Thing-a-day.com

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.

Just finished it before midnight.

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.

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):

Mean, evil, unforgiving medium of pen & ink.

I got watercolors for Christmas and this is the first chance I’ve had to use them. I failed miserably at the last two days, and I’m really sorry about that. I kind of let myself down. However, now I’m even more determined to meet the midnight deadline for the rest of the days.

I am very happy with how my first watercolor piece turned out. I knew I wanted to do something that flowed and I think I accomplished that. The first picture is of my watercolor by itself and then the second picture if after I touched it up in photoshop. I moved the left arm a bit and got rid of all the smudge marks.

Special thanks to my friend Noah who gave me his old drawing tablet for the computer. I LOVE it. Now I’m pretty sure I’m going to get back into photoshop! Yay Noah!

This one is a little better. I went for a more minimalist approach to shading and got better results. I would’ve liked more time for the hair. Hair is the hardest thing to render (so far) in pen and ink.

Another one finished under the gun.  I think I remember why I stopped drawing: I’m too damn busy! 

 I forced myself to pay closer attention this time. This one turned out better than the last one, but there are some serious flaws which are immediately obvious to me the second I scan the thing in. I also cheated in a few areas because of time constraints. I think I need to have a more completed drawing (the hard part) before I start the inking process (the fun part).

the days go by and i don’t have so much time to make stuff. i think she looks vaguely russian…

i’m late as shit on these jawns. here are some 50’s homegirls vacuuming for you.

It was a struggle to get this done today. I was very busy. Tomorrow, I’ll be busier, so more struggle

Not feeling super inspired or energetic today (See my previous post for reason why!) so I just did this quick doodle in Adobe Illustrator… Oh well, I think it’s semi-cute. The colors were semi-inspired by a scheme on Adobe Labs’ “Kuler” application… (Look it up, it’s fun!)

Today, I drew a picture of a woman in a short dress.  She may or may not be dancing, although I like to think that she is.

Unfortunately, my scanner is stupid and my camera needs new batteries.  So, no picture tonight.  Maybe I’ll go back and post one later.

I found the photograph for reference on a website about the Rom people. She was sitting on a blanket with a spread of cards in front of her. I like old photographs, I like the supernatural/occult, and I like gypsies. Since the reference was pretty grainy and blurry, I had to improvise a bit on the features. I’m nowhere near where I’d like to be with my drawing (seeing) skills, but I think I did alright.