The Mighty Boosh caricature illustration

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

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

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.

Time for an update

I was looking at my online portfolio just now and thinking that a lot of the older pieces are not really worthy of being in there. My recent work is in a different league to some of those pencil drawings (some of which are over 12 years old!). Most of them are little more than sketches, so I'm planning to remove them from the portfolio, and probably just archive them in the blog, leaving only high quality work on the main website. I might redo some of the old caricatures, as I did with the Fran Healy one, so I can compare old to new and see how much I've improved. It's always encouraging to see your own progress as an artist.

I'm also starting to want a new design for the site (haha - the joys of being a web designer!), but that will have to wait!

Here's some more sketches from Schoolism assignments:

Peter Petrelli

Got my scanner hooked up finally, so here's that Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) sketch I mentioned earlier. I'm not sure about the mouth, I was trying to capture that drooping lip thing he has sometimes, maybe I'll work on it later. Just started watching season 2 of Heroes, and despite starting off a bit slow, it's got me hooked again!


Peter Petrelli - Save the cheerleader, save the world!

Tags: Peter Petrelli, Milo Ventimiglia, Heroes, Caricature

Faye Wong android sketch

Here's a quick study of Faye Wong (or Wang Fei) as the android stewardess wjw1967 in Wong Kar Wai's modern classic 2046. I was teaching English in China when this came out, and a lot of my students said they hated it because the story was hard to follow and didn't make much sense. But I think 2046 is more like a piece of art than a film. You watch it for its beauty rather than its story. If you haven't seen it, give it a try and you'll see what I mean. And if you like it, try In The Mood For Love too, it's kind of a prequel . . .

Norwegian Wood cover sketch

Here's a quick sketch I did a few months ago from the cover of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood. It's not great but I just thought I'd post it, as I haven't posted any pencil sketches for a while. Apparently the photo is by Markus Klinko & Indrani. I'm not sure which of the characters from the book the photo is meant to portray. I guess it's too young for Reiko, so I suppose it's either Naoko or Midori. Any ideas?

Elisha Cuthbert caricature

People often say I don't draw enough women (it's because they're harder!), so here's one. Probably best known as Kim Bauer (Jack's daughter) in 24, it's Elisha Cuthbert. Someone asked me recently to draw some of the older 24 characters. Kim is first, expect more soon(ish).


Elisha Cuthbert

Self caricature preview

I'm currently taking part in a competition on the NCN forum, to produce a full-body self caricature. The idea is that it can be used on promotional materials i.e. website, business cards, stationery etc. The final deadline is in a couple of weeks, after that you should be able to see my picture in the sidebar of this site! Here's a sneak preview of my initial likeness sketch:

Grrrrrr . . . .

In other news, you may have noticed that my blog has gone from black to white. The rest of the website is going to go the same way over the next week or so. I think it's a vast improvement, let me know if you agree.

Tags: caricature

Bruce Lee Caricature - First Attempt

Here's a 5 minute sketch I did last night of Bruce Lee. I definitely intend to do a full-sized acrylic painting of the little dragon, but I'm going to try a few different sketch versions first to make sure I get something I'm happy with. It will probably involve his upper body, since it's so distinctive, but I first need to learn how to caricature bodies!!

Bruce Lee - the Legend

I quite like this sketch, considering it took literally five minutes, and I usually spend a lot longer. That's the beauty of digital - no pencils to sharpen, no scanning required, and no problem if you make a mistake! The only problem is I think he looks too young, and maybe his eyebrows are slightly too high. I'll work on that next time.

Tags: bruce lee, caricature

Copying for inspiration and motivation

As an aspiring artist, you always hear other artists and teachers say "Don't try to be like [insert famous artist here], you should develop your own style, don't copy, be yourself etc . . . "

All sound advice of course - nobody ever got very far by copying other people's work all the time. However, once in a while I get disheartened with my drawing ability, and I find that studying and copying the work of an artist I admire is one of the best ways to regain confidence in my ability. If, for example, I can copy a Kruger caricature, and see that my copy looks almost exactly like the original, then I know that my hand is capable of producing that quality of drawing, it's just my head that's interfering with the process. Most of the time, after copying a few pieces of quality artwork, I find my own drawings improving again. It's a great motivator.

I still haven't really established my own style of drawing and painting yet, but I think that any artist's style is usually derived from a combination of his/her own favourite artist's styles, so by studying their work, we come a step closer to developing our own style, eventually adding our own nuances which make the style fully our own. So get copying!

Nathan Petrelli returns

After some advice from various people on the NCN forums, I've made another attempt at Mr. Petrelli. I made his face longer, thinner and not so much emphasis on the jaw. Apart from the wonky eyes (which I just noticed) I much prefer this version.

Sketch of Nathan Petrelli from Heroes

Fly man!! His brother Peter may have the lion's share when it comes to super powers, but will Nathan Petrelli (played by Adrian Pasdar) have the power to go against the plans of his mother and Linderman, to stop the explosion that will destroy New York? Apparently the story will come to a conclusion at the end of season 1. Can't wait to find out what happens!


Wide-jawed Nathan Petrelli - Fly man!

NCN Firing Squad

Here's a sketch of Tony 'Parsnips' Parsons, a fellow member of the National Caricaturist Network. You can see his caricature of me here.


Parsnips

Pre-instruction Self Portrait

I'm trying to improve my drawings by working my way through Betty Edwards' Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Workbook. The first exercise is called 'Pre-instruction Self Portrait', because you're supposed to draw it before you've actually read the book, which tells you how to draw it. Well, I've cheated because I've already read the book, but anyway, it's been a while since I first read it, and hopefully after doing some more of the exercises in the book I'll be able to draw a better self-portrait than this one. This took me about half an hour, and I used only a 2B pencil. It looks like me, but the shading could use some work.


Pre-instruction Self Portrait

Sketch of Hiro Nakamura from Heroes

Yata! Here's my favourite character from my new favourite TV show, Heroes - Hiro Nakamura, played by Masi Oka. As well as playing a loveable, time-and-space-bending superhero, Oka is also a digital effects artist, having worked on the Star Wars prequels and Hulk, among others. Oh and he also played the intern Franklin in Scrubs (I knew I'd seen him somewhere before). Hiro always keeps me laughing with his childlike optimism, and I cracked up when he phoned his company in Japan, and inadvertantly spoke to his past self. Fearing causing a rift in the space-time continuum, he slammed the phone down and came out with a very Japanese-sounding "Great Scott!" It's classic comedy moments like that, and a gripping storyline, which makes Heroes my favourite, over both Lost, which I still watch, but only because it's there, and 24, which has lost the suspense that made the second and third seasons so great. I can only hope Heroes doesn't go the same way. There are some great faces in the show too, I'll draw more when I can.

Hiro Nakamura- "Save the cheerleader, save the world."

Caricature of Court Jones

Another one from the NCN firing squad, the great Court Jones, master of all things anatomical, and all-round nice guy, he's been a source of much inspiration for me, so I thought it only fair to caricature him. I chose a tricky angle, but I think I pulled it off quite well, and I'm happy with the greater level of exaggeration than usual. Check out Court's website for some of his amazing work.


Caricature of Court Jones

Tags: Court Jones, Caricature, Illustration

Sketch of Faye Wong

I tried Faye a while back, but wasn't quite satisfied with the results. Here's another attempt, and I think it's a bit better. She's got such a unique face, it's pretty hard to capture a likeness. If I decide to colour this one I may have to play around with the features some more.


Caricature of Faye Wong

More caricatures of me!

Here are some more caricatures of me by some more of the lovely NCN members. It's recently come to my attention that I have a huge nose!

Oh well, it never gets boring seeing how other people see you, it's just hard finding the time to return the favour.


Dan by Parsnips


Dan by Jan Ibelings


Dan by Moyse

And here's one I did in return for Paul Moyse:

Sketch of the day

Another NCN member, Kathryn Bailey:
I'm happy with the overall likeness and composition, but I thinnk I need to work on my shading, it can look a bit scribbly. Maybe I need to keep my pencil sharpened!

Tags: caricature

Caricatures of me

Here's a couple more caricatures of yours truly, done by fellow members of the NCN. The first is by George Malek, loving the huge nose and thick eyebrows. The second one is by Kathryn Bailey, with more of a pointy nose, but equally thick eyebrows, and looking rather sinister in fact. I can see myself in both of them, and it's really interesting to see what different people see in my face! I'll get them back soon!


Dan by George Malek


Dan by Kathy Bailey

Tags: caricature

A couple of drawings

Here's a recent commission for a birthday present, and below, a sketch of Mike Paglia, a fellow NCN member. One of the many advantages of joining online caricature forums, is that you can draw the other members, and they will draw you in return!


Caricature Commission



Mike Paglia by me

Here's one that Mike did of me previously. Not strictly a caricature, but I like the idea that I can fire laser beams from my eyes!


Dan by Pag

Tags: caricature

Caricature of Tom Welling from Smallville

**Warning** -- Smallville Spoilers below --

I was watching Smallville last night. Lana Lang had just married Lex Luthor to save Clark Kent's life after being blackmailed by Lionel Luthor. They had just got into the wedding car, and Lana turned her head to see Clark standing behind the crowd, looking on in disbelief.

In that shot, I saw the curve of Tom Welling's prominent jaw, and I had to freeze the video and grab my sketchpad. The caricature jumped out at me, and I know that when inspiration hits you like that, you have to stop what you're doing and capture the moment.

So I started with the jawline, which is something I rarely, if ever do (I usually start with the eyes as they tend to hold the key to a good likeness). Then I completed the outline of the head, before filling in the features. I liked where it was going, so I spent some time on shading. Overall, I'm happy with the likeness, but I think I could have made the top part of his face
a bit narrower to accentuate his huge jaw. Also I'm not entirely pleased with the hair, but I just need practice with that. Any feedback is always welcome.

I'm planning to do one of Kristin Kreuk who plays Lana too. She has a beautiful face which may prove quite a challenge to caricature.


Tom Welling as Clark Kent in "Smallville: Superman - the Early Years"

Tags: Tom Welling, Smallville, Clark Kent, Superman, Caricature, Kristin Kreuk

Caricature of Dr. Cox from Scrubs

Here's a quick caricature of John C. McGinley, who has starred in several big movies (Platoon, Any Given Sunday . . . ) but is probably best-known as Dr. Perry Cox in the American hospital sit-com Scrubs. I'm definitely not 100% satisfied with this one, and I almost abandoned it halfway through, but finally stuck it out. It's not terrible, and I think the likeness is there, but there are several flaws:

1. The eyes look funny, giving him a crazed look. I'm having trouble recently drawing matching eyes.

2. The teeth aren't right. He has funny teeth, but I've not quite captured their essence here, it just looks like he's chewing a toffee or something.

3. The cheeks don't match.

I'll definitely revisit this one soon and see if I can iron out these glitches.

Self caricature and street caricature

So here's the self-caricature I did last night.



Like I said, it's not perfect, but I think it looks a bit like me, and it's the best I've done so far. Anyway, I'm going to play with it some more, make sure it all fits on the page, then hopefully I'll get round to painting it eventually.

On the subject of me, I dug out a caricature I had done on the streets of Sheffield a few years ago by some random bloke.



I wasn't really that impressed with it to be honest. I think he went for the 'cute caricature' look, and ended up making me look like a 5 year-old. Anyway, hopefully I can come up with a better likeness than this. Watch this space.

Tags: caricature

Another Michael Jackson sketch

Here's a second caricature of the young Michael Jackson, based on the first one, but smaller, so the hair fit on the page! With kids it's easy to lose the likeness or make them look too old if you exaggerate too much, so the face isn't stretched a great deal, just a bit more stretch on the chin and a wider nose, but I was advised to go for the exaggeration in the afro. Not too bad, I think I can work with it. Now I just have to figure out how to paint an afro!

Tags: michael jackson, caricature, jackson 5, drawing

Michael Jackson Sketch

Happy New Year! I'm back to sketching again after a busy festive period, and I've got a great idea (in my opinion) for a Michael Jackson painting. I won't reveal all at this early stage, but here's an initial sketch of a Jackson 5 era Michael, before it all went horribly wrong. I find this more fun to draw than the present-day Jacko, who has been caricatured to death, but I might find time to have a go at him too (I just realised that I no longer think of old and young Michael as the same person!) Wishing everyone a great year in 2007!

Tags: caricature, illustration, michael jackson

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain - Book Review

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Dr. Betty Edwards is without a doubt the best instructional book on drawing I have ever had the pleasure to read! It's one of the few art books that I've finished and not gone away thinking "that was all very nice, but I don't really feel like I've learnt anything". The tagline on the cover reads "A course in enhancing creativity and artistic confidence", and I think it lives up to its claim. The first time I read the book, I noticed a dramatic increase in the quality of my drawings, mainly due to the fact that I felt I finally knew what I was doing. To this day I still have moments when I feel useless, and everything I draw seems childish and ugly, but I put this down to a momentary lapse of self-confidence. At these times, I often flick once more through Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, and merely remembering the valuable lessons in the book boosts my confidence enough to get me drawing 'properly' again. So what exactly is in this book that is so amazing?

Drawing was first published in 1979, so there are no revolutionary new methods that nobody has ever heard of before. Just sound, practical advice to release your inner artist. Edwards' idea for the book came from working for years as an art teacher, and trying to find out why so many people find it particularly difficult to learn the skill of drawing. She states that it's all about the way we see, rather than the actual drawing technique. People tend to see what they think they should see, rather than what is actually in front of them. For example, we all know the iris of the human eye is round when seen from the front, so we create a symbol in our mind of a round iris. When seen from the side, the iris becomes elliptical, but because of the symbol we have formed, many of us will draw the iris round, or at least more round than it actually appears. So how can we break free from these mental symbols and learn to draw what we see? The answer, it seems, lies in the right side of the brain.

It is fairly common knowledge these days that the human brain is divided into two parts, the right and left hemispheres, and that each hemisphere is responsible for different aspects of human capabilities. Citing studies carried out by Roger Sperry, Betty Edwards explains how both hemispheres are capable of thinking, reasoning and complex mental functioning, but they utilise different 'modes' (which she calls L-mode and R-mode), L-mode being verbal, rational, and analytical, while R-mode is intuitive, relational and spatial. By purposefully shifting our brains into R-mode, we can silence the talkative left hemisphere, enabling us to see things not in terms of symbols, but in terms of space, tonal value, relationship and so on. This, she claims, is the key to seeing how an artist sees.

There follows a chapter full of exercises designed to get you into R-mode, by presenting the brain with a job that the L-brain will turn down, such as the classic vase, which looks like two faces facing each other, and upside-down drawing, which helps you to stop drawing what you expect to see. A lot of emphasis is placed on drawing 'negative space', that is, drawing the space around an object rather than drawing the object itself. Many of the exercises and examples in the book concentrate on drawing the human face. Edwards says this is because most people complain that the face is very difficult to draw. In fact, no subject should be any more difficult to draw than any other, because we are simply drawing what we see. But our set of symbols for the human face is very well defined - two almond shaped eyes at the top of the face, a mouth which turns upwards in a smile, and so on. So this is why many people struggle with drawing portraits; it's harder to switch to R-mode and forget the symbols. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain aims to dispel the myth, which is why there is such emphasis on portraits.

Through learning the techniques in the book, I feel like I've not only improved my drawing technique, but also, by learning how to see clearly and objectively, the world has become far richer and more beautiful than ever before. When I take a bus in the morning, I am constantly observing people's faces and drawing them in my mind's eye. I favor caricatures, so I often look for the most prominent features of a person's face and try to see the caricature as I would draw it on paper.

If you are an artist struggling to produce realistic drawings, I cannot over-emphasise the value of this book. I guarantee it will bring out the artist within you!

The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Learn to draw the right way with Dr. Betty Edwards innovative approach to drawing what you see.

Buy now from Amazon.co.uk

Buy now from Amazon.com (U.S. customers)

Tags: drawing, drawing on the right side of the brain, betty edwards, right-brain, book review

Mr. Eko caricature finished

Ok, so it's not super-exaggerated, but I think it still counts as a caricature - just. Anyway, I had fun with the shading. His nose and eyes are wider in relation to his face, and I made his chin and jaw a bit smaller than they should be. The left side of his face was in bright sunlight, and I had fun with that. Some parts were left white, and in other areas there was some light shading, where I actually used my eraser to do some cross-hatching, because the light had a kind of stippled texture. Well, I think it came out ok . . . see the previous two stages here and here.

Tags: drawing, sketching, caricature, lost, mr. eko, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

A little progress with Mr. Eko

I only had 10 minutes before work to add a bit more shading to this one, I'll try to finish it tonight.

Tags: drawing, sketching, Lost, Mr. Eko, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

Sketch of Mr. Eko from Lost

Here's where I'm up to with the latest Lost character, Mr. Eko, played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. I held off from drawing him, as he didn't enter the show until season 2, and I didn't want to spoil anything for the Brits who hadn't seen it yet.

This was going to be a rough sketch, but I started to like where it was going, so I'm working on it a bit more as a tonal exercise. Unfortunately I didn't really plan it, so the top of his head doesn't fit on the paper. Ah well, it's the face that counts.

Incidentally, I got the photo for this drawing from the amazing gallery at www.lost-media.com, which contains literally thousands of hi-res Lost screencaps, from every episode of the show, as well as publicity shots of all the actors.

Check back later to see my progress with Mr. Eko

Tags: Lost, Mr. Eko, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, illustration, caricature, drawing

Caricature sketch of Jin from Lost

Now that Season 3 of Lost has started, I've been inspired to start drawing these guys again. Here's a first attempt at Jin, played by Daniel Dae Kim. Apparently he couldn't speak any Korean before the show started. He does a good impersonation then!

I think the likeness is lacking something in the eyes and mouth, but I really needed to exaggerate those huge cheekbones! My friend thought it was Orlando Bloom, haha! Then he tried to redeem himself by saying he hasn't seen him with his hair this long. Anyway, I'll try again later.

Tags: Lost 3, Jin, Daniel Dae Kim, Illustration, Caricature, Drawing

Sketch of Will Ferrell

Here's a caricature sketch of Will Ferrell I managed to knock out in about 5 minutes before work this morning. It needs a bit of reworking. The head is too far forward on the neck, and I could probably stretch the forehead a bit more, but I'm happy with the initial likeness. I think Will Ferrell is hilarious and I was suddenly hit with the inspiration to draw him this morning, after watching Old School a few days ago. Maybe this one will turn into a painting. We'll see how it goes.

Tags: will ferrell, sketch, illustration, caricature