Graphite, 2

The profile was yesterday's drawing, which I did after I uploaded all the images from the previous days. Today, while I was watching So You Think You Can Dance, I pulled out the graphite pencil and turned the page upside down. I was originally going to do a contorted position a la Aitor Throup, but as I got influenced by the dancers on the screen, I realized I didn't have the space to do the position I might have wanted - so I turned her into a fish.

Graphite

I'm kinda loving natural media for doodling again - the feel is just so different. The shapes flow better - man, I've been spending too much time on the computer. Even this throwaway profile sketch feels better to me, just because it's in actual graphite, as opposed to the digital variety.

Jump, 2

Man, this one was fun to do - just sweeping strokes of a colored pencil I found lying around, and no agenda. I need to do more of these.

Dumb Duckie

There seems to be a whole story taking place.

Tiny, tiny lips 2

Man, this face is looking too much like an old-school Philippine santo to me - the facial features are so typical of statues of religious icons.

Feeshything again.

I had no time... so that's when these things come out.

Jump

Aitor Throup's pencil style was so inspiring when I was reading an article on him in Dazed and Confused Japan, that I thought I'd try a quick ape of his ouevre. I can't quite get it as edgy as him - his clothing is much more fun. This looks like a comicbook drawing of...well, Marvel's second string villain, The Owl.

Pignarat

My fat bird needed a companion, an old critter design from my high school days - part pig, part gnat, part rat.

Brights

I forced myself to work today and surprisingly, despite an odd dip in my mood early in the morning, rose above it enough to get quite a bit accomplished. Maybe I can will myself out of this odd emotional lull...

Bad News Day

Too distracted by some depressing news, so when in doubt, draw a fat, fat bird.


With a top hat.

Tiny, tiny lips

Hmm, this color job did not make this face turn out the way I expected it would, at all.

Depression

Definitely in a funk lately. A friend advised letting it all out on something physical, but that's just not my thing. I tried drawing it off... not the best drawing, but it was definitely a gestural, spontaneous effort.

Hunched, Re-posed 4

There was an online article featuring a major international chain store's Fall fashions so I thought I'd repurpose some of the looks on this pose... just a few more details plus a cleaner silo...

Hunched, Re-posed 3

You can probably tell I've had little energy to devote to drawing. I think I'm going through a very "down" period and my creative energies are taxed by personal stuff.

Sadder Bunny

And a little frayed around the edges.

Flow

I tried SO hard to make this a very symmetrical face, but failed miserably at every turn - the symmetrical versions just didn't look right to me. I was going to ape a pen motif I saw on another site for the hair, but after getting really frustrated, began doing swashes of color where I thought appropriate, and came up with this homage to the classic René Gruau image of a blindfolded woman. It's part Gruau, part Nagel (the blindfold especially), and a pleasant surprise, as I like how it turned out.

Sad Bunny

An online friend relayed a really sad story to me about the life he led before he moved Down Under. It really made my heart ache to read. Then an old friend from the homeland sent me an email about how her home was robbed. And me, I'm going through some changes that are majorly difficult, albeit necessary. There's so much in flux right now, and it's hard sometimes to think of going forward, but we do. Doesn't mean you can't be a sad bunny in the meantime.

Joey S.

This is the drawing part from a piece I'm doing of my friend Joey, in the same style as the Mass series. It's kinda nasty so I'm not showing all of it. Massty, maybe? Well, it's more of a straight S&M illustration, from a piece I started about 12 years ago and never finished.

Hunched, Re-posed 2

So, she was waaay too tall. I reworked the body to proprotions that look better to me, although I wonder if I'm drawing this as a regular sketch or a fashion illustration, which really should be loooong?

Hunched, Re-posed

My hunched model wasn't looking right, so while drawing yesterday, I dropped her other arm and turned it into what I think my friend Peter refers to as the 'Broken Doll' pose. This sketch is all rough lines in search of final placement.

It's funny, but the process was never something I thought about, but in looking at this, I'm musing that the ability to draw (at least in me, although I assume it's similar for other people) is the same as my design skills, where I have an idea where things should go, and you place lines and arrange and rearrange them until they look right. But each and every line or element you put down affects everything else that follows, so you could be drawing all around it based on a line that you think is right, and it throws the whole thing off if it isn't. That's why people who can draw with an economy of line, with really decisive strokes, are so talented - they know what's right with one stroke. Sometimes I'm like that, but in instances like now where I have a specific mood in mind, there's a lot of reworking.

** and yes, she's too tall. Gotta fix that...

Hunched

I was looking at magazines at the news agent and this pose stuck in my head. It's something I've drawn before, but I also realized I had drawn a similar pose over 10 years ago. Fashion does repeat itself.

Anime Doodles, pt.4

I was looking at photos online and a pic of a man in this pose struck me so much that while watching Grey's Anatomy on my Mac, I was inspired to interpret it. I ended up with this very sketchy style mostly because I messed up the jawline and to compensate, I repeated the linework throughout.

And now for something completely...

...stupid.

Anime Doodles, pt.3

I was watching Bleach and was somewhat inspired (although not directly) by the Arrancar costume designs.

Anime Doodles, pt.2

Anime Doodles, pt.1

I've been doing a lot of design work, so I've been hard-pressed to work on drawings on the computer. So to unwind, I download anime from online, and while waiting for it to do so, I pick up my DWR pad (a freebie from a press junket I was part of) and draw whatever pops into my head, much like I used to do with the calendar next to the phone back home in Manila when I was a kid.

Illyana

Considering how much I didn't do last night, I was so lacking in desire to draw anything. This was a quickie. that nearly got erased until I cleaned up the profile a bit. Still not a great sketch, but can't have a happy result all the time.

Playtime

Zenaida's feeling springy in her step.

Helmetted, 3

Added even more detail to the helmet while watching videos. The metallic reflections are totally fake and stylized, but I love this kind of work - it's old style comic book work for me.