Time traveling

I leave for the Philippines in less than 8 hours. Here’s some left over illustrations before I become a luddite for the next 10 days. Ciao~

I cannot draw men!

I am making this post to lament about my inability to draw men. Faces, body structure, I just cannot capture the huMAN element at all! ARGH! This frustrates me, that I feel so limited in my abilities, in my creativity. That I cannot even make caricatures of people I know, or images of people I know, or of people that actually EXIST. I’m frustrated! Men, to a greater extent, plague my drawing hand to no ends. Here I will post some random observation because I never noted it until today.

First off, more hair girls.

I drew her last night before passing out. I find myself obsessed with making a surreal face. Not necessarily in the anime style, but not finding myself following any sort of traditional drawing style. I’m simply exploring the power of the line. Especially with hair. It’s like looking at hair first thing in the morning in sunlight. It dances with the rays. It deflects light in strange ways. Sometimes it doesn’t look like its there, yet we know that it IS there. Hair, light, both. It’s intriguing.

This resembles what a tired self-portrait would be in this style. It’s pretty close. Big lips. Tired eyes. Hair that doesn’t know where to go most of the time. It’s even parted the way my hair is naturally parted. But why would this really be a self-portrait? Because it showcases my tiredneess of the world around me. That existence seems draining, almost, instead of encouraging, worthwhile, peaceful, meaningful. Flat lines, flat composure. Funny nose. Definitely a tired self-portrait. But I like it. I’m drawn to it. It’s an image I won’t neglect. Its not completely accurate either. For one thing, my hair is actually longer now. Finally!

She’s obscure, both in composure and in her attitude. But she HAS attitude. That’s what strikes me the most. Drew this one this morning, first thing. She could be strawberry blonde with brown eyes. But not a blonde. I don’t know why. She’s not that striking, I think, in her facial structure. Maybe its the lack of big lips. Hm.

I definitely do have fun making scribbles in this style. They remind me of my swirl pieces. Only with my .5 pencil instead of fine point sharpies. Less chances of getting high from fumes -lol!

Now begins the reason why I felt so devastated earlier in my post. Roni Weiss asked me to draw sketches of him. I’m not good of people I know. I’m even worse with people I DON’T know. David Hoang is a true artist, in my humble opinion! I was delaying in sketching out Roni, mainly because I’d been busy. Even in my escapism to Bauhaus, I’d leave the laptop at home, where his images were on my desktop for reference-on-the-go. But alas! I never really got around to it. So after his Nth message (I’ve lost track of how many requests he sent me), I scribbled something. And I was about to just crumble it up and recycle the piece of paper until I decided to give it another try.

Attempt 2. I know what doesn’t look “right” but at the same time, I cannot get myself to put it out the way it ought to be. I’m frustrated after this one, even more so, so I took a cheese and cupcake break and thought about what was bothering me so much about making his sketch.

Maybe its the hair. Maybe its the lack of glasses. Glasses are fun. Shiny. Did I mention fun and shiny? Because I like fun and shiny. He’s also got this big shit-eating grin. Its rather infectious, I think. Most men don’t carry such a jovial aura around them -and I’m not quite sure what I’m trying to capture in my sketches yet. Guess its just time for me to learn more about Roni.

Enter Matt. I met him a little over a year ago. I decided to do a quick experiment. I drew sketches based on my friends’ profile picture. I chose 2 men: the first one being Matt because of our history. I’ve known him longest of the three (Roni, Matt, and Micah), yet have only spent so much time with the philosopher. And as I look at the image of Matt, it captures his smirk’s personality that I know rather well. He talked more than me -and finding a man that talked more than me was both surprising and annoying. I can tolerate him in doses

Pleased and genuinely surprised by Matt’s sketch, I did a quick doodle of Micah, whom I’ve only known since December, but have been spending much more time & energy with in communication to recent memory. How much more confident I was in getting this out! I think it also has to do with an ideal I hold on men in general (athletic, lean All-American boy next door + clean cut executive style) so to sketch Micah out was much easier. It was also the quickest sketch. Then again, the way I met Micah is pretty memorable, so maybe I’m going to have the image of boy flying through the grocery store getting last minute supplies to ring in the new year in style only befit of his personality.

So back to Roni. I did one more doodle, which I promptly threw into the recycling bin, and threw this one together, pretending that he was super upset at me (he probably is…) and whatdoyaknow, I think this was pretty fun, regardless of how “close” it was to him! The internet can only show so much of someone’s personality and I can only translate so much of that to the paper fibers before me.

And so I hope you all enjoyed this set. I’m going to finish packing. I have to work the next three days, and then fly out Sunday afternoon! Ciao for now!

Swirls

Click for full-size please

Nothing like sharpies to make the night wonderful <3

Packing and getting ready for my trip! Exciting stuff I tell you. I’m nervous about flying solo, but I’ll live. I’m a grown adult, I tell myself, but everyone will tell you otherwise!

Goodnight. Ciao for now!

Image Dump! #2

Truth be told, I was at Bauhaus last night and the night before. Also, I have to admit, I have several sketches from my SakuraCon mascot preparation. I may not show one or two, due to the fact that I will use them if I don’t end up winning the contest, in order to make a new one for next year. Anyway! Spoiled myself rather rotten with hours of selfish indulgence of city lights and a life I find myself intrigued by. Without further adieu, enjoy!

I was making two kids as something to consider for my mascot submission for sakuracon.org

It’s always been one person. With the exclusion of twins one year. SO! big brother + little sister! Maybe next year?

Reminded me too much of Winifred

Sassy

Its so anime cliche, I decided against it. Done at Bauhaus.

I like faces. They can be pretty to look at.

There was rumor of snow, which inspired the hat and gloves.

Some faces aren't so pretty, yet striking all the same.

A plausible character design for my friend's short story idea, Sodium. An alien species that have a thing for tatoos.

An image contemplation on the "ideal couple"

Inspired by my "recently discovered style"

Who doesn't love big, pointy ears?

I have ideas brewing from this one.

Several faces caught my eye while at the Haus. Modified a few to not look like the people I saw, but captured their essence, nonetheless.

This one, and the ones following, were done last night during my “accidental” stop to Buahaus after dinner with Josh at Maekawa. I am quiet pleased at this “drilling” I give myself . Quite a few unique pieces are coming out that I honestly did not know I could create. It’s such an enriching & empowering feeling!

Dress, cardigan, leggings, ankle boots. Her glasses caught my attention.

Me and my birdy I was focusing my attention to details in the hair. Simplistic yet alluring.

I wonder where I pulled this one out of my imagination. Part DragonBall Z, part Final Fantasy, perhaps?

I’m quiet pleased with this one in particular. I had to stop in the middle of the piece in order to create the outfit guide on the next illustration. I then proceeded to tighten up the lines and give it a cleaner look.

Tentative character design for the smoking man in the robe.

I switched over to my ink pen and just let it fly on its own accord. The line work done on the bottom half of the image were excercises in "less is more" imagery.

More line work done in ink.

I was on Capitol Hill. Of course all my boys are going to look a little femme. Can't help it! Done in pencil.

Thanks for looking at ALL of those pieces! I have several projects to focus some of my time on, including but not limited to people illustrations as well as some writing pieces that need some penning. Off to work at my new job! Have a great date!

Not Dead!

Today’s illustration was done today while at Trabant in the U-district (read Scott Bush’s review here!). My sister Michelle was doing a group project so her boyfriend and I sat in another section overlooking the street. I noticed this couple sitting together waiting for the bus on 45th & Brooklyn, a very hot spot for the Metro Transit. I did several things different in this illustration: closed eye shapes (instead of the infamous big blue eye look that most anime-esque images showcase) and simple, linear structure. I’m incredibly attracted to this image, and I did a few others, though with seemingly less pleasing results. I may just create vector images out of the re-do sketches I’ll create, but when I have more time. (FYI, these were all done on blue paper, but for the sake of visibility, I’ve edited them into grayscale images.)

I do believe she acts like she's interested in what he's talking about.

You see, I’ve been MIA for two key reasons: I got a job transfer (after weeks of insufficient communication) and a vacation trip to the Philippines. I’ve also been busy with a rather odd social life, taking photos for epiem at the Kombat Casalettlo fashion show at IMO with my Nikon D50 & 50mm prime lens (Thursday), then using Micah’s beast of a D90 with his lens and snazzy flash on Friday at the Global Semi-Formal Networking event in Belltown. (Appropriate links to be included when photo sets are completed via epiem). Needless to say, I’ve been wiped out (also still fighting a killer cold and ALLERGIES ~thank you, nice Seattle weather) and I’m rather nervous to be flying by myself to Cebu = almost 20hrs of travel time one-way from the states! YIKES! But I’m excited to be going! It’s been four years since I’ve gone and I know I’ve needed this vacation~

Until next time (hopefully tomorrow, perhaps by Wednesday)~ Oh, and its NOT like I haven’t been sketching. I’ve simply been too disappointed in my work to share any of it ;P

~V