Been a funny year. This is what I do.

These are some of the demonstration drawings I've drawn while advertising my work to people this year. Based upon passersby, they're done outside admidst usually strong wind since those days are slower business. Normally a sketch takes five minutes or so. These are up to around twenty minutes since I was taking my time.





RANT TIME:There are two kinds of blogs. Business and personal. Career artists often run the fine line of being both. Only some capitalize on pageviews, but likely all appreciate the benefit of their art being seen for potential work. But we show our work, to get more work. Our art is our work.

Due to a recent exchange with a blogger overseas who wished to use a caricature(work) I did on their blogsite for free, I researched that blog and its associates. I would've happily given the caricature had it been an education for learning's sake type of site. But this site was specifically income based. It bragged very heavily about it. The purpose of the site is to build entrepreneurs out of people who spend their days clicking links. They profit solely upon people purchasing the same software from the associates that help them to make their own site. This led me to many other bloggers who also use sideline advertisers to make income on pageviews and link clicks. Maybe I'm late, but I now know about a trend of blogs profiting on some very basic information. Usually no real information at all.

Charging for information is an old tradition. We wouldn't have schooling otherwise. Selling info is not a bad thing. The bad thing about a majority of these sites is that they provide an overview of a topic such as income earnings through a blog, and provide enough information to be considered the first 30 minutes of a freshman intro lecture on economy. Again with the uneducated not knowing what they can't know yet. That is how many information brokers, such as colleges even, make their money.

They profit from this approach, and maybe this passive income tuns them into complete users. Or maybe they are the sponges in the first place. Either way, they come to expect freedom in their usage of other peoples "work" when they have done none themselves. My caricature was taken down per my request. I do respect the honesty.

I make my earnest plea to other artists. If your work is good enough, you'll get paid for it. If they want it for free, they'd better be non profit.

Over the slump

Here is a Mark Zuckerberg caricature via photoshop after pencil sketch. Its not finished, but rather a decent start.

'nother self caricature

I had recently decided to lose the hair and as such needed a caricature update of myself. I am going to get more into watercolor caricature as an art. Simplification of form plays into this one as I was somewhat influenced by Tomo(http://tomotabata.blogspot.com/). He simplifies shape elements seemingly based upon a 3 dimensional structure; I assume its based upon his sculptures.

Speaking of which, seeing and working alongside different artists out there and studying work myself, 2 primary drawing styles seem to manifest themselves. Structural and picture plane. Structural is the understanding of form and drawing with clear indications of 3 three dimensions. A videogame concept artist would be good at this. Picture plane is primarily an observational technique incorporating a strong understanding of the visual picture plane, potentially skewing it. A caricature artist would be good at this. The most learned of artists(and ultimately the ones who make the most impactful images) use both foundations to great effect. There is an elegance to the finish of a Picture plane artists, and there is intricacy to the beginning of a work by a structuralist. Cultivating the techniques of both enable a rich image w/ great draftsmanship to be had from start to finish.

Redirection

I went to LAAFA's open figure study last night. It had been far too long since I had gone and I decided to use more familiar materials to draw. Markettes and artstix. I got some laughs out of the Venetian one. These are 20 minutes sketches.

sketching

I decided to do a better caricature of myself w/ more emphasis upon expression and likeness. Loving the sunburn. Meanwhile, also got in a sketch of RJD2. I am still working on the previous' post final, its half done, I swear.

Tomorrow I am drawing a live caricature of a couple for a marriage proposal. The man will be proposing to his lady, she being completely unaware, after I draw them as bride and groom. I will be videotaped as the guy wishes to have record of the occasion and potentially use it as footage for the wedding. Nothing better to see where you're at than to be tested in front of a cameraman, a guaranteed large crowd, a man in love who is fully placing his trust in you, and all under the hot Santa Monica sun.

women caricatures

This post is a sectocaricature from photo reference of women models. I feel I need the practice for caricaturing women since I usually fail on exaggeration while I still usually get likeness. The final drawing, preliminary sketch, and reference are included. 30 minutes for the roughs, 3 1/2 hours for finals. My favorite is the top center, and I look forward to watercoloring them and posting likely tomorrow.

So happy. . .

Guess who finally got his shipment of Markettes?

Those markers are very limited and hard to find. No matter the price, they are worth getting. Faces get ready.

I sketched my face quickly in red,white, and black verithins on a brown pad, then realized, why the hell aren't I using my markers?