Greetings Commrades! Thanks to you all for the fun of this month! I have loved doing this, and thanks to Michelle for the idea/link to TAD! It’s been great for the FLOW. 
Following on yesterday’s theme, Russian poster style mashup with aquatic life…
i like russian poster style, and lately i’ve been wanting to draw a giant squid, because someone at work had a cool sweatshirt with some on it. but i opted for an octopus, and decided to mash it up with the russian poster thing. i’m not sure if the green takes away from the russian feeling, but i like the result anyway. long live the sharpie! i also like that octopusses have so many legs, and the russian text on the drawing translates into “Our strengths are uncountable.”
and so they are…
I’ve been increasingly unhappy with the sloppiness of my recent submissions. I admit, this was mainly due to my exhaustion after a long work day and forcing myself to get something, anything, finished and submitted. Since today was my day off, I decided to spend a little more time on my submission. My goal was to attempt to recreate the look of an engraving. I don’t think I succeeded, but I learned much about the medium.
I didn’t even get started on this until around 10:30 pm. Completely the wrong type of paper for marker. I wish I had been alert enough to do justice to the hair.
One day, when I have ample time and am not exhausted, I might be able to do one of these I’m actually happy with.
Another busy day, and tomorrow will be worse. Expect tomorrow’s thing very late.
So, what does one do when their thing is absolute crap? They start all over again.
My mistake was that on the first drawing, I attempted to do a marker wash over pencil and do my hatching later. Big, big mistake. Copic marker seems to lock pencil in, therefore completely ruining the drawing. Stubborn fool that I am, I tried to fix it and ended up with a crapfest. I almost abandoned it, deciding instead to do two things tomorrow. But I don’t work like that. I’d have stopped posting all together.
So I did another. Not possessing the fortitude to hatch my shades, I decided to do my tonal work in a sort of jazz-era cubist fashion. It’s dramatic, it’s different, and I’m not sure I like it.
So. I’m considering the length of a day equal to the amount of time between sleep. Technically, it is the 17th. Ha! So what.
I used copic markers for the “wash.” I think I’ll be experimenting with ink washes a bit.
Sorry. Ran out of muttonchops. You’ll just have to settle.
If anyone out there needs a character portrait for a roleplaying game or has any cool old photos (or links to reference) they’d like me to draw, please send them to me. I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to do it, but if it’s interesting and inspiring I just might.
tonight i’m tired!
i’m glad to be making things every day…
I made dinner too; mackerel, rice, broccoli rabe. it hit the spot. But i was so hungry i forgot to take a photo of it. mm mmm.
For those of you who are interested (Kay!) I’ve included a scan of the preliminary sketch that eventually evolved into the finished work. I’m using the Copic pigment liners I was allowed to buy myself for a Valentine’s Day gift. The aluminum barrels feel great.
Strangely enough, this is the most modern of my subjects so far.
Before (10 minutes, max):
After (30-ish minutes):
Today I didn’t even use the scratch paper to do a little sketch and instead just drew on myself.
This one almost didn’t happen tonight. I had a very long day teaching guitar lessons, and I taught a class that didn’t end until 8:30. I got home exhausted and saw our monstrous electric bill. Stress. Tomorrow is my estranged father’s birthday. More stress. The gash on my back from this morning when I awoke with a full bladder, wasn’t wearing my glasses, trying not to squish two cats and hit my lower back on the protruding air-conditioning unit. Pain. Two false starts.
I almost didn’t do it at all. I started it and got discouraged. I told my wife that I wasn’t going to do it tonight. Then the shame set in. I HAD to finish. For myself. For you, whoever you are.
I did as half-assed a job as I can possibly allow myself to do without hating myself for it. It’s much looser than the other ones. In some ways I really dig it (the vibrancy, the motion), and in other ways I hate it (dammit! I can do better).
But I couldn’t leave you without someone to tie your respective Penelopies to the train tracks (tremolo diminished chords ascending in minor thirds…).
It’s not yet even 9 p.m. and I’m already spent for the day. All I have to show is this little 30 second sketch I did while at work on scratch paper. I have no energy for a project tonight. It’s taking all my energy to scan this sketch and post here, but I MUST post daily, and now I will be able to rest easy knowing I didn’t miss a day.
So tie-tie, big yawn.
I watched one of the movies I had recorded on the tee-vee tonight. To be honest, The 47 Ronin part II was hard for me to get through and not a favorite. Maybe it would’ve helped if I had see part I? I wanted to check it out because the synopsis looked promising: samurai seek revenge and all 47 of them are sentenced to death by suicide based on a true story. Visually the film had some nice stuff to look at (costumes, hair, a look into different country and different time period).
This drawing is a paused screenshot from the movie jotted down on paper. I roughly sketched out the courtyard that these two dudes were sitting in, but later decided to paste over the green-blue notebook paper background instead. As the movie was in black and white, I was also able to color it however I liked.
faces of the moment.