drawmyface - behind the paintbrush

Caricature sketch of Derren Brown

2009-09-14T21:41:00.004Z

Quick sketch of 'gay magician' Derren Brown, who 'predicted' the lottery numbers last week. The explanation show was interesting, if somewhat implausible, but I don't believe the 'camera trick' theory either, seems a bit cheap for Derren. Probably the best explanation we'll get is "It was a trick".

Might work this up into a finished painting when I get time.

Mr. Miyagi sketch

2009-08-25T21:54:00.003Z

Tried a new sketching technique that I got from Jason Seiler's Sketching DVD, ballpoint pen and white pencil on toned paper.

Wax on, wax off....

Life drawing

2009-08-13T22:26:00.002Z

Been a bit slow on the caricature front recently, but I've been going to life drawing classes to try to improve my observation. Here's a selection from the past few weeks.

Caricature of Zach Braff as JD from Scrubs

2009-04-14T21:08:00.002Z

This is one I've done as a request for a friend. It's painted digitally in Photoshop, but I'm getting printed out on canvas to see how it looks. I'm really happy how it turned out, both the likeness and the paintjob. I feel like it's another step forward for me, and I'm really enjoying painting at the moment, both digitally and traditionally. Now...who's next? I plan to do an 'Inspirations' series of painitings of people who are an ispiration to me. Bruce Lee and Thom Yorke are included. I can't really say Zach Braff is an inspiration of mine, although I do find him amusing. Got some ideas for a few more paintings though. Stay tuned...

Detail

Bruce Lee painting finished

2009-04-14T20:45:00.002Z

FINALLY got around to finishing this off, after about a year on the easel. Probably could have done loads more on it, but I couldn't justify spending any more time, going to move on to the next acrylic and play with some more colours. I particularly like the cuts across his stomach, although they're probably more realistic here than they are in the actual film of 'Enter the Dragon'. Why did they make the blood so bright in old movies?

Anyway, this is another one that I attempted several times, years ago, so I've included the old drawings here for comparison. I think these are from 1998, 1999 and 1999 respectively. Sorry for the bad photo of the painting, it was taken on my iPhone. I'll replace it with a better photo once I get a decent camera.

Painting of Abbie

2009-03-29T17:44:00.002Z

Here's a monochromatic digital painting of my 3 month old niece, Abbie, that I did for my stepbrother's birthday. Great exercise in values, and got the seal of approval from the proud parents! I'm looking forward to finally meeting her in May at their wedding, I'm sure she's even cuter in real life!

Thom Yorke Caricature - Digital Painting

2009-03-09T23:14:00.003Z

Well, I started this one a few months ago, and wasn't particularly happy with how it was going, so I had a break and came back to it. Once I had changed the background, I could see the finished painting in my mind, so it was a joy to complete. Thom Yorke is notoriously 'difficult' to caricature, despite his distinctive features, but I'm really pleased with how this turned out. For fun, I thought I'd compare it to a previous Thom Yorke caricature, which I did about ten years ago. Encouraging to say the least!

Half Marathon for Teenage Cancer Trust

2009-03-07T11:59:00.003Z

I'm working on a few things at the same time right now, and I'll post some new art very soon. In the meantime, I'm training hard for the Sheffield Half Marathon on 26th April, and I'd like to give you the opportunity to sponsor me, as I'm running to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust, a charity devoted to improving the lives of teenagers and young adults with cancer. Whatever you can afford would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

My fundraising page - www.justgiving.com/dan-johnson

Barack Obama Caricature

2009-01-20T22:23:00.002Z

Today was a milestone in history, not just for America but for the whole world. To see a dream realised, which would have been absolutely inconceivable 40 years ago, shows us that anything is possible in this world.

I started this as a sketch, but as I was feeling inspired, I worked on it a bit more and I'm really happy with the result, I might even paint it eventually! I haven't done any political caricatures before, mainly because I mostly like to draw people who I admire in some way, and I find most politicians quite loathesome. But for me, Barack Obama is a symbol of hope, and the limitless potential in all of us. Maybe the world is coming to its senses...

Bruce Lee Acrylic progress

2009-01-18T22:53:00.003Z

This has been on the easel for months! I thought posting my progress might inspire me to keep working on it. This is pretty well blocked in, I just need to work on the detail now. It's the first acrylic I've done for ages and I'm really enjoying it.

Sylar sketch

2008-10-01T17:38:00.002Z

I'm determined to get through the cast of Heroes before the end of season 3. I was struggling with Hiro Nakamura so I thought I'd go for everyone's favourite villain, who seemed a bit more obvious. It still took me about 8 attempts before I got a decent likeness, and it's still not quite right, but it'll do for now. Comments welcome.

Liv Tyler colour study

2008-09-27T11:51:00.002Z

Just playing with colour on this one, I doubt I'll take it any further as it's not a very interesting painting. I'm going to try and do some more interesting pictures, with people actually doing stuff instead of just facial portraits. Stay tuned!

Improved Thom Yorke sketch

2008-08-06T20:01:00.002Z

After tons of failed attempts, my sketchbook is full of rubbish, but I finally got a Thom Yorke likeness I'm happy with and that doesn't look much like Jason Seiler's (it's hard to get it out of your mind when you're trying to make exaggeration choices). Will be painting this at some point, either digitally or in acrylics, haven't decided yet. Old Thom's looking a bit old in his recent photos, lot's of grey in the beard, I'll have to play with that.

Simon Cowell revisit

2008-07-08T23:08:00.004Z

I fixed that hand! I think it looks a lot better than the previous version, if still not quite perfect. Right, on to the next one! (click the image for more detail)

Thom Yorke Sketch

2008-07-02T12:01:00.004Z

I went to see Radiohead on Sunday for the first time, and they more than lived up to expectations. It was AMAZING! Anyway, Thom Yorke is someone I've caricatured before, but never really got a good one. I want to get a really good likeness before I attempt a painting. Here's my first sketch. It's got elements of his likeness, but overall it needs some work, and more exaggeration. Will revisit shortly.

Eva Longoria sketch (with video)

2008-06-28T14:46:00.003Z

I usually draw men, purely because they're easier! So I've decided to try and alternate between men and women to get more practice, and so I get to stare at photos of beautiful women for hours on end, without that guilty feeling. So here's the first, Eva Longoria of Desperate Housewives fame. I also recorded the process, which you can see below. I'm always reluctant to record my sketching because I worry that it won't turn out well, but I guess I can always delete the video if I don't like it. Let me know if you enjoy this one, and I'll do more.

Simon Cowell final

2008-06-19T21:56:00.003Z

Here's my final painting of Simon Cowell, which I started AGES ago! Click for a closer look. This was lots of fun to paint, but I'm glad to be finished.

Update: I've had too much negative feedback about the hand, so I'm going to have to redo it to match the quality of the face. Just need to take a short break from Cowell for a bit!

Update: I fixed the hand - see it here

Simon Cowell update

2008-05-21T21:37:00.001Z

Here's a more finished sketch of Simon Cowell, I'm going to start painting tomorrow. Any comments are welcome.

Course review - The Art of Caricature with Jason Seiler

2008-05-20T17:43:00.005Z

Course name: The Art of Caricature
Instructor: Jason Seiler
Website: www.schoolism.com
Duration: 9 weeks
Cost: $898 USD

I've been meaning to write this review for a while, but haven't found the time until now.

Jason Seiler has been an inspiration of mine since I first discovered his website several years ago. I've been a regular reader of his blog since he started writing it, and when he announced that he'd be teaching an online correspondence course through Schoolism.com, I was very excited.

When I first looked at the course details on schoolism.com, I saw that the course cost $898 USD, and I initially thought wow, that's expensive. But based purely on Jason's self-evident talent, I thought this would be something I would definitely benefit from immensely, so I scraped the money together and signed myself up.

Best decision I ever made!

The video tutorials, pre-recorded by Jason, give an amazing insight into Jason's entire method for creating a caricature illustration, from thumbnail sketches, through finished pencil rendering, black and white value painting, monochromatic value painting, and full colour paintings. Most of the lessons start with Jason sketching a caricature and commenting on his thought process and techniques.

In the first few lessons you learn about the basics of caricature, the importance of seeing shapes, and how to make the correct exaggeration choices. Then Jason stresses the importance of values in achieving a realistic likeness, something which I never paid enough attention to before. You get to practice values by painting a black and white value painting and a monochromatic value painting.

Next come the painting techniques. Jason teaches two different painting methods, one which involves layering colour over the top of a black and white value painting, and the other being a more direct painting method. You'll learn about the advantages of using a limited colour palette, and a split-complementary palette to achieve colour harmony.

The last three lessons comprise a three-week long assignment, in which you produce a finished full-colour, full-body illustration. Jason takes you through the entire process, from the conversation with the art director, to the finished magazine illustration, using some of his previous real-life illustration jobs as reference.

The assignments can be tough, and take up a lot of time, but they give you a great opportunity to practice the techniques you learn. After you submit your assignment, Jason will record another video, in which he personally critiques your work, drawing over the top of it to show you where you could improve and giving you advice and suggestions to work on for the next assignment. Some of these critiques last up to 45 minutes, so it's like getting an extra lesson each week. You also get to watch all the other students' critiques, so if you watch them all, there's up to 5-10 hours of video instruction to watch every week!

The course was supposed to last for 9 weeks, but due to some of the assignments being pretty time-consuming, Jason gave us a couple of extensions, and it ended up going on for about 12 weeks.

You'll get the most benefit out of the course if you use a graphics tablet and a painting program such as Photoshop or Painter, as the lessons are taught in Photoshop, and you'll learn a lot of techniques to do with layers, brushes etc, but if you only paint and draw traditionally you can still get a lot out of this course. All of the theory and most of the techniques taught can be applied to any drawing or painting medium.

In terms of value for money, I'd say if you're serious about getting into caricature illustration, or want to improve your technique, you can't afford not to take this course! I've seen vast improvements in my own work, and in all the other students who took the course with me. If Jason ever records a follow-up course, I'm signing up on day one.

Get yourself over to www.schoolism.com and sign up for the next semester. You won't regret it.

Simon Cowell sketch

2008-05-18T19:02:00.001Z

Here's a quick 15 minute sketch for my next portfolio piece - Simon Cowell from Britain's Got Talent / American Idol. This was just going to be a quick thumbnail to test out exaggeration, but I liked where it was going so I stuck with it, and I think I'll use it as a starting point for the painting. Any comments are welcome.

The Mighty Boosh

2008-05-07T22:26:00.003Z

This was my final assignment for Jason Seiler's class. Noel Fielding and Julian Barrett aka Vince Noir and Howard Moon from BBC's The Mighty Boosh.

(click to enlarge)

Bruce Willis Caricature

2008-04-06T23:03:00.003Z

Here's a digital painting I did of Bruce Willis for a Schoolism assignment a few weeks ago.

The Mighty Boosh caricature illustration

2008-04-06T22:07:00.004Z

Here's a sneak preview of my final illustration assignment for Jason Seiler's Schoolism course. Vince Noir and Howard Moon from The Mighty Boosh. Might need a few more adjustments, then I'll start painting it.

Bruce Lee update

2008-03-22T17:33:00.002Z

I've been working a bit more on my Bruce Lee Sketch, made it a bit more caricature-like, less portrait-like, and added a bit more tone. I think I'm ready to transfer it to canvas!

Another Bruce Lee sketch

2008-03-22T00:22:00.003Z

I'm thinking about what to paint on the huge canvas that's been sitting in my room for months. Here's a sketch I did today of Bruce Lee, that I'd like to have a go at painting. I'm trying to make the most of the bank holiday weekend and get a lot of sketching done. Most of the ones I did today were terrible, but I quite like this one. Needs a bit of work on the likeness, and a bit more exaggeration, but it's not bad.