Pre Exit Smile 8

I was at the gym this evening and I thought to myself, I can't keep fiddling with this portrait- I need it to be definitively done by tonight. Well, I'm finally happy (enough) with the portrait so now I can move on on rendering the clothing, which is never as much of an issue. Although when I exported the jpeg for this post, I did notice I needed to retouch his right eye. Oy!

Pre Exit Smile 7

RJ's face continues to stymie me. But I WILL get it, I have to! I corrected the lips, which are vastly more like his now. I don't know how I missed it. I suppose that's why I let things like this drag on for a while sometimes, because I know that if something isn't working, I have to step away and come back to it with fresh eyes.

Hard At Work

Been busy doing design work since last night - didn't even get to go to the gym! So sketch is coming soon...

Pre Exit Smile 6

I found some more photos of this model online, and I'm finding that the features I latched on to aren't necessarily what make him look like him. So in an effort to improve the resemblance, I'm reworking the portrait. Like I made his eyes so big that now I realize the entire face's feature proportions are off. Sigh. This might be a while.

Taking It In Stride 3

Yesterday I made so much progress on the drawing that as I was writing out my post to make it before the midnight deadline, I got so caught up in painting that I forgot to publish before the clock struck 12. As a result, yesterday's post was 'credited' as one for today. That annoyed me noend, since it was just plain careless on my part. Grrr.

Anyhow, I suppose I should really emphasize the shoes since the 'stride' is an essential part of the drawing, although I'm more about how his pants drape because of his wide stride. Anyhow, I was going to leave one foot rendered and one not, but decided to render the other foot today.

Taking It In Stride 2

I surprised myself last night when even after I posted I kept on sketching and retooling and basically being a bit inspired to work. It wasn't even something I had originally planned on doing, but I guess the pose was particularly inspiring. So this is the continuation of it. Look, movement lines!

Taking It In Stride

I was torn about doing this pose. It loved the movement and the confidence of the stride, but it was actually a bit blurry in my shot so I can't really get a solid, clean likeness of the model (Charlie, I think his name is). But isn't that where illustration can fill in the blanks, hopefully in style, in ways that photography might not? So I'm doing it. Hopefully it will turn out great, especially since it works so well for the layout I have planned.

Charming!

2013 is the Year of the Snake!

Pre Exit Smile 5

Before I went out last night for drinks with my friend Kevin, I thought, maybe I should post what I've started today for the day's blog entry. And then I thought, nah, it's 8:30, I'll be back home before midnight. Well, I got home just at midnight, and didn't make blogger's cut-off for the evening. I had always intended to do a bit more so my progress was more obvious (even if I spent quite a bit of time niggling with the face and worrying about whether the lips and nose should go up or down 5 pixels) so I worked on the body a bit more too.

Pre Exit Smile4

I've mentioned it before and I'll mention it again: I tend to get a bit transfixed and somewhat affectionate for the people I draw when I draw them, as I have to examine their faces so intensely to get a likeness that I can't help but get an affinity for them, as imagined as it may be. This boy, however, had such an amazing smile to begin with, it's not that hard! And it's getting to look like him more and more as I experiment with my strokes.

Pre Exit Smile 3

I thought I was going to do a new runway pose but I decided to work on this portrait some more. I love this boy's smile. Trying my damndest to do it justice.

Kevin and his friend Heron

Kevin and his friend Heron are still waiting for the fun to begin.

Runway Rundown... kinda

I was all set to continue with my last-of-the-Spring shows sketches but came home late form dinner and just don't have the wherewithal to get into it. So I sketched a doodle of a model while booting up my Mac.

What To Wear

I was shopping all day, trying to find items I thought I wanted to add to my wardrobe, or trying on equivalent styles that were available at stores before ordering them from online. I came home thinking that I didn't need any of the things I tried, and I began trying on outfits from the clothing I already owned, and this is an idea of one of the outfits I put on...

Pre Exit Smile 2

This boy was really cute looking, smiling for my camera before the lineup and the show. He almost looked out of place - most of the other guys were giving brooding stares. I feel compelled to do his portrait as a result. Thank goodness his outfit works for the mix of sketches as well... This is step two of this particular model.

Heron 2013

I haven't done a new Heron yet for the year, and I'm wondering if I should... I've been slowing down on him for the past year. Wonder if it's time to take a break?

Walk Away?

With the rendering of the legs, I think I might be done with this sketch series, Runway Rundown. I think I just need a couple more and I'll have finished up the entire first set for Robby's collection, and I can walk away and do the next thing! Woohoo!

Runway Rundown 10

I think I got the face down finally, so I'm proceeding with the body. I've gotten the face to a point that I can relax about getting a likeness, and I can start to stylize the renderings for the clohting.

Runway Rundown 9

I need to force this to a finish by hook or by crook! But it's really been the face that's been bogging me down, and I have worked and reworked it for days. The designer uploaded a shot of the model from his own cameras, and even if it's not he same angle, it allowed me to extrapolate how the features should probably look from the angle I was following. It's a bit difficult in a way, because I have to not only try for a likeness but also maintain a simulacrum of natural watercolor, so there's got to be a randomness and looseness to some of the strokes. I love how the lips turned out in this phase.

Illustrated Memo

I just discovered the fabulously trippy, wonderfully produced anime, "Mononoke." As a result, I had retro-Edo psychedelia on my mind. But because I was so  preoccupied with it, I had to make sure I didn't forget to buy garlic powder, chili pepper flakes, butter, cashews and eggs. I kept trying to repeat them to memorize my list but finally decided maybe I should draw them and remember them better that way. So, here's what I drew.

Space Age Pleats

I don't know how or why this image came to be, but I just kept going with one whim after another. I started out with a 60s style face and hair, then went with a 60s bell sleeve, but decided to do it 70s electric pleated before tossing in some leather twists and colored hair. Weird, but I do like the fact that I'm experimenting the way I used to. I'm too fixated on doing 'pieces' lately that I don't just draw for the sake of creating something wildly random.

2 Minute Bear

I had a couple of drinks before dinner tonight, and that kinda blasted me (especially since I mixed tequila and vodka). So I set a time limit and just sketched an apparently man-bear, in his underwear, scratching his belly. Don't ask me why, I don't know myself (I blame the time limit).

Runway Rundown 8

Are you sick of these yet? Oy. The problem is I'm working a TON on these drawings, but I keep changing the most miniscule things that will skew the image properly into the likeness (to me at least). Like, you might not notice I did any work on the nose at ll, but I'm going back and forth on it A LOT.

Runway Rundown 7

It's really important to me that I get a fair likeness of the models I'm drawing. But since these were actual runway shots, and my camera wasn't getting a ton of detail, I'm having a hard time really nailing the likeness. So I keep working at it, or delaying working at it (avoidance is a valid work ethic, right? Ugh.). But I think this is getting closer to where I need to be... I like how luminous the pinks are - it looks like the hot reflections from the runway lights.

What A Character, V2.1

I already drew what I think of as a definitive (for me) portrait of Kenshin, who does hair for a lot of the hipper designers and photographers in NY menswear right now but he's kinda fun to sketch. And kinda hard from a photo! I'm having the devil's own time trying to get a likeness I'm happy with. Urgh.

Socksy Thing

More behind-the-scenes ...er, scenes... from my friend Robby's show. I really need to finish this up. I blame the recent time-suck of the holidays. Oh well, roughs for now...

Darkly 3

This was a doodle, I've decided. I went for no technique, just lines, lines, lines. as if I were using a ballpoint pen. I even used an old design for facial makeup that I came up with for Rogue back in 1987 - it's all fresh again, when properly repackaged. And in this case, into some nomadic bird-person thing.

Darkly 2

There's definitely some Damir/Rick Owens/WeWereMonkeys/bird thing going on...

Darkly

There's a current into darkly romantic art direction. I channeling that would make for interesting super-heroes. I remember super-heroes excited me most when they reflected modern fashion (big surprise there). With lots of menswear designers like Julus, Rick Owens, Gareth Pugh and Damir Doma making rather theatrical, and rather epic, looks. why not translate those feelings into costumes? Since I know the outfits will be outlandish, let's start with matching facial makeup...

Black Queen 1987

This was a costume I designed for the Hellfire Club's Black Queen back in 1987. Then-X-men-writer Chris Claremont had told me he had wanted to update the costumes of the Hellfire Club, and I reworked the Black Queen's outfit to focus on newer erogenous zones, specifically the undersides of her breasts, now known as underboobs. I was also very into fichus, those shawl like shoulder coverings that Christian Lacroix, my favorite designer at the time, favored. It worked with the Hellfire Club because the White Queen's outfit had a fur capelet, and already looked like a fichu.

I was also very fond of the armadillo-armour-like layering of the pleats. This was a thing I had been doing back then.

First of the Thirteenth

It's the first day of 2013, and I'm in a very hand-drawn, graphic mood...