Striking Bearded Man

I have an amazing cabinet card that I've been trying to do justice to in graphite, but I just can't seem to do it. Inspired by the style in yesterday's post I tried to draw this guy the same way. I think I came close in the second one, but it's still too realistic, and a tad too cartoony, which I realize are conflicting statements.

Attempt #1


Attempt #2


I'm glad that I made it up to 144 posts this year, as the square root of 144 is 12 and there are 12 months in the year. There's a quiet harmony to that that I find pleasing. Anyhow, hope everyone has a good new year's eve tonight!

A Doodle Reworked

I liked the Karaoke Napkin Doodle I did the other week of my friend Jesse, and I wanted to rework it into a real drawing. I'm even happier with results and want to explore doing more portraits in this style.

Tom at Tom's House

Messing around with blind contour portraits. Tom at Tom's house on craft night.

Scruffy the Wild Cat

Well I'm at it again. A long time ago, in a season far far away, Stephanie's Mom hired me to draw portraits of three of her cats. I've finally made good on one of those portraits and the others should be close behind.

This is "Scruffy". He's an outdoor cat with a bit of a wild side, so I turned him into a Mountain Man. I also recommend doing a google search for "mountain man" because it yields some interesting results. If only we could get all of those guys in a room together. It might be too much beard and animal pelts for us to handle.



I can never resist the urge to convert my portraits into a sepia tone.



And the lovely model.



You can see some of my previous cat portraits here, here, here, and here.

New Portrait 1904

Here's a portrait I've been working on on and off for a few weeks now. I photoshopped it into a vintage cabinet card frame to make it look a bit more official.

I'm really happy with the way it came out, but I've gotta start making bigger work and not just work in my sketch book all the time. Hopefully some bigger work will be hitting the blog soon.

Israel Schraer

While in San Diego over the holidays I came upon this photo of my great grandfather, Israel Schraer,. In a way it was like seeing him for the first time. This man was my namesake, though I have no memory of him. My parents wanted to name me after him, but as he was still living, and in the Jewish tradition you don't name anyone after a living relative, they chose to use his first initial when choosing my name.

I have no memory of him, he died when I was very young and even then lived across the country, but I also have no image of him. If I think of him no picture comes to mind, though I must have seen a picture of him at some point. This photograph is the only memory I have.

Paging Mr. Herman

I'm starting a new blog everyone and I want YOU to be a part of it! It's called Project P.W. and if you want more information you should check it out.

A Scratchboard Thriller

Looks like the rainy day that I prophesied back in August finally came, which means I got around to finishing my scratchboard portrait of Michael Jackson. I find it hard to let any project go unfinished and this one was particularly labor intensive. I wish I had had time to finish it back in June because I'm much more pleased with it than the graphite version I ended up putting into that show. I don't think I'll feel like experimenting with this particular medium for a while now.

This sucker IS for sale, for those of you who are trying to get a head start on your holiday shopping. Let me know in the comment section if you're interested and we can talk prices.

Hipprospector

I've been mining for character ideas lately and this is the hippest I could come up with. What do you think, is it a golden nugget or am I way out west with this one?

How to Frame a Picture for a Present

Funny story. I was looking up videos on youtube yesterday on how to frame an oil painting and came upon a treasure trove of instructional videos from independently owned retail frame shops. That's where I found this guy, in all his earnest and awkward glory. Within a few seconds into the video I knew I had to draw him.



Before the shading.

General Ignacious Porkington III

Are his muttonchops too subtle?

The Deadly Phorusrhacos!

I 'm really excited about this new portrait. The Phorusrhacos was a giant flightless predatory bird from the Miocene era, characterized by her massive pointed beak. Although this one may seem a harmless, if you look closely you can see a twinge of mayhem lurking behind her bespectacled eyes.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Mammoth Hands

This mammoth has the horrifying disfigurement of having human hands!

Sorry for the break in posting, but I've been hard at work on some more in depth drawings than usual as well pondering the meaning of my own existence. As you can see, it's been rough! I recently looked through some old sketch books from 4-5 years ago and rediscovered some stuff that I think it pretty neat so I'll be posting some of those drawings here to fill in the gaps.

Has everyone settled on a Halloween costume yet? If not you better get crackin'. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a new carved pumpkin tribute to post on here. It's going to be quite savage.

The Great Bill Murray

He's always been one of my favorite guys, so I thought I'd take a stab at a portrait. It was also good watercolor practice!

The Boys

When I was in San Diego last I "borrowed" this photograph from my Dad of him and his three brothers when they were kids. It was too classic for me to not recreate. You can really see their individual personalities shining through.


(My Dad is the youngest)

Long May You Run

Sometimes you just feel like drawing Neil Young.

Portrait of a Tauntaun

What people don't know is that Tauntauns were a very dignified species before being enslaved by the Rebellion.



If you like this guy and want to see more like him please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Ned Kelly : The Bold and the Beautiful

Now this is much closer to what I was actually going for with this portrait. Simple. Bold. Quick. The only problem is I think the likeness isn't as good as the previous pen portrait. Also, he looks sad. I guess if my bones were being dug up and put on display nationally I'd be a little sad too.

Read the inspirational article HERE.

Ned Kelly : One Sketchy Fellow

The original sketch I did of Australia's premier outlaw with a dull pencil before moving on to pen. It wasn't quite what I wanted it to be.

"Bone to Pick" starring Ned Kelly

I recently read this article by Damon Poeter about Australian outlaw Ned Kelly, who was apparently THE scourge and scoundrel of the Australian frontier. Through the magic of DNA matching scientists believe they have identified the remains of said outlaw in a mass prison grave in Melbourne, originally buried 131 years ago! Kelly's skeleton is intact save for his skull which is still missing and believed to have been taken as a trophy by an Aussie Police Officer when the bones were originally moved to their would-be final resting place.

I saw the picture in the article and thought "Wow! What a dapper looking fellow with a scraggly beard!" and I knew I was going to draw him. True story.