St. Patty's Card 2011

So here is a personal project I did for our annual St. Patrick's Day party. Originally, I had wanted to do a cartoon of Otis, but my dad was the one doing the graphic design and mailing of the invitations, and he needed something sooner, and I didn't want to just crap out a drawing from any of the sketches that I did, because I am not totally set on any of them. I take personal projects like these just as such...personal.

I did have one cartoon sketch I did recently that I wanted to show...I still am not totally sold on it though. The invitation is a scan of a print, and the printer my dad has in his office, plus his really old computer, kind of knocked out a lot of the quality from the original drawing. His computer also doesn't have a CD burner or flash drive (in case you were wondering). We bought him the latest model of Mac last year for Christmas (or I should say 2 years ago, in 2009), but he never uses it. I guess when dads say they don't want anything for Christmas, they mean it.

Speaking of which, it is also going to be my dad's 60th birthday pretty soon. I can't believe that almost 30 years ago, my dad was already having his second child...me! And 30 years later, instead of a grandson for him, I have this drawing I did...on newsprint...because I am an artist...with no money...reaching around in the dark...wondering what the hell I am doing...

The bottom sketch is the higher quality version done for the card in charcoal and conte. I took a photo about half way through to show the "shadow mapping" phase. There was some damage to the drawing surface (again) from the bits of rock in the conte. Other than that, there are just 2 errors in proportion, and one error in rendering...I still really like how it turned out, and I plan to do more drawings of this guy. Everybody loves him!

More of Otis

Here are some more studies of Otis. His birthday is either close to, or the exact date of St. Patrick's Day. My family usually does a card for St. Patrick's, and I usually do an illustration. None of these studies will be used for the card...I will be posting that soon. The bottom drawing is a 3 hour warm up...his head was turning out very wobbly and ill proportioned, so I stopped. I still like it for many reasons, but it didn't make the grade for a finished piece.

The top drawings are an attempt to create something of a cartoon of Otis from my imagination. I still don't feel as though I captured him the way I would be proud of, but I may take some of these things to a finish later.

Kid Me

So this is a quick drawing of myself when I was young. I did this in 2009, and I can definitely see some errors in proportions. However, I am most dissatisfied with the way my left eye turned out. I should say too, when using conte, you end up running into bits of rocks and grog in the clay, and they leave deep grooved lines that cannot erase. You can see these going diagonally across my forehead and other parts of the drawing.

Cut the Cake

I apologize in advance if I have posted any of these drawings. This is a study done in 2009 of my parents from their wedding album. The fashion and style is so dated and interesting to me, as well as the fact that my parents look so young. This is done in charcoal and white pastel on 18X24 newsprint.

Partial Drawings

These two drawings are under 2 hours. The first is a drapery study done in about 20-60 minutes. The second drawing is another 2 hour drawing from open drawing at Studio 2nd Street. These were done in 2009.

Another from 2009

This is another 2-3 hour charcoal drawing on 18X24 newsprint. I really wish I was faster, as I liked how this one was turning out. Her right shoulder is a bit out of perspective, but I am fairly happy with the face and hands, which was and is always my goal for live drawing from a model.

The Biker

Here is another 2-3 hour charcoal on newsprint...18X24" This is one of my former roommates, Taylor Smith...you can view his art in my inspiration column.

We (Taylor, Antwan Ramar, and I) all worked at Lego Land doing caricatures, and we all biked there since none of us brought a car while we lived out in California. I really enjoyed biking along the beach when there was no rush. However, I really didn't mesh into the politics of Kaman's Art Shopes so well (which is an understatement), especially after working for Richmond Illustration. So the bike ride to work was often a dreadful one, and I usually opted to take the bus there, and then bike home.

Its too bad that I hadn't realized Taylor was going to model in his full Lego Land attire...the uniform looked like a rejected concept for Fruit Striped Gum...this didn't help your confidence as a professional artist, but I think we pulled it off pretty well.

None the less, I am glad to have made it through the experience, and to have met the great artists there...and the stories, oh the stories...(the horror...the horror...)

Drawings Past

2-3 hour life drawing. Charcoal on newsprint...2009.

Newsprint Drawings

So, I finally broke down and bought a new tripod after my last one was busted. I have a bunch of newsprint drawings both new and old that I am going to be posting. I hope to post one a day for the next week or so, unless I forget or something. These are a couple of recent studies from a month ago done in black prisma color pencils on newsprint. I took about 2-3 hours per drawing. My goal was to go as quickly as I could. I am going to do more of these, as I think speed is important.

Valentines Day

So here is yet another drawing of my favorite model...I am going for a looser look in the paints. I may end up coloring the other two designs. I like them all, and the photographer did a great job.

Enjoy!

Sole Mates

What's up? Well, here are some digital works, drawn in traditional pen and ink, scanned, and then painted in photoshop. The first drawing is a preliminary sample for a potential client that ended up going nowhere when she told me that she would pay me $35 per each page for her book about her dog. I may be desperate, but not that desperate...furthermore, I did this part for free.

The second one is a drawing for a friend. I found this photograph to be somewhat interesting...basically the guy seemed to have a character that I wanted to try and capture.

Anyway...enjoy.