More Of These.

These are so much fun!!! Hopefully I will post some real drawings sometime soon...

Paint Mark Guys.

When I'm painting, I usually have a little scrap piece of whatever paper I'm using at the time as an area to test out the colors before I lay it down on the actual piece. Sometimes these paint marks turn out more interesting than the actual piece.

Also, have you guys ever drawn random lines or scribbles and given it to somebody else to draw something using those lines? And swapping it back and forth? I don't know if that has an official name or anything but I love doing that.

Anyway, last night I was feeling silly and started doodling on my paint marks from the swine flu piece. It was a lot of fun! Unintended (unintentional?) shapes and patterns are so interesting.



My favorites are the three guys on the right: the dog (?), the cat, and the guy with a turban-esque headgear.

Gossip Girl Gifs.

I'm 99% with both Blair & Chuck. Here are the progress photo gifs:




Please give the gifs a few seconds to load.

Blair Waldorf In Progress.

Gouache on stretched Canson Mi-Tientes paper in Light Blue.

Mr. Chuck is 97% done, so I started Miss Blair so I can finish the two together. I kind of intended them to be a pair piece that also works independently.

Chuck Bass In Progress.

Gouache on stretched Canson Mi-Tientes paper in Buff. The suit needs to be pushed back a little bit as far as saturation goes. Anyway, onto my favorite part: color pencils!

Gossip Girl Strikes Back, and Vin D.

So, I know I've drawn The boys of Gossip Girl before, but I'm way too intrigued by Chuck Bass's face to not draw him again.

Here is a start of a sketch (photographed, hence the quality):

...and a more finalized sketch (scanned):


I decided to draw Blair Waldorf while I was at it, too:

Leighton Meester is gorgeous... and I love her immature & manipulative character so much.


I'm pretty sure I will be taking these drawings to a final piece. I already have a color scheme in mind (purple for Chuck Bass and white&red for Blair).

Also I've started working on Vin Diesel. Since I'm not too sure about the drawing for this one, I've decided to experiment with this and just mess around. I like it so far:

It's gouache & a little bit of color pencils on stretched Canson Mi-Tientes paper in light blue. I might even take it into digital and play with collage-y elements to see what happens.

DC Completed.

Daniel Craig



Quantum of Solace was excellent.

[ Gouache and color pencils on a gray Canson Mi-Tientes paper + Photoshop ]

Two Boys.

Couple more new pieces:


Gouache on wood, with subtle scanned textures added in Photoshop.


Ink dyes on illustration board, scanned textures added in Photoshop.

I've always preferred working on traditional media over digital but I really enjoy utilizing digital tools to enhance non-digital things.
The forgivingness and the range of possible experimentations of Photoshop is just as good as the unpredictability of traditional media.

Bird

Here is a preview of the piece I was working on in the previous post. I've actually made several versions of this piece so this particular one may not be the final. Regardless, it's gouache + color pencils, with ink dye textures combined in Photoshop.

I also have a ton of fun personal projects in progress/brainstormed up! More on that soon.

Update & Archived Portraits

My Portfolio Site has been updated! 2 pieces each are added under Illustration and Portraits, so feel free to check them out! As always, any input/comments are much appreciated.

I retired 4 pieces from under Portraits, simply because they're pretty old (made around fall 05 - spring 06), plus I don't feel like they necessarily represent my current style. I'm dumping them here though for archival sake.


Mr. Bean; oil on CP illustration board.


The governator; oil on CP illustration board.


Danny Elfman; ink on HP illustration board.


George Lucas; gouache & color pencils on CP illustration board.
^ This was my VERY first time using gouache..ever! Now it's one of my favorite media.

Super Blob!

Here is a 16"x12" collage-painting I made recently, based on the sketch from the previous post:



I've been wanting to paint on collages for about a year now. I improvised the entire thing, with hardly a clear vision of the final product... a total no-no for most Illustration, but I like how spontaneous and fun it turned out. Here are my impromptu steps:

- ripped magazine pages glued on canvas with watered down gesso
- yellow dye for tint
- peeling off some glued parts off to create ripped texture
- graphite to transfer the sketch
- putting down gouache with a paintbrush
- putting down gouache with a toothbrush (splattering)
- industrial duct tape to rip the surface + create further texture
- black and purple Sharpies for outlines (oh, how un-artsy)

I entered this into the SCAD Small Works exhibition call for entries, alongside random pieces from the past. We'll see how that goes.

I will definitely continue doing more fun personal projects like this!!