Mannequin Walk, 2

There was...is... something not quite right about my figure's anatomy, and I'm constantly retooling it to make it work. Right now, it looks like there's something wrong with his torso where it meets his pelvis... and maybe his ass is too round. Oy. This is what happens when I'm just drawing from a mental image. It's so much easier to have a reference and , even if things don't look quite right because you never would have put those body parts there, that's just the way things are. Here, I suppose i'm working from a flawed mental image, based on something I looked at but didn't study. I cut, pasted, erased and redrew so much of it, but it really doesn't look like I did much, does it? Still, it looks a bit better, even if I did change the angle a bit to try and make things work. Le sigh.

Mannequin Walk

I passed by the Adel Rootstein mannequin showroom yesterday, and while their windows were closed, their latest men's mannequin collection was prominently displayed in the window. The nearly-nude forms were perfect for drawing, as Rootstein is a master of natural, fluid poses. This was one of them, shown in the window in multiples, and therefore much more readily digested from various angles. I'm not quite sure it looks right now that I see it reduced, but it seemed fine at full size...

Oversized Shirt

I asked my friend for whom I drew a fashion sketch and also designed a flyer to make me an oversized shirt. I've been looking for a nice one but haven't found one to my liking. So why not make one? I used to have shirts made all the time back in Manila, and this is exactly the kind of shirt Filipinos already wear and excel in.

When In Doubt, Add a Feeshie Thing (Again)

Dusted Off

A veerrrry old drawing idea I still think I'm going to finish up someday got dusted off for a bit of cleaning up here and there. I really wonder if I ever will finish this thing up: it's been gestating since 2007, maybe longer.

Good Run, 2

Never drink in the middle of the day, because , if you're like me, you really won't want to do much else afterward. After taking my friend out for a belated birthday lunch at a fancy restaurant, I had no energy for anything afterward, and that goes for tonight's sketch. Thankfully, after a few perfunctory strokes on yesterday's line drawing, I kinda got a bit into the mood of this digital watercolor. I wish it were looser in the strokes, but as a sketch it's nice and loose overall.

Good Run

One of the things I find most difficult to draw is a good walking or running pose. Sure, there are the common, standard ones all over comics, particularly of the active running stances, but to make it look natural and fluid while maintaining the musculature often associated with comicbook heroes can be daunting. That's why when I ran across this image from the porfolio of model Beto Malfacini, with his easy gait and amazing core definition in mid-stride, I had to use it as a reference. Beyond the fact that the man is just damn beautiful and insanely hot in a classical way (more old-school male model and, well, like some ancient Greek statue), the pose and this photo from his portfolio is amazing.

The drawing took all of a few minutes to get the gesture, which means I must have been particularly inspired. I'll see if I develop this further, as I do love the fluidity of the simple line work, which often can become too tight when details are formed around it...

Wistful, Colored

Still not ready to actually draw, despite having come up with some great visual ideas earlier this afternoon. But it's been the kind of day where you get next to nothing done. That, and I've had a couple of red wines...

I did adjust her forehead and chin though, as they were bugging me....

Wistful

I tried to draw something in tribute to an old friend, Todd, who just passed away yesterday, I found out today. Still somewhat in shock, since we had just fairly recently reconnected via Facebook, and much of my early life in New York and in the East Village involved him in one way or another. I could barely draw tonight, I didn't want to draw anything. I erased and re-sketched and just tried. This is the most I could come up with, which has nothing to do at all with Todd.

Ah well, goodbye, Todd. You and I were not the closest of friends, but I feel so sad about your passing. Rest in peace.

Joanne and her friend Heron

Joanne and her friend Heron demonstrate what The Rapture might have been like.

Thor Flies

I dunno why I'm having so much fun with this Thor caricature, but I can just draw so quickly and like...well, like I knew exactly what I want to draw. I remember my critters back in high school and college, and as I made my comic strips, I knew exactly how to draw these characters. It's kinda like Heron, although I've watched Heron evolve quite distinctly through the weeks I've been drawing him on people's photos. Thor, however, is just easy. Maybe it's because he looks like a Kliban cat...?

Thor and his enchanted Hammerhead Meow-Meow

I watched "Thor" earlier tonight and there was a part where Thor mentions he had to locate his hammer Mjolnir (pronounced "Meeyol-NEAR"), and one of the characters thought he said "Meow Meow" (or at least, that's what I heard her say!). So since my cat was actually named Thor, I decided he would have a sidekick called Meow Meow, who wasn't an enchanted hammer but an enchanted Hammerhead Shark. I smell a runaway hit!

Jordan and his friend Heron

Jordan and his friend Heron were all smiles and eager to begin their forest hike, blissfully unaware that they would spend the next hour being pursued by a bear.

Fashion Favor, 4

She looks pissed, doesn't she?
I didn't really draw it like I think I would like, but maybe it's because I wasn't so sold on the design and the details. I usually like rendering something I find to my taste, but since this was a favor for a friend and it was his design and color scheme, my reluctance shows. I didn't really come up with a fresh pose or consistent painting techniques. Still, the friend is really happy with it, so I guess there's that.

Fashion Favor, 4

My old college classmate's fashion show is coming up, and he finally sent me the pics of his showstopper' outfit. It's not quite what I expected but I'm trying to make it as dramatic as possible, although trying to maintain something of a fashion flavor so it doesn't end up looking like a comic book costume, which the design already feels a bit like, with it's Matrix-y long coat and turned up collar.

edit: Yeesh, what a night away will show! One normally draws overlong bodies for fashion but yesterday's entry was atrociously scaled, so I scaled the body down and am re-posting this image.

Robbie's Outfit

I spent most of the day with my friend Robbie at the ICFF, shopping for new furniture. He was dressed and ready for breakfast in all his own designs, and it really worked, so much so that now I need to find the pants he was wearing at some retailer to see how they fit me. I have to say, I kept looking at him throughout the day just loving how he put himself together, that it was so nice to walk the Javits aisle with such a stylishly dressed companion. Fashion designers often design cool clothing that they themselves usually eschew for some sort of simpler uniform, but Robbie designs clothing he likes to wear, and as such, you can totally get the aesthetic and the sincerity of vision behind it.

Thor Kitty

When we were growing up, one of our cats, the last of our bastard kittens from our purebred Siamese, Mother Dear, was named Thor. Which should remind me that I haven't seen the movie yet.

Real Watercolor

Okay, my control of real watercolor for this particular style sucks. My technique was definitely not there, and watercolor used to be one of my media of choice back in the day. Ugh, gotta practice again. I think with enough practice I can churn out things I would be happy enough with. Plus, I kinda miss natural media. Just the feel of trying to do specific effects with my 20 year old Chinese brush was almost... nostalgic. And just the results of my work... kinda pathetic. Even my anatomy suffered from my careless application....

Really Fake Water

I didn't get to post last night because Blogger was doing some site maintenance. I did, however, actually pull out my watercolors and tried a wash technique to once again test out the posible rendering for the possible illustration job. But along the way, waiting for Blogger to get back up, I did some wet brush techniques from an older version of Photoshop, just to see what might work best. It's all so confusing if you don't practice...

Watered Up

I thought about taking the watercolors into a more commercial/pop sphere by adding pseudo 50s/60s brush work to outline the woman's features, which is more my style. I think the ethereal quality of the watercolor effects gets grounded more, and makes this much more commercial yet still freestyle. Hopefully it's a direction that can prove viable for this job...

Inspired By Mats

Mats Gustaffson is a master. His unique style is famous and famously his, and the client I am negotiating with wants something in that vein. I was able to approximate the look using Photoshop textures overlaid on a very simple sketch of mine, but I really don't want to knock him off. It's an insult to both Mats as an originator, and to myself, as an artist. SO I'm trying to see what details I could add to make the look more my own, and the quick face lines are a step in that direction.

Wash Your Face

Totally just playing with the digital watercolor effects. Does this look like natural media to you? I think there's a dryness that needs to be softened up a bit, but perhaps with a bit of practice it can totally appear like real watercolor... maybe...?

Haim and his friend Heron

Haim and his friend Heron clearly need more practice with this cheerleading lift.

Wash Your Mouth Out

This is just a light wash because it's more about rendering this view of a mouth. I had pulled a photo from some website just because I liked the angle of the face, and the way how it showed the model's mouth corner resolving as it got closer to the side of his face. These 3/4 views were always tricky for me, because I could never figure out how to resolve the eyes, or cheekbones, or the shape of one's teeth underneath the cheeks. Now I just need to find a way to incorporate it into my skillset without having to use reference photos...

Happy Bird Day!

It was my friend Rainer's birthday today, and while I already told him I was taking him out to a fancy lunch at a very posh favorite restaurant of mine later on this month, I did meet him for dinner at my favorite downtown wine bar for dinner. Naturally I didn't want to show up empty-handed, but instead of flowers I decided to do one of my quick, silly cartoons as a card. This is a colored, digital version of the birthday card image I drew for him.

Saturn Girl's Hairdo

When I was a kid, I was enamored of the way Mike Grell drew Legion character Saturn Girl's hair: it was a very symmetrical and unvarying look, a specific identifier in comics (much like Suerpman's 'kiss me' tendril identifies him). Now that I think about it, it was a silly hairdo, all flips and waves. Just so 70s... considering it was supposed to be a 30th Century 'do.

Wash and Wear, 3

Been researching watercolor brushes online using Photoshop instead of Painter, because of Painter 11's sluggish response on my Mac. Might be able to get away with presets instead of really painting...

Wash and Wear, 2

I downloaded a trial version of Corel Painter 11 to try out and see how it worked. It lagged and lagged like some elephant trying to squeeze into a pinhole. I have no idea if it's my system or the program itself, but I could barely experiment with all the features for waiting for that damn progress wheel to stop spinning. Might have to see if there's something wrong with my Mac...

Wash and Wear

I might have a job doing watercolor illustrations for a bath line. And they want it in watercolor. I wonder, though, if I can get away with doing everything digitally? They'll certainly want a looser style, I imagine, and I haven't perfected one for this medium. This was an experiment, but her face looks really dated...

Bong and his friend Heron

Bong and his friend Heron make a grand entrance.