Friday, September 25, 2009

Daily Frank Shamrock: Day 1, 2, and 3.




I decided this month, I would choose a subject that lends itself to awesome stylization so that I'll be able to focus on different interpretations of the subject along with how much better I can draw it on day 30 than on day 1. Consequently, I decided to take the photorealistic approach for days 1-3 as I went from line art to value to color.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

busting out the big newsprint pads



I recently got a part-time gig teaching art at Cordovan School of the Arts. It's a lot of fun showing kids how to do stuff like paint a watercolor sunset with a rhino's silhouette in front of it and trying to explain things like why construction lines are necessary and why you shouldn't draw them sharpie-dark.
One of the perks is that I get to do some free figure drawing every week, and I finally decided to buy myself a big newsprint pad, some Conte crayons, and nupastel sticks. It feels good to be drawing like this again, and I think after going through a sketchbook per month for the last nine months, I'm excited to pump out some portfolio pieces.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Sometimes I just can't contain my excitement.

Daily Fuentes





I decided it would be cool to draw the same picture every day for a month, so I printed off a picture of Daisy Fuentes, my first celebrity crush as a teenager and I've been drawing that same picture every day for the past 30 days, and I have to say it's been a pretty cool experience that's really helped me out in the "drawing attractive females" department.
I've decided to do the same thing for the next month, except I'm going to the opposite end of the spectrum and drawing MMA fighter Frank Shamrock, who looks like he's taken many blows to the face during his cage fighting career.

thumbnails from a crowded room




experimenting with compositions and stuff

Monday, September 14, 2009

Hey Man, Slow Down


I've recently rediscovered the joys of taking your time when drawing. I decided to stop trying to work stylized for a while and just try to get good likenesses.

Sunday Painting: Ugly Christmas Tree Ornament



Last year, I was at Hobby Lobby with my mom, looking through the clearance isles and laughing at the failures of interior decoration, when we found the grand daddy of bad design, a Christmas ornament of an unusually dark-skinned Indian with green and red war paint who was fondly caressing his horse, who had a large red circle painted around each eye. We had a good laugh at it and were about to buy it, but then the lines were too long, so we just put it back.
I went back to the store later and bought it as a cheap gag gift for my mom, who later took it to work and showed it off to her coworkers, who smiled and nodded.
When I went off to school, my parents started playing a little game with the Indian. My mom wants to hang it on the fridge, but my dad hates it and thinks it's the ugliest thing ever, so anytime my dad sees it on the fridge, he hides it somewhere where it will get found several weeks later.
I decided upon a great way to settle this: I would make an actual-sized painting of it on a postcard. That way, my dad would still have to look at the indian, even when the original was hidden away under a car seat or in a less-used pocket of my mother's purse.

the front side was done in gauche, and the back was prismacolor.