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...

Last of May

Man, it's gonna be June already!  Half the year nearly done! Time flies indeed.

My sketch is more of a study. I've always had trouble with 3/4 views which is probably why I draw them so much. I'd only in the past few years learned how to resolve a mouth from a near profile, and today I saw a photo of model Alexandre Cunha, who has a great mouth, similar in a way to my other ave model, Benjamin Eidem. So here's the practice. For one thing, I would never know to set back the teeth that far... now I do!

Storm's New Costume

I picked up X-men #1 this week, and the art by Coipel, one of y favorites working today, reminded me so much of Marc Silvestri back when he was on the X-men... but neater and more precise. But his faces were similar to Marc's, even down to the expressions. But Coipel's storytelling is some of the best I've seen, and he draws costumes really well too. The latest Storm costume is a bit of a throwback, harking back both to Marc Silvestri's Outback days, but updated with her original cape (this time as a skirt, whose workings I still haven't quite figured out). Anyhow, I haven't been inspired to draw Storm's latest incarnations... until now. Quick-ish sketch - not as precise as I used to,like to draw my superheroes, but I rather like the rawness... I wonder if this is how my fave artists used to experiment with looser styles, much to my horror?

Default Duck

All my energies are focused on getting my website designs ready for presentation tomorrow, so I just needed to dash off a sketch for this evening. Voila. He's not very duck-like (kinda looks like a deformed pigeon), but he does have mallard coloring!

Quick Knits

Doing a web layout for an apparel brand client, and I wanted to include a 'fashion design' sketch as if it were part of the designer process. So instead of waiting for one from the actual designer, I decided to make a quickie placeholder. I think my strokes are confident enough to look like quick fashion designer sketches.

Nimbus

I was watching music videos while on the elliptical trainer, and Owl City's video had a young black model with a very cute look, and for some reason it got into my head that maybe she could be a comic book character. I don't recall a very African looking black character in the mold of Alek Wek, but I love that kind of delicate, almost childlike beauty combined with that beautiful skin color with almost violet undertones...

Hair France

I saw a pic in a recent issue of British Esquire where I thought, that model's hair looks sooo French! Between that typically European scruffy look (I've seen it a bit before, which is why I think it registered) and Prada's rival Parisians from their recent Candy perfume ads (not to mention Lucho Jacob and his squall of hair), I'm all about the big mop top.

Red Hot 5

I really should pay attention to my other projects, but when you're inspired, you'd best heed the muse. I kept going back to this drawing, because I think I have a groove on already and its just a matter of adding stuff, because I've gotten to the point that I'm happy with it, until I change something I didn't know was wrong, and I'm happier about it!  Does that even make sense?

I got some details better this time around. I managed to resolve the issue I was having with his eyes, and that was by erasing his light eyelashes into the linework (not that you can see, but it made a huge difference for me). And I reworked his nose and lips too...

I love this sepia tone line. It was an accident, as most new directions seem to be with me. It makes my work more classical than I imagine I am. Frankly, I see comics and 50s style illustrations in this, but that's just the mode I'm in with it...

Red Hot 4

This is really starting to work for me. I love how different this model is from my other models, and side by side they should work quite well together.

Red Hot 3

I just about redid my model's entire face shortly before I posted yesterday, but I figured I had reached a point where I needed to walk away from the sketch and come back with fresh eyes the next day. Funny how that DOES change your perspective, and in this case makes it clearer. When I opened up this file again tonight, I knew what had to be done, and now it's feeling a bit better. Of course, later on, something that seemed right can seem wrong the next day too...

Crap, I was too busy answering emails that I didn't post this before midnight!  I'm getting so bad about updating properly. Ugh. Ah well...

Red Hot 2

I'm trying to rotate between my various portrait projects. This one needs its turn in rotation.

Pigstyle

I haven't drawn a (semi) realistic pig in ages, but somehow a glimpse of a blog page reminded me of a pic I drew that a former classmate of mine inked. It had a wry expression, which I tried to recreate tonight over 30 years after the fact.

Rainer 5

I'm starting to notice that my coloring style has changed a bit since I started using my watercolor brushes. My formerly chunky strokes are getting smoothed out more, and I'm starting to see a resemblance here to Phil Noto's work, which might be the result of me seeing too many sketches of his on his blog. Ah well, we'll see how it goes - there's still time for me to add some chunky color!

Rainer 4

A bit more detail on the portrait for one of my favorite Germans, a long-standing work in progress (the portrait, not the German)(well, okay, maybe both).

New Fall 13, In Stride 6

I've been quite distracted from my illustration, by my design work. But I was home early this evening and made myself do a few more coloring bits, particularly on the clothing (in this case the hat). I forget how much I like the watercolor effects of some of my Photoshop brushes...

Trying Something New

I went to Brooklyn to have dinner at my friends' place, and their darling daughter Luna is growing so fast, and changing in my eyes. I tried to get an impression of her but this hardly looks like her, but I did like experimenting again with the pastels as it used to be my medium of choice a couple of decades ago. Coming home late, I forgot to draw and post before it hit midnight, so this is late for yesterday's post.

Tumbler

Had a lovely dinner earlier this evening at the off-the-beaten-path Brooklyn resto Bistro Petit. Rainer's been raving about it for weeks and it was a joy to spend time at this modest little eatery with amazingly high-quality food. It's BYOB so Rainer brought a lovely red, and we drank everything off tumblers.

Numbed By The Numbers

Make-up post! Last night I was so busy working out the numbers on a pitch, trying to get all the pieces together for a rather huge rush job, and it was driving me mad so I didn't even realize I had gone past midnight and hadn't posted. So I'm posting my ode to those numbers (which by the way, were problematic the next morning. So I hadda crunch them again!).

Buzzd

An impromptu call from a friend in the nabe led to two cocktails too many. This is what you get when someone draws all buzzed on tequila. This is Beelzeebub, a demonic character from the anime series Yondemasu yo, Azazel-san, who looks like a penguin but is actually a fly. It's a series I only just discovered, and the first season was hilarious, the second, not at all...

New Fall 13, In Stride 5

Returning to a drawing after some absence, you see flaws. Or at least, you see things that you would change. For some reason, the entire body of this drawing looked wrong - too big, lacking a certain flow. I tried over and over to correct it, and have made some progress. But it may be progress to my eyes only, which is fine - as much as I post these, I'm just drawing and documenting it. But I did think to myself, I'm not just sketching a photo - I'm actually changing it, if even just a little bit, to suit how I think the drawing should look. That made me happy - it made me realize that I AM contributing to something new, as opposed to just copying a photo.

Strap Hangers 2

Now I'm just sussing out the entire outfit. I actually was inspired by a Ladytron music video that featured a room full of teenage girls (around 17) dancing in school uniforms, and I liked the silhouette of their skirts. But I was trying to think of a way to make the skirt part of a sexy ensemble. To me that meant keeping the upper torso bare, but I didn't want some conventional decolletage or expected top. So I went about with my 'boobcage' selectively showing parts of the breast in less conventional ways i.e. underboob, although it's been something I've always gravitated to. Chris Claremont once told me the costume I designed for the Black Queen was too provocative for comics but it showed up anyway less than a year later (I'm looking at YOU, Goblin Queen). Now underboob is actually a word (well, sort of). Dunno if I succeeded, but it's edgy methinks (I'm reminded of men in kilts)

Strap Hangers

I had an idea for a super-hero-esque costume and figured I'd do it instead of all the other drawings I have planned and pending that need attention... lol.

Anyhow, this has underboob, side boob and a whole frickin' boob cage complete with a mask. It's like a space bra. What's the function? None!  I just like the way it plays out. ;)

Melissa and her friend Heron

Melissa and her friend Heron were growing concerned: where IS that waiter with their Mai Tais?

Metal Seaweed

One stye I've gotten from comics that I love to explore from time to time, is drawing locks of hair like they were small sheets of gnarled steel. I think Rick Leonardi is the person I can identify as the first I'd seen who did it, but it's a fun way to stylize. It's kinda like how hair looks like it s a solid mas when someone is underwater, almost like fine seaweed (although this rendering is more like long, large tendrils of seaweed)... Anyhow, I've been sketching on a cardboard sheet while waiting for my enormous Photoshop file to attempt to save, as I'm designing a huge banner and the file, last I saw, reached a limit of 6 gigs (and it refused to save). Drawing to be uploaded as soon as I can clear space from this damn memory hogging Photoshop process...

Spiked

The Met's Punk fashion exhibit's gala was hard to escape the next day, so I still had it in my head when I started sketching earlier tonight, a bit too late to make it for yesterday. I've been concentrating on my design work, so I just let the time slip by. Anyhow, she's a bit fashion punky (or maybe fashion fetish, more accurately).

Malice 2

Retooled 'Malice's' face because she was too damn sweet for a character named Malice, but I do not recognize this face as one of mine - the style is just so odd. I dunno where it came from, although I suspect i's trying to fit in the 40s look after the fact into a facial angle that doesn't really work...

Malice

I was watching music videos while doing the stairmaster at the gym, and a Madonn video featuring what looked strongly to be Dolce & Gabbana outfits had Madonna wearing high-waisted shorts and a low cut top. It reminded me of a costume I designed in the late 80s, with a very 40s feeling. It was for a character named Malice. I thought I'd try drawing it again tonight.

Ghostly

I had no idea what to draw, so I made the tools influence that decision. I got an odd 300 pixel wide very smudge-y/ powdery Photoshop brush (don't even know if it was something I had found or if it was something that came with CS 5.5). So I just kept trying it out - it kept losing part of the strokes, so if it's some sort of natural media simulator, I don't know what it's supposed to be. The drawing, however, became somewhat fuzzy and ghostly, hence the title.

Rainer 3

Hung out with my friend Rainer and forgot I haven't tackled his portrait in a while. So I hauled it out of the file stores and worked on it a bit. It's coming along, albeit slowly.

New Fall 13, In Stride 4

More Max/Geller goodness. Now that I'm getting thoroughly familiar with Max's face, I'm starting to get mood and stylize his retro-20s/30s look (which is quite au courant when you think how Gatsby he can look)

Comics Nostalgia

When I was younger I got disappointed when favorite comic book artists evolved their styles to something that didn't appeal to me anymore. Dave Cockrum was one such artist, as I was younger and in love with his 'Neal Addams Lite' style form in his early career, and I kinda disliked his faces when he returned to drawing the X-men years later, after Byrne's and Paul Smith's runs. But I understand it now that I've had time to evolve myself, and it's nothing you can anticipate (or even control, I'd imagine). So when I am at a loss what to draw like I was last night when I arrived home too late to post (and too buzzed on cocktails to draw adequately), and I try to sketch an old default and fail, it makes me ruminate on artistic evolution.

Time was that I could draw superheroes effortlessly, but decades after my interest has peaked, it's a struggle to draw the styles I used to idolize. In fact, I spent so much time trying, it I kept wondering why I even wanted to make it look like I used to draw. Which is interesting, because I'd already developed a newer comicbook style in the past 10 years, but even that I don't try to do. How strange to know I'm evolving and improving, but unable or unwilling to draw the way I used to.

Hair Squall

I love model Lucho Jacob's squall of hair, it just feels very fresh and modern now. So when illustrator extraordinaire Kevin Wada did his own similarly coiffed males, I got into it. This is more comic book style than fashion, methinks, but also somewhere in between...