Kiss {framed}

... ready to present,..

Harō Kiti

A quick drawing for my number one girl.

I don't often  draw cartoons, but this was a special request from my sweety (plus she did give me a wonderful gift). Something I've been wanting for a long time, but could never justify getting for myself. Thank you Diane.

 ,.. this
amazing
portable
easle,...

 

... perfect
for any time
I am away
from my
drawing
table.









Of course it needs to be mentioned that Hello Kitty is the property of Sanrio and was originally designed by Yuko Shimizu in 1974. In actuality she is portrayed as a female white Japanese bobtail cat with a red bow and her name Harō Kiti translates as White Kitty.

 .....

"Smooch!!"

Finally the final product.

Not much to add but the technical stuff. It is on medium weight paper, 9"x12", I mostly used a hatching technique (which makes me feel like I am cheating to pass a sketch as a drawing),  with an HB (graphite) and 6B (charcoal) pencils, along with a hard and kneading eraser.  All in all, this project was fun, but as always there are so many parts I would redo, do otherwise, or keep changing until I might over draw it. So,.. I am letting it go,...  for now.

I'll post it again once it is framed.
....

Finally the kiss,....

Just a little bit of an update.

This one is moving along very well,.. I suppose because I need this right now,.. lots going on in my old head and this image seems to represent the opposite of all that. Hopefully this will allow me to simply let life happen around me and maybe simply fix itself for the moment.

Meanwhile, doesn't this make you smile?






...

... just a kiss as a gift,...

So posting this progression may not be to bright since I plan on offering this piece as a gift for a friend. She has been a godsend for my wife and I and we love her very much. She loves horses and deserves a big sloppy kiss on the cheek, so why not both.  However if she does happen upon this, well, too bad for me surprising her but I hope she enjoys it none the less.


































Of course I have to first, complete the project and second I have to be secure/proud enough with my work to actually offer it in appreciation for her kindness.





For the most part it has gone well and other than a serious correction to the eyes (they were originally too small as you may notice in the first image below), and some minor challenges around the nostrils (which I seem to have overcome in the image above), so far I am pleased.

.....

Courthouse

Escambia County Courthouse, located in Brewton, Alabama in the USA. This is a slight closeup of the entire building (photographed at an angle to add drama). Established in 1960, it is covered in white and dark marble/stone and has mostly white marble/stone walls inside.

Here is my interpretation of this building. 

I gave myself the artistic liberty to change the angle a little bit to be facing the building ever so slightly, (just seems more pleasant to me).










I enjoy drawing buildings and architecture in general but don't find the process interesting enough to photograph, so there are no work-in-progress (wip) images.  However I do have some closeups of the final work.

.....

George Carlin,...(spfccsmft)

In the past few weeks I have been multitasking my multitasking and it finally caught up with this old body. This past week my body clearly let me know to slow down or it would slow me down, by making me ill enough to have no choice but go home in the middle of the day.  

So I took the day off yesterday, (well as 'off' as I can for a Saturday around the house), and with this partial time to myself I completed my drawing of George Carlin. At the moment I am reserving the right to withhold any pride in this project because I am still uncertain on some aspects. 

Having said that,.. here it is.

Again, my preferred tools were an HB pencil, a dark soft charcoal, a hard eraser and soft kneading eraser. I did all of the smudging with my finger tips, and the final size is 18 x 24 (life size) on 80 lb paper.














In all fairness (to myself) I believe I managed to get the eyes right,..

... and the mouth I can honestly say I am happy with.


The hands (which I had feared so much) turned out a little easier than I anticipated. I will admit that in the full context of the complete image, the hands carry more weight than I originally thought. One of the many aspects of Mr. Carlin's genius was his facial expressions and manual gesticulations,... hence the reason this pose is simply pure George Carlin and anyone else in this pose would look foolish.

Finally ,.... a close up of the face.

Even in my reservations to be too proud, I am planning on putting together another short video of this projects progression.  As always, thank you for dropping by and letting me share my art. I do it primarily for myself, but there is a silent gentle joy in sharing something so personal.
(as always, any and all thoughts and/or critiques are welcomed)
...

GC is coming along,...

... it is somewhat better than it was. I think there is something to salvage here, I think I can eventually be ok with it.  I will be correcting the face and features for a while to come,.. but when I am done, it will be to impress my toughest critic - Me.

Here is the first view of the full frame of this project.

Other than the placement of the eyes, nose, mouth and general shape of all these, as well as the basic shape and structure of the head and face - my next great challenge is always the hands. I've always had major issues making hands look "real" and dimensional. Having said that, I have to say I am almost proud of these so far.

...............