Johnny Cash

More rough stuff...

Frank Sinatra - young

2011 already! - Let's go to it...

So, happy new year! Hope every one had a good break and that you're looking to 2011 to make some great art. Thanks to everyone who has dropped by over the last year and left their comments - always welcome. Nice to know people want to see what I'm working on and I have evey intention in producing and uploading regular artwork through the coming twelve months; so stay tuned.
Can't imagine there'll be any great changes in the format: just looking to refine the pencil and digital work. There's no dirth of ideas and experiments that I want to conduct to try and push the boundaries - I hope I can find time to really sink my teeth into it.
There'll be more real painting going on but it'll be mostly wrapped up in the canvas commission. I'm also looking to expand on comic and character design in 2011 which will go hand in hand with a need to revisit and study the rest of the human form - the skills are lacking! I've neglected this a bit over the last five years as I've been concentrating on the face. But I'll still be morphing and caricaturing - it's just too much fun.

Thanks for checkin' in - and keep on creating!

A Merry Christmas sneeky-peek!

Hey everyone - just to say hope youse-all have a great festive break with those who mean the most and that your stockings overflow with Santa goodness. In a perennial show of seasonal un-preparedness I haven't designed or drawn a personal greeting to upload so you'll just have to make do with a sneak-peek of a piece I've had knocking around my hard drive for way too long. It's 95% done but I've just been so busy with other stuff it's been somewhat overlooked. But watch out! - he's gonna escape sooooon, heh, heh.  Merry Christmas!

Barry White

Lionel Richie

Michael McDonald

Smokey Robinson

More first stage artwork for 'The Canvas'

Brian Hanrahan

...the well known BBC journalist who's died.

Evil Dead Ash

"We're gonna get you..."

Here's Bruce - in situ - as promised.

Sam Allardyce x2

Apparently he's topical at the moment. I just liked the face - good for 2d sculpting.

Commission

Don't put much commission stuff up...but here's one.
A recent job for a groom who wanted to give it as a gift for his best man.

It's ink outline with pencil in-fill which I've never tried before. The customer suggested it and I was dubious at first but I liked the result so I'll probably do it again.

Bruce Campbell

ASH! - the chisel-chinned dispatcher of the undead!

I recently completed this for Loopy Dave (check out his amazing work here) for his generous gift of a year's membership on Deviant Art; though his version doesn't have a large watermark over Bruce's ample chin - heh! See what you can get if ya good to me?!!! ha,ha!

It was good fun to do and I rediscovered my love of the greatest horror/comedy flick in the process.

Currently workin' on an expanded 'movie-still' version of the above: so stand by!

Richard Thompson

More quick sketchin'

Mark Rothko

Just sketchin'...

Lindsey Buckingham (young)

Finished rough for 'The Canvas'

Well, I did say in the last post I love drawing hair...

Billy Joel - (canvas commission prep)

Another worked up prep for the big bad canvas. It's come out a bit straight for me; more like a portrait; so I may re-draw for the final piece. However, I quite liked certain parts of it so it was saved from the trash for a post.
Love drawing hair but salt and pepper stubble is a nightmare to try and get right. Never drawn a greying short beard I've been happy with. So; plenty of summits still to reach.

Al Green

I've recently been commissioned for a canvas of 2.5m x 1.5m to show 65 characters: all to be painted in acrylic (Al Green is one to be included).
They are to be mainly rock 'n' roll; pop 'n' soul luminairies and it'll take me half way into next year; so that's going to keep to take up a large chunk of my time. I'll upload roughs and progress shots where I can but obviously I can't give too much away before the deadline has been reached. I won't be roughing all the characters to the level of the above, but where I feel I want to inlude one as a post then I'll take it to a more finished stage and upload it. I will have a feature on it when I've finished - if I haven't been sectioned by then - which will include roughs, colour close ups; final shots - all punctuated with tales of desperation and joy, in equal measure I'm sure, ha, ha! No doubt I'll be breaking off here and there to do other personal pieces but this is how it will be for the coming months. Tally-ho.

Stephen Baldwin

Holy Big Brother! It's the godly one out of the Baldwins. Dawg!

Evolution - Sean Penn

For those who like to see this kind of thing I thought I'd put this little progress montage up of the painting I posted recently of Sean Penn.
Like most images it started off as a digital pencil sketch although you'll notice the pencil stages are more cropped compared to how the final image was realised. Originally I'd set out to do just a pencil drawing but then I thought I'd give it the full paint treatment. It was at this stage I thought I'd expand the composition as Mr Penn still sports a fine head of lustrous hair and it seemed a waste not to put that all in. So it was just a case then of placing the drawing in a new document and, well, painting over the top...just as you see it above. No student would be told to follow me as an example of how to paint a face as quite often I don't bother to build up a base or work out colour values from dark to light. I just pick a start point and jump right on in, ha, ha!

Diego Maradona

Here are a couple of studies I did recently. They were painted in photoshop so they don't have quite the crispness of vector rendered artwork but with my wacom pen I can work quicker and it's more comfortable. Horses for courses, I guess. I painted the top one which was...ok, but I really wanted something a bit more cartoony so I did the one underneath with the cheeky maestro showing off his infamous hand.

Harry Shearer

Hadn't done any drawing for a couple o' days so I tried to do something fun and quick without getting swallowed up into overworking it - too late in the day for anything too involved. Just sorta scratchin' an itch really. Job done - time for zeds.

Tchaikovsky

Continuing the list of the fantastically follicled music maestros, it's a sketch of ol' Pete himself.
May colour him up at some point...we'll see.

Vincent Cassel

Been a fan of Vincent Cassel since first seeing 'La Haine' all those years ago. He's been on my 'to do' list for way too long (along with a gazillion others)...and he's married to Monica Bellucci - c'mon!

Janis Joplin

Cintiq + photoshop

No! It aint another Ozzy! But it's rock 'n' roll madness all the same...