Rory and her friend Heron

Rory and her friend Heron have that special glow about them.

Striking Poses

I had a photoshoot this evening with a professional ballet dancer/ choreographer who's in town to receive an award, so in preparation, I sketched out some pose ideas I wanted him to strike for my next illustration series. These are a few of the gestures. I totally feel these are throwaway sketches, but it was nice of my model to note how much he liked the movement I was able to capture, even down to how the toes are pointed. Coming from a lauded principal dancer, I'll take the compliment!

Moosetaches

A friend of a friend asked if I would draw him a mustache, but didn't specify the what or the why. So I did three... then promptly got lost in watching anime. Not the most scintillating entry, for sure, but...
edit: they sent a reference to the wrong email addy, so I quickly adjusted this morning and rendered the very barbershop 1920s moustache. On a moose.

Hanna

I went over to my friend Kevin's place earlier this evening to watch the dvd of "Hanna," a movie I had wanted to see earlier this year but didn't get around to (probably because of fear of bedbugs. There were moviehouse infestations this past year). It was a great movie, and I was especially impressed with the art direction and cinematography, but the movie overall was very well done. Hanna was played by a young actress named Saoirse Ronan, and she was excellent. She had a very blonde, Nordic look to her, and even her costumes in the movie played up her coloring. I took note of how her blonde hair and pale skin looked against the almost lilac sweats she wore at one point.

P.Is For Pastels

The photo I'm working from was an indoor night shot, so there were a lot of blacks and deep tones. I went with that in my initial stages for this portrait, but as I move toward finishing it as a composed illustration with my own added visual flourishes, I'm finding I'm responding more to a lighter background. I experimented a lot with the canvas as well, changing the positioning of the piece to a more centered layout, and I think it's working more for me.

Are you sick of this portrait yet?

P. Is For Peach

I made some progress with the facial details, so I started getting into stylizing the secondary details like the hair and the clothing. As I reduced the colors and linework, I decided that peach was a good color for this palette, because my friend's pale skin tone determined a very blue-pink palette, and the teals and violets I used to offset all that worked well with the peach. I do hope he likes it when it's done. He needs cheering up.

P. Is For Painterly

I'm enjoying the process of eliminating the lines and painting in dabs of color instead. It's very much like my pastel style, albeit without all the mess since it's all digital in Painter. I'm at the point where I think it really looks like my friend, but I know that at some point it will become so close that every little detail will stick out like a supernova, and I'll think it doesn't look like him at all. Ah, I kinda know my process, don't I?

edit: By the way, this entry is a milestone of sorts: it's the 1600th blog entry/illustration for Draw 365. How crazy is that??

Injuries

I can barely work tonight. For some reason, my right wrist is aching with what I can only imagine is carpal tunnel syndrome (which is weird since I wasn't working all evening) while my left thumb has a painful black bruise underneath the nail from trying to open a deodorant stick, of all things.

Natural Digital Hybrid

The Fashion Meetup group I sometimes take part in post work to the group page after, and I find a lot of the better illustrations take place at home, when the artists have had some time to rework the poses they drew digitally. I was always of the mind to keep the results of a live session at those results, but that might just be the Virgo in me. Here I tried cleaning up my favorite illo from the last session in Photoshop, and finishing out the colors the way I thought I might had I had time. Not quite changing things around, but painting a little more, this time with Photoshop brushes, just in the suit. I don't know if this counts as a sketch entry though.

Charlene and her friend Heron

Charlene and her friend Heron were blissfully unaware of how traumatic brain freeze is for herons... until it was too late.

Bear With Me

My friend Greg made the most delightful paper bear mask in anticipation of Halloween and modeled it for us yesterday before we went out for dinner last night. Greg is one of the owners of the fabled paper store Kate's Paperie here in New York City, and his paper crafting is proof he's in the right biz!

Take Heart

I spent most of the evening updating profiles, sorting through portfolio work and chatting online with a sick friend. This heart is for him while he's going through his troubles, and I wish him a speedy recovery...

P. Is For Proportions

I'm watching my process as I go, and I've come to the point where my initial linework is starting to show its errors, as I paint in colors for lines. It starts to change the way different elements relate to each other, and I have to transform weight and volume from outlines to shades and colors. It's fun, but it becomes interesting how parts that seemed on point just become unbalanced, and soon I'm adjusting pretty much everything. Thank goodness this is all digital, as if this were paper, there would be the distinct possibility that I would overwork the piece. Although looking at this preview, it doesn't look like much of a difference from yesterday, but I DID do a ton of small adjustments with color and shading.

Ah but I'm enjoying myself. I love looking at this guy's smile.

P. Is For Playing

Well, not having any agenda beyond getting a likeness is resulting in me just playing, with colors and strokes, and it's coming along. I'm still not certain how the piece will look when finished, but I'm letting it be what it will be. I'm liking the chunkiness of the color daubs on the lips, so I'll try and do more of that look...

P. Is For Preliminaries

I haven't decided yet what style I'm going to do this portrait. I think I'll let the source image dictate it as I go along and paint under (and over) my initial line sketch from two days ago. I'm thinking of doing my very painterly color daub style, which as far as I can tell is my most original style, although it's probably influenced by ...uhm... 70s and 80s styles like those I recall of LeRoy Neiman and the solarized Stuyvesant cigarette ads. Anyhow, I just laid in the undertones which will be smoothed out, painted over and blended later.

Fashion Sketch Meetup: Menswear

I attended another session of the NY Fashion Sketch Meetup, and this time we had a male model. Considering how much I prefer men's fashion now to women's, it was a lot of fun. I barely noticed the three hours go by. If anything, I wanted more time to paint and sketch. Thanks to the coordinator Geoffry, who took photos of these for me to upload.

P. Is For Portrait

My friend is going through a rough patch, and as a result so am I. I can't do very much to help except be there, but he always wanted me to draw him, so I'm working on a portrait for him.

February

I discovered online an Italian brand called February. They create very relaxed, looser unisex styles that I've been feeling are the next step in fashion, ever since I saw similar styles and silhouettes featured in 2009 editorials in Encens magazine. And more and more designers are channeling this look. I just wonder if I should purchase some as I've been looking for similar items for a while.

Happy Birthday, Tesa!

A birthday greeting for Zenaida's first fan.

Bob and his friend Heron

Bob and his friend Heron agreed they maybe they should see other birds, but Heron didn't expect Bob to find one so quickly.

Tissue Box

I had bought a box of tissues to refill the lacquered tissue box cover I have on my desk, but as often happens with putting in a new box the first sheet gets pulled off too far or ripped or something. After I finally got the sheets to dispense properly, I left the first correctly-emerging sheet sticking out quite a bit through the slot. When I looked around my room from my desk for inspiration, I didn't want to draw anything figurative, and the tissue, with all its folds and creases, just looked really interesting. This sketch was done on a single layer, so that any mistakes in the linework would show. All things said, I think I did pretty nicely with this. This is one of those serendipitous drawings that somehow turn out well.

Menswear Monday: Acne Sweater

I thought I might try my hand at thematic drawings and give my sketches a bit more structure. I've been quite inspired by the new Fall offerings for menswear this year, so I thought I'd sketch a few looks based on pieces I might want to buy, maybe put together. This is an asymmetrical knit by Acne, inspired perhaps by a similarly slanted hem on a Lanvin men's piece also from this season (although Lanvin's has two sleeves). I paired it with the menswear accessory of the moment, the Amish wide-brimmed hat as seen on runways like Dior Homme, plus a skirt by Umit Benam and maybe a white shirt by Uniqlo, haha, just for a bit of high/low.

Monstrous

After my earlier post with the monster "Taffy," I thought it might be fun to try another monster creation. I imagine this is a cross between a bed bug, a flea and a chicken... in hell. The teeth and two-legged form are probably Gil Kane influences from forever ago... he used to make such creative, unusual creatures. Quite the change from drawing fashion illustrations, but I never claimed to be focused! ;)

Billy Bear and Taffy

I decided my cutesy character needed a pet. Meet Billy Bear and Taffy, his pet Rappakorian Dreadbeast.

I used to love drawing monsters as a child, and wondered if I still could do it - I really don't have the same fascination I used to for monstrous critters. When I was young, I would create and draw one after the other, trying to create whole menageries. But this one came together pretty quickly - all told, I spent 12 minutes drawing it.

Billy Bear

I wasn't sure what to draw tonight because I didn't want to sketch another woman. So I went pseudo Sanrio instead! And if my ideas hold off for another day, I have plans for this one.

Girl With The Glaser Hairdo, Revisited 2

Funny how spending time away from a drawing can either make you think, oh, that turned out nice... or quite possibly, What was I thinking?? This one is the latter. I just didn't like the face I drew. I think I remember thinking she was quirky and interesting then, but I can only see things I need to fix! Apparently, I now have a tendency for drawing eyes really high-set on a face. I don't know when that happened... anyhow, this isn't perfect either - I can totally see things I would change when I see teh smaller preview. But it's done for the moment...

Rico and his friend Heron

Rico and his friend Heron discover some of the truly frightening things you can do when you're extremely bored.

Past Present

My sketches seem to be taking on a retro flair lately. Perhaps it's because of the trend in tv shows, between the new Pan Am and recently cancelled Playboy Club premieres I watched. Or it could be thoughts of John Galliano and Raf Simons channeling the 50s and 60s in their past and recent collections for Dior and Sander. And maybe a bit of Phil Noto, and his penchant for vintage-styled illustration. Or all of the above have just seeped in.

I didn't mind using rough, pronounced strokes for the contouring in this sketch. It just seemed apropos thematically.

Retro Bunny

I was watching the pilot of NBC's The Playboy Club online, and felt like drawing a bunny. Between this show and Pan Am, Mad Men's influence on tv is obvious. Anyhow, it's funny how even my drawing style looked equally retro.

edit: I edited her left eye (on viewer's right) a bit but ended up preferring the older version, lopsided as it is. Ugh... never done, even with throwaway sketches...

Wearing The Pants

I was looking online at Jean Paul Gaultier's last collection for Hermes from SS2011, and I was quite enamored of a few shots and how the pants draped as the models walked. I took note of how some of the folds fell, and then closed my references down. Instead of starting a new drawing, I figured I'd pull up my croquis from a few days ago and see about dressing her. I normally don't like using such obviously digital strokes, but the Sable brush in Painter afforded me the best flow for the swing of the pants legs.

Hard Lines

I had more than a bit to drink earlier this evening so by the time I got to drawing it was well past midnight. So, no agenda but to post something. I didn't think I was gonna finish anything but perhaps my state made me less indecisive and I went with whatever I put down. I used the pencil tool in Painter but if you ask me, it doesn't look much like pencil.