called Ergo Proxy, and I quite like the character design of the lead character Lil. I can't quite get her cool Japanese elan, with her limp, stylish hair and her blue eyeshadow, but I've only seen one ep so I guess I haven't gotten a feel for her yet.

Strokes

Been playing with the old sable brush from Painter Classic. Can't understand why I don't have as many options in my newer Painter Essentials. This version just seems so much more robust despite being ages older. Anyhow, I like how it keeps the hand of a watercolor stroke. reminds me of when I used to do more watercolor fashion sketches, although I had to work a lot here to make it look more...uh... effortless.

Brushworks

I went out to dinner and had too much to drink, so by the time I was drawing anything, I was lying cheek down on my desk as I sketched (Man, I'm such a lightweight nowadays!). This is the net result - I have to say, the brush strokes aren't bad looking - I kinda like the weight.

Wavey

I tried the newest Painter X program to test its responsiveness, but I found it to be sluggish. I then launched the original Painter Classic that I had in my OS9 apps folder, and as a test, I started doing all sorts of strokes and extensions just to compare. So this is what ended up happening...

I've decided that tonight...

Animated Hair

I spent the past few days downloading and watching 17 episodes of the Japanese anime, Claymore, a hyper-violent series about woman warriors who end up turning into the very demons they were created to fight. There was lots of swirling hair. This sketch isn't anime style, but the impression of the hair comes from it. I needed to draw something while I was chatting away on the telephone, so it's really just a doodle.