Swashy & Pink

Still with the same Ruffin Brush, I decided to doodle a background swathe of color and fill in a figure over it. You know, this has potential.

Slouchy Pose 2

 Tried to rescue yesterday's drawing. Nope, not happening with this one.

Slouchy Pose

This was a quick doodle with me thinking I can create a casual, hands-in-pocket-while-the-jacket-drapes-nicely-all-aroound, but kinda failing miserably.

Nice Guy

Got to meet and film a lovely model from Denmakr, Nagai, whom I discovered online and chatted up in Instagram. He had so many good poses that I delayed starting—couldn't decide! I still might opt for a different pose, but this is my first attempt.

Alienated, Done

Tweaks and backgrounds. I realized I had changed the overall lighting on this guy because of how i rendered the body, so I changed the lighting on his face, then added some framing strokes. I think he's done! I am intentionally leaving some things off kilter, and uneven, because I think they have more energy than the more corrected versions I made. Again, the benefits of multiple digital files and layers—you can explore but go back to a version you prefer!

Alienated 4

The problem with having multiple versions is deciding between them. I often draw the immediacy out of my strokes when I keep adjusting an image, so I'll sometimes go back to an older version. It's good that I can, but also bad because, indecision!!

Ernesto Profile 2021 2

Slowly trying to resolcve this. He wants another version of his comic-book style one I did in 2008, but not sure I want to go there. Well, we'll see, likeness first.

Professor Barnette's iPad Assignment 2 (Done?)

 I'm really not as well versed in the iPad! My finishes are terrible.

Fuchsia Face 2

 He's shaping up to be interesting, but I still need to resolve a lot of the features. A lot isn't right yet.

Alienated 3

I realized after posting yesterday's drawing that I had done multiple versions of this piece, but didn't create yesterday's version from teh latest one. I had modified the body of the man to be much slighter, perhaps reflective of my own weight loss at the time. But I feel like I'm responding more to the fuller form before I whittled it down, but I'm going to continue to adjust this version to it's skinnier premise and see if I like it better.

Alienated 2

I realized I never finished this sketch either, but I didn't have much time yesterday so I retooled his thighs and hands, mostly.

Angles 5

 

I dunno, I'm still not feeling this sketch enough to make enough changes to finish it. This time I worked on both figures's faces.

Fuchsia Face

 Just another doodle using my favorite Ruffin brush!

Pocket Procreate-ion

Because of yesterday's drawing, I wondered about my former use of the Procreate iPhone app, and decided to do a quick sketch on it. I used to use it a lot won the subway trains, but I haven't taken the trains in this past year because of the pandemic!

Professor Barnette's iPad Assignment

 

I've had my iPad for over two years and I barely use oit for sketching!  Same with my fashion illo friends Renaldo and Sue, so we devised an assignment to force us to use it. All three of us have to sketch a pose and outfit of Renaldo's choosing, ONLY using our iPads and Procreate app. This is mine, still in need of final finishing.

Angles 4

 Been ferretting around in my folders for old work to show for a talk I'm having this Sunday, and found some pieces I thought to try and continue. This was a reworking of this face (yet again).

Ernesto Profile 2021

My friend Ernesto wanted me to send him a new print of an old 2008 drawing I did of him, which I can't bear to look at since it's not as good as I know my portraiture to be today—so much of a difference in 12 years! And yet, to think about it, 12 years IS a long time, and one would hope I'd have progressed. Anyhow, this si the beginning rough for the new portrait.

Max R (Re)Done

I kept it a day before posting, and true enough, I found stuff I wanted to retool, very specifically minor tweaks that might not be noticeable, but for me made the drawing more faithful to the model and source image that I took.

Max R. Done(?)

Wow, I really plowed through this drawing and did it in a few hours. Now I'm letting it sit so I can come back to it before I decide to post it on Instagram. I think it turned out well although I'm generally not one to do this kind of highlighting on a naked male body because I feel like it can come off as cheesy "Gay Art,", but hopefully my techniques feel a bit more legit, although I don't really have a vocabulary for this kind of highlighting (yet).

Max R.

I contacted and videotaped a couple of new models in the past two weeks, so at the back of my mind I had to 'perform' and produce work really soon. My first one was a Spanish model in Malaga, and he was so generous with his time and poses, I wanted to make sure I did a good job on his piece. This is the initial rough of the video still that I took of him that selected from my posing session. This is actually a makeup sketch since I didn't make one on the actual day of this post.

Seventies Sacai

 I realize that the hairstyles on the runway remind me of how Japanese anime hairstyles used to be in the 70s cartoons. They looked really outlandish back then but now I see why they were drawn that way.

New fall 13, In Stride 8

 Adjusting the face a bit more, and the hat. The photo reference is pretty blown out, so there aren't many details.

Pelvic Focus

I'm currently obsessed with how to draw a foreshorted, 6 pack pelvis when the model is seated. I love how a defined abdomen shows the way the musculature works in that pose. This is a pre sketch.

New fall 13, In Stride 7

 This is a 7 year old drawing I decided to try and finish, since it was an unfinished one of my model, Max, whose birthday it was today. But I couldn't release it unfinished so here's yet another work in in progress.

Please Be Seated 3

I've been trying to do his hand rendering, with all the fingers entwined, without a reference. It's a lot to draw which is why I keep avoiding this one.

Ancient Robes 3

More unfinished business, and this one I decided had a face that was too lowbrow and needed to be more refined.

Father John 3

I realized I had his nose and chin all wrong, and also adjusting teh angle of his tilt helps with being more like the reference I took.

Father John 2

I've put this drawing away long enough and decided to confront it...by doing some minimal changes. but with portraiture, the tinyest bit goes a long way in gaining are semblance. Although I did do a few things: the hairline, the shape of his forehead the eyes, nose and chin...it's all just very subtle.

Dolman 5

 The problem with having multiple digital versions of a sketch, is that you can go back to older ones to retool. But it can become like some weird multiverse issue, with so many divergent versions of a drawing which each have their own pros and cons, and you have to decide which one you keep. I'm liking this version of the face now...

Dolman 4

 I decided maybe a change of hair would help but nope, it's still not there.

Statuesque 3

I'm getting Marcus Schenkenberg-in-Avedon's-Versace-ad vibes from the face and hair.

Statuesque 2

 I really like the loose mark making this gouache a-go-go does, and it makes me feel like my work is more painterly than it is. Looser, and I feel like I can get to shadows and volumes I normally don't do. But who knows... we'll see how this finishes out (if at all!). The mouth and jaw need work though, He's looking a bit babyfaced and chubby.

Statuesque

 I've had a pose idea in my ead that I just needed to scribble down. I started playing with his face but it's nowhere just yet...

Dolman 3

I wasn't happy with the face I original sketched, even if I liked the structure. Further retooling yielded this face that vaguely reminds me of John Travolta's youthful facial structure, but it's a bit too retro looking for my liking...Grrrr.

Dolman 2

I like the guy's expression and the general styling, but I feel like it's a bit dated. Like, models today aren't as manly, and even when sexy there's a boyish, younger quality to their looks. I think my old school faces need adjustment to approximate.

Dolman

 I was inspired by all the big sleeves and oversized constructions to both buy and draw something based on sleeve volume. This was the first rough, and I think it has potential but I need to tweak that face. He's a bit older looking, and not quite as fresh as fashion demands right now.

Teoh 8

 And finally fleshed out this outfit too...

Teoh 7

 I finally fleshed out teh clothing on my very first drawing for this client! Whee, close to the finish line!

Happy Moo Year!

 

I drew a brushy, horny bovine to celebrate the lunar Year of the Ox!

Spread Out 5

More adjustments on his torso. I wonder now if, in fleshing out the anatomy, I've once again lost the fluidity of the pose?

Hot Pink

 I let the brush do the talking and I liked the bottom lit form of a woman, something I did once before that I know I posted on IG to little fanfare. But I still like her. Plus I needed to do something that wasn't a client portrait!

Spread Out 4

 Refining the face as well as the position of his body. After laying out the initial pose, I'm trying to see (without references) if I can correct the anatomy. I suppose I'll have to check some references later but for now I want to see if I can imaging it correctly.

Spread Out 3

I've been so busy with my commissions that I haven't had the time to post anything on IG and was wondering if I could finalize this one to post. I changed his face around and I'm liking it more, although he reminds me of my first ex now that I think about it.

Projecting

 Sometimes it's nice to just draw on paper, and when I had some ideas for a costume redesign for the Legion's Princess Projectra (such a lame name, I know), I didn't want to deal with a digital file. There's nothing like the natural feel of your hand on natural media, and when you want to put ideas down instead of tackling an onscreen program to do it.

That Fashion Smile 6

Had the client review and they wanted me to fix some bits of the face. Which I did, very subtely, but I have to put it aside fro a day and let the changes sit, and see how I feel when I return.

That Fashion Smile 5

The good thing about laying down marks digitally is that—if you set it up right—you don't need to commit to anything, and you can change it all later. This was the result of multiple retoolings of the various fabrics, but I'm generally in an okay mood about it all at this point.

That Fashion Smile 4

 I had to sort out the body, and even if I wasn't necessarily feeling it, I painted in the clothing to start the process of figuring out how to finish this piece.

Ba-Wrong

 

My friend Joanne DMed me on Facebook, wondering what could be done to repurpose her dad's old barong tagalog (National Filipino dress shirts for men) as  a piece for her to wear. Her dad's piece is such a particular style I had a hard time trying to figure out anything really fashionable to do to it. These were the sketches I came up with...although I don't think I've come up with anything that looks quite right (so, wrong it is then!)

That Fashion Smile 3

Sorting out the likeness some more...

That Fashion Smile 2

 Sorting out the garment construction and scale. It's funny, I really like how I've laid this out but I wonder if I prefer the immediacy of my previous sketch?