Norfolk Drawing Group #88

Norfolk Drawing Group #87 Rusty

It's been well over 3 months since i went to the drawing group. i actually got lost for about 20 mins just driving around the same block over and over looking for the new spot. Hopefully i worked out most of my rust from drawing. You can tell from the sketches that my mind was some place else. In uncommon fashion i had 2 phone calls that i would never answer in normal times while i'm drawing.

Soya (green study)

pen & ink and marker study

best artistic quote i heard

best quote i heard : "if you're good [at art, music, etc] people will find you. "

that very true

commission piece (completed within 24 hrs in oil pastel)

Brooke Decker (pic and sketch)

Hank Williams Jr. vs. ESPN's MNF

Under Construction Oct 2011 Part 2

photo reference

Under Construction Sept 2011, Part 1

i'm 32, wow it seems scary

Red Light #1 (pic & sketch)

Rick Ross (Pic and Sketch)

Inspiration.

It goes without saying that i've been a little down. Someone posed one thing that made me question myself. Am i truly living my dream? I'm not sure if i am or not? Perhaps i'm in the place that i am because i'm trying suppose to learn a lesson? That however isn't the point of this post.

I want to talk about my current inspirations that surrounds me. I'm constantly surrounded by people doing creative things and pushing themselves artistically.

This week, i got an invite for my friends and novels' Craig and Michelle Simmons. Together they wrote a ethnic romantic novel that was geared to and spoke specify about the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. Their book was released on Lulu.com this week. Together we did a collaboration of their writes and my artwork. I'm very proud of them getting their novel published. The great part about something like that is, that's something no one can ever take from you. It's out there for the world to see and appreciate the great piece of lecture that it is. On a sad note and i'm not just belittling my own artwork. But that wasn't the best cover design. In my eyes the vision that i had and the final results were something totally different. It was so bad i'm gong to gesso over it as soon as i can. Perhaps if very soon i can create a better vision.

Outside of that, some people that i was equally impressed with were some guys i went to high school with. I knew that some of them were heavy into rap music back then. However now they are following their dream. I'm not sure if it will land them mainstream and into the life of the fame, still i found their youtube video inspiring. In their recording studio they boasted about editing music at 8am on a weekday morning. Perhaps they spend all night in the studio recording but i couldn't help but wonder what am i doing with myself. I should be drawing. Very soon perhaps i will have something positive to show everyone.

Uncle Fester (pic& sketch)

my mom raised me on old black and white tv shows that she watched. The Addams Family being among them. I was drawn to the show i believe now because the simple fact that all the members were comfortable with being a little weird or crazy. Them embraced the oddities that weren't the standard norm. As an artist, you learn to believe you're the same way. You're odd and weird and have different view points that everyone else around you most of the time. Well that is unless you bump into another artist. As i stated in my last post, i wanted to create more pen and ink master pieces. I don't create enough of them even though i love the contrast of the black against the white paper. This is just the beginning of a sketch that is done in just that style with a little bit of white chalk highlights. I know have the urge to go back and fine tune it all and put away the markers i use to darken certain areas and using pencil instead.

Sash Grey (pic and sketch)

I'm not exactly sure why i began looking up Sasha Grey. But initially it began with the concept of me trying to find a picture of her that wasn't adult related. It's no mystery that she's an adult actress or in some eye's an porn star. I wanted to find something that would show her beauty without going to the obvious. I'm 100% all for pushing the boundaries or what is acceptable for public viewing but this isn't the moment nor place.

I wanted to do something that i haven't done really in a while. i wanted to do a pen and ink drawing. My girlfriend, Cara had mentioned while she was here that her son liked my pen drawings. I actually have 2 of them hanging up in my living room. With it being so long since i did one and the perfect image coming along it was only fitting this was the moment.

I only have 2 small regrets about this piece: 1) i went to dark to quickly and had to cheat a little by using an eraser to lighting certain areas up and 2) i missed up royally on the bottom of the headphone. It's a given no one would know unless i told them or they saw the picture but i know.

Tyler, the Creator (pic & sketch)

Normally when i get bored i flip through the tv on the music channel and use it like a radio. It's a given that it loops the same videos every hour but it's mindless background music. Last week i saw a video that caused me to stop and watch for a moment as i got dressed for work. The disturbing nature of the video would cause Charlie Manson to blush caught my attention. It was Tyler, the Creator, i didn't know what the name of the song was but i decided to go look for some photos of him. What i did find was that he has a huge following. Most of them were teenagers that liked his lyrics or and style. I begin to listen to his lyrics and he reminded me a little bit of Eminem. Both artist talked about any topic that they wanted to whether it was politically correct or not.

The thing that really caused me to take notice was one of his youtube videos. In the video he plays the piano while rapping his lyrics. Even though the melody is very simple an artist who isn't intelligent enough couldn't do both at the same thing. I see him as being a smart, creative person to know where to find a fan base and appeal to them.

Rick Ross ( pic and sketch)

I like listening to music which would explain my next 2 post. Rick Ross is a hip hop artist that raps about drug selling, getting money also respecting adults and elders. Which in itself is mixed messages in my eyes. It goes without saying that he is one of the most respected artist putting music out today. He is almost as popular at this moment at Lil' Wayne (they are both promote to different messages). Rick's body mass is pretty close to that of another late rapper, Biggie Small/ The Notorious B.I.G which leads to comparisons. I wanted to go a little crazier with this caricatured having his body more flow outwards like a pyramid. In the sketching stages i began to pull the drawing close to it's actual picture. Ahh maybe next time

my craft

It's hard to motivated the unmotivated. That's the way i feel at this moment. i don't want to draw when drawing is exactly what i need to be doing to relax. I've used the excuse of having company in town for almost 2 months for my lack of posting and drawing. That isn't fair to my company nor my craft. With the ending of August i expect some small changes that should cause huge waves within my life. So followers be patient.

dirk nowitzki revisited

Rarely do i get comments on my post or drawing. Actually whether they were bad or good i would appreciate them from what they were worth. But recently i got one that forced me to think a little bit more than normal.

An Anonymous person said : "Dude excellent opportunity build push your darks with this one. Nice rendering but would love to see more contrast. "

At first i thought, wow my artwork is a very touchy subject. I only show/exhabit online because critics can be harsh. However i realized he was right. I was cheating myself of doing a good drawing by giving up half way through. i notice that i do that from time to time. I treat my drawings as sketches and vice versa. There are a long list of excuses why i don't push the enevelope of what i can do. So after a little deliberating and staring at this picture laying next to my drafting table i picked it up and finished it.

baby blue (pic & sketch)

I had forgotten that i had this picture tucked away that i never finished. This past weekend, my friend Mike reminded me of a c0-worker that we knew at Old Navy. His words reminded me how much i missed her friendship. As i picked up my pile of many unfinished sketches i came across this one. I wanted to put some closer to this drawing and on a hot and humid day in Virginia there's no better way to do that than draw.

Crybaby (pic & sketch)

This is my sisters favorite movie and i'm thinking it lies closely to the musical theme and it has Johnny Deep in it. Still i attempting to give a rough sketch of him in his Cry baby role.

Norfolk Drawing Group #86 : The Return

I didn't realize how long it's been since i been to my staple, my pillar Tues night drawing session until i looked at the photos. It's has been almost 4 months. For an artist who needs/desires to draw more frequently simply as a stress reliever it's sad. Especially since it's one of the rare Tues that i had off and nothing major planned i felt i deserved to go drawing. So armed with my typical color pencils (which i won't bring next week) i went out to create. The atmosphere was the same even though i could feel something was changing. Not me but something wonderful was happening. New artist with different style levels and skill sets have came out in the name of art. Overall for me getting back into the groove of things i wasn't a complete waste of an evening. However next time i expect better results.