Head Full Of Bees

Completely literal self-portrait!

"Morning Hair"

Warmed up this morning with a sketch!

Family Portraits

Stumpy Pencil

Have I ever talked about Stumpy Pencil? My good friend Mike Foran developed this Photoshop brush that beautifully replicates the look and feel of your favorite worn-down pencil. I use it ALL the time, so if you're a regular visitor of this blog (then gosh, thank you! ♥) you've seen it before; like here, and here, and also here!

The brushes are pressure-sensitive, so you can really experiment with different textures and finishes. I highly recommend downloading the preset and playing around with it.

I will leave you with my most recent Stumpy Pencil doodle; a comic depicting what happens when my husband makes me a cup of coffee:

Fearsome Creatures

Having some fun with my moleskin!

This is Chelsey. She's the most popular girl in class:

Dabbling in furry art:

This guy is fearless:

Page Fulla Gordons

My little dog, Commissioner Gordon, is surprisingly difficult for me to caricature (but it's a lot of fun to try)! Here's a bunch of sketches I did with my brush pen last night:

Playing with my brush pen

Some good caricatures, some unsuccessful, and some faces from my mind.

Rufus Sewell part one

One of my favorite actors is Rufus Sewell! So, in celebration of my adding 1 GB of RAM to my Mac, and the fact that it's been far too long since I've done a portrait, I've decided to try and paint Rufus. I'm toying with the approach at the moment, but in the meantime I'll share my sketch with you:

I'm just talkin' about McNinja!

It's Doctor McNinja time again! This time I'm painting the cover for the second book, which will be a print version of the two-part 80's action film homage "D.A.R.E. To Resist Ninja Drugs and Ninja Violence".

Obviously I'm going for those really great 80's/early 90's movie posters. I'm looking at a lot of Bob Peak...he has some really lovely color choices. I wish they still painted movie posters like this...anyway!







This lovely lady on my left was my first concept. Chris and I both liked this one, but he wanted to see what else I could come up with, so I did the following image.











While Chris liked the composition on this one, he didn't want two Dr. McNinjas on the cover, so we scrapped it. Which is a shame because look how cute little chubby Ben Franklin looks!!












Which brings us to this little number! Same basic color scheme as the first version, only a warmer background, and MORE EXPLOSIONS! Ultimately this has a much stronger "I'm an action movie with muscles!" vibe, so it's the logical choice.

I want to try to go for a less photorealistic approach with this one, so I'll be posting my progress to see what you guys think!

Wish me luck ;)

It's-a me!

I haven't done a self portrait since I can remember...definitely at some point during college. So I've decided to paint one!

It's kind of interesting to explore your own face that way. You see all the little flaws and imperfections (which are actually my favorite part!) Anyway, without further ado, here's a sneak peak...there's more to come :D

Red-head

I'm back! This is a design for an upcoming mystery guest comic. Isn't she cute? DON'T YOU JUST LOVE HER PRETTY DRESS?????

:D

D'awww

Those Betty Davis eyes...

I notice that there's this facial type in men that I find very intriguing. Mostly it has to do with the eyes. Take Elijah Wood and Steve Carell here for example. Both wide-eyed, with a rather pronounced lower lid. I don't know why I'm so drawn to it (heh), but it's always been my favorite type to sketch.

Expect some more with these guys...

In the meantime, here's a shot of me in my super tidy workspace. For a more complete picture, imagine Radiohead's Exit Music (For A Film) in the background. DRAMA.

Venture Bros.!!

Time for another work in progress! I really wanted to draw Hank and Dean this time. A new episode just came in at the studio today and it filled me with the Venture spirit! So here's what I've done so far:


Hooray for sloppy gestures! Look at how off-model Hank is! What a silly-Billy!


Yes, for reasons unbeknownst to even myself, I've chosen a pirate setting. Dean's left arm feels blocky to me, so I'll have to finesse that a bit. But so far I'm having loads of fun. Boat-loads, you might say! (snicker)

More to come!!

Sebastian

Sketch on canvas. My cousin as Raymond as Sebastian from the Twelfth Night.

I haven't painted a portrait in acrylic in about 7 years, so I'm kind of nervous. My last attempt looked like a tube of acrylics sneezed on the canvas.
Here's hopin'!! :D








UPDATE: Ok, here's my progress so far! Sorry for the poor image quality, but for some reason the scans I try to make of it are turning out horribly, so here's an out-of-focus digital snapshot!

Latest update, some help from Liz Artinian!

Thom Yorke

I just got the new Thom Yorke album yesterday, and I highly recommend it! I've been a fan of Radiohead for ages, and I always wanted to draw/paint Thom, so I thought now was as good a time as ever.

I was going to wait until I was done with Maggie to start on the Thom painting, but I couldn't help myself! I'm going to keep the look of this one less photorealistic and more sketcherly for a change. I hope it doesn't suck!



UPDATE: Okay, so Lauren and I both like it with the sketchy body, and I'm sorely tempted to keep it this way. And yet...

What do YOU (the American public!) think?
EDIT (again): Toned down his hands. Yay!
EDIT EDIT (again again): Dimmed the wrist and added painted gradient to bg (much thanks to Xan at drawingboard.org for his ideas!!)

Cos they're cousins!

I sketched my cousins today for two acrylic paintings I have in the works. It's been a while since I actually drew with a pencil and paper instead of a stylus! Since you don't know them I'm going to say that the drawings look just like them! :D

Enjoy!

Fencer

I'm not feeling too confident about that lower body...any suggestions? Pretty please? :)

Hercules, Hercules!

SO!

Lauren got Hercules on DVD for our berfday, and I finally watched it, nearly 10 years after its release. I actually really enjoyed it. I particularly loved some of the designs! They were infused with the style of Gerald Scarfe, which I think was a really interesting choice on Disney's part.

Young Herc here was animated by Randy Haycock, who also did an amazing job with Clayton in Disney's Tarzan. I love what this guy does with body language.

Anyway, on to the point: I drawed him! I don't often draw men, so he's probably a little hippy. It's something I really need to work on in the future. Just a WIP for the moment. Any crits are welcome :D

UPDATE: Okay, so I've inked and colored him now! The tree still needs to be painted, and the background is still a MAJOR work in progress. BGs are not my strong point, but I need to get away from the "figure floating on a white page" thing that permeates most of my work. Ah, Greece! You can just smell the olive trees :> Incidentally I have no idea why he's carrying a tree around.

Well, here I am...

So I've decided that a livejournal, myspace, and personal website aren't enough; I need a blogger. I know, I know...it's silly.

However, what I hope is that this will be my own personal internet sketchpad. Things that may not make it onto my site, or works in progress can be posted here.

I hope you enjoy!