Saturday, October 27, 2012

,... to shed a tear.


Seemingly one of the rights of passage for all drawing artists is the close-up of the eye.
I have drawn quite a few in the past but I really like this take on it,..  so I took my hand to task and gave it a try.






Credit where credit is due, this idea is from a video lesson by Domerelly Dibujando, a very talented artist from Lima, Peru.  (Gracias, Señora Domerelly).   The entire lesson is in Spanish and since I know very few words in Spanish, (cerveza, gracias and no-habla-español), it proves to me that music and art are without a doubt universal languages.

I liked this, it was fun and the outcome is visually pleasant.  It is a small piece,  5" x 8", 65 lbs paper, 0.5, 0.7 and 0.9 mm HB mechanical pencils, kneaded eraser and vinyl eraser pencil as well as various blending tools (stumbs, tortillons, spongits and cloths).    For the record,.. not all tears are tears of sorrow or fear,... some are simply an abundance and overflow of positive emotions.

Here are some closeups of this closeup.



























































sB

Sunday, October 21, 2012

ywhw,... Yahweh,... YWHW


For my dear wife.  She sees me sometimes wondering what to draw next and a while back I was in one of my pondering moods, so she stated - "Why don't you draw Jesus,.. ".  I thought the idea was good, so I ran some mental images with her and she ended the brainstorming with - " ... the Jesus that was framed and hung on the wall at my Grandparents."

So,.. without a time machine or living Grandparents to ask,... I took a shot at a typical portrait of a very caucasian, long haired, handsome, strong Jesus Christ, son of Adonai. 





I
hope
I
did
him
justice
in
your
eyes.


























,... amen my love, Amen!





p.s.  the Vatican announced in August of 2008 that hundreds of thousands of Catholic priests must no longer recite the Biblical name for God, YWHW. The Catholic news service, Zenit, reported that "YWHW" which many Christians often spell and pronounce as “Yahweh” or “Jehovah,” was never meant to be uttered aloud. Such is its sacredness. The Vatican instead says to use the Hebrew “Adonai,” which translates as “Lord.”  (Elohim is also acceptable).

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Ywhw,... advances




First, the eyes were a little too closed,.. so I raised/opened the upper eyelid. This had the effect of diminishing a heavy brow and adding a bit of a doe-eyed look, (which seems to be often used in portraits of this messiah).



















Second, there is the mouth, lips and beard,... they were too feminine, particularly the lower lip. I brought them in to the face (moved them left) and developed the beard around them.  The chin is still protruding a little but I wanted him to have a strong chin.



















So far I have the visage in place and feel it is for the most part complete, other than a few tweaks as I draw the hair and clothing around the neck and add shadows and directional light effects.






























.....

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Ywhw


... lets do him justice and draw him well.


Monday, October 15, 2012

more framing (and some sketches)


I decided to take it easy on Sunday (yesterday) and spend some time with my art,.. worked on the wood frame a little more and drew some sketches for friends, family and simple technique study.

I should mention that this project will be a gift and the art I am displaying here is mostly the study to try and perfect the techniques for wood, shadows and reflections. As well as introducing new materials and skills.  This is my first attempt at a Trompe-L'oeil (trick-the-eye) work.  It will be a shadow box with various items inside giving a three dimensional feel.


Here are a few closeups of the frame.
































As I study, read and practice more and more on how to do this to make it look right, I do sketch and keep that muscle nimble.  Below are a few items I either promises friends or needed to try. (proper credits have been assigned where due).

What started off as Jesus, turned more into a hobo, a rather gaunt hobo at that. So I guess this is my idea of a Hobo Jesus.


















(no disrespect to anyone)



Following that I drew Mickey Mouse for a friend and sketched out a side project of the Hulk (that ones for me).


















(Mickey Mouse is property of the Disney Corp.)                                                                                                                          (Hulk is property of  Marvel Comics)




Finally it is my dear wife's birthday and I have drawn her a card for the past few years and here is the latest,... psst, it's her birthday today.  This is taken from a drawing by John Petersen off his scAtterBrain blog from about 18 months ago.




...

Friday, October 12, 2012

..... ?


and it starts with a wood frame,......





















===

Monday, October 8, 2012

Elvis,.... (again)


done. Done! ,... done?
... or so I thought, but it still did not look right to me.  Although the top one may look ok at first glance, those eyes,.. those darm eyes which have haunted me since I started this project.





The left eye
(on your right)
was too low and
broke the brow line.










So I lifted the eye a little and to my taste it now looks much better.




Here are close ups,...







I think in
redrawing
the eye I
improved
on it,..
... maybe.













I had thought the hair would be a challenge here and it certainly was but it seems the lesson of always being aware of all possible problems is a lesson I had to learn again,...



















.... even the mouth was not too troubling,...






















Drawn on 14 x 11 on 80lb paper.
HB graphite,  0.5mm and 0.7mm mechanical pencils.
Kneaded and hard erasers.
Various methods and tools to blend and shade,
(finger tips, tortillon, cloth and my first time with a sponge).



(not one of my favorites, but it does like some what like Elvis)
:..

Sunday, October 7, 2012

eap,... the do part two


... update,..


































I also worked the eye(s) some more,.. I think the eyes are looking good, but are not his.
...

Saturday, October 6, 2012

eap,... the do


A major recognizable part of this person is the hair,... so I started.  I have to admit, drawing hair still freightens me,.. I need to improve here quite a bit and fear I may do good work on the rest but botch the hair.   None-the-less here is what I have so far,...











It is a multi-layered
process that needs a
lot of easy controlled
curved lines.
{did I mention I am 
lousy at this,....}















....

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

EAP,...2


,... ok, so this one is easy to guess,..






















...