Thanksgiving Coma

Can't seem to do anything worth doing after all that eating. Turkey coma (turkoma?) in progress, so there's only so much I can deal with - namely adding a few newer details to the dreads gal from yesterday. Think she's done.

Dreads, 2

I often go back to sketches and continue them in ways I had never envisioned. It's my way of doodling - heck, a lot of the sketches on this blog are the equivalent of doodles, things I draw on a whim. Which is actually the point of this blog for me - to draw the way I did when I was younger, just for the sake of drawing. Sometimes no rhyme or reason, but some of those turn out to be the most fun. This one? Well, hmm, not so sure yet. We'll see.

Dreads

I thought about redoing the Calvin ad stance I drew a few days ago, but it ended up warping as I drew it... and suddenly the woman had dreads and was some kinda of Grecian alien. So I went with it. We'll see where it goes.

Self Styling

I've been going to the same hairstylist for the past 20 years, and Kevin knows I'll work with whatever he gives me. Lately though, I've been showing up with drawings of what I want (and by lately I mean the past 5 years) and it's always fun to watch Kevin bring the ideas to life. I'm planning on a haircut soon, and here's my current thinking. Yes, I want to fuck up my hair again.

Calvinism

A recent ad for Calvin Klein showed a photo of a model who was so sculpturally posed that I wanted to reproduce the S-curve linework in her stance.

Sasuke

I couldn't wait to see the next chapters in the Naruto anime, so I went online and ferreted out the manga on YouTube. Seems the next arc is about the character Sasuke, whose new look reminds me a bit of Rick Owens. So I did a quick sketch, although I didn't really follow the character's look very faithfully.

Patch

I spent the evening catching up on tv shows I had missed during the week, and was watching the (sadly) newly canceled Pushing Daisies. My favorite shows almost always get canned, and despite how fun it was, I couldn't see how much longer this show could go on (it has all the quirkiness of another fave of mine, Wonderfalls, so it was almost doomed form the start). Anyhow, Swoosie Kurts (sp?) has a character in it, and she wears an eye patch. While this isn't Swoosie, I was thinking of her character's look.

Gravity

I know it doesn't look like much now, but this is the beginnings of the next in the mythological series. Well, one of three I'm considering - gotta see how it works out.

Sleepy Sketches, 2

Sleepy Sketches

After working on quite a few projects, as regular blog readers of mine know, I usually have no energy for a sketch. I totally feel that creative energy, like emotions, are finite, and there's only so much you can have in a day, and they get allotted to whatever comes up first. This is the first sketch done after all the Mass/Gass hullaballoo, and after I still had some energy to do the simple sketch of Fatale.

Red

After all the detail of the mixed media pieces, I want something cleaner and simpler. The Fatale piece is headed there. Kinda film noir comics.

Aeolus & Ares

So here are the first two images in the mixed media series I've been planning and working on. I had hoped to have three up by the time I published anything, but this will do for now. If I wait any longer, the novelty of the style will be old hat, so there you have it. I wanted to transform my friends into super-heroes, but spandex would have been too kitschy. I have one more piece to add to this, but hopefully will do at least two more. For anyone who had been following this blog and wondered about these pieces, I'd be curious to know if the final pieces were what you might have expected. Hope they live up to expectations...!

Aeolus

This is the finished piece, based loosely on Greek gods, but done up super-hero style, as mixed media pieces posed for by some of my friends. This one is my friend PJ, as Aeolus, King of the Gods of the Winds. This isn't the final crop, because I think it's a tad busy, but I'll post both this and the Mass piece (which I decided will be entitled "Ares," the Greek God of War) together.

Gass, 2

This is Saturday's work since I posted the Fatale piece a day late. finally released the Mass image online (although I still feel a bit antsy about it), but I guess it's out there so it is what it is. This is the second in the series, and I'm feeling a bit more confident that I'm going in an okay direction. Still wish they were all as strong as the first piece.

Fatale

Needed to do something completely different from what I've been doing lately. Nothing like a simple drawing of some big-busted woman to break the monotony. Still a rough, of course. But I liked the idea of the draped neckline looping over the back into a sleeve and wanted to do the drawing to work that out. Easy enough.

Intentionally Muddy

This isn't necessarily my style (a few of my friends like Norman come to mind) but I like how it's growing almost organically from the photo I've based it on. It's not necessarily flattering, but that suits it just fine. The changes over the past three days might seem miniscule to the casual observer, but to me they're pretty pivotal. Small additions add both necessary definition of the image, as well as directional style ticks. I started with something rougher, that later made it very blurred out, and now I'm bringing back some harder edges and stronger delineations.

Unclear

Sadly...

...some people are less concerned with how you are beyond a perfunctory "How are you," before they begin telling you about themselves. And nothing else. I've had too many of those people of late. I'm tired of it today.

This drawing as done based on a screen grab from my desktop, while I pondered these things. Not finished but still rather indicative of the scattershot feelings running through me. I was hoping for a Dark Phoenix shadow effect. Must be my week for maudlin.

Limey

Long day, after a long night. So I'm revisiting the lime...

Limed

I spent last night in the company of lime wedges... which came with my many vodka drinks for the evening. So I was kinda not able to draw much. But I just needed to get out of the apartment and socialize. I had a nice time, in case you were wondering.

Gass

The "Mass" series has a counterpart, mostly because I want to release at least two images now to get my point of view across (plus I'm getting pressure from a model to get one of the pieces for his use). So I tried to address teh second in the series, which admittedly really isn't as strong as the first... and this is all gobbledegook to you since I'm being cryptic about these piese anyhow until I release them. Oh, here's hoping it's not anticlimactic when I do...

Drawn Out

I added a bit of color to the blue drawing, the way I imagined it. Well, not exactly, but close enough. I originally had the saturation a bit lower, but I envisioned it very primary. Below is the original version:

Blue Mood

The drawing is taking on a life of its own, and I saw it in blue while I was walking home from the gym. Here's the more worked on version, rendered in a slate-y kinda blue.

Pensive

In all the Election drama I once again forgot my baby brother's death anniversary. For some reason it hit me particularly hard last night. As a result I couldn't draw anything new, so I decided to just 'copy' myself - do a self portrait. Self portraits are easy for some reason, maybe because I don't have any responsibility to my model to make it look good. And there's something cathartic about drawing how you feel.

Elation

Well that was an exciting and historic election!

Get Out And Vote for Obama!

Playing With The Elements, More

Just added on some more details. Not really working hard on this one, but it's been a fairly busy (and somewhat crazy) weekend. I'll fix the anatomy later.

Oh, and for those who don't know the reference for this character, for years as a child, I was so in awe over this drawing by Dave Cockrum. Funny how it's nothing much now to my eyes now. But back then it was pivotal.

Playing With The Elements, Three

Getting a bit better. I just had to draw without thinking and let my instincts handle it. Sometimes, with a nothing drawing, it works better to not try too hard to get an image that isn't strong in your head anyhow. Or at least, that's what I rationalize in my head. Who knows if it's really true? In any case, better isn't best yet, so we'll see where this goes, if it goes anywhere at all...!

Video Doodle

I would wait for videos to play on my Mac (my chosen way to watch tv shows on my own schedule nowadays) and while downloading or waiting out ads, I'd grab a pen and just sketch away on my notebook. Here's one such sketch.