Return Engagement

An old fashion illustration client from 2016 returned for  new commission, so I'm pretty stoked. This was one of the poses that weren't selected so it's mine now.

BxS Collab 3

I'm actually having fun with this job but as commissions go, it's actually a design job too. We've gone through several iterations of the looks, and some things I illustrated have been discarded from the presentation, so now they belong to me and I can publish the part that has been changed, lol.

BxS Collab 2

I'm getting more and more confident with my invented African faces but still need the reassurance of a model to check that what I'm doing is as authentic as I can make it, yet still without just copying a photo. This is a colorised version of the commission image I've been working on.

BxS Collab

Got a new fashion illustration commission and this is the first head I drew for the figures. I rather like him.

The One Line Licking The Cherries

I drew the face without lifting my stylus once, so it's essentially one continuous line. The cherries were done separately though!

Woodcloak 3

I keep changing his face, I can't get behind hte ones I'm doing, and wondering if it should be handsomeer of more gritty. Also trying to decidethe hand position by drawing the entire body underneath the cloak, which seems like a waste but at least I know the anatomy will be somewhat accurate.

Woodcloak 2

I can't seem to find a satisfying face. I keep tinkering. This one got a lot older, which is an option...

Woodcloak

I was perusing a feature on a home interior, and I saw one of the framed art pieces in the room and saw something else in my mind, which i sketched, above. Here's the original artwork I saw as one thing versus my image.

Push It Down 2

I thought maybe the arm position I posted yesterday was good enough, even if it as accurate. I even got to posing in the mirror as well as asking Ernesto to clarify my musculature, and I even went down a rabbit hole of going through all my old photo references to see if I had a pose that was similar to check my anatomy. Then I did a whole other arm position altogether, even if I don't really like that trite porny, one-arm-up pose. But it makes for a better composition, methinks.

Push It Down

I ended up just redrawing the idea of the Dark Boy drawing entirely, and ended up with this pose. I originally started with a rough but as I liked how the face came out, I started wanting the rest to be more refined...which defeated the original idea of posting a rough, immediate sketch. Anyhow, here's both: the finished one above, the rough below.

Illyana's One Shoulder

Still trying to redesign a look for Ilyanna if she were to go to the Hellfire Gala. It's become such a thing for me to try and compete, yet I've never been in the running save for in my mind. I feel like I am a good costume designer and yet I haven't really designed in years so I'm working on memories and fumes.

Dark Boy 3

While I like the drawing enough, am not feeling the piece as a 'piece' so I experimented with adding a mustache, and essentially changing the entire face altogether. And now I don't know if I want to continue lol

Old Blue: New Photoshop Brushes Tests

Just saw that Kyle Webster released new Spring 2022 brushes for Photoshop. This is me tinkering with the Old Blue and Old Blue Variation brushes.

Dark Boy 2

Yesterday's face has evolved, and I got to thinking about the hows and whys. As always it begins with putting down marks, then editing and altering them until they either look like the idea in my head, or evolve on their own into something I'm pleased with. It's an interesting process as I think about it, since it happens all the time to me and any other artist, but there's this wonder about whether or not I actually have any control of the process and if I'm really creating from a space of knowledge, or if I'm just ambling about with my hands, happening upon one serendipitous mark to the other, making choices what I keep and what I remove to and what I add as I go along. I think about this as this sketch/face has evolved a lot since I did the first sketch of it yesterday, and it's both along the lines of my original idea yet not it at all.

Dark Boy

I had an image pop into my head, both based on my own current illustration style as well as—as I write this, I'm realizing—an old sketch I drew sometime back in the 90s or early aughts.It's funny as I can see it clearly in my head, but don't know if I will be able to bring it to the canvas as is, but the image in my head is the guide until it evolves into something of its own. This is the starting set of marks.

Sit Up

I saw a pose on the cover of Behind The Blinds magazine, and I thought, I should do that same pose, but naked. It's always fun figuring out how the muscles go beneath the fabric, so I think I'm being original by taking poses that way and extrapolating the nude croquises. Then I go on and change leg or arm positions, and it evolves into a more original pose after that.

Meselfie, Done

Done, and published on both Instagram and Facebook. I don't love it but I think it's good enough as a drawing. I feel like I don't love it because I didn't change the parts about mys own face that I don't like, but in that I was true to the artist I am.

In my IG post the graphic designer in me cropped off the chin, which made for a better layout with the way I was posed, but it also appealed to my vanity because while I like my jawline, I don't like my underbite or my slim neck. Ah well...until the next self portrait!

Costumes Re-Threads

I'm trying to be inspired and redesign some costumes but I feel like I haven't progressed beyond my old design ideas for comics costumes (because I haven't been doing it and am out of practice) while a lot of my fave "secret weapon" design ideas are now suddenly commonplace and out there in both fashion and comics. Like, underboob was a big thing for me and I explored that idea to death decades ago, and now in 2022 it's a thing. Yet I never made it known for fear that people would steal the ideas from me, whereas now, they just came to them organically.

Magik Femlin

I had the inspiration (borne of a new brush, the Used Inkbrush) to do a minimalist brushstroke sketch of Illyana, which totally reminds me of Playboy's Femlin.

Meselfie 4

The odd thing about my process for these minimalist sketches is I often have to draw the entire, fully-rendered subject, and THEN reduce it down to a line sketch.

Parcel

A clickstring of linked videos on YouTube led me to Aussie band Parcels, and their 70s tinged style. I say tinged, because the fiots of their suit jackets are definitely 80s while their haircuts are 70s. Vintage is all such a mashup nowadays. Anyhow, the outfit of one of their singers (I assume the lead, Jules) inspired me to do a quick fashion sketch.

Meselfie 3

The good thing about a digital process is that you can keep non destructively experimenting with techniques and compositions. The bad thing is, how do you know when to stop? Well, here's another one for this self portrait. I think I like this composition,l I just need to nail the likeness more.

Meselfie 2

Playing around with novel ways to do this self portrait. Kinda want it to be minimalistic, but the other part of me wants to draw my whole face.

Keefer

I'm doing a fashion illustration for a friend of mine starting out an eponymous new line, and I have a specific color story in my head that I'm trying to get out. This is the start of it.

Fashion Drawings 2

I'm trying to get used to sketching a less African fashion face and someone more African American, if that makes sense.

Fashion Drawings

I wanted to try my hand at fashion illustrations in just ink lines without getting into color or shading.

Concept Idea 2

 

Well, ideaS would be more apropos. I came up with several layouts.

Concept Idea

I have a new commission from an Instagram follower, so I'm putting together ieas for his portrait. Not sure how yet to really draw him, but this is an initial sketch.

Wispy Haircut

This shaggy look has not gone away yet for fashion, and I'm here for the wispy side burns.

Inspired By Grace

There's a male model whose first name is Grace, and Imwas inspired by his photos but this doesn't look anything like him (since I didn't copy a pic).