Buffalo chicken

Because of Ron's comment on one of my posts, today theme is Buffalo Chicken!!!
heres Jeffs,

Outraged Fish!

Today's theme is a little late but none the less! Here ya go!

Outraged Fish

Baboon on Vacay

Drawing of the day.  Here are the other baboons;  Dave, Jeff, Louie, Rad, Ryan and Fawn, josh

Crazy bird

Today's theme Bird of prey!
 checkout
Louie
Jeff
Jenny
Dave
Ryan
Max
Josh
Fawn

Who's gonna win???

Yes I watch the show...

Good ol' paper

I was given a "blaisedell" by an amazing mentor and friend named Glen.  I'm sure you can figure out who it was.  His last named rhymes with "spleen." Ha ha, anyhow I got the bug to post...

For those of you who don't know what the Blaisedell is read this from Jenny.

Baseball Player

Here we go with the bi-daily sketch I'm doing with Jeff Snow! Baseball player is it!
sketch away! Louie Del Carmen joined in too!
check out
Dave Derrick
Jenny Lerew
Josh Lieberman
Max Lawson

Centaur-ettes

I've got a new roommate at DW "Jeff Snow!" He's challenged me to post more stuff so today the theme is Centaur.  So here ya go. Check him out though he's awesome! Jenny Lerew is jumping in on it too!!! Sweet! anyone else want to join in? Post a centaur today!

Additions to the group;
Josh Lieberman
Ryan Green
Max Lawson

Tapering body shapes

While out on a date night my wife began sketching an arm with a hand on a napkin.  As she drew the sketch was turning out cute and cartoony.  She asked me to give her a lesson based on her sketch.  The first thing I thought about was the shapes must taper!  I started sketching the same drawing she did and began tapering the shapes of the caricatured anatomy.  I also added in straights against curves but the tapering shapes were what I wanted her to grasp right off the bat.  I started speaking the direction of "start with a shoulder, it's a bit round then down to the biceps, down to the elbow...etc"

The skin closet to the the joints such as the elbow, wrist, and ankle are some examples where the shapes taper in. the rest of the anatomy could very in almost any kind of shape depending on the person.

My wife was catching onto the lesson and started asking for more tips but suddenly my buffalo chicken sandwich arrived and art school ended.

Tapering shapes will help any drawing or sketch.  This is deceptively simple but a good one to remember.  It's enemy is symmetrical shapes and parallel lines.    Lastly I thought this simple idea would help.

DW Zoo trip

I went to the Zoo last week with Dave Derrick and the DW artists.  It was great as we braved all the spring breakers running the zoo animals ragged.  One of my favorite moments was listening to the people at the Zoo talk about the animals they were viewing, quite interesting as you'll see in the sketch below.  Enjoy!

Egg heads and head shapes

When working with drawing the heads and faces I've usually told people to use the egg shape method by Walt Stanchfield. It's meant to quickly sketch in the construction of the head because many times people forget the volume. It's an excellent way to lay in the head and figure out the perspective by using the nose and the eyes.

Objective aesthetics come into play as we draw in the nose/eyes placement. We all have our own way of sketching a nose or eyes but this quick sketch beginning should be loose. Plus the intersection of the two egg shapes allows for an easy ear placement.

Inevitably once you've become comfortable with the egg equation you graduate to the next level of attitude and acting that's specific to the model. Our drawings become more unique and individual as we push the acting and attitude given to us as the egg shapes morph into caricatured versions of reality.

A particular jaw shape versus a forehead shape, mixed in with a nose shape builds on all the simplistic scaffolding in the beginning of the sketch. The trajectory.

The idea with all this is to try and sketch economically direct! You want to use your construction lines as your final lines. Or at least lines that are going in the direction of final lines. Which means hopefully you won't have to many lines that are aimless.

Here are a few examples from one of my sketchbooks, hope you like'em.


Cafe smug




FIDM girl


Woman on the train


Eukenuba Judge

NINJERKTSU

Check out Mike Lester's blog of hilarious works, and fun drawings!

Out at the barn

Went out to the equestrain center last week with Jenny Lerew and Dave Derrrick. Drawing while having a cold wasn't easy, but I had a blast!

Midstride


Discussion

Equestrian girl

Equestrian man

Walking back

Hair tip

Happy New Year!

I've gotten the question asked so many times "how do you handle hair?" and I try to keep my answer as simple as I can. The hair lines need to be in the direction of the haircut or hair style, everyone's different. I see a ton of sketches that just crosshatch the hair or tone it in a one-line direction. I think that's a really quick way to flatten the volume on any head of hair. Next time you sketch someones dew try to follow the natural lines. Draw the cut or style of the person and draw your strokes in the direction of the hair. Ok, well my answer went a bit long but I get a little into it...ha!

These three lil' sketches are my very first sketches of 2010! I'm blasting through a little 3x5 moleskine. It's fun. {pics taken with my iphone so res will be a bit low}

Araceli

Diego

Gabriel

im·ply

I added simple "orange"graphs to show the overlap example.

Imply

Pronunciation: \im-ˈplī\

• Function: transitive verb
• Inflected Form(s): im·plied; im·ply·ing
• Etymology: Middle English emplien, from Anglo-French emplier to entangle — more at employ
• Date: 14th century

1 obsolete : enfold, entwine
2 : to involve or indicate by inference, association, or necessary consequence rather than by direct statement imply obligations>
3 : to contain potentially
4 : to express indirectly implied consent>

synonyms see suggest

usage see infer

One of the things that I'm always trying to get across to friends and students is to "Imply" shapes behind other shapes. Walt used to draw a circle over a circle and call it an orange in front of an orange to describe overlap.  The drawn lines of the oranges behind the front one where inferred to exemplify body shapes or tree shapes or whatever it was behind what we drew.  The other was the mountain example which was pretty self explanatory.  I'll use the orange example for the post.

     

When you look at the definition of "Imply" it starts with obsolete meaning no longer in use or no longer useful. This could help, by thinking we don't need to draw what we can't see the hidden shapes within the overlap.  The second definition is about inferring and not drawing too direct.  To infer the shapes behind others.  The third we are containing the shapes behind others and the fourth is indirect expression of the shapes. HA! it all relates when you think about overlap and how we can draw the orange behind the orange!

I had to put the examples first, blogger was acting up!

Zoo trip

I went to the zoo with Dave Derrick last week and ended up drawing more people then animals.

Dave will kill me but I forgot what these are called..."Skinny stick legged deer things?"

An odd couple

A Mother and child who didn't want to ride in the stroller

The Hat lady