J.C.Leyendecker Book

Today I received the new book on J.C.Leyendecker that I have been looking forward for ages. I am so pleased with it as it has so much more visual content than I expected and the quality is first rate. Not to mention, though it goes without saying, that Leyendecker is awesome. If you are unfamiliar go here, here and here to check out his beautiful work and be awestruck by his clean confident and graphic style. I'm too lazy to write a quick biographical note but I will tell you that the book is dominated by more than 600 pictures including all 322 of the Saturday Evening Post covers the classic Arrow collar images and lots of less familiar paintings. It would perhaps have been nice to have seen a few more roughs and some of his sketches but the book is great without them. I'm going to go back to pouring over it now.

Lupe

Today's sketches based on Lupe Bracaccini's Flickr photostream. I like drawing from flickr when I'm stuck for ideas and I love fashion/style photos. She is one stylish gal.

Lunch Time Sketch

I did this over a Sunny lunch of Gyoza on Golden Square. It was a nice spot and should have been good for a lot more sketches but I kept picking the wrong people. This came up OK though. Iwas doing a lot more street sketching six months ago and I've lost the speed I had then. Time for some more practice.

Old and New

The old one top is most like Richie

Where there is one . . .

A different take on the rat king.

First Page

These are from the first page of a new sketchbook. I tend to keep two on the go at the same time these days. A small one and a large one. It's pretty random which one I work in. It is useful when a do a sketch for an illustration and I want to reference for another drawing, I can just switch books. I also carry a layout pad and a silly number of pens and pencils but mainly just stick to the sanguine, a brush pen and a felt tip. I'm looking for a sketchbook with good mid-tone paper to add to the pile . . .

Sketchbook Characters

Based loosely on Richie from work. Really enjoyed these maybe more to come.

The two pages above are based on scrapped theme from Fourteen Nights blog (and a random portrait)

CBeebies Eat Babies Brains

A quick response to the new Fourteen Nights theme

Sketchbook Last Page

The last pages of my current sketchbook. I should work straight to pen more. I like the results despite all the errors.

Re-scaled left arm it was bugging me

Amazonian Princess

She seems to be chasing a cakey criminal

Update: Fat Wonder Woman seems to be a common thought.

Published!!!

My work in print. Very pleased. Lots of thanks to Ruth for the opportunity.
The magazine is called Pregnancy Baby & You

Beauty and the beastly sketches

I'm not really sure why I'm posting this now. Perhaps it's like a confession. This was supposed to be something I was working on for the Beauty and the Beast 'challenge' over on Fourteen Nights. I was trying to do a twist on The Portrait of Dorian Gray. Thirty nights have passed and it's still just a mess. I'm quite depressed by it. There is potential there but I can't seem to get in the right frame of mind to grasp it . . . the rough sketch with colour almost offends me, so many bad choices.

Some Scribbles

Jealous of Peter Callesen

I haven't done much drawing this week. So no new sketch post. A good opportunity to highlight a hero from my links list.

I found Peter Callesen's awe inspiring paper sculptures/cut-outs a year or so ago and remember being sick with envy. I see some parrallels between his equisite work and my clumsy fumblings at art school . . . and wonder where it all went wrong! Hahaha. Seriously though, the sensiblities in his work really connect with the way I used to try and work as an artist and these are values that I recognise in a lot of the work I appreciate however different it may seem on the surface.

Callesen's work is amazing. Beautiful, clever and so well crafted. The pictures below don't do the work justice. You need to see the close ups and all the other great pieces so visit his site!

Sketch Book

Struttin'

Girl

I was thinking of this as a response to 'Beauty and the beast' over on Fourteen Nights but maybe I'll try something else. Note to self : Need to start trying to put characters with environments. Also less of the black outline is probably on the cards.