i'm involved in two different postcard-exchange groups right now. one group is arty, the other is wordy, but i'm doing both with handmade cards. that's just how i roll, as you already know. here are a few recent ones i've made (the last card is the funnest, so don't miss it, lazyfingers!):
Yours for Now just finished their second EP, and they are having a Release Party/Possibly Last Show Ever next Friday, November 6th, at Hank's Saloon. It's going to be a fun time, and you will regret it for the rest of your life if you don't go. You'll lie to your grandkids and tell them you were there, and then you will feel terrible for days about lying to your own grandchildren! As you should. Anyway, I did their album art, which you can see below:
COVER
INSERT BOOKLET - FRONT
BAND PORTRAIT (Side note: This was replaced by a lyrics sheet, but I wanted to show you my drawing instead. I'm starved for attention, I know.)
INSERT BOOKLET - BACK
BACK COVER
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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
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.
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Mahatma Ghandi
graphite on paper with digital collage, 5" x 8"
this is for illustration friday's "legendary" theme this week. i'd say he meets the requirements.
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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.
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it's been a while since i've put up anything with scenery. i love doing the portraits, but every now and then i need a change of pace, you know? this drawing was inspired by a photo i came across on the adventure 16 blog, which you can see here.
i'm still working mainly in colored pencil, but lately i've been throwing in a few change-ups here and there (more liberal use of graphite, pen and ink, digital manipulations, etc.)
i've really been pushing to get commissions as of late, putting myself out there as much as i can. i joined hireanillustrator.com, spraygraphic.com, stars-portraits.com, and so forth, in hopes that the right person is going to discover me soon. grad school ain't gonna pay for itself, folks!
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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?
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here's a fairly new one of daniel day-lewis and paul dano, stars of there will be blood. i just saw mr. dano as dwayne in little miss sunshine last night, too. i'd seen it before, but it came on television last night, so i saw it again.
julia and i had been away from home for 12 days until we finally arrived got back yesterday morning. we had intended to get a lot of work done this weekend, but when we got here, we found that we didn't want to do a thing except vegetate on the couch. we ended up watching three movies in all, so i feel like we accomplished something, no?
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"it's a long, long roadso if you didn't get the reference there, this my little brother eric. when he was a baby and i a wee young lad with a speech impediment, i called him "egget".
he recently went back to college (neither of us made it through the first time). he's really giving it a go, i must say--making straight A's this time around. actually, nothing lower than a 99 so far!
yeah. that's how we roll.
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"is solace anywhere more comforting than in the arms of a sister?"
-alice walker
and here we see emily and julia, two of the four brandt sisters, on top of a mountain.
i often wonder if the world would be a better place if all the men in positions of authority would just step down and let women run things for a while. something makes me think that there would be far less bombing and lots more hugs.
ladies: don't invite sarah palin, though. that would defeat the purpose.
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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!
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here's a new drawing of my father-in-law, captain richard brandt. i can call him "dad" now, but before we were married, i could only refer to him as "captain" or "sir". it was also a family tradition that any boyfriends/fiancees of the four brandt daughters could not hang their stockings on the mantle at christmas. until we were married into the family, we had to hang our stockings on the bar, with all the family pets.
it's good to have goals.
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so here you go. i decided to try coloring in photoshop (see previous post). s'okay. i think i learned a few things, anyhoo.
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also, we took turns. i decided to blend two photos together to make one image, because i liked the variation of the arm positions. julia's mid-air dart is actually visible in the original photo(!), but i had to make up the one that i'm throwing. i'm trying to decide whether i should draw in the bar/background, add color, or just leave it alone.
i've actually been toying with coloring it in photoshop, which could be good or bad. since i'm kind of self-taught in that arena, i don't really know (or maybe remember is the better word) the "proper" way to color in photoshop. i've just sort of experimented my way through the features, for the most part. it might be interesting to see how it would turn out.
this is my cousin-in-law daniela, whose birthday is this month. i did a portrait of her sister kristin (oh the time has come...haha) for her birthday a few years ago, so i figured i should finally even the score.
i've sent out two rounds of postcards now, with no replies for work. i think i'm going to start submitting to agencies to see if i can get some representation. i love drawing, don't get me wrong--but it sure would help if i got paid for it from time to time, no?
this is a portrait of my mom! i started it in person when i visited her this summer, and i finally finished it with photo reference today. let's hope she likes it.
i want to start doing more portraits of the people i know, so if i know you, your phiz may be showing up here soon!
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.
and that was miss parker posey, whom i ran across during my former incarnation as a hipster-east-village-record-store-employee. see this post for more info.
of the five portraits you see here, i am particularly proud of the bjork and the hugh laurie. i'm not quite as satisfied with the jack and the jim, but i do feel like i'm generally starting to get my speed and accuracy up to levels i'm comfortable with.
ooh, when i typed the word "satisfied" just now, that exact word was mentioned in the song that was playing. that song owes me a coke!
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.
