Saturday, December 19, 2015

#43k FU

Frank Underwood of HBO's House of Cards played by Kevin Spacey. Pan pastel on toned paper. 18x24ins. 

Sunday, November 29, 2015

#41K Jay Leno

Graphite on 12x18 newsprint. A study of which I would like to do a colored version anytime soon. 

Monday, October 19, 2015

#40k a study

A study on soft pastel. Rough finish brown paper. 

Here I was experimenting the different colors I can use to vary the tones from warm to cool temperature. 

Sunday, August 30, 2015

#1k37 Wilhem

Charcoal caricature of American actor Wilhem Dafoe. 12x18 inches. Newsprint. 
I tried my best on being consistent on applying the lighting principles across the face. Hopefully I gave justice to it. I gave the background a painterly effect as painters would treat it- that v-shape. I just thought of it to see if it would look good. 


I was at Vegas that time when I did this. I could not help separating work from leisure so I brought my art materials with me ,that I have to wake up crazy early to give time to my art. It's a big sacrifice when I realized I tend to doze off at daytime. Hey, but no regrets. It's worth it.




Thursday, August 27, 2015

#1k36 Jeremy

Jeremy Renner caricature in charcoal. Second attempt. 12x18 inches newspriint. 

Ritmo charcoal is my new fav now. It's so soft, with grainy effect, I don't even have to use a stump to smudge it (a finger does the trick).  It gives me this painterly effect -easily! No problem on sharpening, it doesn't break easily. I use HB for lighter drawing and 3B for the kind of darks I want.   It works perfect with smooth newsprint  paper.  I used white compressed sticks for my highlights. You should try it.


Monday, August 24, 2015

#1k35 Ben

Ben Stiller caricature in charcoal. Newsprint. 

#1k34 Jeremy

Jeremy Lee Renner, American actor, is appearing on the latest Mission Impossible sequel. Carbon on newsprint.

I'm more comfortable rendering the backgrounds for my subject from now on because of the concept I just learned from artist Stan Prokopenko's video. He said toning down the edge suggests depth to the back end of the head, and enhances the focus of interest on the foreground. It makes s lot of sense. Thanks Stan!
 

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Friday, August 21, 2015

#1k32 Luis

Watercolor on 9x12 ins. Cold press paper.

 I try to make Luis interesting by adding a football jersey since he's big on football games and Raiders in particular. Here's a caricature of him.

Saturday, August 1, 2015

#1k31 Fab 4

A rough sketch of Paul, George, Ringo, and John. Here I focused only the exaggeration of the faces and their lights and darks. I let loose of the hair and the rest of the figures. Graphite on 8x11.5 inches of sketchbook paper.






Monday, July 27, 2015

#1k29 Lovett

A study in graphite. An early morning creation. It's always a great feeling being able to finish one early in the morning. Now I will only have to depend if I get another chance of time for myself to create another one.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

#1k30 Ron

Caricature of Ron Perlman in ink. This is my first attempt from an inspiration I got from works of fellow Instagram artist/friend Anglo Luis Iglesias. I don't have his website addy at hand but, I think, you can google his name. Check out his incredible works. 

1k28 keep it burning

I just thought of sharing some powerful words to live by for your aspiration or dreams in any case.  I stumbled on this words of wisdom by artist Chris Saper.  I used one of my creations as background- a caricature of Tom Selleck of the 80s famous TV series Magnum PI. 

Monday, June 29, 2015

#1k27 The Great One B!

Pencil in a 8.5 x 11 inches sketchbook. I've done a lot of beethovens but so far this is as close as I can get to my satisfaction as of yet. I intend to do more in a different medium and see how it goes. 

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Thursday, June 4, 2015

#1k25 Samuel

Carbon in sketchbook. 
This is another sketch created for the caricature contest in Facebook. The contest has no credit of whatsoever, just a fun sharing of drawing and camaraderie . 

Saturday, May 23, 2015

#1k23 morning warm up.

Charlize Theron. Quick caricature in charcoal. Newsprint. 

Words to live by: 
"Take pride in how far you have come and have faith on where you intend to go." -Anonymous

I've made a lot of tweaks on this every time I stare at it. I may have to do it again and change the pic. ... There's one more flaw that I see. Darn. It wouldn't stop. 

I woke a bit late today-6:00 am, with a sore throat and a sore body. It's my day-off, and I thought I should do some artwork. I have to.  Just a bit of doodling, nothing serious, details and all that, and I end up with this pic above. Nothing completes a day-off without accomplishing an artwork(s).  

I didn't pick this subject, this is my entry for the "Traditional Caricature Art" contest at Facebook. 


Monday, May 18, 2015

#1k22 Jean

Jean Dujardin caricature in charcoal. This is my second entry to FB's Traditional Caricature Art Contest. 


Thursday, April 9, 2015

#1k16 TedCruz

Charcoal on toned paper. 18x24in. 


On this portrait I emphasized the toned paper as the middle tone value as it should be. That's what they're made for. The next value to that is the "hard"pencil (General pencil), so I was extra careful on hatching. I hardly used a stump for blending. I also used white General to articulate the highlights even at an early stage to help me see the related values (see the early stages of the drawing below). 

On my previous works I use the "medium" and "soft" pencils for my values. I never realized the importance of the "hard" pencil. And because of the light impression of the drawing as a whole I was careful on rendering shadows to avoid mistakes of redoing it - it would look messy. 

I thought the background deals a lot with the drawing. And because the tone of the flesh is predominantly the tone of the paper I made the background darker. It gives that effect of making the face pop out. 

Friday, March 20, 2015

#1k15 Satie

A warm up sketch in carbon. French avant garde composer Erik Satie. He happened to be one of my favorites. Equally great as Claude Debussey, Erik Satie's gymnopedies hit a pleasant chord in my heart. 
I get my inspirations from people behind the music I listen to, to people who identify with my political beliefs, to people I admire for their strong character in achieving great things, and to people with great passion they give to their interests. It's motivational to identify yourself with them. 

Thursday, March 5, 2015

#1k11 Bibi

Another quickie. Bibi just delivered a monumental and historical, and Churchill-ian speech before the U.S. Congress yesterday and he has been the center of all news media lately. I got inspired doing this while watching the contravercy in TV news. 

#1k10 W Carvin

One quickie. A feeling that I just have to do it just for the heck of it. I was watching  news while resting, and still I get this guilt if I won't do any sketching. So I end up with this. 
This is William Carvin, an illustrated Washington DC lawyer who is currently battling the controversial universal healthcare, the Obamacare. The statute was so ill worded that it  keeps on coming back to the court because its question of validity. 

Thursday, February 26, 2015

#1k9 Poirot study 2

Carbon on paper. 
I was trying to exhaust whatever I could do on this study. I tried straight drawings and caricatures and so far this is the best thumbnail I could come with for now.
I am realizing that Conte carbon pencils are not that bad. They're darker and strokes are more distinct that I like it to appear it more raw. They're less smudgy.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

#1k8 JT

Charcoal on 18x20 inches of newsprint.
 
When I was growing up I was catching up the last leg of the folk scare era and James Taylor was one of the musicians who influenced me. It made me pick up a guitar and learn how to play his songs. 

Anyway, I tried to get a little crazy with exaggerating features of JT to spice it up a little bit. I tried to do some thumbnails first to serve as a draft and to explore ideas. Then I came up with this.
 
I think thumbnails are valuable tools when you have to explore and find out how you want your artwork to appear. It's like working on a rough draft of your letter. Thumbnails are meant to be small in sizes, no details yet, just trying to get an overall look on how you would like your artwork to appear. For a portrait or caricature, a 4x3 inches from the top of the head down to the bust works perfect for me. 

Sunday, February 22, 2015

#1k7 Experimenting light with charcoal

Charcoal on 19x24 newsprint.
This time I was experimenting on making it appear like there was a little more light reflecting the face.  Which means lesser dark areas, lesser use of contrast, except  when I have to use it for background to pop the figure more forward. 
At this point I am thinking of artist Nathan Fowks' work on charcoal, and just wish that I could attend one of his classes. There's so much to learn from this great talent, and so much to marvel how he does it. If you haven't heard of him you should check his works- it's all over the Internet.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

1k7 Poirot

Caricature in charcoal. 18x24 inches newsprint.


#1k6 Mr. Moustache

Charcoal on 18x24 newsprint. 
No other man can rightfully wear a big brush under his nose than Tom Selleck - and still look sexy. 
I'm just trying to see how I fair using compressed charcoal compare to using pencil. I did a lot hit and miss on this one. Holding that stick and swiping it against the paper to make an even tone is truly challenging. I'm planning to do more of this exercise.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

#1004 Rocket man

Sanguine on 18x20 paper.

I'm not quite happy with this one. I don't know exactly why. Is it the facial expression? The exaggeration of face? Rendition of hair? Whatever it is it doesn't have a "kick" to it. When I put the pencil down I wasn't that excited, in fact, I was discontented. Could it be that I was just tired? Maybe. I did have a cat nap right after it was done, and I'm looking at it again- just no feeling for it. 
My works usually excite me that I would not stop staring at it. Thinking all the time spent was all worth it. Completes my day and makes me want to do the next project. 
I guess I have to stop whining at this point.


Wednesday, February 18, 2015

#1003 Bono caricature

Sanguine. 18x20 inches.

He tried to be known to do things other than being a musician and a U2 band vocalist. In his speech recently at Georgetown University, he declared, "America is not only a great country, it is an idea. A lot of countries that are great in one way or the other, but in America you inherit an awesome idea of being free and having individual rights. Of becoming who you want to be as long as you work for it."