(HB pencil on a 139mm x 87mm postcard) It's not surprising that the pandemic would inspire me to do a work such as this. How could it not? It shows both the growing need for social interaction people have in isolation, along with the need to protect themselves. These two things have come together in a piece depicting a strange group of gate-crashing party-goers.
A redraw of a drawing I did based off a drawing I did last year,what's different:no more eyelashes,I fixed her weird head shape,she now has jeans because it suits her better,no hair tie,her boots are now red.Algodón means cotton in spanish figured it was a better last name than candy.She was originally a side character in my story but now she's the main character.she's not bubbly or optimistic nor is she a pessimist but a realist.she works as a DEA agent to fight against crime and kingpins,her 1# foe would be ruthleen and parsnip.people don't take her seriously because she's pink,soft and fluffy.despite constant mockery,Clemence is always determined and confident.I might make a reference sheet of her one of these days.
Alamea is an entertainer,singer and dancer.she is super kind, passionate and selfless.whenever she makes a lot of cash,she donates her profits to needy ghosts.at first she welcomed Al and later on falls in love with him however Al didn't want to be a a relationship with her because he's not prepared which Alamea completely understood.her old design is the design where I colored her dress black,I was really trying to make her look distinctive from Princess Neera,I gave her rubber hose eyes and a pointy nose
I collaged "Krampus is Coming For You" together with my own monoprints as well as one of my drawings of Japanese Noh masks that I cut out of an old sketchbook. For the second piece, I had a drawing of Marie Antoinette as an ice cream cone, so I gave her a dress, put a background of my monoprints on her, etc. Then I added more cherries, and the circle reminded me of a clock, so I inked in the arms accordingly.
The Super Bloom is still going in SoCal! On the trail are poppies, daisies, alyssum and now the mustard grass is in bloom. My process was an iPhone photo, then a drawing with color and then collage in Photoshop.
Here's an ink illustration from my sketchbook. The only thing more terrifying than dying of the plague might be encountering a plague doctor. The type at the bottom says "A Black Sun Revolves Around You." It's been distorted and abstracted, but it's derived from letterforms.
I have dragged this typewriter around for more than 50 years. I found it in an antique store when I was in college. It's still fully useable, except that it's REALLY hard to find ribbons. Basically, it's just another object to dust. But it is a beautifully made object. The basic shapes and perspective were blocked in with a 2H pencil, then I used a Sakura 005 micron pen to do the contour drawing.
I’m often asked about my Bic pen drawings and how I do them. It starts with a good foundational drawing, the ballpoint pen part is just trying to colour within the lines. I try to do my best to explain the process, but the best way to show my progress is by posting my efforts to master pen drawings over the span of 3 or so years. I have been doodling/drawing with ballpoint pens as far back as I can remember - they were cheap, readily available and always lying around the house. It wasn’t until I was bored during a particularly long team meeting-conference call (around 2016-17) that I started to think about the possibilities of ballpoint pens as serious portrait illustration tools. My first experiments with full colour ink portrait drawings were rather crude, but that’s the point of learning new techniques—as long as the curiosity and the love of drawing is there, you can transfer that skill and passion into any medium. Remember, the most exquisite drawings and paintings you see didn’t materialise fully formed, they started out as failed experiments. Failure after failure after failure. It’s important to remember this when you get discouraged (I've failed spectacularly over the years). The only difference between the accomplished artist and the beginner is hundreds of hours of practice. Talent can only get you so far. It’s the hard work that you do behind the scenes that makes your work look effortless. Keep doodling. Keep learning. Stay curious.
