Warmup and Kirby

Just something to get the gears going again.  Anybody that's a fan of video games should know who this is by heart.  I may use this as part of a bigger thing later on, so look for any other sketches relevant to this one.

More stuff from the lab...

 Messing around with more quick drawing techniques...

 Taking myself from mild...

 ...to WILD.  Yeah, chances are I'm not going to be selling a sketch looking like that in the park but it's always interesting to see how far you can push something regardless.  Doesn't hurt that it knocks you out of your comfort zone too.

Same goes for this one here.  He was a wild one from a couple years ago that I decided to study again in an effort to improve.  This is why you should photograph your live work folks!

Out and about again...

 Taking a Hooters chick I've drawn before and tried to push the exaggeration a bit farther this time.  Likeness is a bit questionable now, but it did what it was supposed to do, and that's get me away from my comfort zone.

 Again, pushing form farther on a previous live sketch.

 "Is that the woman that was sitting over there a minute ago?"  Yes siree Bob.  Could've brought the jaw down JUST a hair more though.  She had it, but I was too afraid of turning her into a dude in drag at that point.

 With these two, it was an exercise in not over-shading them, to keep them as feminine as possible.

 This was done at Denny's.  She was kinda hungry over there.

 The resident rocker of the karaoke nights.  It's funny how he always has a scowl.

 This one is supposed to be innocent, though I had to be very careful about this one for what should be the obvious reasons...  Yes, it was a lollipop.

 Didn't quite turn out how I would've liked her to but they can't all be winners right?

 Can you tell that I started him off as a rectangular shape? 

 The one that's two below her actually came first.  This one was more of a secondary study I did after the first.

 Mrs. "MALL CLOSED, FOOD COURT CLOSED"  LOL.  She'll let you know when it's time to go!

 This was the original sketch that the second study was based off of.  Likeness is good, though upturned noses depending on the type can still be a pain for me sometimes.  When you're so used to straight and downturned from the park it can sometimes throw you off when you need to do something else.  All it means is that I gotta do more of them, that's all.

 Once again, not all of them are winners.  IMO, I struck out at the plate here.

Amazing how an initial pick shape and two wedges can define an entire picture.  Wasn't actually going for an accurate likeness here as much as I was trying to warm my mind back up to thinking in simple shapes again for the foundations.  For some reason she reminds me of a really jacked up Alice Edun, though that could also be attributed to watching a peek of Put 'Em Up being played over on the Dance Dance Revolution X machine too.

Pastel Portrait!

This one is a small commission for a couple friends of mine who work in the theme park.  Photo was slightly tricky with a few spots but for the most part it was pretty straightforward with the exception of one important element.  They wanted it in PASTEL.  The last time I used pastels was in college my first year of it, so you can imagine how it felt to pick them up again to produce a work of art with them.  Even more so when I consider that the last thing I did with pastels wasn't anything even remotely close to as complex as this nor was it as small scale (it was 20 x 30 IIRC as opposed to 11 x 14). 

The initial pencil sketch in of this was fine, but admittedly the pastel portion of this was a little scary initially.  This isn't like digital work, where the only real fear is a power outage or your system deciding to FORMAT: C:/ since otherwise you have an undo command for anything that might happen.  Here if something goes wrong it could either mean living with it or starting over if it's too big an issue. Granted, one has to get over it and dive on in as results and experience don't come on their own.  You have to make the move.  Now some initial mistakes with the medium were made, and there are things I've definitely do a bit differently on another piece like it (especially in the planning),  but overall I like how it came out.  It's a bit looser than what I'm accustomed to, yet at the same time that's what makes it interesting to me.  It works out kinda like the paintings you see on a wall where it all comes together the farther away you look at it, which is fine as it's going to be in their home on the wall as a show piece as opposed to an online JPEG file that you're looking at on your monitor.  I may touch up a few areas before I deliver it to them, but aside from that I think I'm going to call this one done.

This was done with charcoal pencil and soft pastel on 11 x 17 textured paper cut down to 11 x 14.

Picture updated as of 12/2/2011 to show more accurate color.

 She actually watched me draw the older guy, who was the first one I did.  We had a really good conversation while I was drawing her.

 Quickie, but successful.

 A bit more involved again like the older man below.  Very fun to draw, even though it was all in one shot.

 The first of the group of 5 that I've drawn.  Issues I have with it aside, if there's anything I'm really beginning to like about these is that I'm getting to the point where the marker sketches are FINALLY starting to look closer to the DSi based, planned out sketches.  There's still work to be done, but I'm damn pleased with the progress so far.

Also a quickie.  Like the contrast in expression between the smiley face on her hat and her facial expression.  It's not necessarily something I get to do often enough in the park so this puts a smile on my face.

New randoms, and a not-so-random...

 My battery was starting to run REALLY low on the DS with him, so I had to zip him out.  Not as finished as I'd like it to be because of that, but at the same time it forced me to work faster and just get the important stuff down.

 From memory.  He had a long face and I also wanted to try some things here too.

 This guy actually saw his.  He seemed to be a bit disgusted by it, but hey I'm not doing these to cater to people.  This is my lab.  Anything goes, good or bad.

And here we leave off with my friend Melissa, aka the not so random one.  Drew her while she was with family and friends.  She was tougher to get than expected.  Not 100% sure if I got her, but at the same time I find it hard to say it's a miss.  Then again, she's slimmed down considerably since we used to work together in the park so I wouldn't be surprised if part of my conflict here is stemming from that. 
Regardless of all that though, I do find it damn cute which is what I was going for so it does succeed there.  As of this posting though, she hasn't seen it yet.

Some more randoms from various places....

 OK, she sorta doesn't count since she is family, but still.

 Going off in a different tangent with this one. Kinda actually like the results.  It's different from the usual.  Made me think in a different way.

 She sorta started as one person I was looking at and gradually turned into another as I was finishing it up.  Would get an F for likeness, but a B for intrigue.

 So glad I drew this woman.  Actually took a chance on drawing her with her head tilted that way.  Turned out much better than expected. 

 This whole sketch was strictly about the gesture.  I like the flow of it.

He was actually the first one I started with today.  Actually decided to incorporate the hand in there since it's something I'm trying to get better at dealing with.  I will say this much, that book has been helping me out in subtle, but big ways over the last couple of weeks.  It's made me approach certain things with some new eyes.

Zombies! And Marvin Martian.

 Zombie sketch I've done of my friend Sami.  I took a couple other photos to sorta show the coloring stages of it.

 Some more zombie sketches, one a request, the other because I felt like it and it was kinda slow going that day.

Two couples wanted to be zombified too.  One in black in white and the other in color.  Never did get as many of these requests as I would've liked but at the same time even a couple is better than none.   One thing I've realized is that it can be devilishly difficult to get a good likeness on these, especially if you don't undersketch it out prior.  Each one of the live ones took about 30 minutes each, which is kinda long for live but that's why you charge extra for them

And then there's my friend Shawn as Marvin Martian.  She came to me with this idea a while ago, and I finally got around to doing it right before the park closed for the season.  No ma'am, I haven't forgotten about you!  I'd have to say it's one of my favorite sketches I've done for a co-worker.