Goodbye Sketch a Day. Hello Bearded Maladies

Hello everyone! You're probably wondering where I've been and what I've been doing for the last nine months. Well that's awfully nosy of you, but I can assure you that I have not stopped sketching or creating art. I've decided to retire the "sketch a day" project and start fresh with a new blog that is devoted to my art practice in general.

DON'T WORRY.

There will be plenty of sketches posted and I'll be filling it with my same old brand of bad humor and puns, but it will also contain a lot more. Why don't you head on over there and check it out? And don't forget to follow and bookmark it while you're there either.

Thanks again for being there with me throughout this project the last three years. I hope you'll enjoy my new blog even more.

Continue on to
BEARDED MALADIES

Party like it's 2012

This is an oldie, but a goodie. Happy New Year, everyone!

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.

Golden Chicks

What is there I can really say about this?

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.

Skulls

Stephanie bought this dog skull at a yard sale over the summer and now it sits in our living room. Bones are always great still life subjects. They have so many drops and shadows.

Happy 4th night of Hanukkah tonight!

Karaoke Napkin Doodle

At the last karaoke night I doodled this blind countour of Jesse. I like the way it came out.

Another Painting of a Fox

Nothing like a birthday to get the creative juices flowing. Also, animal calenders provide great reference photos.

Foxey card

A watercolor painting I did that I turned into a card.

Interpretive Album cover

For Stephanie's birthday, and in honor of the interpretive dance party she's having for it, I bought her this album as a gift. HOWEVER, I was not able to find it in any of the stores around town and had to purchase it online. I wanted to give her a present on her birthday so I drew up a mock cover and put it on a random album we had and wrapped it up. Kind of the same thing, right?

Luckily the album came in the mail the day after her birthday.

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.

Insect menagerie

This was my practice sketch for the insect collection of Professor Charles R. Mammoth.

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.

Kite Flying Society

This is from a picture of my Dad and I that I thought would look good as an art piece. For some reason I came out looking like a zombie though.

Crosshatched Oldies

Here are a few more sketches from sketchbooks past. The top one is my attempt at comic book style illustration and the bottom is an old sneak a sketch from the MUNI in San Francisco. New sketches coming SOON.

The Humble Insect Collection of Charles R. Mammoth

My friend Stacie at Notes From Below invited me to contribute a piece for a coloring book she's putting together. I decided to redraw and expand upon an older sketch for it and I'm pretty happy with the results. I'll let you kmnow when the whole coloring book is assembled. Until then feel free to print this guy up and color him in. Send a scan of the finished masterpiece to dailysketch17@gmail.com and I'll put it up for all to see!