Chemical King, Necked version 6

Almost Done, since it's due tomorrow...

James at '16

The title is a nod to an old tv show that was super popular for some reason, about a boy named James who, at the time the show premiered, was 15, then 16. The show lasted only two years so it ended at "James at 16."

Chemical King, Necked version 5

Gotta finish him before Feb 1! I was holding out because I wasn't in the mood to do his arms and the foreshortening...

Style 'Em Up

Cowboy cool on the Paris runways. Antonio Marras' filigree-festooned cowboy masks for FW16 were one of my fave accessories on the runways this past menswear season.

Chemical King, Necked version 4

Well, I suck at up views. I can never get the jawline right. What looks good in line work doesn't fly when painted. So I'm posting this stage in frustration while I regroup to attack this another day. ON the other hand, his torso looks hot. The inking reminds me of Paul Smith, which isn't srprising since I've been looking at a lot of his work on Facebook's Paul Smith fan page.

Chemical King, Necked version 3

The neck poses I've got. I'm just not sure the model stances I have in mind are very comic book for a dead character.

edit: I'm not sure why I didn't upload the sketch. I had finished it early enough...

Cavorting Roughly

I had a vodka cocktail and I don't seem to like vodka much nowadays. Fortunately, it was the last of the bottle of Citron my friend gave me, so it went out with a purpose! And now I can't draw straight...

Hmm

That's what his stance says, and I loved how relaxed the guy in the original pic looked, as it was both posed AND natural. I wish I could draw poses like this without references, but at the very least, I can sketch them with one.

Fall For Rick 2

Having the hardest time deciding how to render these damn pants. Sometines having too many digital options is more difficult than less.

Fall For Rick

I love how Rick Owens plays with silhouettes. If he wasn't so recognizable and popular, I'd love to continue to buy and wear him (well, assuming I had the cash). One of his motifs this recent FW2016 show was a lower focus: a wider silhouette flaring from the hips down, emphasized by bellows cargo pockets.

Chemical King, Necked version 2

You wouldn't believe how many corrections I've gone through doing this. well, maybe you would since most of them are showing up on this blog.

Chemical King, Necked version

I wanted to try a pose that's really trendy right now, which is basically looking at some on down your nose while tilting your head back. I have such a hard time with these poses because I never properly learned how to draw the jawline from below.

Chemical King

I've been commissioned to do a drawing of the late Legionaire, Chemical King, who was always one of my faves, maybe because we knew so little about him since he was seldom used before he died. I think they didn't know how to use his power because comics were less science-aware back then.

The Cape of Things to Come 4

And what was once a quickie sketch has turned into a whole 'let's get it right' deal. Because I realize I drew the cape with the wrong length and now everything seems off. So, adjust adjust adjust. Is this coloring technique too old school? I decided the watercolors were dull, and a more monochromatic approach would be at least more clean.

The Cape of Things to Come 3

Guess it just keeps coming and coming. I refined the sketch to comic-book like style, and I couldn't stop drawing past modnight. so I wondered if I should update last night's sketch on the blog or just put in a new entry? IN the end, I thought both had heir merits for posting so it's a new entry.

I'm amused by this sketch because it's totally my style, but old school. I wonder if this is validating a more natural sketch for me, because it just looks like one of my drawings (and I'm thinking of an old pencil sketch I did back in 1998) and perhaps I shouldn't think too much and try my own figures as is for fashion illustration?

The Cape of Things to Come 2

Today's best shows in Milan showed tailored capes like the one I drew the other day, so I'm redoing my sketch as a more formal preview drawing. I didn't really pay attention to the proper detailing of the last one, because I was just trying to get it to my friend on chat to show him what I saw at the showroom I visited.

Catalog Poses

I'm not as high brow as I'd like to think I am. I was raised to believe catalog illustrations were the desired look (by my mom and how she needed illustrators in her atelier) so McCalls, Butterick and Vogue Patterns illustrations were styles to aspire to: easy, understandable, subdued. SO to this day, I gravitate to easy poses, like these I found on ecommerce site COS. They're easy and not editorial, but they have a flow about them which is simultaneously fashion croquis and Paul Smith (the X-men illustrator).

Cameo

I kept thinking this will be a cameo style drawing, except isn't a cameo only a profile? Although I feel like I've seen some that weren't. In any case, I started painting her facial shape and then just kept adding stuff without erasing (for the most part). And when she started looking more classical (almost manly, to be honest) I kept the style more retro, like in the vein of a distant illustration style. I rather like how different this is for me. Things happen when you doodle and experiment!

The Cape of things to come

I previewed a friend's upcoming fall 16 collection and am looking forward muchly to the cape he designed.

Tight Looks, Loose Locks

The hair on this model whose name I don't know, is really intriguing. I drew based on him but didn't really strive for likeness, so he looks a lot older than the actual model. I think he's half black.

RIP David Bowie

I have to admit I'm not much of a fan of David Bowie's music - I liked his music but never enough to buy any of it. However, I did like his persona(s), and his creative visual reinventions. He pushed envelopes even if I didn't always get what he was doing, and I admired that.

Dreads Boy 3

Since the lady was wearing a graphic eye, I was inspired by the latest round of London menswear FW16 shows to apply a bit of glitter on my boy here. I'm playing though, and uncertain how to finish it all. But there seems to be a glam moment trickling into menswear, which is appropriate given the sad news about David Bowie.

Thunderbear Day!

Wishing my Danish super-hero-model friend a Happy Birthday!

Dreads Boy 2

I had played around with this sketch a little more but got caught up in a friend's birthday party and forgot to post before the deadline!  So this is for Jan 8th. Just a bit more detail and refinement of the features...

Dreads Boy

I wanted to do a male counterpart for Safety Pin gal.

Safety Pin 6

I was actually drawing the safety pin itself - these things have such a specific structure, and while I've seen them all my life I never paid enough attention to draw them. Guess I have now!

Safety Pin 5

I wasn't sure where to go with this one, and so I showed her to my friend/mentor Lamont, who is a very talented fashion illustrator. He said I should keep the whole Breakfast At Tiffany's thing I had to contrast the safety pin. I thought the idea of keeping her wings makeup but making it more modern (especially since the Graphic Eye is all the rage on the Fall 15 runways) and I loved the idea of a deep teal/black coque pair of wings just set the stage. PlusI retooled her face - esp. her mouth - and I'm rather liking how she looks.

Ana (Gellers)

Done. Not perfect, but done. And done is better than perfect! I can't keep retouching this - it's insane!

Safety Pin 4

I really don't know how to finish this one. I'm wondering if I should just let it be done on the strength of the outline alone, but that doesn't seem quite finished for me. So I suppose I'll post variants in the meantime, as I test out possibilities while I refine the sketch a tad here and there.

Safety Pin 3

I gave her complete plastic surgery - just wasn't happy with the face and wanted something more contemporary. It's funny to think of faces as being in fashion (and subsequently out later) but teh nose I gave her was too upturned, and kinda 60s.

Beene Thinking 2

... that this face's expression reminds me a little of Linda Evangelista's expressive poses, so I decided to give her old Linda retro hair.