where you been

J Mascis

5" x 7"

Watercolor on paper

Don't know why, but I felt like making a portrait of J Mascis today. He plays guitars real nice. By the way, I love that thing that happens when big glasses make the side of the face get out of line, don't you?

freens and fambly

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Ryan, Jo Ann, and Eric P.
graphite and colored pencil on paper
each 5" x 8"

here are three drawings i did today while on hall duty. for the record, eric's neck is not really like that in real life.

david cross redux

David Cross
graphite on paper with digital coloring, 5" x 8"

i finally colored my portrait of david cross! it was actually the first celebrity drawing i ever did (in 2007? i forget), back when i was only going to draw celebs i had seen in person. of course, now that i live in speonk, that happens less often--although the jules and i did see rachel weisz at an art reception in the hamptons a couple of weeks ago. we were (briefly) listening to some crap band that the geezers were calling "punk", when we realized that ms. weisz was standing right behind us. when we went back into the gallery, she sort of followed us around for a while. embarrassing, really.

i'm not dead. i'm the lion. you're dead.

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I Hate Jim
graphite and colored pencil on paper with digital coloring, 5" x 8"

here's a new one. can you tell which part of the yellow background is hand-drawn and which part is digital? if you can, you win...um...a sense of self-satisfaction, i guess.

a great white guy in the great white north

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here's conan o'brien, in his royal canadian mounted police uniform, from the week he did the show in toronto. i loved the look of the white gloves against the red jacket, though i think the real guys usually wear brown gloves for the most part.

i did something a little different this time, using black and red ink in the belt and jacket areas. i used the ink for the base layer, then added colored pencil over it. it really makes the color all bursty, don't you think?

repair, reduce, reuse, recycle

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so we're back to celebrities whom i've seen in person. i saw moby back when i worked at a record store on st. marks place. he came in the store, soon realized that it was crappy, and left. i don't really listen to his music, but i do admire that he is a famous person who actually uses his wealth to help the planet. so i found this picture of him that i drew months ago in my old sketchbook, and saw that i had never colored or posted it. so i, um, colored and posted it.

i think the captain's face came out better (both were colored in photoshop, which i've been practicing), but i really like the background on this one. i used a crayon drawing i had done in my "art in elementary education" class. yay crayola!

here's hoping...

i made this drawing into a t-shirt! you can buy it here.

i swear, if he doesn't win...let's just say i might want to make a loooong visit to another country.

it ain't me, babe

i always liked cate blanchett, but i was truly blown away by her portrayal of dylan in i'm not there. the people with whom i saw the movie were not impressed with the film all that much, but i thought it was a unique way to explore the life of one unique individual. the only drawback in my eyes was that in using so many actors to play one character, the viewers inevitably choose a favorite, which causes them to like the other versions less. and the other actors were certainly left in the dust by dear cate here.

i wanted to do a picture of her as dylan(or "jude," as her version of dylan is named), but didn't find a decently-sized photo that i liked enough. so i went with a glamour shot, and i'm pretty happy with how it came out. she certainly inspired a nice, subtle palette, i think.

more celebrities - now in vivid technicolor!

here are some more famous folks i've seen out and about in nyc:

mr. waterson i've seen on a few occasions, at various tapings of law n' order.

ryan adams, along with then-girlfriend parker posey, came into the now-closed east village record shop that once employed me. he bought a smiths bootleg. see, even musicians with contracts like to stick it to the record companies! of course, parker posey will be showing up here shortly.

carly also came into the record shop. she said, "you probably don't know who i am, but..." and i said "of course i do! i think that song is about me!" she laughed and asked if we could possibly carry her new (at the time) christmas cd, which was recorded in a hotel room or some such thing.

i see movie people

here are some more celebrities i've seen in person. see my previous post for an explanation of why i'm drawing them.

attention, lady celebrities: i need to see more of you in person (no, i mean a larger number of you). my list is a little dude-heavy. wait, does '80s rocker sebastian bach count as a guy or a girl?

the two davids

i've decided to do a bunch of celebrity portraits/caricatures for my main website, ronaldpdbrandt.com, in an effort to attract some clients. i figured that, instead of choosing only my favorite famous people, i would draw every celebrity that i have seen on the streets of new york. i actually got the idea for this project when i saw david morse (always plays a cop, often a creepy one) walk past me over near lincoln center. the guy is enormous, by the way.

i saw mr. cross twice--once on a sidewalk in the east village on the day of the big blackout a few years ago, and once at niagara bar a while back. i actually approached him that time and said a quick hello-and-how-are-you, something i rarely do.

more coming soon!