More Tim & Jean Grey 3

Those leg muscles will be the death of me. Also trying to negotiate the whole toros and deltoid in that petting arm, for that matter. So, little changes you might not see, but if I'm doing it right, hopefully someone who knows anatomy will see that I'm trying to do it right. Hopefully succeeding but I'd need a model to prove that right, and not my views from other angles where I'm basically turning the bodies around in my head trying to figure out how the view would be.

Fall In Order 2

 There was a second look that I did at the same time I did the last one for Boss, and I wasn't completely happy with the way I rendered the man's face. This is another attempt.

More Tim & Jean Grey 2

I shouldn't have chosen such a complicated calico pattern for Jean Grey—now I constantly have to examine my other sketches to make sure it's consistent, haha. The problems with character design! Anyhow, I really like how the cat looks here—actually the whole pose and composition came together. Tim looks natural in how he's crouched, and I can almost feel the movement of his hand against the cat's back as it arches away from him. Still details to be hammered out, like the anatomy in Tin's arms and legs (want to make sure I get how those muscles flex and flow in those positions—just winging it here) but overall glad with teh progress.

More Tim & Jean Grey

This was a sketch I didn't get to finish in time to post on IG with the other two—I just haven't sussed out the anatomy on both the guy and the cat!

Mature Flasher 4

I spent a lot of time refining my Cherner armchair, hehe.

Tim & Jean Grey

I've decided to name the "mature Flasher" guy Tim, at least as far as I extend his visage, because my first drawing of the guy reminds me of an OF model I follow on Instagram named Timothy Reed Murphy. I didn't copy any of his pics though, just realized my drawings reminded me of him after the fact.

Calico Kitty

This ongoing "Mature flasher" series is becoming a fun thing for me as I now am trying to see if I can expand on the drawing as a series. Part of that is, what do these characters look like from different views? First subject: the calico cat, whom I've inexplicably decided to name Jean Grey (yes, her, lol). Maybe it's the red with the dark and light sides, plus the green eyes, hehe. Part of the challenge was NOT to copy an existing cat. So I would bring up reference pics, study the relevant part I was trying to draw (in particular, the eye to nose proportions as well as the snout outlines—or lack thereof), then put the pic away and draw from memory. I think I did okay.

Mature Flasher 3

I decided to put a calico cat in the picture, originally on the floor but I thought, didn't I do that already? So I put him in my Cherner armchair. And I made our formerly mature flasher smile a bit. My backstory now is that this was some sort of erotic nude shoot and the location's cat decided to join the photo...hence the 'model's amusement.

Snow Day, Done

I decided to put the guy I drew in one of the Jil Sander outfits I took note of for this recent FW 2022 runway (look 39). I figured the model also had long hair like the guy I sketched out originally, plus he was white (I try not to draw a full outfit and change the model, esp if the original model is black or a person of color). It worked although it became painfully apparent to me that the face I created came across much older than the boys who do the runways now, but that's on me. I tweaked him as much as I could to get him more au courant, but while still respecting my original intent with the creation of this face.

Fall In Order

I'm retooling some of my previous season sketches for Boss to publish them finally, now that the clothing has already been produced and is being marketed or sold already. But obvi I can;t leave well enough alone so even what I thought were fine back then now need to be tweaked.

Big Man

I've been DMing a hot guy on Instagram who had been following my work for a few months now,  and linking my stories. I decided to inspect his profile the other day and was quite surprised he was so hot—his build is huge and muscular, and he's big in other parts, too! So now we're talking about him posing so I am imagining poses layouts. Don't mind the terible anatomy with the hand—not sure how to render that, but that's what I'd need him to model for, haha

Hoodie & Treasure Trail 4

In trying to figure out exactly where his groin should be in the sketch, I had to draw in his whole body, which is kind of ass backwards, but here we are. I suppose the problem lies in me drawing automatically without having to sketch the body underneath, even if technically, knowing where the body is should make for better draping. The problem I have, though, is when I do the body underneath, I have a tendency to want to show it through and the fit of the clothing tends to be too form-fitting.

Snow Day 3

I'm still trying to develop this face but wondering now about the relevance as it's been super sunny and getting warmer. Ah, the perils of not getting this shit out in a timely manner! Anyhow, chiseled the side of his 3/4 view further, which seems more correct, but this is like the millionth time Ive drawn this facial angle, and (1) I still can't get it right, right away, and (2) I know practice makes perfect but perhaps I should move on. Also, me wondering if I should change the hairdo but not sure about this Spike Spiegel/Cowboy Bebop 'do on the second one!

Snow Day 2

I always sketch spontaneously, then I agonize over the right features. I imagine this is one reason I can never be a comicbook artist—I'd agonize over every face in every panel!

Snow Day

We had snow! And while washing the dishes I was inspired to do a somewhat cloudy sketch with overlaid white specs. I imagine this will be quick, but I know I'm only fooling myself!

Leg Days 2

Funny, I have a new muscle memory and visual memory for how pants should look now when I do a fashion croquis, but it amazes me how quickly I can establish that since back over  year ago, I thought the original pants looked perfectly fine. Now I think they're terrible, and even my version of this from a few weeks ago could still use improvement. I guess it's a good thing in general, as Im constantly improving (or at least, so I hope) but the perfectionist in me is just constantly aghast about what i used to think was okay (which now makes me feel a bit ashamed, haha).

Hoodie & Treasure Trail 3

As I try to add more structure to his face, I'm telling myself it's imrpoving the drawing yet I'm not so sure. >sigh< will have to se how this evolves.

Meselfie

Taking a break from the other drawings, I've decided it's time for me to do self portrait again. This time I modeled for reference photos on my iPad, and am using selects to draw from. It's a bit hard to look at myself and not want to idealize my face. I suppose it's artist's prerogative, but also, I should draw what I see as I do with others. This one is using the new Carbonara brush I tried out initially a few days ago.

Hoodie & Treasure Trail 2

And true enough, he's evolving...and it's gonna take longer than I expected. I've completely retooled his face because of anatomical concerns, but I'm wondering now if I even prefer this change over the original? Sometimes my first instincts are my best, but being a Virgo, I will have to see all the changes through before I decide if they were worth the effort or not. Argh.

Hoodie & Treasure Trail

An image popped into my head (as they often do) of a drawing i could make—specifically in a navy blue  and black composition—of a young guy wearing only a hoodie and lounging. I hope this is something I can do quickly to post on IG, as the image is fairly strong in my head. Except as I lay marks down, the image is evolving on the canvas, which is always annoying.

Justin's Illyana 3

I decided to go online and research "katana stances" and found a whole trove of Deviant art posing accounts with various comic book-ready poses! Still deciding how I do this one, though. I defaulted to my Ruffin brush a bit because it felt comfy, but I also default to an old mode of comic book illustration (that's in my head) and I wonder if, over 30 years later, I should se what MY style is regardless of my old comics aspirations, because I'm a different artist now. Also, comic book illustrations are well beyond my old style too...

Brush Trials 2022

I happened upon a video on Behance where Adobe brush designer extraordinaire, Kyle Webster, was demonstrating his new brushes for Winter 22. So this is me trying a few out.

Odalisque

I know an odalisque is supposed to be a female, but it felt right for an almost fauvist/Cocteau-esque idea of a naked man...

Leg Days

I am revisiting my first job for Boss because I have evolved in the scant year and a half that I worked for them during the pandemic. Specifically my pants leg proportions. Part of it is the fact that I work digitally and often draw things in isolation from the entire figure, so I don't see the whole look and proportion. The other part is I'm out of practice. So these pants legs were originally super wide, esp at the hips—something my illustrator friends Lamont and Renaldo saw right off the bat but were very polite about telling me. It didn't make the work horribly bad (I have to give myself credit for doing the looks on time, in detail, and as the client approved) but with a Virgo, there's always room for improvement. So before I can post the work to my portfolio, I'm updating the old looks with the proportions that I gave Boss the last time I worked with them, as they've evolved.

Letterkenny-ish

I abandoned the face I'd been working on yesterday and shifted to a new one altogether, that took on the 80s/90s features that illustrators like my fave, Antonio Lopez, favored back then. Then I realized it might have been influenced by my watching Letterkenny for the first time, and being enamored of lead star Jared Keeso's almost 'Tom of Finland' features.

Sketching 2022, 2

I was thinking of doing a modern menswear sketch based off of the vintage 50s ones I was looking at in my old 195os Flair and GQ magazines, and my usual shaggy-haired guy came up, but in an ink line. Except that doesn't really look fresh to me, no? It just looks like yet another one of my ink sketches...which could just be a thing, it's mine anyhow. Anyway, this was me trying to evolve the face a bit more realistically...

Sketching 2022

I was immersed in a looking at vintage fashion illustrations and thought, I should try my version for 2022. But as I started sketching I kinda lost the plot and  just went to sketching mindlessly.

KPB Yellow Suit

I discovered a stunning Kenneth Paul Block illustration online but it wasn't his usual women in flowing dresses, but a much more mundane pose in a beige/yellowsuit. As I started looking at it, I wondered if my proportions I have been using for womenswear were similar, so I opened up a blank space and without looking at his proportions, made my own version of the outfit on my own scale. My head was smaller, and I think the body overall had a more compacted feeling, so i can learn to open my figures more, if I see what proportions Ifeel I'm doing automatically, versus what I think I should work towards.