Rainer 15

I finished Desmond, now I need to get a move on Rainer.

I think I'm really bad at initial proportions when it comes to portraits. When doing it from a photo especially, it's always about laying down a line or a daub of color, and seeing how it relates to the next line, and how those two relate to the next daub,etc, etc. Well, when I lay in a rough, I can get a likeness pretty well, but it's as I get into the fine details that my skills taper off. I'm in awe of people who can sketch out an outline then fill it in with shadows, and the proportions are perfect. Me, I have to cut and paste parts and shrink them down (thank gawd I do this digitally!) instead of repainting an entire feature, but there's a lot of retooling. And it's usually things I cant see while I'm hard at work, so I often find it useful to abandon drawings for a day or more, then come back with fresh eyes. Then my work isn't so precious to me that I'll resist changing things wholesale...

Late Lilandra

I was preoccupied tonight after coming back from diner at a friend's place, so I forgot to put a sketch together before midnight. Lilandra here (look her up: X-men, Shi'ar, etc) started out as a normal face, me just trying to render an angle I still have trouble with, then thinking she looked like the character, and then retooling it to be the character Lilandra Neramani.

Brogues

Found an old idea that still needs to be realized do hopefully getting on it fully soon! Initial thumbnail.

YSL Palette

I follow one of Yves Saint Laurent's former muses, Amalia Vairelli, on Facebook. She posted an image of her walking the runway of some YSL show, and I loved the colors. I thought I'd work the colors into something more significant, but I got caught up with playing with opaque painting.

Union Square Sketches

I decided I wanted to try and draw people from life, and try and get more natural poses, forms and character that way. But since this is the first time I've done this as an expedition of sorts, I spent more time trying to get enough info on a subject before they went away or changed position, or noticed me drawing them. Anyhow, fun first foray.

Wisp Away

A couple of seasons back I noticed a styling thing that they did on the Rick Owens runway. I even did a sketch of the straight versus cow-licked kind of look, but this seems more deliberate than just a cowlick. Doing it again. Modeled it after the excellent hairstyling from this photo shoot.

Desmond 12 - Done (I think)

So I tweaked it a bit, and I think it's a nice drawing, and I hope the model thinks it resembles him well. I'm going to wait until he's seen it and then post it here, just giving him first 'dibs' so to speak. I also put it in with the rest of the series and I think it looks really nice with the other three images.

Desmond 11

Oh man, I'm nearly done! I just have to let it sit overnight and get back to it tomorrow to see if I need to retouch anything, but after that, I get to send it off to the model for first look at the finished piece (It's a courtesy I like to extend) and then publish. So here's another partial preview until then. I did retool the eyes quite a bit, and fixed the angle of the entire piece as well. Funny how I end to not work 100% straight on but always seem to have some sort of skew...

Color PLay

It's less about forms or rendering and more about a play of color. I've been working on channeling a color palette inspired by painters I saw online.

Duck!

I'm being a little tardy lazy.

Desmond 10

More hairstyling. I honestly think I avoid drawing this because of the hair. I don't know how other designers illustrators have so much patience; although granted, they often do long straight or just wavy hair. I'm pretty much in the home stretch but I always like to leave it for a few days after doing what I think is the finished piece, to go back to it with fresh eyes and render any finishing touches and adjustments then.

Random Sketches

I think I need to go to Union Square Park and draw people. I need to get more practice just drawing real people, in non-posed poses.

Awkward

I've always been obsessed with drawing what's newest and most current, and I try hard to observe and go beyond my automatic strokes. I'd love to be able to render figures in the effortlessly natural, slightly awkward poses that fill the media. I may have to observe kids more, and sketch live.

Desmond 9

Going for a bit more of the hairy beast...

Watery Feeshything

In watercolor, And kinda rough, but I cant be bothered with a more involved drawing today...

Sitting Pretty Nasty

Well she is! And I don't know why she is, but I'm just drawing themes I used to draw a lot...

A Little Restraint

Originally this was going to be some sort of avant garde, Dior-hipped fashion illo, with retro facial stylings, but I decided to ditch her mouth for a mask and I liked it sooo mucuh better. It still feels kinda old school, but that's okay. Might go back and fix her arms though- feels like this needs something more there...

Desmond 8

Almost there - the hair is just so much to do! I think part of the reason I didn't want to work on this for as long as I did, was because I feared the hair (which is frankly the whole point of this portrait). But the more I do, the closer I see the light at the tunnel, and the more I want to do... so, it' momentum. A few more days maybe, and done? We'll see.

Blue Rush

Just a doodle. I was just playing with the acrylic brush in Painter Essentials, and it didn't seem to be doing anything significant, so I switched to pastels and blended it in, then kind of took a step back at the blob. Which looked like it could be a chubby coat. So it became one.

Meanwhile, when I shrank the image down to post as a jpeg, the acrylic smear got all impasto on me!  What's up with that?!

Desmond 7

More hair! More hair! Actually, not so much this time. I was walking home form the supermarket and thought to myself, I really haven't made a real, honest effort to render an eye properly. I find because I've based my work on drawing anything like a comic book artist does, I take shortcuts based on what I think something should look like. Well, tonight, I decided to look at Desmond's eyes and try and render them as realistically as possible within the confines of the technique.

Victor & Rolf's Red

The first look was impressive to me, but it then became a whole show about how to play with this heavy, carpet-like terry (?) fabric. I think there might have been a more cerebral message here but I just liked the shape of the first outfit, depicted here.

Valentino's Dissenting Vixen

In the sea of vestal virgins decked in the folkloric fashion splendor that we expect now from a Valentino show, there was one dissenting vixen who definitely had a bit more glean in her eye... as well as less fabric on her frame. image coming soon (I'm drunk and lacking motor control)

update: here she is, in all her kinda-velvet-painted, slightly-bondage-y glory

Casual Couture

It always crops up every so often: the whole shirt with a ballgown conceit. But I'm a sucker for it. Although this one is technically a peter pan collared shirt... and a turban.

Schiaparelli

I loved the colors of this outfit but I'm not sure if it'll translate to anyone actually wearing these, but with the couture, it's usually limited to a runway piece anyhow... anyhow, it as fun to draw in an unstructured, old-school way.

Dauby

I might have to buy Kyle's other brushes since I'm starting to feel less watercolory and more opaque.

That Blue

I wanted to do an Yves Klein blue swash of color with a black line sketch overlaid on top of it, but I ended up being inspired by recent color stories I saw online, to make... this thing.

Desmond 7

I love men with curls, but drawing them is another matter altogether. As much as I love Desmond's hair, I've been procrastinating because there's so much to render - and the style I've chosen doesn't really take any shortcuts. Still, it's coming together. As I get the hair more like the photo, the more I can see a resemblance to the model, as well as areas that could use improvement. It's all about relative form and space and lines with me...

What's My Line

This is like an Etch-A-Sketch drawing: it's all done with one single, continuous line. I didn't start out thinking I'd do it with just one line, but as I traced the contours of the dancer I just didn't lift my stylus, and kept going. Granted, it looks a bit like a wire sculpture, but as the line kept going, I realized my grip on the stylus was slipping slowly and I had to finish up the drawing before I lost the line at a point when it wasn't in the plan... It's supposed to be an outfit from the Dries Van Noten SS15 show, but I certainly can't tell you which one since I went with memory...

Melty

Kyle Webster's watercolor brush set has a few named Color Magic. Of course, since there are no instruction manuals, you sorta have to figure them out yourself. I found out that on a continuous stroke without lifting, you can press down on your stylus and the color will darken and  bleed within the just painted field. Fun!