Mad For Max 7

Putting a different hairstyle on a person's portrait, especially if you're not THAT familiar with them, is a dicey proposition, so I've found. But methinks this is what Max would look like with the center-parted runway hair that all the other models on my friend Robbie's runway got (Max's original outfit had a hat). And adding test watercolors has spurred me toward feeling that I can get to where I want to with this piece.

Mad For Max 6

Still doing more of my Max sketches. Feeling the pressure because the SS14 Menswear shows in Paris are underway!  This portrait doesn't even look like him yet, I'm just wondering how closely I'll try to get a likeness versus adding my own stylized illustration hand to it...

Mad About Being Scooped

And the Max sketches continue... but while they do and I'm working to post them, I just wanted to post an image I was working on for weeks. I was drawing this hairstyle weeks ago specifically to trail makeup off of it, inspired by that animated music video from Of Monsters and Men, Little Talks. Well, Givenchy did similar makeup in their men's runway show today, and I'm annoyed I've been scooped. So I'm just pushing a sketch of what I was planning anyhow, here. I suppose you could say it was in the zeitgeist anyhow and I'm on trend, but I wanted it to be my idea first (well, first applied to men's fashion)...

Mad For Max 5

I keep imagining how this will turn out, and I keep procrastinating because I'm afraid of what it might take to actually make it like I imagine. So I'm drawing in drips and drabs, until something clicks in and the work just flows. Always part of my creative process, this slow start. The fear of the slow start actually makes it even slower...!

Anyhow, new poses for the composition I'm planning.

Rainer 6

I really need to get a move on on this portrait!I wonder sometimes if I have to many concurrent projects, but I can't waste any ideas, and I have to at least attempt them before giving up, I suppose. Anyhow, I was tackling his eyes and lips, as I have never really done eyes in great detail (at least, not more than one tie I can recall a really intense eye I did on a portrait). Anyhow, this was my little bit on this piece.

Blane and his friend Heron

coming up!

60s Mop

I posted a few ketches before but I have been feeling an updated mop of hair, circa the fullness I imagine was very late 60s French (early 70s hair, on the other hand, went a bit further off the path).

Walk On By

I saw this girl walk past me after I left the gym earlier tonight, and her outfit wasn't perfect (I recall disliking the fringe boots) but underneath the layered black sweater and over the black tights, was a floral summer dress with a side cutout. Which is why I'm sketching her tonight. image to follow

Clutch 2

The heck with it - I'm going to use myself as a model for these hands. I want detail, dammit! And I don't think I'm getting it just by myself. Although I do think I'm getting the feeling I want...

Hipster Coat

I love the proportions of this coat and skinny jeans, but I prefer it in something more dressed up for me (like a neoprene largecoat). This look, with the military coat, has been de rigueur for the hipster set for some time now, and I found a photo online that I wanted to sketch, because it illustrated the look perfectly.

Sweater

I had planned on doing my Max illustrations, but I saw something in an email that I thought looked like this. It wasn't too far, but mine is more female... and provocative. Gotta go with the inspiration!

Clutch

I figured out how to approach finishing a drawing that had an idea, but not an actual pose... now I'm debating whether or not to attempt to draw this without references, or to look for a photo or model that I can use. I might just pose in front of the cam again, but that might result in really masculine hands. Again.

Mad For Max 4

The menswear shows have started in London, and that tells me, yet again, I'm way late getting my FW 13 sketches out. So I better get back on Max.I've basically making sketchy layouts, but haven't gelled anything concrete, so all you're getting is one of the roughs (that I felt like coloring in).

Hare We Go Again!

I was back to drawing hares again, from an old drawing from - get this -at least 240 drawings ago! That's almost a year. I thought about it last night as I decided to take stock of all the series I haven't finished, and this is one of them. I was working on it last night, and as usual, posting a bit at a time until I'm ready to release the entire thing.

Technique Test 2

Well, I woke up this morning raring to finish off the drawing. It's a merge of two references: a model face I liked, plus a Damir Doma outfit I wanted to sketch (which, I realize after the fact, looks like menswear, so maybe there's the appeal). Still, I feel it looks more modern with the hint of innocence that I think I normally lack from my work.

Technique Test

A Facebook friend wanted to see if my style might be useful for his company's fashion illustration needs, except they do more women's stuff than men's when it comes to  fashion illustrations. SO I thought I'd try and do my digital watercolor style on a female figure. This is the start, though not much since I spent all day designing (and am creatively exhausted!). ALthough I did get into it a bit.Just need to tweak it til it shines more...

Swing

I was wearing rather loose pants yesterday and I rather liked how the fabric flowed when I posed a certain way, so I wanted to capture that movement in a drawing. I'm going for something a little less dancer and more languid action pose. It's not that easy!

Also, I stared sketching yesterday but forgot to post in time. Fridays are always tough since I spent it at my friends' jour fixe, our weekly dinners uptown.

Flyaways 3

Like I predicted, I'd find something wrong with it by the next day!  Fortunately, when something seems so glaringly-in-need-of-correction, reworking it is easier and filled with less doubt. But look away for a bit or work on something else, and what was right can be totally wrong again 20 minutes later. Ah, process.

I like being able to come up with a drawing from my head, but it's not easy. The pose the attitude, the technique - I don't even know if I'll actually ever realize what I have in my head. But I'll keep trying!

Flyaways 2

It's funny how the rough sketch is what your idea is supposed to start from, but as you refine it looks so much less like the original rough. And as you take a day off, the next day it might be completely wrong again and in need of revision! But I'm happy with my progress on this tonight.

Flyaways

I've been thinking about the face from yesterday's Cocoon coat drawing and I really haven't gotten quite the angle I want, because it requires the hair to move as if it's being blown. So I'm working on it and realize I have to draw the entire face, even if I'm going to hid part of it underneath the collar. I just needed to draw it all so that I felt the part that does show is angled right. Next, I'll have to style the face so it looks less like a comic book and more like  fashion illustration. Or something. But I'm happy with how it turned out - I DID erase a ton of other versions though. But this is why digital is good - you can keep making corrections if necessary.

Cocoon Coat

I'm annoyed with myself for not posting this last night - I drew it yesterday, but missed completely forgot to upload it for yesterday's entry. Grr. Absentminded, I am.

Oversized Slouch

I liked yesterday's drawing so much I'm gonna try and do a series (which I always say but take forever to accomplish). Let's see how far I get with this one. Thumbnail today for a Christophe Lemaire shirt I bought this season (although I wonder if I should do Fall 2012 first like yesterday's?). This pose is a bit casual though. I think I want something as extreme as yesterday's...

High Waisted 3

How do I know I really like a piece? I put a watermark on it. This one turned out rather well. I might have to do more in this vein. I think the attitude had a lot to do with it. I changed the face again to make it more apropos for a Rick Owens outfit, although I'm still not sure if the pose works in Owens, but it is what it is.

High Waisted 2

Just refining a few details from this sketch. I liked the raw sketch I posted earlier (raw, as in I just drew it, corrected the features and pose to my liking, but didn't refine the line work. Now I'm going in to the lines, which may or may not be successful, as sometimes the initial gesture is best left as is. I started with the face, because I wasn't sure where I wanted to go with it, but did want him to have a sort of 80s masculinity and ethnicity (kinda Jean Paul Gaultier).

High Waisted

This is what happens when you mash together Rick Owens FW 2012, Soul Train dancers' costumes from the 70s, Antonio Lopez stances from the 70s, and late 80s Herb Ritts faces. This is a makeup drawing for yesterday because I got so caught up on my design work (have a website due next week) that even if I knew what I was drawing and knew I had only x amount of time to do it, the time still slipped away from me. I suppose the good news is I think I drew it with the right mount of creative energy - this is better than I thought I might draw it, from a gestural standpoint.

Folk

One ep of Folktales From Japan, an anime series I enjoy for its rustic, varied drawing styles, featured very graphic, stylized characters this past week. I saw one and thought, that must be fun to draw. So I did a version.

Vest and Highwaters

I was watching some video while doing cardio, and there was a guy in somewhat 50s/retro garb wearing a white wifebeater and cropped khakis. There was something fresh about it, and I had a graphic sketch in mind. I thought I'd do a sketch but this became an exercise in contour, and just drawing the pose - hopefully somewhat naturally - without any references.

Feeling Board

 

I was about to recycle a slew of paper products, including a backing board from a comic book I ordered form the comic shop. The board had my name written on the corner, and I was about to cut it out to recycle the sheet when I decided, might as well draw on it. I pulled out a smooth gel ballpen, which I thought would be god for the smooth board. I started drawing a guy and pulled all the details together as I drew, without making any corrections (it was ballpoint, after all). Aside form being rather tall, I like it. It took about 10 minutes.

Munsoo and his friend Heron

Munsoo and his friend Heron do enjoy a little yodeling with their mountain climbing... just not always at the same time.

Lip Servicable

Using the lessons from yesterday's lips study, I tried to construct one based on what I had learned, without any references. I think it looks good, and makes things easier to do from now on but I will have to practice it more to put it firmly to memory. Next lesson: how far eyes are set in from the bridge of the nose? For that matter, how high a nose? (My Asian upbringing always makes me default to something smaller and squatter, or otherwise exaggeratedly bigger). Ah, you never stop learning...