Day 132

Drawing #4 in the series "Jo-Jo's drawing request for Joe".

It took me a while to logistically piece together the idea of this drawing. Joanna wanted a bear watching a bear on tv watching a bear on tv watching a bear on tv watching a bear on tv watching a bear taking a bath.

Now, though I live in the current day and acknowledge that flat screen TVs are the norm, I do not own a flat screen TV. I own a 1970's RCA TV with manual knobs. So, naturally when I started thinking about how to draw this I thought to myself, "How in the hell am I going to get that many TVs and bears in one drawing with out using a huge piece of paper." Then it struck me.

Being that we have an old TV with the color going out and every so often the picture turns to a green hue or just black and white we rarely use it unless we are watching a movie on VHS. We usually watch television shows or movies via Netflix, via the computer which has a flat panel screen. Huzzah! Flat panel televisions were the answer. This allowed me to visualize the drawing. I just couldn't fit that many tube television in my brain!

Now, that the drawing is complete I realize that the depth of the TV really didn't matter at all. As you can see, I could have drawn tube televisions and it would have worked out just fine. But it wasn't until I thought of the televisions as a single plane with minimal depth that I could actually fit them into my thoughts. Sounds strange when writing it, as I really don't know how else to explain it. All the same, it worked and turned out pretty cool.

Most of the drawing is free handed from my own imagination. I used reference photos only for the bears and in most cases had to visualize how the bears head would look from a different angle. The exact angle for the bear heads that I needed were harder to find than I anticipated.

Day 131

This drawing went well with Tom Waits playing in the background. Not an important fact but thought I'd share. There are a few different techniques I used here. I kind of like the way I did the clothing. It's a very small part of the drawing but the simple strokes worked out well. I deviated away from what I had been doing for a while which was to start out with soft, light strokes. I did use them sparingly but instead of incrementally getting darker I just jumped into the darker areas. I also did not attempt to follow the drawing very closely; the preliminary lines were done very loosely and without any precision. Because of this I failed to capture the old man glare. Much of the drawing was done with just one pencil.

Day 130

So I finished it and was right; I completely mutilated my Mom's face. Never thought I'd say that. It was quite comical: some of the expressions that I drew and then manipulated and then screwed up again, etc. I laughed quite a bit when at one point I swear I drew Rick Moranis' (Honey I Shrunk The Kids, Spaceballs) head on my Mom's body. I really couldn't stop laughing. Eventually I got close enough with the eyes that I decided it would be a great idea to distort the mouth. So on and so forth, you get the picture. I came to the conclusion that the only way to redeem this drawing was to actually distort it through photography. I took the picture at such an angle that it created a 90 degree angle of the painting she's holding, which in my drawing was a blank canvas (I wasn't about to ruin her painting by trying to redraw it). After that I photoshopped a photo of the real painting with my drawing and I think it turned out pretty good. The real talent is in her painting.

Day 128

Wanted to tap back into the roots of the 24 hour sketch. I did this drawing quick and sloppy, whereas before I would spend an awful amount of time on getting all the muscles perfect with the proportions. I didn't care too much to spend a lot of time on that. I like it. I should throw these in here every now and again.

Day 127

I decided to start putting these drawings in a sketchbook, when I'm at home. This one should be pretty cool when it is finished. So my 24 hour sketch project worked! It only took 125 ays but my mom started painting again. If only for today, that's still good enough for me.

Yep, I missed yesterday. It wasn't because of Christmas, and it wasn't because my mom painted again. It was a busy day, and near the end of the day I started to feel like crap. Still feel like crap actually. So I completely forgot. Didn't even think about it until this morning. I see this is as good thing. It was bound to happen eventually and I'm glad it happened unintentionally. Not that I plan on taking many days off, but now that the streak is broken I won't feel so bad.

Day 125

Day 124

Charcoal again. There are things I like about this drawing just as much as there are things I don't like. I look at this and wonder how the hell I accomplished some of the charcoals I've done in my past. For whatever reason I cannot seem to get the background looking right.

Day 123

Well I'm a little late getting this one in, but as I've said before: "There will be another drawing later today! Expect it!" I'm not finished with this one but I'm at a stopping point where I need to analyze it and see exactly where I want these tones to go to really make the flower pop. I'm doing this one as Christmas present for an amazing artist/painter I've known my entire life. She is 99 this year and I want this drawing to be as exceptional. Hope I achieve it, that's quite a bar I'm setting for myself. Hope you 24 hour sketch fanatics out there like it as well. I may not need to mention this but I brought the charcoal out again for this one. God, I love how messy my hands get after working with it.

Day 122

I like how I chose to do this one. Small strokes were used to form this drawing. Yes, I'm saying it: I used lines and loved every minute of it! I only used 4 tones save the white paper background. Even though I used a reference photo for this I feel like it is my own work. I only used the reference as a general go-by. I also dig it cause it looks kind of like a comic character. I've always loved the graphic art of that style but never really ever tried it.

Day 121

My intention when starting this was to create a two-tone image. Nailed it!

Day 120

I don't know, I just got done looking at some at some pieces from some phenomenal realists and when I attempted the detail of the lips I just felt discouraged. I know I shouldn't compare myself to anybody else but there's a tricky balance between aspiration and current limitations. As happy as I am with how this turned out I still feel I could have done it better.

Day 119

Take the noose off and enjoy the holidays!

What I like most about this drawing is the fact that I can see work related notes imprinted in the sheet. Kind of a nice touch I think. This one reminds me if the drawings I was doing about a month ago and I think I may have decided from today's little doodle what I'm going to concentrate on come next month. Keep coming back to find out!

Day 118

I just couldn't get a good picture of this so I ran it through a lot of filters to try and emulate what the actual drawing looks like. This drawing has taken me over a week to do! Seriously, though I've spent maybe 20-30 minutes on it. I had no time to finish it. Originally I wanted to produce the gradient light with colors but ultimately I brought it home and killed it all with black. I like it alright and if you can't tell what is it, it's a bus. What I like most about the drawing is the light pole. I used my etching technique to maintain that that portion of the drawing was to stay as light as possible. It really works out well.

Day 117

This is a request from my wife. When I started this drawing I saw shapes and shadow and that is how I am drawing it. I form the objects in the drawing through shading. The key, for me, with this technique is to move rapidly through the drawing changing my pencils just as fast. I put a light tone in and follow it up with a darker one. Precision is only relevant to the general location of objects in the photo and if they fall elsewhere I just work it in somehow.

I like using this style as it gives me freedom from lines which I sort of hate. Not entirely but I try to use them as little as possible. And that being said, all that's missing from this drawing is a row of buildings which I will texturize, for lack of better word, by means of a similar technique. I should be using some projection lines but I'm not. In the end I may or may not scan the drawing for areas that I feel need more emphasis and detail them up (with lines). So lines inevitably may find a place in this drawing after all. Little bastards.

Day 116

All done, I wanted to make it appear as if Belle was chewing up Santa in the dark and then had a picture taken with flash but it didn't turn out as well as I intended. Additionally, I just wanted to get done for today, so maybe I rushed it. Her bone structure is a bit off and the eyes look a little bulgy.

Day 111

Another collage but this time of 30 second sketches. There are some 5 minute sketches in there as well to make myself feel better. I don't like trying to capture a photo in 30 seconds but I thought it might be good practice. For every drawing you see there is another on the back. I chose the best ones and threw them all together.

Day 110

For you Joanna: Ms. Bethany Hamilton

This is the third and final installment of this drawing. Hope you like it.

Day 109

I wasn't able to capture this glass vase as well as I have captured glass in the past entries of the 24 hour sketch. It's not symmetrical which really bugs me and it's kind of boring. Whatever, keeping up with the practice is what counts, but I'm feeling the need for structure. Not only have many people been talking to me about this but it seems I'm being pulled towards articles and webpages that stress the importance of focused drawing. The new year may bring an entirely new concept to the 24 hour sketch. I'd really like to do focused practice on a lot of things. I think I might do a month at a time study of specific subject matter. That may vary depending on the subject. My ideas as of today are faces, anatomy, inanimate objects, and landscape. So here opens the poles: what would you viewers like to see first for January? Feel free to suggest your own ideas as well. I think there's something like 2 of you out there so we'll flip a coin in the event of a tie.

Day 108

I was going to do this tomorrow, December 8th, but felt inspired to start tonight.
The easy part is done, 20 minutes. The second half of Lennon's face will be harder as I'll need to maintain a likeness of the man. Putting that second eye on anybody is always treacherous ground. It really can make or break a drawing. And to be a honest I think the bridge of the glasses are slightly off. We'll see.

Day 107

There is a website called quickposes.com. It displays an image for a user defined allotment of seconds. I chose 90 seconds. All 24 of these sketches were each done within that time. Some I like, some I don't. I tried various technique and likewise I'm partial to some more than others. Near the end I was ready to call it. And finding an app on my phone that would allow me to use all 24 drawings in a collage was fun too! Maybe I'll take the rest of the year off.

Day 106

Drawing #3 in the series "Jo-Jo's drawing request for Joe". A baby. Eating a banana. Holding a falcon. In a canoe. At sunset. The open seas will never be the same again!

Much like the elephant in the van drawing I found several references on-line and put them together.

I sort of like the way I tackled he sky (sunset). I used a series of broad strokes one over the other to achieve the layers. Never drew one of those before. I like it much better than drawing the sky when the sun is up. It's easier.

Day 105

This one took me about 25 minutes. It's an effort of simple contour lines, shading, and smudging. I'm not sure why I like this photo. I think what intrigues me most is that I'm dumbfounded on how it was taken so perfectly with objects (helium balloons) that don't stay put. Even down to the flash of white light down the center which I accomplished by use of a putty eraser. It doesn't quite work out as well as the actual photo but it gets the point across. With all of that timing and placement the composition really comes together.

Day 104

Today marks a huge milestone for the 24 hour sketch. First, I drew on black paper and it came out good, damn good. Second, I tapped back into a medium that I haven't used for well over 6 years, charcoal. Third, I amazed myself and respired myself. One thing about charcoal (at least in the way I use it, maybe it's unanimous or maybe other artists have a different experience) is that initially the drawing looks horrid, but there comes a point when I use charcoal that it comes together. I can visually see the drawing take form and morph right before me. It's a cool feeling. Partially why I stopped using charcoal is due to the fact that I wasn't producing anything I really liked and that "Holy, mother of god" experience wasn't happening. I'm glad that I felt it again. Fourth, the reference I used had been stewing around for a while in my mind. This is another one of those drawings that I have attempted before and just crumpled it up and drew something simpler. As before I didn't want to do the same and in my opinion, I didn't.

So, I guess you won't be seeing another charcoal from me for another 6 years!