Another character from My Name is Earl – the ever lovable Randy, played by Ethan Suplee.

I dropped back to the 5 minute limit for this one, but while I made his face too round (see the reference photo here) I did find some features that I felt helped to improve the likeness factor – namely the ‘eyebrow dents’ and the mouth gesture.

Suplee does a great job making the character just plain lost, and I was pleased that the portrait seemed to capture that.

Another of the characters on the show is the lovely Catalina played by Nadine Valazquez.

Alright – I’m just going to say it. I don’t like to get all ‘fanboi’ in general, but I think Miss Valazquez is just downright stunning. Problem is that this makes it all the more frustrating when I don’t feel like I got her portrait to look like her.

Yes, I had some technical difficulties with my tablet when I was trying to draw her.

No, that’s not a euphemism.

But really? Wish I’d gotten this one to look a bit more like the reference photo. Maybe I’ll try again down the road.

The Lady and the Sea…

A while back, a friend of mine told me that a band she was helping to promote was getting a lot of search engine leads for “Retro Sailor Girl”. This led to a discussion on my style and how she thought I should make a stab at that very subject.

So today, a mere… year or three  after that discussion, I started sketching some rough ideas for the idea.

I also have a bit of a thing for the art nouveau movement and thought to myself “Why not add that to the mix?” which is why you may have noticed some nouveau elements to the sketch work on the left. I like the concept, and if time allows, I may just go ahead and create a poster once the image is complete.

I definitely need some better reference materials though. Doing this completely from my imagination is leaving quite a bit to be desired. I’m ok with that so far because I was just trying to get the rough idea down. Here I come, Google Images…

…and a Little Jason Lee

As part of my warm up process, I was doing some more fast portraiture. I feel like I’m making significant progress here, but I’m still a long way from where I want to be.

My buddy Mark and I talked about efficiency of line and that age old advice that every art instructor has tried to beat into my head: stop drawing sketchy lines – have some confidence, lay the line down, and move on.

You may have noticed – I just don’t do that. Confidence really is the key, and that will come with practice.

I took a luxurious (compared to my 3 and 5 minute portraits) 10 minutes to draw this one. I’ve been enjoying the hell out of My Name is Earl on Netflix, so I elected to use promo photos from the show for the portrait. The likeness seems solid, but it’s definitely still too sketchy.

Going to do some more of the My Name is Earl crew, so stay tuned…

It’s interesting to see that there’s a real difference in quality between the first of the five minute portraits that I do and the the last. The previous portrait was the last of those that I drew that day, and (if memory serves) this was the first. Shaq seems a lot more accurate and recognizable than this one.

Know who today’s portrait is?

It’s Kari Byron of Mythbusters fame. Check out the photo I used for reference, and as always – feel free to let me know what you think in the comments.

Lesson learned here? Warm up time matters when drawing.

Dear Friend,

I recently heard it said that Mother Teresa once  explained that despite a particular artist’s desire to help do the important work that Mother Teresa did, they (the artist) should go on helping to feed people in the way that only an artist can, for there are many kinds of famine in the world.

Every now and then I hope to highlight the independent artists out there that I personally think are well worth your investment. Check them out and I think you’ll find that you agree with me. These are the folks who are fighting the famine of the imagination. We should support that.

Thank you in advance,

~Matt

PS – I should point out that I’m not making any money from this – these are just good, independent artists who deserve your attention and patronage.

First up, we have the ever talented Amy Houser. If those you are shopping for appreciate steampunk, fantasy, children’s books, or cameo portraits – Amy should be your first stop. She does an amazing job of maintaining the whimsical without making her images ‘cheesy’ or childish.

So I really was enjoying my 3 minute portraits, but I was starting to feel like the end result was just a bit too rough. Yes, that was part of the point, but it seemed like it was time for me to move to the next step.

So today I headed down to one of my favorite local coffee shop and set up shop to start my next phase – 5 minute portraits. I figured it was enough of an increase to show in the end results without getting to the point that I would be dissatisfied with the end results because they’re ‘not perfect’. It’s still just 5 minutes each.

I do like the difference in the results so far.

Today’s 5 minute portrait is…

…Shaq. Click here to see the reference photo I used for the portrait.

In general, I’m pretty happy with this one. Shaq (at least in this pic) has a supremely easy shape to break down into basic geometry. Made things much easier to do fast and maintain some level of accuracy.

What do you guys think? Did you know who it was before you clicked the more link?