Weekend Caricature Collection

I had two different interviews this past week for a job as a park caricature artist, so in preparation I drew over 100 caricatures. Here are some of my favorite selections:

Jonathan Banks

Peter Capaldi

Anne Hathaway

Jennifer Lawrence

Michael Keaton

Lupita Nyong'o

Christoph Waltz

JK Simmons

Sketch you later!

Party Progress, Portraits and Other Pictures

I'm a little late with this week's post. I finished rendering for the figures in my long-gestating "Party of Two" project and was debating whether to hold off showing it off until next week when I would (ideally) have the whole thing finished. I decided that given how much time I devoted to the project this week alone, I may as well try and get a bit of feedback before jumping into the home stretch. 

Some of the bigger changes since last time include making the sky all black and replacing the tree with a street light to try  put more focus on the couple and make the space they're in seem more tranquil. 

Continuing my trend of drawing portraits from "talking head" interviews, here are two giants of science fiction television, Patrick Stewart and Rod Serling. 

Just for fun, I skimmed though the "Misc" folder in my inspiration files, drawing rough thumbnails of whatever struck me as the most interesting. I think this could make for an interesting exercise in brainstorming ideas if I were looking though a collection of pictures that had a consistent subject or artist.

Now I want to hear from you. What do you think of the things I share in these posts? What do you like the most and what would you like to see more?

Faces and Fine Art for Friday

Greetings Friends! Its the last Friday in April and we're finally starting to get those April showers I've heard so much about. Theres been plenty of precipitation, but it was always snow up until now. 

I'm still working at sketching celebrity portraits using video interviews but it can be difficult to find footage doesn't cut away to the interviewer every 30 seconds. Fortunately I was able to draw at least one familiar face this week.

My name is Bond, James Bond. And it always will be. 

I've also been doing gesture drawings of fine art models to refine my anatomy skills.

Party Progress

I've taken full advantage of my new 11x14 sketchbook to figure out the pose particulars for the background dancers.

The most comments I've received have been about the couple and how they're posed. I figured it might be important to put some attention on developing the focal point of whole story. (click to enlarge)

Heres a screen shot of my latest update. The sky is now longer dark and the shelter tree is on the other side of the street. 

Now I want to hear from you. What do you think of the couple's pose? Which sketches do you like the best?

See you next week, hopefully with some May flowers. 

Sketchbook Sharing: Talking Heads (Plus Party Progress!)

Something I've noticed in getting back into daily sketching is that I tend to get caught up in the little details very easily.

It was while watching an interview with Martin Scorsese on TV that I hit on the idea of digging up interviews with people I admire. When the focus is just on a face, moving just casually, I can create a more impressionistic portrait than I can from looking at a photo. It also means I have to pick out which details are important very quickly.

Curiously I noticed that when I draw a face the first thing I render is the eyebrows and nose. No idea why.

Martin Scorsese

Alfred Hitchcock

Orson Welles

Last week asked for feedback on ideas for a new illustration. The responses you provided nothing short of incredible. They were so articulate and encouraging that I was riding high on those replies for the rest of the week.

Based on your comments I've created a more refined scale drawing with more defined character placement, perspective and light-shadow contrast. 

In this upcoming week I plan to practice drawing the figures and experiment with various poses to decide what looks best.

Now I'd like to hear from you. Like I said, I love reading your comments.

Any fellow artists have some quick-drawing tips? Are there some particular people or characters you'd like to see me draw? 

Sketchbook Sharing: Oscar-icatures!

Earlier this week, a friend asked if I would come to a party to do some caricatures. Since I haven't done anything like that in years, I decided to try and practice by sketching some of this year's Oscar contenders. (See the portmanteau there? Oscar-icatures, its Oscar + Caricatures.)

Joaquin Phoenix in Her

Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips

 

Christian Bale and Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle

This was a considerable challenge for me. After spending years being taught how to draw faces in proper proportion, it was exceptionally difficult to break from those rules. I actually did a lot more of the nominees, but these are the ones that I think turned out the best. 

I don't want to make it sound like I'm giving up after trying something new, but this really felt more like a chore than something fun, so I think I'll stick to my strengths with drawing portraits for the foreseeable future.

Also, I learned that its easier to edit your weekly blog post when you stick to drawing a single theme during that week, so I think I can still mark this experience in the win column.