Golf Ballet

Ballpoint ink on 8.5x11 paper. I just realized that golf players are like ballet dancers who swing, twist, and turn in a calculated but odd way, adversed to the normal body movement. In drawing this figures I was getting a hard time of figuring out where their parts of body is swinging and turning to make sense of the gestures. It's a bit challenge. I don't play golf, but I learn to play it virtually through "Wii sport". It's fun 'coz it challenges your mind making sense of the distance and the strenght of the stroke, hurdles, and the wind involved. I get to learn golf terminologies like "bogey", "birdie", "fairway", and "handicap". Playing it in an actual course is another story, which I would most likely will have to pass it on.

Seasons Greetings!!!

Ballpoint ink on 9x12 paper. I say, Merry Christmas to the world! I wish you all peace, love and happiness. Let it be a celebration of life no matter who and where we are, or what we have. A million thanks to everyone for stopping by and giving time to check my blogspot; in one way or another, you have been an inspiration and motivation to keep me going. May we all keep on doing what we love doing and continue to find a purpose in life, and share it to the world. May we not cease to believe in ourselves and for what we can do, for no matter of how small and arduous our beginnings, in due time with resilience, it will all turn into something special, remember that. Love y'all!

Ballpoint on 9x12 paper.

A genuine pearl of the violin world

Graphite on 9x12 paper. Itzhak Perlman, a living legend, the epitome of violin virtuoso, happens to be a polio victim. Talk about what a man can do to compensate a physical incapacitation and become extraordinarily good. It has become a pattern that one has to be broken and can become something big and make a difference; people like Jesus Christ, Beethoven, Helen Keller, Stephen Hawking, and Stevie Wonder, to name a few. Mind can be a very powerful tool if one knows how to use it. Mr. Perlman originally played the theme of the movie, "Schindler's List", "Scent of a Woman" tango, and "Fiddler on the Roof", among many things. He garnered a lot of Grammies, recorded and sold a tons of CDs, appeared on tv shows, concerts and did master classes around the world. Aside from his mentor, Isaac Stern, I've never seen anybody who's as big stature as his in the classical world. That dude walking in crutches is simply a classy guy.

Meat Cutter

Graphite in 9x12 paper. Study of the head of a surgeon. Reminds me of the 70s tv series "Quincy Jones M.D.", but believe me, this is not him. I still have the tendency to rush my drawing when I intend not to. In art school they train students to draw a pose in 3, 5 ,10 minutes, but that's another story. I didn't even take the time to sharpen my dull pencils; just went by incessantly doodling like I couldn't wait to post it next. I would have yet to see myself taking strides and conscientiously drawing line by line, taking all considerations of making sense of it. Possible? Again, it depends on how one desire it so badly. I remember when I was so active in music, we were trained to go as slow as we can to be dead sure of each note is perfectly played, then work our way up to speed. Imagine a playing "molto adagio" on a "presto" tempo of the "Flight of the Bumble Bee". Dvorak would be blowing his top and screaming, "what the h---you doing to my sh--?!" (I'm just blabbing here, forget it.)

"Clintessential"

Graphite on 9x12 paper. France Belleville's drawing on Leroy Skalstad inspired me to draw Clint Eastwood as I try to emulate her superb style of drawing. Try clicking her name in my "Fav Links" column and you'll understand what I am talking about. As masterfully as she did on Skalstad drawing, it takes only a few strokes (or lines) to come up such a masterpiece. As compare to my version above, I ended up doing a lot of doodles with a lot of guessing on my strokes. I can't seem to come up with lines that are only essential. It's my first attempt, anyway, I can forgive myself with that. It takes practice. I reckon why France draws anything she sees, from people to dogs, reciepts, cars, pens, bags, fans, etcetera. She has trained her eyes to see what she wanted to draw.

Charcoal on newsprint. I tried experimenting using big chunk of charcoal sticks, instead of the pencil, on these figures. One thing I learn is that it's not an easy task. To do shading, one has to have a feel of what surface of the stick is going to touch the paper, a corner edge or a flat surface, and to shade it very lightly that it is barely touching the paper, as he or she, would be careful on brushes.

Do what you could-- practice.

Charcoal on 9x12 paper. It's been more than a year now that I have not been in art school and it's sad. It's just too expensive and I'm tied up with some other stuff in life that I cannot completely commit myself to it. However, I continue to draw and paint, and apply what I learned in school. I tried to post them everyday, good or bad; it's all raw, no pretense, what you see is pretty much where I am at my level of skill. It's still a long way....

Charcoal on 9x12 paper.

More on foreshortening

Charcoal on 9x12 paper.

Between jobs

Charcoal on 9x12 paper. I did these exercises for about 15-20 minutes each at the hospital where I work during downtime. In drawing figures I don't always have to start the head down to the toes, rather I start at whichever part of the body that strikes me most. For example, I started the first one on top with the left thigh raised up then went down to the feet, then worked my way up again. With the second one directly above, I began with the hip then down to the toes, then worked way up to the head.
It is always easy to start with "blocking" the whole drawing to guide your parameter, then break them down into small "envelopes". Be aware of the "negative spaces" and eyeball constantly the horizontal and vertical lenght of each part that will guide your proportions. You'll be surprise that you won't have the need for the eraser. Always start light then put more pressure on your pencil for the final drawing. In my experience, at first, drawing figures feels like so technical, but when I got my groove going, it paved to creating more of my expression more than anything else. I have been trying emulate styles of some of the professional artists that I like, hoping that I could come up with something interestingly good. Again, I realized that there's no dead end in the road to learning.

charcoal on 9x12 paper.

Back to Basics

Charcoal on newsprint. It's been a while since I last opened the book, The Atlas of Foreshortening, where I copied all of these figures, but now I'm back to testing and honing my skills again. I'm more concern of the play of gestures, proportions, and style of drawing. I find lighting very challenging as ever. As the old cliche goes, you don't use it, you lose it.

Baaam! Don't stare at me!

Charcoal on 18x24 newsprint. This is probably the biggest protrait I ever done, I practically used the big space of the newsprint and centered it. It's kinda rough to blow up the proportion. Anyway, this is the only art work I have done for the whole weekend; I spent only about 40 minutes for this and that's it. Not good enough. How do you like this artwork? Yeah, it's one of the many worst I did.

I'm back!!!!

Charcoal on newsprint. Dave Malan inspired me to venture on quick sketches like these. These babies were done in approximately 10-15 minutes each. It's not as good as Malan's but it'll get better. The thing is, after about 2 months of abstinence from doing any artwork I am excited to get back to doing what I love doing. I had to review for a licensure on Bone Densitometry, and I just knocked down that AART test last Saturday. Now I'm off the leash!!!

Robert Downey Jr. is one of my favorite actors; he was sidetracked for quite some time by some drug problem and now he's back in the silver screen. Glad he did the right thing. Do you know how good Mr. Downey is in acting? Watch the 1992 movie, "Chaplin". I find it deplorable to see other gifted people mismanaged their lives and let their talent get wasted.

Charcoal and sanguine chalk pastel on 11x14 Bristol Vellum.

Charcoal and sanguine chalk pastel on 11x14 Bristol Vellum.

Charcoal on 11x14 Bristol Vellum.

Inspired by Dorian Iten

Charcoal on 11x14 Bristol Vellum. I didn't focus much on the details of the artwork, rather I focused on the play of light and on the gesture of the model. It's not as perfect as Dorian Iten's, but, I think, it came out a decent one.

Kung Pau Chicken

Charcoal on 11x14 Bristol Vellum. For the past few weeks our dinner tables has been "graced by Chinese gourmet of sports spectacles and grandeur" quenching our appetite for excitement and something uncommon in the name of the Olympics. I personally have a lot of respect for Chinese racial character, strenght, perseverance, mastery and ingenuity. The Chinese presentation and performance in the Beijing Olympics was exceptional, especially the opening and closing ceremony, and I don't think any country could top that!

With all these Chinese hooplas going on, I get inspired to create these studies of oriental faces. And, by the way, I love Kung Pau Chicken more than anything else.

A study of a face

Charcoal on 6x6" Bristol vellum. I thought of doing this artwork by straight out hatching and cross-hatching technique. This is one of those works when after I've done everything it still feels like something is not enough or something is not right. The big problem is, I don't quite know what it is. I guess, it is like reaching a point where my skills has been consumated and there is nowhere else for me to go. It didn't feel like I can let go off this work (or any of my works) because it's perfectly done, completed. Instead, it's dangling. Have you seen somebody staring at you and all you see on that face is a big question mark??? Believe me, right now, I am that somebody's face.

Gil Shaham

Chalk Pastel on 11x14 Bristol Vellum. One of the Classical violin virtuoso giants of this generation is Gil Shaham. Young, talented, and a very lucky one to have been discovered when other person's misfortune turned out to be his big chance of a lifetime. When the Great Itzahk Perlman was unable to perform for the night's concert because of an ear infection, they had Gil Shaham to replace him and do his concert, and (voila!) the celestial planets aligned to his coordinates and the North Star shone upon him, Mr. Shaham turned out an instant celebrity. Talk about being flat out ready when the BIG opportunity comes. Now he reaps fame, awards, concert tours, and recordings. He is on top of his game!
I have to listen to his recordings while doing this artwork to put me in the right mood, and I just love the ride.

Daniel Grayling Fogelberg

Chalk Pastel on 11x14 Bristol Vellum. Dan Fogelberg for short, is my all time favorite singer-songwriter. Born with an inborn talent in music and art where he got from his father, Dan's ambivalent character made him explore between different worlds-- music, art, and theater (not everybody knows he did took formal lessons on acting). Anyway, in music where he finds his heart, his lyrics are deep and poetic that it intrigued me to seek for its deeper meaning by reading them over and over; his melodic songs are mostly moody that fits perfectly together to his contemplative lyrics. With his angelic, yet husky, voice that sounds more like of a yearning and weeping cherub, his songs are very revealing of the mysterties of his soul and his life. "I was raised by a river, weaned upon the sky. And in the mirror of the waters I saw myself learn to cry."--from The River. But what struck me most is the line: "...his hands were meant for different work but his heart was known to none" --from the Leader of the Band. It sounded more like his words relate to me and my predicament of being so ambivalent of what I really want to do with life. Sadly the stage curtains has fallen that at 6 am of December 16,2007 Dan died peacefully of prostate cancer, with his wife beside him, in his home at Maine.

Inspired by Gil Elvgren

Chalk pastel on 11x14 Bristol Vellum. Gesture, simplicity and appeal; these are what I percieved in Gil's works. I hope I could learn something from copying his inspiring works. I'm getting more comfortable with the chalk pastel, and so far the bristol is the ideal paper that I have been using. I have been out of school for spring and summer, and it might be a while till I get back. I'm just trying to get as much practice as I can. I know I'll be back.

Jim Croce

Chalk Pastel on 11x14 Bristol Vellum. It was a big big lost for the world when Jim died from a plane crash during the late 70s. He's one of my favorite folk singer/songwriters because of his melodic style, poetic lyrics, amazing guitar playing . When Bo Bice sang his song, "Time in the Bottle" in American Idol, it got me hooked up to listening Jim's songs again. I never thought there were a lot of clips of Jim's concerts in YouTube until when I thought of checking it. Imagine what would it be like to listen to his new songs if he were still alive? When I was watcing Jim at YouTube I had to freezed it and draw him for a few minutes.

James Taylor

Chalk pastel on 9x12 Mi-Teintes paper. During the years of the "folk scare" in the 70s a lot of talented singers/songwriters emerged, famed, and were loved worldwide. Although I got to know them later on the mid-80s, I was motivated to learn how to play guitar and sing folk songs as most of my older friends were solo singers and band members doing gigs in clubs and parties. I was the youngest in that circle of freinds; just hanging out with them, listening and trying to jam whenever I could. We had this big big space in the house that I always invite them to bring their instruments, including their drums,and do their daily practice. Those were the years of my first exposure to music, and definitely one of the fondest memories! I always like the style of James Taylor and love all his songs. Every now and then I tried to search for some of his new and unfamiliar old songs; it feels fresh and less commercialized. The song "Hard Times Come Again No More" is one of my favorite new songs (actually a revival) of JT.

Claudia II

Chalk-pastel on 14x17 Bristol vellum.

Claudia

Chalk-pastel on 14x17 Bristol vellum.

Martha

Charcoal on 14x17 Bristol vellum

Charcoal on 14x17 Bristol Vellum.

Good Ol' Jack Nick

Graphite on 5.5x8.5 paper. It seems like I am on the groove of doing one a day; every time I get a chance on my chill time at work I try to do some doodles and make it a point to wrap it up before 7 pm. I am adding more character in my works lately and slowly discovering some new approach in looking at my subjects and rendering it.

Kristie

Graphite on 5.5x8.5" paper

Oswald

Graphite on 5.5x8.5" paper. I thought that thiswork doesn't have a wide range of tones, especially towards the darker side. It could have been better if the hair, eyes and eyebrows, and the clothes was done in a darker tone. The face could pop out more forward if the base (the shirt) was darker. It would have been more dramatic if the whole drawing was rendered in a darker tone that even the lightest part is covered with a shade leaving the highlights the only part that is not rendered.

Charcoal on 14x17" Bristol Vellum.

4 Step Demo

Charcoal and white chalk pastel on 14x17 Bristol vellum.