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.