Last Sketch of the Year

Since I was heading over to a friend's place at 9:30 to celebrate New Year's Eve, I knew I wouldn't be able to get any sketching in before 2012. I had originally planned on drawing while at the party, but on the subway train I decided todo something I've always wanted to do, but never have: I sketched people on the train. The woman sitting in front of me had interesting boots, so I sketched that. However, I was on the Express train, so I didn't really get much drawing time in. Still, it's something new for me, so that's a nice way to end the year. Here's to more drawings in 2012! That's actually my New Year's Resolution: to finish more drawings. Obviously, this unfinished sketch doesn't count, but hey, that's SO last year!

Happy New Year everyone!

Tessa, Page 5 done

Finally! One full new page after over 24 years! And it doesn't even look good! Haha!

Geez, I didn't redraw it, merely drew what was there, but still... I'm a rubbish inker.

Tessa, Page 5

This over-20-year-old comic strip will get inked and finished before I die, I swear!

I think part of the problem is no matter how much I think otherwise, I try to 'respect' the old pencils, but they're actually only breakdowns and should be redrawn extensively! Ah, still, I don't want it to change too much, as there's an honesty to this old story that was so true of me and my work at the time.

Also, soooo stupid! haha!

For those of you wondering what this is from, old school X-men fans may recall when Sage used to be called Tessa. My friends and I thought up a silly origin story here. And if you're a reaally old X-men fan, you'll know that this page is in homage to this layout by Dave Cockrum, from Uncanny X-men issue#94. :)

Violet Face

I just opened up yesterday's sketch and drew on the background, directly, not doing things on a layer as I normally do. It affected the color and made for all sorts of brush strokes, which I have to say shook things up a bit despite my drawing yet another 3/4 view face. Must remember to take more chances...

Owch

And I still don't want to draw, but this time because my wrists are hurting. Ugh, what did I do at the gym??

Anyhow, this is a drawing with no erasing. Any mistakes - and there are lots- I just left in and tried to salvage by adding newer lines. Hah, didn't really work...

Oh, I know why my wrist hurts - aside from all the drawing, I was baking today, and creaming the damn butter by hand. Guess I'm not used to that action...

Break

I thought that I really should take a break, especially after 12 days of intensive Heron sketching. Between the planning and the rendering it was a great exercise for me, because I had deadlines I had to respect and no room for error. But after 12 days, I didn't want to draw anything digitally, so I rented a movie (the last Harry Potter) and while watching some of the characters online (the Dementors) got the idea to draw fabric unfurling. So I just picked up a pen and whatever paper was lying around, and doodled.

The Twelve Days of Heron, Part 12

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The Twelve Days of Heron, Part 11

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my browser brought to me
Eleven pepper sprayings
Ten cats a-leaving,
Nine Ladies going,
Eight ‘wives stampeding,
Seven spams deleting,
Six geeks away-ing,
FIve broken links,
Four migrating Birds,
Three unfriends,
Two ripped turtlenecks
and a Heron nowhere to be seen.

The Twelve Days of Heron, Part 10

On the tenth day of Christmas my browser brought to me
Ten cats a-leaping,
Nine Ladies Gaga,
Eight ‘wives a-MILF-ing,
Seven spams a-shilling,
Six geeks cosplaying,
FIve old links...
Four Angry Birds,
Three friends’ friends,
Two turtlenecks,
and a Heron in my News Feed.

The Twelve Days of Heron, Part 9

On the ninth day of Christmas, my browser brought to me
Nine ladies Gaga,
Eight ‘wives a-MILF-ing,
Seven spams a-shilling,
Six geeks cosplaying,
Five old links,
Four Angry Birds,
Three friends’ friends,
Two turtlenecks,
and a Heron in my News Feed

The Twelve Days of Heron, Part 8

On the eighth day of Christmas my browser brought to me
Eight 'wives a-MILF-ing,
Seven spams a-shilling,
Six geeks cosplaying,
Five old links....
Four Angry Birds,
Three friends' friends,
Two turtlenecks,
And a Heron in my News Feed.

The Twelve Days of Heron, Part 7

On the seventh day of Christmas my browser brought to me
Seven spams a-shilling
Six geeks cosplaying
5 Old Links
4 Angry Birds
3 friend's friends
2 turtlenecks
and a Heron in my News Feed.

The Twelve Days of Heron, Part 6

On the sixth day of Christmas, my browser brought to me
Six geeks cosplaying,
Five old links...
Four Angry Birds,
Three friends’ friends,
Two turtlenecks
and a Heron in my News Feed.

The Twelve Days of Heron, Part 5

On the fifth day of Christmas, my browser brought to me
5 old links
4 Angry Birds
3 friends' friends
Two turtlenecks
and a Heron in my News Feed.

The Twelve Days of Heron, Part 4

On the fourth day of Christmas my browser brought to me
Four Angry Birds, Three friends' friends, Two turtlenecks and a Heron in my News Feed.

The Twelve Days of Heron, Part 3

On the third day of Christmas, my browser brought to me, Three friends' friends, Two turtlenecks and a Heron in my News Feed.

The Twelve Days of Heron, Part 2

On the second day of Christmas, my browser brought to me
Two turtlenecks and a Heron in my News Feed.

The Twelve Days of Heron, part 1

On the first day of Christmas, my browser brought to me
A Heron in my New Feed.

Gym Guy: Bazooka Joe, Done

I made niggling little changes to his face then changed it all back, but I did get to base the colors of his gym garb on the actual things he wears since he posted a workout shot on Facebook. So voila, Bazooka Joe is done... a scant two days before his birthday! Hoep he likes it... and that it looks like him to all his friends and fam.

The Harsh Cold Voice of the White Queen

This is a page from my now (gasp!) 24 year old comic strip that I never finished! Egads, I really should get a move on it shouldn't it? Well, I inked a new page 'panel' today. Will this ever be finished??? In my head I keep holding out for a time when I can do it right, but done is better than perfect, methinks. Plus, at 24 years of age, it's not like anyone really cares except me... oboy, better get a move on.

Gym Guy: Bazooka Joe, 3

I think this is done for now, until I run into him again at the gym. Haven't seen my buddy all weekend.

Robbie and his friend Heron

Robbie and his friend Heron's 'friendly' game of volleyball got a tad more competitive...

Danielle and her friend Heron

Danielle and her friend Heron finally confirmed that they were neither shrunken down nor trapped in a giant pinball machine.

Gym Guy: My Trainer Totoro

There's a trainer at my gym who's a bit portly (yeah, what's up with that and being a trainer?) but is extremely friendly, and I can never remember his name. Also, he has a strangely blank expression to his eyes that remind me of the Keeper of the Forest Totoro from Hayao Miyazaki's "My Neighbor Totoro."

Gym Guy: Smelly Santa 2

He never wears anything else at the gym, so the white part of his tank top I need to make sure is that special shade of yellowish gray that it's evolved into.

Gym Guy: Bazooka Joe, 2

I'm hoping my friend doesn't visit the blog anytime soon, as it would spoil the surprise! I think it's coming along nicely. I'd have finished it tonight but I blame Mercury Retrograde for making all the PDF files I sent out yesterday somehow wrong because no one really gave me specs. Ugh.

Gym Guy: Bazooka Joe

This is a makeup drawing from last night, as I was feeling a bit too malaised to draw. This is my friend from the gym, who asked me to do Smelly Santa. Throughout the first series of Gym Guy sketches I started thinking I knew how to do him too, and I mentioned it to him the other day and now he's fixated on getting one. I had a couple of ideas how to toon up his features, and I'm happy to report that this initial stab looks a bit like him to me, and now I just need to refine it and hopefully it will look like him to him and his friends. And as for the nickname, while he may not be sporting an eyepatch, did you see those guns on his arms? Yeah, major firearms on that one.

Space Face

I'm way too sick. How the heck did I catch another cold? Ugh. Anyhow, I didn't want to do a digital sketch so instead I took out an old sketch pad and worked on a previous drawing I had started while watching old episodes of Battlestar Galactica. I think I'm too sick to be multitasking, as I was trying to answer emails as well as read newsletters, and my memory was so taxed I stared at a photo of my favorite model and couldn't remember that his name was Sean O'Pry. Jeez, I hope I don't have Alzheimers...

Anyhow, this was the sketch I (halfheartedly) drew while watching my space drama.

Gym Guy: Smelly Santa

I didn't name him! My gym friend Marc insisted that I sketch this older man who goes to our gym always clad in the exact same outfit, with his wild white beard and reportedly pungent odor. I personally haven't been near enough to sniff him, but he's certainly unmistakeably memorable.

Hmm, this might be a good candidate as an Illustrator exercise...

Novice Again

I attended a really eye-opening Illustrator CS5 tutorial geared toward fashion illustrators earlier today. The features that the instructor put to use were really inspiring, and the fact that the program's a lot more user-friendly and less vector-looking than before made me really consider using Illustrator as a drawing tool. It seems like I could get a lot of the more graphic effects I work hard to achieve in Photoshop, with the added benefit of now being able to draw more naturally because of all the new brushes and features.

Well, I don't have CS5 yet, but I did have CS3. Sketching freehand, I didn't do too badly for the amount of effort I put in, but it's certainly not indicative of my personal illustration style (okay, frankly, it's ugly). It kinda looks like all those awful renderings that lower end retailers and magazines try to pass off as 'fashion illustrations'. I have a ways to go before I can recreate what I want in this program, but might as well start somewhere, eh? It never seemed possible before today, but I'm hoping I'll get into it.

This was an outfit I was wearing today to a party, btw. Hey, draw what you know...

Crude 4

Back to my "Crude" drawing. I had a hard time deciding how to position and now how to render the hair, which should look like it's been dipped in petroleum, but fortunately I made some headway and now I'm just going back into the sketch and refining the shading as well as the edges. it's a bit labor-intensive, but if I'm on the phone chatting with a friend, it's a great way to doodle mindlessly and still get some work done! This still has a ways to go as some of the rendering is sharper and more graphical, while the versions I prefer have been blurred someone in the transition between highlights and shadow. Guess I have to go over the sketch again with the Blur tool...

Bear Witness

Bears are cute. Sometimes deadly, but cute.

It Iz: Color Study

I thought I'd try mapping out the colors I saw in my head before I attempted to paint it. I don't think it will be quite so starkly simple, but I could always end up botching it, so a bit or practice shouldn't hurt. I think, even if I painted it without referring to the photo I took, it somewhat resembles him.

It Iz

This is a pencil outline sketch of Izzy, who I'm doing a watercolor portrait of, from an idea of an image that popped into my head, and a photo shoot we did on Monday. It's not much now because once I paint it, I'll have to finish it (watercolors are best finished while they're wet).

Jean Grey In Modified Technique

While trying to emulate other younger artists styles, I'm finding I'm not liking the results. I'm not trying to change my own style, just trying out another for a change to see if there's anything I'm missing. Kinda not from this trial, but who knows... I think it's too heavy to do digitally. Maybe in natural watercolor...?

Crude 3

I can't believe I'm working on three separate pieces all at once... with a firm idea where each should go. Add to it the fact that I'm also finishing a poster layout and my website, I'm wondering where all this creative energy is coming from...? It's curious for me, even if I often multitask like this with other things. But I suppose the fact that this drawing is a really old one, but still worth finishing up (especially since it's nearly done).

Jean Grey in (Modified) Carven

I posted a blog entry about my current favorite women's fashion brand, Carven, and I decided that it would be fun to draw an X-man in one of the frocks. This is a modified one because the draping reminded me of Phoenix's sash, but I wanted it to look a bit more like her costume bu adding the ends of her sash to the draping. And it's obviously unfinished...

Newer Looks

Looking around, I find that younger artists are drawing an ideal of beauty that's different from the one I grew up drawing. It's interesting to realize when you see a lot of it and can channel it, and as a result see how different it is from your own style. Thinner lips, painted color around the nose(a concept that's completely foreign to me, since I grew up drawing starker, made-up faces), languid, more casual poses. No wonder I sometimes feel my own work can seem dated...

Hares More!

I don't know if I'll refine the linework on these hares, but you'll get the idea once you see the final composition.

Hare Again 2

Guess I'm going at it piecemeal, but I'm hoping the end result will be fun. Longtime readers know I like to hold off on a reveal.

Hare Again

I decided to do some more of my hares from my upcoming piece. While I'm using references, at some point I'll be drawing them freehand without needing to look at photos.

FDA Approved

Who knew my prescriptions would have such a psychotropic side effect on me? Well, last night, I found out. Melting into the plants, shifting perceptions, wave upon wave of varying degrees of consciousness? Psychotropic? Yeah, check.

Crude 2

I'm trying to rework the drawing but a hair configuration JUST isn't coming! Oh well, the color scheme is easy enough...

Crude

I came home at past 1 am after watching a movie at my friend Kevin's place, and for some reason I got the feeling to revisit this old piece that I never finished. I sorta wanted it to look like a velvet painting, but I'm having issues with the rendering style. Fortunately, having spent time away from it, I'm no longer as invested in the strokes I had previously placed, and can rework it with impunity.

Tesa and her friend Heron

Tesa and her friend Heron think two's company, trees are a photo op.

Hare Today, Gone Today

I was working on the Hares drawing when, after a ton of progress on one particular bunny, my application suddenly crashed on me, losing all the changes. So it was gone, and in my frustration, I just began doodling haphazardly...

Suitable

A friend of mine was asking for advise on what to wear for a dinner event he's attending, so I proffered a simple outfit based on a suit he had planned on using. Since he's had issues with having to shave his head recently, we were discussing headwear options, and I didn't feel a fedora would be apropos for a dinner, but perhaps a loose beanie might be edgy without being obtrusive.

Hares

I'm working on a new sketch series that I just thought of today. This is the beginnings of a layout I'm working on.

Out Of The Blue

My fingers have been unusually stiff lately, and as a result, I've been hard-pressed to draw anything. This is a makeup sketch for last night. I was going for a red-and-blue-ballpoint-pen-on-colored-paper feel. I feel like I inadvertently channeled a couple of illustrators who I looked at recently. I thought I was being all original by the way I was rendering this face, until I realized after going back to those selfsame illustrators' work that I channeled them without even realizing it. I feel like an out-of-control mynah bird.

Haphazard

I got into an argument that I had no desire to get into, and I was drawing this at the time. It's funny: I lost my ability to draw anything confidently. Lines wouldn't form right or sit well, and I kept redoing it haphazardly, distracted. It was an interesting exercise in how emotion affects my drawing ability.