Professionalism

A coworker hired me to create a portrait of her hockey-crazed son. The first attempt didn't turn out, apparently it wasn't the best photo to work from. I wasn't sure how I was going to color this; I wanted to ink it, but I didn't trust my markers to last through coloring the large spaces. I ended up using pastel pencils for the background graphic. She was very excited about this, I got paid, and everyone went home happy.
This is me, modeling my very favorite hoodie. I bought the plain orange garment at Target, and airbrushed the koi and lotus after being inspired by some sweet tattoo art. It is so nice being able to put custom. vibrant, one-of-a-kind images on my clothing!

Toy Study

My it has been a while. School has been eating my life, but now it's over and I can devote some time to sketching and creating again. Here is a study of a plastic Jinx the cat toy, courtesy of JohnK (see sidebar for link). Hopefully I didn't obliterate the underlying structure by over-detailing. Probably shouldn't have shaded but ehhh, I got caught up in the heat of the moment and couldn't stop myself. Hopefully john can find the time to give this a once over and some pointers.

constructing things

I'se been praktikkin!!

Many thanks and much love to JohnK for being such an inspiration and kick in the pant I am sure could spot numerous flaws in the above image, but I think he'd be happy that made an attempt.


Line of Action paper. Needs more exagerration and emphasis, but I was trying hard to make these solidly constructed, so the stretchyness didn't come across very strong.


My own lil jackelope 'self' character. I like the idea of this but the lifted foot irks me, she looks off-balance. Her eyes make me smile :)


I hope I am getting the right idea with these!

More to come as I progress, please help me with critiques and feedback, I am dying for input!!!

Here is the wall that I painted on. It was my first time using spraypaint to illustrate. I got the hang of it alright, but it is certainly an altogether different beast than using an airbrush! Requires a lot more finger strength, for one thing.

I painted the girl on the right, her head is about 6.5 feet from the ground. I also painted the floodlights along the bottom, which turned out kinda meh but whatever.

I am very pleased with her sparkly boots and buttcheeks.

Concept

So tomorrow me n the man are heading up to Cincinnatti to attend our first-ever Scribble Jam which is the country's largest hiphop exhibition. In addition to all kinds of crazy freestyyling and beatboxing and what-have-you, there will be a ton of slick graffiti writers. A buddy of mine is a talented writer, and has reserved a space for me on the giant themed wall, to try my hand at spraypainting. Being an experienced airbrush artist, I do have a bit of an edge over someone who had never painted with the aid of compressed air. I'm not cocky though, I am sure I will be really rough . . . especially compared to the swarm of talented folks I will be surrounded by *swoon*

The theme of the wall this year is Dark Circus, so I'm doing a fire-breather. I need somewhere to host the rough sketch to show my painting partner so without further ado:
My buddy's tag will be fire coming out of her mouth :o!!

oodles of doodles

I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who draws all the time but hates sitting down to scan and resize everything! So I wait and dump it all on here at once, which probably isn't the best way to go about things :\

Airbrushing is fun and interesting! I had a whole post about it all typed up but the internet ate it >:(.


^ When in doubt . . . draw some coons! Working on construction, strong silhouettes, and line of action. Fun and challenging.

^ Every year, Louisville plays host to the National Hot Rod convention. Six Flags KY Kingdom is situated in the same place as the fairgrounds/convention center, so I got to ogle all the beautiful cars, and have interesting conversations with their owners. This fella Bob was something else!!

^based on a real situation . . . the guy was pissed because he waited in line for a water ride and was told his daughters couldn't ride because they were in bathing suit tops. I understand his frustration, but I didn't make the rules so don't come bitchin' ta me when I don't even work for Six
^Jane Fonda and her husband, from a vintage playboy.

^The faces in the upper right were folks at the Mag Bar last tuesday, and the big faces were from a girl's cell phone.
^ I liked the colors and composition in this vintage playboy advertisement for Seagram's.

Dream Scenes

Justin has been urging me to spend more time creating full scenes and backgrounds, which is something I have never been prone to doing. While examining this lack of interest, I realized it's because I don't really know what stories to tell with my pictures. Then it hit me . . . my dreams are full of rich backgrounds, vivid imagery and completely unusual stories!! Fortunately for me, I remembered the last few of my nocturnal meanderings, especially the one I recorded a few posts down.

^On the left is a very quick sketch from a vintage Playboy. The face is odd, but still bears a resemblance the original girl. Colored it at work, without reference, with markers. I'd like to sneak one of my old Playboy's into work to draw from (cartoons and pinups, what!) but ehhhh . . . we'll see. The waterfall is from a dream this morning. Buddha is my mom's dog. The mist is airbrushed.

^I kinda just launched myself at this image with out any prelim sketch, just dashing in with the purple micron. I had to really visualize it in advance to incorporate all the elements and still keep it in balance. I am unused to rendering perspective in landscapes and stuff, so this looks a bit flat. I looove atmospheric perspective, got to see it in action when we were in the Smoky Blue Mountains. Just pretend a young lady with dark hair and her brother are standing on the path, talking to the bear.

This chronologically precedes the other dream image, tho I drew that one first. I like the contrasting moods, that's how it was in the dream. I drew her hair first, then thumbnailed the composition, then drew it with a drying copic sketch marker (brush tip). That produced some smeary, translucent marks, which blurred even more when I went over with markers. Finished it with some airbrushed black and white. I think the composition is too centered, I wish I had thumb'd it before starting!

Critique is greatly appreciated!