Next Layer 12

One of the problems I'm encountering with the Webster brushes I haven't established the proper workflow for creating large fields of washes. Kyle had suggested I do it in a lower resolution first and expand it later. Problem is there's no lifting your brush to get a complete filed... although maybe there's a trick to it I haven't discovered yet.

Next Layer 11

The best part about digital illustration is how many revisions you can do. And when doing silhouettes as simple as the oversized shirt and drop crotch pants as I did yesterday, I needed to make sure it was clean and relaxed looking. For the latter, I decided to bring the arms in a bit closer - I DO have a tendency to make them stand at attention to display the volume... And you'd never know it but I revised the shirt more than a few times, adding detail and taking it away when I realized I wanted it to be as minimal as possible...

Next Layer 10

Got a couple I like today, although still have one more to do. I looked over the past few weeks of blog posts and I've really seemed to keep on this particular style - guess it's like a quick and easy doodle. Will have to mix things up more when I get done with this commission.

Blue Green

I think these quickie practice sketches should really be done in bulk. When yu see them here as one-offs, it makes them feel like they're somehow important for getting featured one day, but the fact of teh matter is that it just happens to be the one that day. If I was sitting near a phone babbling away, there'd be dozens of sketches happening...

Paired

Just a quickie sketch playing with the Wet & Wild brush. There's such a change in perspective when I use these brushes - it becomes so much less about precision and more about flow. Which is fun for me...

Next Layer 9

My clients still don't want anything too current or modern. Odd, considering their line can be perceived that way. So I have to make another sketch for the proposed triptych. 

Countour My Ass

I just love a good line sometimes, no shading needed.

Next Layer 8

The beard definitely gave me something to play with in this drawing... I imagined the model Henrik Fallenius posing for me (one could only hope...)

Next Layer 7

I still need to round out my sketches for Second/Layer's SS2014 tableau.

Mugler-esqe

I'm a little excied about David Koma's Mugler. I'm still trying to play with the visual and the clothes together, to see if old Mugler can merge with new. And old Mugler was all about the sexed up, hyper-glossy woman in a gay man's imagination...

Savor It

I was watching We Were Evergreen videos on YouTube and ran across one with the super cute Jack Savoretti singing with them. Never encountered this musician before but I loved his hair and his face. I decided to sketch someone based on his look, but not him necessarily.

This sketch makes me happy because I wasn't copying any photos, just drawing spontaneously, but I think he looks rather real. Oh yeah, I decided to make him somewhat naked.

Mugler 2014

I never responded to Formichetti's Mugler. For that matter, I never got into anyone else's version of Mugler than Thierry's himself... at least, until now. David Koma, the new artistic director, unveiled his first collection for Resort 2015 yesterday, and while there maybe could have been a bit of editing, I thought it looked really modern and well done. Was it Mugler? I'm not sure, but I certainly liked it. I loved the model he showed it on but wondered if he cut and showed it on a more curvy model if it would appear more classically Mugler? Not that anyone under 30 cares, because they probably loved the Formichetti version. But I tried drawing one easy dress in a more pinup style...

Marionette

I seem to be unable to do anything even semi realist when it comes to these watercolors, unless I start with a harder outline. Although maybe that's why I'm having fun.

Black Nipples

I'd say the title is pretty straightforward. But man, Kyle added a couple of great new blenders!  Still playing and experimenting with the newly updated watercolor brushes...

On Aging

I posted a video on Facebook of Whang Od, a Kalinga tribeswoman in the Philippines who is 92 years old, and so beautiful. She isn't pulled or young looking, rather she looks as old as one would imagine. It's not a common site nowadays with people trying to look young yet creating an appearance that is neither young nor old, nor natural. I tried to draw her from memory but got someone in their 60s as opposed to her 90s. There was something really beautiful about her skin, wrinkled as it was.

Mel and his friend Heron

Mel and his friend Heron intend to enjoy their tree-climbing exercise... at least until the angry Rottweiler loses interest and wanders away.

Fake Ink Strokes

I really need to practice my natural media again, but in lieu of pickup up a brush and water, I tried it digitally. This is the big Galliano Ballgown aesthetic that's epitomized fashion for so long, which I'm frankly over since it's not new, just retro. No reference for this at all, and just the number 6 Kyle brush. Could use some variation... But I'm still terribly sick so all things considered, it's not horrible. She looks mean though.

Summer Cold

I just wanna be convalescing in bed...

Creative Unitasking

I seem to be bad at creative multitasking. Well, not bad per se, but I prefer to concentrate on one project at a time... like when I design, I dive in, and when I draw, I focus on that. But when I have to do both at once? Well, one might suffer. As in, forgetting to post on time. Harrumph.

Next Layer 6

I do want to see where I can take this style, as it's something else I can offer. I do, however, need to make it more distinctly mine. This is a bit too abstract, when I just need simple, I think. But it's fun to experiment.

Desmond 5

I got caught up trying to catch up on my Sunday tv show viewing with Penny Dreadful, and I ended up going past midnight without making a post.

Anyhow, continuing my portrait of the lushly maned Desmond.

Striped

Wanted to render the shirt I was wearing today - I got so many compliments on it (as usual). Plus I wanted to continue experimenting with the Webster brushes - there are so many and I kinda want to know how to use them all!

Next Layer 5

I would have gotten to this sooner if my clients didn't fosit new last minute rush jobs (as opposed to their normal rush jobs). Not that I'm complaining, just pressed for drawing/ painting time. This one is the requested changes to the shirt and pants colors, which I'm still not fully on board with. Will look for another solution, I think...

Tresses

Sketch for a new piece, another male nude hopefully done with little to no photo references. I want a slightly awkward pose and I think I have the head tilt just right but need to find a way for the body to be slightly off kilter. That left arm needs to do something else, and more off...

Hitomi and her friend Heron

Hitomi and her friend Heron are quite pleased that White is a hot new trend for spring.

Next Layer 4

I thought about adding a portrait element to this series to make it seem more editorial and less like a collection of sketches, but I'm not sure how detailed to go (or not). And these boys are a mite too delicate... more Prada features than anything else...

New Layer 3

I love how the strokes look - I think I'm able to keep a dynamic flow in my strokes so that they look fairly confident. Dunno about the rest, but I suppose with practice I can find the forms I will like to revisit again and again.

Next Layer 2

So trying to figure out the pose and technique I need to do for this... and I woonder if the brush should determine the look and feel, or if the idea should? I think I'm just going to let whatever happens naturally take precedence, and trust in my drafting skills. :)

Blue Boy

Kyle Webster alerted customers to the fact that he's improving the textures on his brushes, and posted a video demo to prove it. I realized that I didn't even use the brush he demo'ed, much less could I tell what the improvement might be. So I pulled up that and a few other brushes just to play.

It's funny, I find myself emulating other people's work because of the brushes... like it forces you to work that way.

Next Layer

Well, the Layered studies went over so well I'm doing a commission for an invitation. This is the study for it...

Painter Doodle

So very tacky 80s, she is.

I opened up Painter Essentials yesterday, because I was watching a video of young fashion illustrator Mara Craspo painting so fluidly, I got envious. And I know how slow Photoshop takes to render a stroke, so I recalled Painter Essentials having a quicker response time. Not that it's any good in this case - this was just me putting quick stroke after stroke on the canvas. But I saw a favicon on my browser and my head interpreted it as something else that looked like this, so I ran with it.

Layered 6

Well, the 'client' seems to like this look, much to my surprise and delight, so I'm going with the looser watercolor style.

Layered 5

I saw a beautiful watercolor in a new FB friend's page and I decided to try and emulate the quality with a similarly minimal rendering, but for my still-unsettled illo project for brand Second Layer. I like it - and I ran with it. When you work with a watercolor brush, it kinda makes you do what it wants to do...

Desmond 4

Just because I need to keep at this one... but I think I'm daunted by the prospect of rendering all that hair!

Stark Contrast 2

I love the colors and style potential of this piece but I didn't really do enough work on the face - gawd it's awful. So I'm going to try and make her more like the deep-set eyed, Mark Ryden/Mel Odom creature she seems to want to be... and this is a step there though I'm not sure yet. This drawing looks more like her sister Arya than she does... not that it's meant to be an accurate  (or even vague) likeness of the actress who portrays Sansa. Then again, I've also made her hair more like the Red Woman's hair, so why even bother with any sort of faithfulness to the tv show?  Hehe.

Stark Contrast

I watched Game of Thrones' latest ep today, where Sansa builds a small snow Winterfell. In that scene, she wore a deap teal (or was it hunter green?) gown that made her red hair stand out , not to mention against all that snow as well. So I thought I'd channel the colors first, worry about the details later...

Horny Boy

One of my friends has been dealing with an errant bf, and it's upsetting because they've been together for so long, and I kind of project my ideals on them... nothing is ideal I suppose. There's a devil in all of us... so on a related note, horny Marko here is a character from a comic book series Saga, which has the most amazing art by Fiona Staples. The cover of the first trade paperback has been staring at me the whole while I've been working on this rush website, so I thought I'd do him as a quickie (I was surprised how quick I was too).

Driiiip

I'm dying for an ice cream cone. And since I'm stuck at my desk working, I suppose a drawing of one will have to do...

15 Minute Face

I was intrigued by the angle of a model's face in a particular shot, but I didn't take any great pains to get a likeness (and if you find the original, you'll see none). I was using the Thick and Thin watercolor brush from Kyle Webster and just playing with it to see what it could do. In 15 minutes I got to work well enough to get into it just for drawing's sake and not for any particular goal.

Quack!

I've been designing, and it's another rush project, so I have a feeling I won't be drawing much over the next three days...

When It Flows

It seems to be an outdated notion, this stroke that flows smoothly in a fashion illustration. Today it's all about copying a photo, which seems a bit redundant to me. Even if I will copy a photo for some pieces (albeit one that I take myself),  more often I will use a photo as a reference for anatomy, or a feeling, not necessarily to copy as is. Tonight, at a loss for what to sketch, I blindly scrolled through my folder of reference photos and chose one at random to base a sketch on. I loved the pose of the model, just slightly askew, and he had a smile on his face. For me, it was about sketching the photo as if I were in front of the model live, and I'm happy that the contour lines look the way they do. Plus it took all over like 6 minutes. Here's the original of model Romulo Pires. I was more interested in his body than the clothing, in case it wasn't obvi.

Her Name Is Bob

I saw a blog entry for one of the artists I follow, and I liked the heavy brush strokes of her sketch. So I took inspiration and I played a bit with aping her technique, and it went into the direction my own sensibilities would take it.

Rainer 14

Lip service. Funny how the more I just follow what's on the photo, the more I realize how wrong I was in my previous drawing. I wonder if it's because I can only compartmentalize so many elements before my natural handstrokes just flow through, making a nose the way I know it, pushing a stroke the way I normally do regardless of what's on the original reference...?

Desmond 3

Whenever I think I am finally making headway on all my planned art pieces that I juggle, I realise how many things I start! Ah well, a bit at a time helps more than doing nothing!

PosterPose 4 (Done?)

I think it's done. I certainly don't want to tinker with it anymore even if it's not as super-tight and clean as I imagined it to be, but I rather liked my 'watercolor hand' when I painted it, so it's in this form. For now.

Blue Elephant

I'm so drunk right now I have fallen asleep at the computer 3 times now. So this is - at beast - a stalling tactic for this blog. But here you go.

Layered 4

Just trying to create new poses for this story. Although it's feeling a bit 70s...