Sarah Palin Vol II

It's officially i'm truly finally putting not touching this piece any more. Oddly enough i never discussed why i created it. Roughly around the time of the last presidential election i heard all the buzz about Sarah Palin. How she had a look of a attractive older lady that most men fantasize about. Shortly around the time that she received media attention and the adult industry put out a look alike movie to fuel that fantasy. That idea combined with the always over the top ridiculous ads in the back of most men's magazine. It seems that almost every time i look at a hip hop music or strictly men's only magazine they promote phone sex or adult movies. So as i began creating this image i used that absurd point of view to draw it. I wanted to look silly, sexually and something that is from my world.

above are my progress of my artwork

Sara Palin Vol.1

Truthfully of all the drawings that i've done over the past year, this one has given me the most trouble. i started off with an idea and a sketch a year ago. Draw it up and along the way i put it to the side. Not because it wasn't easy to do but because it changed my thought process. I wasn't even able to come up with a background design until about 6 months ago. I think it took me so long because this piece was actually more imagination than an actually photo referenced art piece. I plan to be completely done by tomorrow so we'll see what comes.

Drawing Revisited Vol 2

I had to tackle this sketch again. I felt something oddly was missing for the original one that i drew. The orange wasn't orange enough in some areas as well as dull and blocky in others. I believed that adding the simplest choice of indigo blue would force the image to carry more weight in the important areas.

Michelle:graffiti works

In an attempt to find myself artistically as well as work with different type of styles I began sketching out this drawing. I not 100% sure which medium i love most or what techniques that i do my best work with. So this is yet another small attempt in exploration. Over the last couple of years, i've grown fond of street art. The way words are encrypt like hidden in designs. Sometimes they are surrounded by basic as well as grand scheme pieces. Hidden somewhere in the hard symbols is the word "chelle" for the photo reference. I wanted to have draw a more solid image with more detail but unfortunately the photo didn't transfer to print well. A figurative stylised sketch was more suiting than a strict figurative drawing. Also with a little bit of yellow marker to show the caution of her shape knife and white color pencils for highlights this drawing came to life.

Free Lil' Wayne (or better yet, free myself to just have fun)

This painting came about in the most randomness of ways. When i typically paint i want everything to be a cookie cutter version. Everything neatly laid out with very little other visions of imagination. However this time i just wanted my painting to occur through a natural process. No spending more time thinking about how i would paint the background or what colors i would use for skin tones. I just wanted to be artistically free. So armed with 4 colors of paint i allowed it to drip and run until i found the feeling that i was looking for.

My friend Cara's son just had a birthday and i wanted to give him something that is more personally. Something priceless that you can't find at your the run of the mill store. My philosophy is that everyone needs at least one cool piece of art in their house. I know one of his favorite rappers is Lil Wayne and just like him about 10 years ago i feel in love with his lyrical skills. Now he's one of the hottest rappers alive with widely respected musical talents in multiple musical genres. So this past Sunday when i was searching for photos references of him i stumbled across other artist who had created artwork of him. Their artwork was stylized and unforgettable. I was also amazed by the opening credits of World Cup games that are being held in South Africa. I thought the organic design shapes that they used were inspiring. Less than 24 hours after printing the image up this is what i came up with.

Drawings Revisited vol.1

When i was told to go back to the drawing board and make some of my past drawing more polished. This is what i came up with on my days off this week. This is actually a better sketch of Valerie with a stronger contract bases with more blending modeling.

Lauren (pic and drawing)

It's an interesting story how all this came about. I worked with Lauren at Old Navy and before she finally put in her 2 weeks notice sadly she told me she was a photographer. As i always do i said that jokingly but she actually is one. Lauren has a functional website that shows all the photos that she's taken of bands, friends and herself. Since we're friends on facebook and she frequently post her pictures up there i borrowed one of her images. Above is one of them, sadly enough i was going to use color pencils last week on this one but i forgot them at home. Armed with only gel pens that i intended on using to write a letter i began drawing.

This is what the image looked like when i stopped after the first day. I posted it as a sketch earlier.

Today was the day that i truly wanted this complete and finished. I finally managed to do so as i sat in Panera today. With a quiet atmosphere around me it was the perfect setting.

Cara and Amerie (revisited)

This drawing came about because Andi [a friend of a friend] wanted a picture of her daughter with her god mother. Normally i would do a very dull and boring monochromatic drawing simply labeling it as a sketch. I normally do simple drawings like that for my sketch pad and pride it off as a good example of what artistic range i have. But the more i was looking at some of my older drawings and sketches they actually for the most part turned out well. I liked the way my drawings looked. So i pulled out some color paper and began drawing.

I was originally going to use this picture but somewhere between the printer and image the pictures lost the tons and colors.

even looking at the finished sketch i still want to go back and touch it up so more. sigh!

Norfolk Drawing Group: 73: Enlightenment

Vacations = 95% change i will be at the drawing group. I didn't get the memo that tonight was male model night which is ok. I know others who refuse to draw nothing but females but overall this model wasn't to bad. I typically use color pencils but today was different. I had an earlier encounter that prompted me to use pen instead. My technique wasn't to bad this evening and for the most part the image registers in my 20 minute sketches.

We always tend to do is go out to eat afterwards and i had an interesting conversation with a fellow artist/teacher. He admitted to viewing my work online but said i wasn't fully applying myself. I listened as he told me that i was surrounded by great artist and that i was on the edge of doing something special but needed to get over the hump. He ran down a list of things that i should do: steer away from staged or posed photos were the photo reference isn't natural, round my drawings more to where they don't seem so flat, and make the artwork my own In a nutshell get serious about my artwork and focus on getting better. The odd thing is that i look at some of my drawings and i think the same thing. So he wasn't to far off base and if he things the same thing as i am then it must be correct. I guess i need to go back to the drawing board again.

Cara with Child (the madonna version)

Normally i'm not bad with it comes to drawing a likeness. As i sat and looking at my sketch Sunday i knew i wasn't close to being were i wanted. I flipped my attention from the drawing to watching the Incredible Hulk boxset.

The one of the areas of opportunity that i know i struggled with this time was skin tones. But as you can see my drawing is still lose.

I really feel that this is still as a sketch and not a complete drawing. I've been playing around with colors, erasing and laying down more colors. I'm not satisfied with it but so i guess i will update it soon.