Painted Print

I had to render a monotone floral print and I had a good idea how I would do it before I even started. Of course, things don't always go as you plan. Fortunately, what I did wasn't too far from it, and although I did tool with the extent and intensity of the color, I think it both looks like the original as well as works as an illustration. I'll post the full sketch when I finish the series. I rather liked how the hair turned out.

Leg Work

The other part of yesterday's drawing. I do a quick sketch first, then start ot clean it up, then paint in colors, then erase some of my original pencils and draw newer ones that have a bit more definition to them... all the while trying to make them look like, "oh, I just spontaneously painted everything with no effort at all". I don't know if I succeed, but I'm often told my linework looks very confident and immediate, so there's that.

Facial Recognition 2

If I do my job right, the coloring works without much effort. So far it seems okay, just tweaking here and there. Progressing...

Facial Recognition

I love doing portraits, and I love getting a likeness. But because I pride myself on it, I fight myself so much when I strive to perfect the likeness. And it's something that never happens easily for me when I really want to get a good semblance. I'm not one of those photographic illustrators who can reproduce a photo with astounding accuracy - my hand will always show through, my tendencies in line and form will often give a semblance flaws... although in other people's eyes, that's my style. But I still try and I think I get  successful more than not. So here I am, working on a new sketch/portrait. It's sometimes even harder when I'm sketching pencils in because I know I have to build it up with color and another 'medium' and the pencils don't need to capture all the data because other elements will fill it in later...

Golden Skirt

I'm planning on being done with this magazine cover commission and delivering it tomorrow. I always thought I would finalize it just when everything was ready on the agreement side, as well as from the layout side, and it all is. So now I'm just touching up on details, cleaning up lines and excess pixels, and otherwise simplifying the tones while trying to leave a sense of immediacy as well.

Tank Ewe...

...Berry Mush. One of my best friends' boyfriend treated us to a performance of Pina Bausch's last work, at the BAM theatre this evening. I knew nothing about the artist, and was pleasantly surprised. I even got called to the stage for a bit of audience participation! So this is my little thank you drawing for Charles. Tank Ewe!

White Suit 2

This figure was stymieing me, because beside the colorful outfit this model was paired with, it just looked blah and unworthy of attention. Plus the model who wore it is more of a quirky type, so in my interpretation he comes across as more everyman. Funny how, after I tried to bolster the image with additional colors and techniques, what it took was for me to eliminate the figure next to him and post him solo, and I liked what I did much more.

October Meetup

Went to the monthly Fashion Model Drawing Meetup I attend. I was having a bad morning (actually a bad week) and was annoyed at everything today: my elevator man, my neighbors, work. Fortunately I was able to just turn off and draw almost on automatic.

When my sumi brush kept splaying and sending stray lines of paint on my work, I had to abandon my (admittedly decades old) favorite brush and try to work enough control with the new brushes. These new brushes take some getting used to, and I think I may enjoy working with them but it'll take some time to learn to control it. Fortunately today became a good practice session with the new brushes.

White Suit

Back to working on one of my Fashion behind The Scenes series. I really need to finish this up!  Even a little bit at a time...

Makeup Makeover

I missed the other day in my series of drawings, so this is a makeup drawing, and coincidentally, it involves a makeover. I've obviously drew this robot inspired by the movie Metropolis' pivotal mechanical woman. But while I know the movie's in the public domain, I thought it best to make her more my own. It's not like I haven't drawn a ton of robots through the years (especially during my Japanime mech phase in my late teens).

Bob, David and their friend Heron

Bob, David and their friend Heron got extremely close on their recent trip to Paris.

Dolled Up 2

For some reason I completely forgot about drawing today, which is weird because I didn't have a ton of work to get through, just a lot of planning. Funny how having too much time on my hands results in not enough time.

Anyhow, for lack of a better project, I did two more outfits on my ex trainer's paper doll.

Dolled Up

It's my ex trainer's birthday today and he had once asked me if I would do a super sexy cartoon of him. I had already done one 'toon version of him back around post # 678 (we're at #1960 right now on this blog) so I thought it might be fun to do the skimpy versions with options for coverups! And that flasher outfit? That was his costume for Halloween last year.

Ladybot

This is a rough rendering of another section of the cover illustration I'm working on. I wondered if it was a bit too comic book in style, but with the other element of the page (which doesn't really count as drawing in my book, so I won't show it here) it kinda worked. PLus I only had so much time on it, and the initial color exploration didn't quite work out...

Give 'em the Bird 2

I wasn't satisfied with the rendering I used and tried multiple times for a more Victorian look in line with the period costume. So I tried to make the bird a tad more realistic, but still am undecided about how to render it all. I think this job would have been better served had I done a collage, but we'll see...

Give 'em the Bird

Taking a mandatory break from all the fashion illustrations to do a commission I had been asked to do over a month ago. I came up with a concept I knew that I could do well, but the funny thing is that I didn't have the full approach for how I was going to render it until just yesterday! So here's a rendering-in-progress of one of the elements of the commission.

Fwoosh!

I was working on getting my fashion illustrations together for uploading, and it took much longer than I thought it would. So all I want to do tonight is something flowy and easy. And here she is, all fwooshy... I think she took all of 6 minutes to do (yeah, it shows, but I do like the attitude).

Working The Angles 2

I started thinking that I while I was really happy with the drawing, I wanted to make it resemble the model more. So I think it went from fashion illustration to portrait. I can't help myself - I love getting a likeness... and I'm really not used to drawing profiles like this so it's a definitely a learning experience.

Working The Angles

This model I'm sketching tonight is all nose and adam's apple and super sharp features. I loved drawing this because there was no clothing to worry about, merely the detail of the dried clay on the nape of his neck that I had to showcase... so I could actually just do a portrait but not really care about a full on likeness either (although I think it looks like the model, albeit in a more stylized way).

Face Protection

Backstage before they put some of the tops on, they would cover the models' faces with fabrics to protect the hair and makeup. At this particular show the fabrics they used  actually matched their outfits, with dark protectors for dark looks, and lighter ones for lighter outfits. I thought they looked pretty editorial as well, resembling origami-esque accessories.

Tevas! 2

I've been compositing my layouts for one of the designers and I found myself lacking variations in scale. I realized I needed something non-figural, and I almost forgot I had started these sandals. So I'm cleaning up the linework and painting in the shading just a bit more conscientiously (although basically still keeping it rough and somewhat spontaneous).

Drunken Posting

I was out with an old high school classmate, Mike, and we lost track of time just chatting and having drinks. Six hours of socializing, to be exact. So if my drawing is somewhat arbitrary, it's because i can barely type as is!

Swoop

This is a makeup drawing for last night/yesterday (late, two days in a row!). Friends of mine had their gay wedding last night, and as his unofficial stylist and invitation designers, I ended up more involved in his prep than I realized. Plus weddings take all night anyhow, and between the getting ready and the actual event, I didn't get home til after midnight.

But I was shopping a vintage clothing site and a shot of a model had a nice swoop to it, although I emphasized it more in my sketch to really give it a lot of S curve counterpoint.

Contour

I got home too late to post something for yesterday, so this is October 5th's post. I had cooked dinner at a friend's place and we all watched "Cabin In The Woods" afterwards, and they all hated it (the movie - my cooking was a hit)!  I don't understand, but I suppose I'm still a geek at heart. Well, had I not lived in hope that they would like it, I would have been home earlier. I ended up surfing through a few blogs and getting inspired by the very minimalist yet especially nuanced work of Kevin Wada. I just love how his characters have a very relaxed, real and yet fashionable air about them.

Kitsune

Among the (suddenly I realize) many projects I'm doing concurrently, I have to design some non-denominational holiday cards. I've done this for this client several times before, and it really tests my creativity to do something I think is graphically cool, but in the style they like (MoMA cards), and not religiously restrictive. So how's a fox in the snow? (Kitsune, for those who don't know, is 'fox' in Japanese)

I also made some blue jay and cardinal drawings, which I think turned out reeeally cute!  That cardinal looks kinda mean hehe.

Get In Line 2

I'm really still figuring out how to do this in Photoshop. Do I try to emulate watercolors which is not that intuitive? Or do I find my own style in Photoshop that just happens to look like watercolors? I think I'm doing a little of both, making it up as I go along.

Bryan and his friend Heron

Bryan and his friend Heron were just glad they didn't get run over by the wayward delivery truck... or so they thought.

Getting Dressed

Models have a dresser each assigned to them, and it's interesting what people work for whom, depending on the designers. Here the dressers didn't really look like they were of the same fashion tribe as the designer to me.