Reeck

I was looking at some of the Fall 2010 menswear shows, and decided to do a contour-y sketch of Rick Owens, just to get Friday's drawing quota out.

Japanesey Kitty

(Thursday) I went to a Japanese Etsy site that sold decorative paper tape, but they also had these stickers featuring a lot of Scottish Fold kittens. Do the Japanese have a thing for Scottish Folds? In any case, I got this image in my head after seeing a few of the stickers. I channeled the mouths the stickers had, but the rest is more me.

Sandman 2

(Wednesday) Not this one either. Ugh.

Sandman

(Tuesday) I spent a lot of time during my convalescence rereading my trade paperbacks of the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman. I really liked the latter half of the series especially,and I love the main character, Morpheus' style. Strangely, I can't seem to channel it properly. The artists I read weren't exactly the most adept at rendering realistically, so I suppose I invariably channeled their more stylized looks in my brain. But this sketch just doesn't do it for me...

Bobby, Underpainted

I'm revisiting an older sketch I did of a model, which is turning out to be fun because I wanted to investigate using different brushes. This time I used the acrylic brushes in Painter, to set down dabs of color before fine-tuning the features. It really felt like painting, as opposed to my usual tactic of painting within the lines, then refining the lines and painting further in layers. Here I used the brush to map out the colors roughly all on one layer, and then I'll refine the shading later, like most painters really do, I imagine. It was fun to just do, as opposed to planning it out.

Planning a painting is always my downfall. I get so stuck with the plan, I'm afraid to start it. When I let go and just do it, then I get corrective and constantly refine what's in front of me. It's the part of being an artist that's so perfectionist and natural, it's both exhilarating (because it's constant instinct honed by experience and also by constant discovery in the process) and excruciating (because you see what's wrong and try to correct it, but also sometimes fear changing too much that you ruin what's right).

Malade Noir

Yesterday was pretty terrible as far as my fever went. I was so down because of the headaches. Thankfully my doctor called me with a solution that helped me get through the day. But it didn't leave me with enough energy to really draw, but hey, at least I did something.

Soooo Sick

Perfunctory Profile

I seem to have developed a cold on top of the throat infection I got on Tuesday. Ugh. Always something. Was all set to go to work when I realized I was running a 102 ∘fever then went to my doctor's to see what's up, spending an hour waiting to get an x-ray of my chest just in case. Couldn't muster the energy to draw anything like in the past two days so this is what I'm putting up for today.

Gareth 2

More sussing out of Gareth's drawing. I can't find the point where I really love it as a piece to totally go for it yet, but it's improving. Hell, it's only been almost 3 years in the making. Any forward movement is good.

Gareth

My friend Gareth posed for me back in 2007, but I was so daunted by his hair that I never wanted to draw it. But I'm sick and at home today, and he reminded me that I still owed him a drawing, so I had the wherewithal to revisit the sketch and do a bit more work on it. It's amazing sometimes how much time I allow to pass between project initiation and finalization, but all things take their time and it's often hard to find inspiration when you don't want to do something. Fortunately, having things to listen to on iTunes and not focus too much (i.e. zone out and just draw autonomically) allows me to actually just work. This is part of a published series that this other piece is also part of.

Bourbon Happens

My friend Rima and I went out for a drink. I was thinking I would work out and be all healthy, but then bourbon happens. Unprecedented amounts of bourbon.

Lightening Up

Seems like I was in a daze all day, then spent the entire evening in absolute tears... catharsis and all, you know. Plus a nosy therapist digging things up that didn't need digging just now. But with that mood came tear-inducing So You Think You Can dance sequences found on YouTube, and subsequently the playing of the dance soundtrack, which inspired this drawing. Kind of a weird, circuitous way to draw something that I like, because it feels.... right. I love how all the lines just seem so determined, but also fluid like I didn't exert any effort. It's the kind of linework I admire in the work of Antonio Lopez. I don't know if it's inspired, but I like it. It's an older style of mine, just done right, right now, in my older eyes. It's not often that happens for me so spontaneously. Hence the two drawings today.

This one's for Justin K. Just because.

Down On Monday

What a downer today is turning out to be. What with the events of the weekend as well as last week's horrendous workweek, I'm quite ready to call it quits.

Blue Moody

I'm feeling pretty maudlin because of interpersonal relationships so I'm drawing the blue into tonight's sketch...

Storm Fashion 2

A bit of coloring just to see what would work for her. Not really worth a full post I'd say, but it was something I did...

Fatbird

I thought I didn't really do any drawings so I quickly did this one... but I believe I've done my quota for the week. Not well, but did. I've had a rough week - lots of stupid copywriting and sale signs at the office, certainly not the kind of thing I want to do, and it was grating on me something fierce! No wonder I drank so much this weekend, haha!

Storm Fashion

Hinsdsight is 20/20, so the saying goes... and I went in and did a bit more adjusting to her legs and shoes. Funny how you can always find something t improve much later, when originally it may have looked done. Not that it will look any different on this post, but hey, I did do work on her...

George and Greg

Tuesday was such a long day I completely forgot that I had a drawing I did that very morning of our heinous regular 8:30 am meeting. I get so bored at those that I sometimes try to surreptitiously draw my coworkers. In fact, my coworker (also named George) was easy to draw until another long-winded, overly drawly co-worker started talking, and the smile I started sketching quickly devolved into an expression of boredom and constant yawning. So I drew my friend Greg as well. Since I missed Wednesday, theoretically, I did twice as much on Tuesday, so I'm good. The ape can now leave me alone.

I forgot to draw

Despite being home early, I was so distracted (downloading movies) that I forgot to do my drawing. So here's Kuh, an old character who always had an angry expression on his face, as a make up sketch for yesterday.

Fake Valentines

I had a looong day that began at 6:30 and ended near 12:30 am. I did some faux valentines for a poster I was working on at work, so i figured I'd just use those (as rudimentary as some of them are) as my drawing for the day. Well, the cupcake one specifically.

I Heart <3

I can't really get behind tattoo art. It just seems like what you can manage because the medium is skin. Anyhow, I think I'm done with this one - can't really make it too slick as tattoo art is usually very "hand-y".

In other news, my co-worker said the subliminal implications of my image and slogan might be a bit too risqué.

Blue Topknot

I was experiencing Mac issues when I decided to screengrab last night's drawing instead of saving a jpeg.

Storm Shoes

I don't know why I went back into my archives to look at Storm drawings but I found this old series of entries that about a year later looked like they could be tweaked and improved - I thought her legs could use some streamlining, and the shoes could use some finishing. So I decided to just adjust and fix the legs and shoes last night.

I Heart You, 2

I fleshed out the tattoo drawing I was doing at work with a few more details and some color. I can't decide how clean to make it so I just kept drawing and will decide once it starts to fully form.

I Heart You

Well, that's the idea, anyway, behind a tattoo drawing I was making for a poster I'm designing for work. It's strange how I don't like drawing at work - maybe it's the computer not being optimal for it, or maybe I just don't like going to work. Okay, definitely the latter then. ;-) Anyhow, once I get a few details in, this will be easier. Always harder for me to get started.

Gesture Drawings

The chalk tool always makes me want to go a little fashion-y. I've enjoyed doing gesture drawings ever since I discovered them back in college at Fine Arts, and if there's anything that will help you practice the strength and confidence of your linework, it's working gesture linework.

Porker

Frankly, after all that painting I did for the scalpel pieces, I just want to do something chill and easy. So, it's a British Pig from my old cartoon series back in high school and college.

Scalpel! Final

Aaaand we're done. At 4 am, my friend emailed saying he liked her old expression better, while I argued she'd had too much surgery to even have one. So fortunately, I had all my old files so I cut and pasted some portions of her old features to blend into the current version. I fleshed out the shading on her suit, her gloves, and really cleaned out her hair and scalpel. I put in a placeholder layout but really have to investigate better fonts first...

Scalpel! Next Version Again, Pt.2

Fleshing out the details even more. Trying to find a happy medium in rendering everything, since I'm not skilled enough to make this look really realistic...

Scalpel! Next Version 2

My deadline approaches, and I'm still tidying up the miniscule details. It may not seem like much but I adjusted her septum, fixed up the shaded side of her face, added her lacrimal caruncle, and adjusted the backlighting on her hair. Seems like a lot for so little to show for it. I think I'm procrastinating.

New Year

I was looking for images to upload to my Facebook profile and I liked this one from my 1000th post. But I had to retool it because I thought some of the details (her jaw, her neck, the septum) were a bit too manly... which is a problem I often have, especially in retrospect. So I fixed it.

Tika

Another sketch for the Small Horrors series, although I'm not sure I like the monkey. Maybe a frog...? Last sketch for the year and it's an indecisive one. Oh well, maybe too much champagne. :)