Patricia Arquette-001

This weeks' caricaturing contest at CS3000 is actress Patricia Arquette. I'm thinking of doing a watercolor for the contest. This is a underdrawing done in light graphite on watercolor paper.

Aug30th - Aboriginal Face-001

Today I am sticking to my plan to switch over my daily sketches to conventional media. I've grown very comfortable using digital painting over the last few years and I have actually forgotten a bit about painting with real paints. So I'm stepping out of my comfort zone and for a while at least I will be posting actual drawings done with pencils or ink and paintings done with paint. One of the first things I notice about the difference between sketching digitally and sketching with conventional drawing materials is that I've sort of gotten rusty calculating the correct values and colors as I mix paint. Both paintings I worked on yesterday (the wild pink bridge) and today (the aboriginal face) have value and chroma problems. As I continue with my daily sketches hopefully those issues will fade away as I get more comfortable with the media.

Aug29th -Hawthorn Bridge - Gouache sketch

Monday, Aug29th 2011: This morning I got up early and went out to the Willamette River near OMSI and the Hawthorn Bridge and took about 400 photos between 5:10am and 7:00am. It was fun watching the sun come up but ... the magic golden moment where the sun hits the skyline and illuminates the buildings never happened. It was overcast and cloudy that morning. Oh well... I'll try it another day soon. For my daily sketch I made a rather bizarre little gouache painting with which I tried to recreate that magic moment as I remember seeing it a few times in the past. I think I will be able to paint a much more convincing and realistic painting if I can carefully observe the morning light longer than I have been able to in the past. Just on this morning it wasn't in the cards.

Aug28th - Hawthorn Bridge- digital sketch

I have been forgetful and not updated this blog for a few days. I did this digital sketch of the Hawthorn Bridge in Portland, Oregon on Sunday August 28, 2011.

Christopher Walken as African Mask

Today I'm super busy: But there is always time to make a drawing. My drawing a day exercise has proven that to me over and over again. Today's sketch is a super fast brain phart. It was fun.

(Final) Caricature of Christopher Walken-03

Today I went back to yesterday's sketch and I tweaked it a bit to make a better likeness. Altogether this sketch took about an hour and its all digital. Sometimes it is easier for me to see what needs to be changed or tweaked in a caricature if I walk away from it for awhile then finish it later.

Christopher Walken-02

Today I'm working on Mr. Walken again. This time I am pushing myself more to caricature instead of make a portrait. This is work in progress. It is digital. It took about 30 minutes.

straight sketch of Christopher Walken-01

This is simply a very quick sketch I did today exploring Christopher Walken's face. He is this week's subject for the Caricaturama Showdown 3000 challenge on Facebook. This is all digital and it took about 20 minutes.

Caricature of Moammar Gadhafi-02

I did a caricature of Gadhafi earlier this year. But just watching the news and seeing what was happening today in Libya inspired this "brain phart". This is all digital - done in less than half an hour using a pc running photoshop and drawn with a wacom bamboo digital tablet.

Final Jodie Foster caricature

I spent a few minutes this morning simply tweaking and adjusting a previous sketch to enter into this week's caricaturama showdown 3000 contest on Facebook. This is all digital and it took less than 90 minutes. The previous sketch was done a few days ago so it is not an older sketch revamped but one that I did for this contest.

Evil Hairless Cat

Screaming Red Man-01

I felt like painting today so I painted another screaming face. I know this sounds perverse but I really enjoy painting these screaming faces! Go figure. This is all digital and it took about 30 minutes.

Screaming Black Man-01

Today I wanted to paint something fun. For me that is sketching a gerning or a contorted face with an extreme expression. I love working on twisted faces! This is all digital and it took about 30 minutes to do.

Jodie Foster -004

Today I tried a totally different approach to my Jodie Foster caricature. Probably her best known work is that of agent Clarice Starling in the "Silence of the Lambs". I know that a bunch of other artists will be sketching the exact same pose as this, so as a result this will have to be astounding to stand out. It isn't astounding yet, darn it. LOL

Sketch of Jodie Foster-003

Gah! I'm in a drawing funk and can't get out. I can't seem to get my caricaturing mojo today so to keep my daily exercise going, I did a straight sketch of Jodie Foster. I'll attack her face again tomorrow during my draw time.

Rough Sketch of Jodie Foster

This week's CS3000 competition on Facebook is to caricature Jodie Foster. I am working on one of her character from Taxi Driver. I'm not happy with this yet. I feel I need to make it more extreme and caricature the face and body even more. So I'm going to quit at this stage for the day and then think about it till I pick it up again tomorrow for tomorrow's sketch of the day. This is all digital - took under 30 minutes.

Young Mick Jagger

I sketched this today because I was requested to sketch a picture of Mick Jagger by a woman who is crazy about him and has been my friend for over forty years, Cynthia Milbradt. This is all digital - done on a pc with a wacom bamboo graphics tablet and photoshop cs5. It took about 30 minutes to draw.

Caricature of Sam Neil - 003

I didn't like the directions that my first two versions of Sam were going so today I tried yet another treatment of the actor's caricature. I need to push myself to take the exaggerations further. This was digital and it took about an hour to do.

Canute Knutson

Early this evening, we had a spontaneous cocktail party in one of my neighbors' backyards. I drank a bit too much and got a bit drunk. When I got home, I remembered I hadn't done my daily sketch yet. So I sketched a dear friend and neighbor who passed away several years ago. He was always at these crazy little neighborhood gatherings. I miss him, especially when the weather is nice and we have more of these sorts of parties. This is digital. It took about 30 minutes and it was done on a PC.

Caricature of Sam Neil - 002

I'm still struggling to find a good treatment idea for this week's CS3000 contest entry. Last week, about 20 people used the same pose and costume that I chose and I think my work got lost in the forest. So far, nobody has tried a caricature of the character Sam plays in the Tudors: Cardinal Wolsey. I may run with this idea if anything better doesn't pop up.

Sam Neil - 001

This week's CS3000 contest on Facebook features Sam Neil as the celeb. target. This is my first stab at his caricature. This is all digital. It took 20 min.

Quick sketch of Voldemort

A few days ago I went to see the last of the Harry Potter movies. (Deathly Hallows part 2) It was great. I guess it was on my mind this morning when I decided to make a quick sketch of Voldemort for my daily sketch. This took about 20 minutes and was done on a PC with a small wacom tablet and photoshop.

Mike Tyson sketch

This is another disturbing example of a sketch that I started out thinking I would really exagerate extremely and I ended up doing something close to a straight portrait. For caricaturing, I really need to make several sketches before I start on a main effort. The mental process that caricaturing requires doesn't come naturally to me and I need to push myself more.

Caricature of Russell Crowe ( Final Version )

Today I finished my Russell Crowe caricature that I did for the CS3000 group on Facebook. It took me four days at a half hour a day for a total of 2 hours. The movie below is a compilation of four half hour segments speeded up into a speed painting or time lapsed video.

Caricature of Russel Crowe - day 3

I'm still putting 30 minutes a day on my Russel Crowe caricature. Today I tightened up details in the face. Tomorrow I'll work mostly on the clothing and then hopefully finish this piece. It is for a weekly caricature contest on Facebook at CS3000 group. This is all digital and it has taken me 90 minutes so far to get this far.

Portrait of Rembrandt (after two of his own self portraits)

Originally I had just intended this to be a quick half hour sketch, but I got carried away and forgot the clock. Yesterday I had been viewing many different Rembrandt paintings, examining his brush strokes. I simply got pumped up. It is so exiting to see the work of a really good painter close up! It makes me want to paint. This is digital. I think it took a bit over 2 hours. I wasn't checking the clock. All I know is that it went over an hour and crashed my video capture software so I don't have a video of this being sketched unfortunately.

The lower diagram is to illustrate that Rembrandt composed both his self portraits in very dynamic angles compared to my boring copy. He tilted the heads and it makes them both much more interesting to look at. A small lesson from the master. :-)

Caricature of Russel Crowe- day 2

Today I put in another half hour on my caricature of Russel Crowe that I'm sketching for the weekly contest at CS3000 on Facebook. This is all digital and it took an hour total so far. This is still work in progress.