Figure Drawing in sketchbook

Did this last night at my figure drawing group. I had planned on painting on canvas for the 3 hour pose, but my painting materials were in my car...and my car is in the shop. So, I ended up using my toned sketchbook and various drawing/painting tools. I drew the figure in with charcoal and white chalk (using the tone of the paper to my advantage). Then I used a red prismacolor colored pencil to put some warmth back into the figure. I cut into the silhouette of the figure with acrylic paint and some ink. Then, I popped some highlights with white gouache. Had a lot of fun working on this.

Hunter S. Thompson

Portrait of Gonzo Journalist, Hunter S. Thompson. Did this with charcoal, chalk, acrylic paint, collaged paper, and photoshop.

Figure drawing with scraps

Worked on this in my drawing class at Governor's School while my students were working on an hour pose. I found some discarded cardboard, charcoal, nupastel pieces, oil paint, and some ink so I thought I'd have some fun while my students cranked away. I set the model up with a mannequin from our storage closet, put a sport coat on him, and strapped a skull on him. I think this offered up a bit more of an interesting narrative for the students to work with that they maybe wouldn't have had with a single model.

New Post Cards

Got my new batch of promotional post cards today! Now to buy 1000 stamps...bye bye rainy day fund!

figure drooring

Playing around with some gouache and ink in my toned sketchbook. I like some of the effects I achieved here, but I'm going to keep working with it to see what I can do to push this into my toolbox.

Year of the Dragon

Latest 2-pager for Richmond Magazine. This one was about the Chinese Year of the Dragon coinciding with the political candidates racing toward the election. The AD Steve Hedberg initially wanted a more daring illustration with the candidate's heads adorning dragon bodies, but once he saw the sketches, he decided it was too "creepy". So I reworked the sketch to a rough version of the final you see here and got the 'green-light' to go ahead. The political candidates I was asked to showcase were Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican George Allen. Instead of human heads, I went with the Democratic Donkey and the Republican Elephant as heads to the dragons. Thanks to Steve and all the guys at Richmond Magazine for keeping me busy!

Here's my initial "creepy" concept sketches.

Sketchbook Avalanche