Tryptophan Thanksgiving

SleepCare gave me quite the challenge with a series of holiday related illustrations just  shy of two weeks before Thanksgiving. I cranked this one out quickly so that it could be on the site and have a least a weeks worth of relevance, and hopefully buy me some time to work on the Christmas illustrations.

I don't know why this woman is so thankful for Tryptophan. It this means is that she'll be the one doing all the dishes while everyone else is snoozing. I've been told that the man in the foreground bears a slight resemblance to myself. There might not have been so much similarity if not for the glasses, which I only added because of a Robert McGinnis painting that stuck in my mind while I was searching through my inspirational swipe files for people asleep in chairs.

Have a great Thanksgiving and if you can, use the time off to catch up on some sleep.

Sunday Sketches

Earlier this week I started work on a new illustration for SleepCare involving people sitting at a dinner table and I spent most of the weekend sketching how make a sitting scene look dynamic, or at the very least... interesting.

So when I was asked by some friends if I wanted to have lunch with them at the mall food court this afternoon, I just couldn't help but observe how people sat casually in chairs and just how different it was from the reference photos I was looking at over the weekend were people were posed in chairs.

Gesture drawings are something I've kind of slumped on the past year now that I'm out of school so spontaneous sketches like these taken from outside the home, especially fast and with a pen felt like a breath of fresh air and quite a rewarding experience. I wondered why I didn't do this more often, and then I had to get gas for my car and one glimpse of those prices reminded me why I don't get out much.

Self Portrait

I drew a new self portrait to replace the old photo I used to use which didn't feature my face fuzz. Also, I've been making a lot of changes to my web site recently and wanted to have my picture be on the first page. Lacking any quality photos, I drew myself at my best. I don't smile that often, so I had my webcam take pictures of me while I was watching cartoons on YouTube. Even when cracking up, my mouth really doesn't open that wide, and my teeth seem to serve as sentry, guarding my tongue and tonsils from any outside influence.