Spider-Man and My Amazing Friends

This week I tried to capitalize on the release of "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" by doing daily drawings of the American Arachnid. Unfortunately, sketching such detail in colored pencil was rather frustrating as the waxy tip did not hold a point for very long.



Instead, I found I had much more fun sketching people at a group get-together. Drawing from life is strangely refreshing and therapeutic, despite how much these guys move around.

 

 

Party Progress

Now we're cooking with gas! With I've got the house rendered and the background bits in place, I can devote my attention to the fun figures.

Now I want to hear from you. Is there any pop culture character you'd like to see me draw? What to you think of the party couples new pose? 

Best Face Forward

After designing a new logo for my new business cards I decided to make a new self portrait so that I could have some original art for the cards as well as I felt the previous portrait's full front angle wasn't working out.

So looking for new ideas but drawing myself in front of a mirror. I almost had forgotten how challenging and how rewarding it is to draw something directly from life rather than conform to the structure of a model in a photo.

Its also amusing to see how even drawing the same head, how it can look radically different from one to the next. Its funny how my first impression of my own face was very tall, chiseled and serious. With the hair part and face fuzz, I kinda look like Flynn Rider from Disney's "Tangled".

Later versions showed more squat cheeks as I tried to squeeze out a subtle smile.

Eventually I got this:

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.

Trees

Trees have always been a challenge for me, until not too long ago I realized I was going about it all wrong.

I got up early (7 am in the summer) and observed how the light from the sun cast shadows on the leaves and helped give the tree a distinct shape rather than just being a bunch of stray branches darting out every which way.