Bugged Out

I worked until 5 am after a long day at the office today, so I'm pretty beat. All I could muster is this bedbug.

Playing With The Elements, Too

Really not loving this face. I did a sketch long ago of this character and I loved how it turned out. I often think about how comicbook artists draw characters they drew maybe decades prior, and how you can never go home again. This is striking me the same way - I like how I draw, but if I were a reader for a comic book, I would not recognize the character the artist used to render a particular way.

Playing With The Elements

This is kind of a rough week, design-wise - been staying up until 3 am a lot, finishing up a design project. Not the most time for drawing. Toyed with this sketch for a bit, but don't really like how the face is forming...

Bovine Intervention

I had an idea for a piece I'm doing, but walking home tonight I had another idea. And it's bull.

I'll [iece it together later, but this will suffice for now.

Element Lad

Yesterday's croquis of a Legionaire is turning into Leement Lad, one of my favorite Legionaires in the beginning of my obsession with them back in the late 70s. And it had nothing to do with the character - I just thought Cockrum drew him really cute. There was one issue where the Legion team traveled back to the 20th Century because the villains the Fatal Five had retreated into the past, and they showed Element Lad eating cotton candy at a circus. I was smitten, impressionable little closet case that I was, haha!

Pose Modern

I thought about redoing a standard super-hero stance, based on old illustrations I loved back in the 70s by my then-idol Dave Cockrum. It's funny, I looked at those selfsame drawings and realized how different my standards are now. As I threw together a quick croquis, it was also an exercise in examining how physical ideals change through the decades... although I don't know ifyou can see that in this quick sketch.

Drunken Details

Just got back form the Roisin Murphy concert, and I'm surprised I was able to draw anything at all (considering how many vodka tonics I had). Granted it's a flurry of doodly addendums to yesterday's sketch, but that ain't so bad.

And Then There Was...Stuff.

I look at this drawing and all the ones preceding it, and it really doesn't feel like these were all done by one person, does it? I'm schizo.

Orange Juicy

I was drinking a protein shake when I decided to do my drawing for the day, and the glass became the inspiration. But chocolate wasn't gonna cut it so it became orange juice, but the mermaid, well... she kinda came out of nowhere.

Not So Much

I was working on a design file, and as usual, didn't want to draw. So this bit on an envelope hanging around my desk was as much as I got done.

MAD Woman

We went to the Museum of Art & Design for work today, to get a tour of the space and the current exhibitions, and the artwork was breathtaking.I don't dare attempt anything now! Haha. So I tried out some metallic graphite pencils at the gift shop and decided my doodle there will be my drawing for the day.

Boy Blue

More experimentation with yesterday's drawing. Not sure what to think of it. Although it doesn't look like my usual stuff, which is a little refreshing for me.

Young & Curly

I was working out and watching music videos and a visual of one of the musicians turned into a strong mental image. This drawing isn't exactly the actual model's look, but it's the mood I was going for. I wanted a pencil look and used Painter's pencil tool. I only have access to a "2B pencil" mode but it's kinda what I imagined it would look like.

Haller

My hair lately has been looking like David Haller (a.k.a. Legion) from my old New Mutants comics back in the eighties - lotsa height, lotsa curls. So I started drawing Haller. A little stylized, as artist Bill Sienkiewicz (sp?) was very stylized, although this isn't in his style.

Side B

I like this crop better - more focus and better composition. But it was fun to add all those nonsensical colors and shapes in the Side A version.

Side A

Something happened when I decided to pop in an unplanned color - the doodle took on a life of its own and I just began to play. It's more than a little 80s and a lot "me" from back then, drawing high, colored hairstyles and proto-LIPPS Inc. makeup on face sketches I would do while talking on the phone.

Side

An uninspired start of a doodle. I was a little the worse for wear after a long birthday dinner (with myriad cocktails) for my friend Ernesto, and I left this sketch almost as soon as I started it.

Pinked

Have any of you noticed I have a thing for hot pinks and electric blues? I've always loved fuschia, but a bright cobalt or Yves Klein blue has always been my default for a shadow color - whenever I see an area of deepest shadow, I sometimes substitute a bright, bright blue. Don't know why - it just looks right to me.

Blu

Dark Phoenix, Old School 2

Man, it really doesn't feel right anymore - I've totally outgrown the old ways of drawing, based on copying my (then) drawing idols' styles. No wonder artists evolve after years and years of drawing, but not always for the better. Here's hoping I'm not the latter.

Dark Chicken

And then there's a mix of the old and the... uh... stupid.

Dark Phoenix, Old School

Time was that whenever I had a pen or pencil in my hands, I would inevitably be drawing Dark Phoenix. I was obsessed with the character for most of my high school and college years. I thought maybe it would be mindless fun to draw since I didn't have any motivation or concept, but it's not really working out. I can't draw faces and effects the way I used to... mostly because I don't really want to.

Pose-ibilities

Was working a ton and had no motivation to do any real drawing, but decided to sketch out a few possible poses for future drawings or photos.

Birds On My Brain

I'm so sleepy I can't do anything but stupid-looking birds.

Iconic 80s

I remember George Stavrinos drawings back in the 80s, of men and women with hairstyles that looked like sculpted plaster. After going to popular Tuesday event Beige earlier tonight, I noted how many of the younger kids were sporting a hairstyle I wore for over a year last year, and how it felt trendy, but not fresh. I'm gravitating towards this kind of proto-80s hair again. I feel like it's next.

Bird

I drew a bird on my Facebook profile pic and I seem to be somewhat preoccupied with redrawing it over and over again. It's got my trademark grin.

Oiled

I finally upgraded my Mac to Leopard, and after hours of software updates, I wanted to test how the older programs were working. Painter Essentials 2 seems to be working fine. I decided to just do whatever came to mind (a face, big surprise) but I kept it to the oil paint brushes only, just to test them out.

Phoenix Shaded

So I got bored and pulled out the Phoenix drawing again. Just decided to trim and shade where I thought wasn't too involved. Slow progress. Sometimes I can finish a sketch in a few minutes or really detail it out in a few hours, but I'm obviously taking my time with this one.

Sketchy Goth

I took a shower after dinner and I felt like I had more energy, but apparently not so much. After a few encouraging lines, I got tired. My limbs are like jelly. I wonder if this is because of the antihistamine I took? I'm hoping so, because I don't want to still be sick (or even worse, relapsing!). But the fatigue shows. Hell, I haven't really made anything I'm rather proud of lately, have I? Feh.

Too Sick for Two Days

I'm on the last leg of my antibiotics, but man, I've been so ill these past two weeks - it sucks! I could barely find the time to draw. All I did was watch Buffy on DVD. And then I'd realize I didn't do any sketches for the day just at bedtime. These faces were done over the course of three nights, from Wednesday (the two big ones) to Thursday (the small one in the bottom) to Friday (the guys on the upper right). Not very inspired, but hell, I'm sick. I'm sick of being sick. These colds that have been going around NYC have been nasty.

Reality Bits

Wedesdays are Reality TV days - with Project Runway and Top Design back to back on the tube. I decided to take out a sketchbook that I had pulled from a work photoshoot (because I drew on it for the shot and it was essentially used and unsellable) and decided to sketch while watching tv. And thank goodness for Kelly Wearstler on Top Design - the woman is the closest thing the US has to an English eccentric. Her hat and blouse outfit for a Top Design challenge was perfectly me. So I had to draw it.
I also sketched Jerell's outfit from Project Runway. Well, I kinda did. I had a brushy sharpie, so it seemed fashion illustrations were the way to go.

Requested

I had a request to do a toon style drawing after my last one of my trainer, but this time a little racier, and this was a pre-sketch. I'm not too into it. I can do it, but I feel like it's not my thing. I know the influences of the first one, from actual animation like Batman Beyond and that genre to the work of über-gay cartoonist Glen Hanson. But when it comes to gay themes, I feel like that stuff is best left to other people - I never really did like how people exaggerate genitalia in homoerotic cartoons, as I don't find that sexy at all (well, at least as illustrations). Still, as I told my friend Peter earlier today, I tend to use my abilities to please people, from some insane psychological need for approval. I guess we all do it on some level. This sketch was from Tuesday.

Down Time

Caught a couple of bugs one after the other, not unlike so many people in NYC nowadays. Been drawing offline since Wednesday so will post those when I take pics and upload...