Danny Trejo

Took a break this afternoon to paint, gotta get back to work now though...

Put the bunny, back in the box...

Recently I had the pleasure of working on a series of illustrations depicting the "lifestyle do's and donts" of Nicolas Cage for Details.com (be sure to check out the full article here). Because I am fond of his work in Matchstick Men, Adaptation, and personal fav Con Air, it wasn't too hard to justify going that extra mile and watching a bit of his filmography while painting . . .for additional reference of course:)

Seven variations of Nic were created, and as a result I am 75% confident that I can now draw him with my eyes closed, while left-handed, somewhat accurately, 50% of the time. Luckily each illustration was to depict him in a totally unique light, so there was never a dull moment during the process. I spent a great deal of time rendering a variety of fabrics, so in contrast, painting a sweaty and topless Nic Cage was a breath of fresh air. . . right?

This weekend I went to WonderCon 2010 in San Francisco, and had the chance to see Nic Cage in person while he was promoting his upcoming film, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." He was sporting an eye-catching-peroxide-blond hairdo which is for a future movie role perhaps? Either way, one's gotta love the ever evolving nature of this man's hair. . . I know I do.

All illustrations © Condé Nast Publications.

Olive

Commissioned portrait of my friend's dog Olive. In no way was there a shortage of references to look at because this boston terrier seriously loves getting her picture taken. Andrew provided me with some beautifully lit shots, and I wanted to be sure to include the cool blue shadows in the final color version. This project was a nice change of pace, and I couldn't have asked for a happier face to paint.

Swimming Lessons

This mother ostrich cannot wait for her baby to hatch before teaching it to swim:)

Lucy Liu

My entry for the monthly wittygraphy.com contest. I am hoping to participate as often as I can as a fun way to practice drawing people I may not have picked as subjects on my own. Check out all of the February entries here.

Mini-Golf Circuit.

The final assignment for my class was to do an illustration of Tiger Woods. With all the headlines featuring Tiger, there definitely wasn't a short supply of ideas to consider, but I wanted to do something that could be funny without his current scandal being the focus.

The hand was intimidating at first, and needed to be really good because it is featured so prominently in the painting. I took photos of my boyfriend Chris' hand, and used that for reference. Good reference makes a HUGE difference, I cannot stress this enough. After completing a value painting of the hand(and then adjusting the levels to match Tiger), I added color. The rest of the piece I blocked in with color and then refined as I went along.

Above are some early sketches. Once again I struggled sketching using my wacom tablet, and I am hoping to invest in a cintiq when possible. So far everyone I have spoken with says it is more intuitive and will speed up work-flow tremendously.

Overall this was a really fun piece to work on, and now that it is finished I am going to spend time creating more illustrations and studies for my portfolio. It is going to be a long journey ahead, and I want to thank all of you for your support, taking time to leave comments, and for stopping by! It is inspiring, motivating and much appreciated. More to come soon!

Erica

Happy 2010 everyone! I am about to wrap up Jason's class and though I am sad it is over, it was a great help and a lot of fun. This is a personal painting exercise I did today in an effort to continue practicing without the structure of assignments anymore. I hope you all are having a great winter season, more to come soon (including the final illustration from the course).

Jason Seiler and sketches

This is a digital painting of artist Jason Seiler. I spent some time experimenting with skin tones and texture and included a detail of some of that work. There are also sketches of random people below. I am pretty happy with the thumbnails at the bottom because I used a larger brush and it definitely helped me stay loose.

One thing I continue to struggle with is how comfortable I am making marks with my tablet. I am not sure if it is my settings or how I am seated, but it is frustrating to keep making the same mark over and over again. I feel like it is taking me way more time than it needs to:( Does anyone own a cintiq and find that the difference is worth the price jump?

Scott

It is definitely more difficult to capture someone with whom you are not already familiar. Having a variety of reference photos and doing a few studies first helps a lot though. I wanted to go with the front view because I usually lean towards the 3/4 angle in my work (which I'm sure some of you have noticed). I may update this painting with a few changes, but it is now time to start the next one!

Some guys in suits

For these drawings of Tom Hanks and David Cameron(below) I tried a different technique, using a small brush to achieve an etched, pencil drawn look. I think they came out pretty cool, but don't think I will do this too often because it proved to be quite the time suck.

Is that ...?

Seems random - made it this evening for the art jumble topic this week : "my mona lisa"

Purrcasso

This is a digital painting created for Purcasso 2009, an auction and gala that benefits the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society. If you are in the bay area on Nov 7th or 8th be sure to come out and support the animal shelter. More information can be found on their website.

Some birds!

These are some birds I drew today in photoshop. They are all a bit strange/cute in their own way, but the owl seems to have a bit of an orangutan vibe going on. The one-eyed bird is an ode to my blogger friend Renee - be sure to check out her birds here! Thanks for stopping by:)

Lily's Monster

Two days ago, Pascal Campion pointed us to a blog called "Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty" which is a compilation of art created by the Z-kids; siblings Isaac(10), Gracie(9), Lily(6).

Their father and illustrator, Aaron Zenz, wanted to surprise his kids for their blog's 3 year anniversary by inviting other artists(of all levels) to do a reinterpretation of one of their drawings. I had always wanted to take a child's line drawing and render it using all of the original shapes, so that is the approach I took. I spent a while trying to pick a drawing to recreate, and finally ended up choosing Lily's drawing seen below:

If any one else is interested in participating, Aaron is taking submissions through the end of August and will update with additional pictures as they come in. Congrats to Isaac, Gracie, and Lily on their 250th post today! I look forward to seeing what they each create in the future:)

Ice Dragon

Another dragon entry for this weeks Drawergeeks! topic.

Feeding time!

pet dragon dog, he might need a name for his bowl. . .any suggestions?

Couch-Bot

Ive been in the mood to make a robot lately. I made this sketch last night around 1am. If it seems a little crazy, that is probably the reason why.