Cosplay Life Drawing at Long Beach Comic Expo This Coming Weekend!

Once again with the gracious support of the Long Beach Comic Con and Comic Con I will be hosting another life drawing event.

I have 2 amazing models, Amina Santana and Aryiel Hartman posing as aliens from the newly discovered planet named, "Planet 9". They will be doing a 3 hour session from 5pm to 8pm in Ballroom A at the convention. And as always, there will be a 1 hour prelude in the convention main hall, in artist alley. It will be announce.

The address is 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90802. (The entrance to the convention will be behind the building)

These events are uninstructed. So you might wonder, what would you gain from attending?

Well....

The thing I hear from people the most is, "I can't attend because I can't draw."

What I am trying to get people to experience and understand is that there's a lot more to life drawing then just being able to draw what's in front of you.

For a seasoned professional, being able to put down what you see in front of you is important in order to qualify for certain commercial art jobs. But a huge part of drawing is problem solving. Seeing what's in front of you and then figuring out how to express it in a thoughtful manner on paper or through what ever medium you use.

This kind of creative problem solve can carry over to all sorts of jobs, from book keeping to cooking, from home decorator to music writing.

You're basically training your unique, creative way of thinking to solve a visual problem. And this training will carry over into other fields.

And you know what's really amazing is that you don't even need anyone to start this process.

Start today, right now!

Pick up some paper and look around you for someone or something to draw, and just draw, do it every day this week, when ever and as often as you can. It doesn't have to be a masterpiece, just put some thought into what you're doing.

By Friday, look back on what you've done so far. I bet you'll see something in your drawings that wasn't there before. Even better, think about any small problems you had to solve during the week. What kind of creating thinking went into solving it that seem different from the past?

Life drawing by no means will solve all problems but it will help by getting you to start thinking outside the box. And imagine how much fun it could be drawing with a group of people who are also thinking outside the box.

Hope I see you on Saturday.

COME DRAW!

NEW DIRECTIONS

This week's portrait subject is Frederick Douglass.

I am surprise that no one has thought about doing a movie about him yet. Born a slave, secretly taught to read, escaped, married, became a speaker about the rough and horrible lives of slaves and published several books. All this took place between 1818 and 1895. He was also the first black person to be nominated for Vice President of the United States and when his first wife past away, he remarried to a white women.

His life story seemed to defy the norm of the time. If ever there is a story worth telling this is it.

February being Black History month, I thought he'd make a great subject for my art.

I think I am about to enter a new phase with my art. I just purchased a bunch of large drawing paper.

Two weekends from now is the Long Beach Comic Expo, where I will once again host a costumed life drawing event! They've been going well and the convention owner is pleased and open to the idea of continuing them as part of the convention experience, which is great.

If you have time, come by the convention and see what I am up to and of course draw with me!

Since starting these weekly portraits a few people have requested drawings done of them. That could be fun but I want to know if anyone is actually reading this blog every week or am I just typing to my future self. So I have an idea, the first 3 people to comment here on this blog will be the subject of a future portrait installment. This offer is off the table in 7 days (February 17th, 2016).

I think I know who I am going to draw next...

It's THURSDAY, Is It DONE YET?!!!

What a way to role into February! I didn't think I'd get this week's image done.

This week's portrait subject is Rosario Dawson.

 

I've wanted to draw Rosario for some time but of course never did so. Once I decide it was going to be her, a lot of procrastination began throughout the weekend and into this week.

It's a real challenge trying to draw someone you're attracted to. And in this case I just couldn't see her features, I might as well had drawn a giant heart and called it a day. But I gave it my best and the first result on Sunday… well… here it is…

I knew it wasn't working and suddenly I realized this week might not happen! I tried redrawing her a few times again, even used watercolor, I texted one drawing to a couple of friends to see if I was on the right track. They were encouraging but I just wasn't feeling it.

Tuesday night changed my mind set. I went to the weekly drawing workshop at the Art Directors Guild, drew my favorite friend/ model, Jennifer Fabos Paton, and another friend of mine showed up with her purple/pink hair, got me excited and focus enough that I came home on a high and was able to really see Rosario!

And I tried a mix media approach, markers, acrylic and colored pencils. I think I pulled it off but I really think if she were to sit for me, I could get pass the attraction and really do another nice drawing of her.

So Rosario, if you happen to see this and think I should try again, contact me and let's plan a date… I mean a day for you to sit for me and I'll create a proper portrait of you!

In the meantime, the week is over and I haven't figured out who's next, pure drama!

"I SEE NORMAL PEOPLE"

This week's portrait is of Nicole Clarke!

Who?

Nicole works at Conan, and was ground zero for this project. One day she had her hair done in a way that reminded me of art work done by one of my favorite illustrators, Patrick Nagel. She didn't know who Nagel was, which was shocking from my point of view.

I decided I was going to do a portrait of her in his style. I've done Nagel like images so many times in the past that this wasn't a challenge as much as it would be fun. While thinking all this through, I thought I'd start a series of images of other people in his style but where's the challenge, this comes way too easy, it would be better to try changing the drawing technique every week instead. And that how this weekly project was born the week before Christmas.

It then dawn on me, how would people know if the likeness was close to the actual person, so I decided I'd do celebrities, people that are familiar.

But there's a huge down side to doing celebrities. For the most part, many are so used to people praising them that they tend to be un appreciative of things given and done for them. Where as normal people cannot express enough how thankful they are to get a piece of art done of them. To see the happiness in their faces and voices is priceless!

Mentioning normal people, in a few weeks I will be doing my life drawing event at the Long Beach Comic Expo here in Los Angeles. At their last convention in the fall, I drew close to 40 portraits. I wasn't prepared for the number of people who wanted me to draw them, so I had to turn away a good number of people. This time, I will have extra paper!

And lets not forget the main reason for the drawing events, it is to get people of all skill levels to experience what it's like to draw from life, discovery their creative selfs, and letting that way of thinking mix into their business, making them better problem solvers. Have questions or doubt my logic, come to one of my drawing events.

48 more weeks to go, who's next?

WHITE CASTLE BURGERS!

This week's portrait subject is Tracy Morgan.

This week's portrait subject is Tracy Morgan.

"What, It's not a woman!?!"

I decided early on that part of this challenge would include drawing men as well, not just women. For the last twenty years or so women have been a huge part of my art work.

I think there's a learning opportunity for me to expand my skills creating interesting images of guys that I find interesting.

I picked Tracy because of memories from back in New York. Though I worked on Saturday Night Live, I never knew him personally. But he did something one day that made him stand out. He bought White Castle burgers for the entire crew. By the time I found out the burger were there, they were gone!

Nevertheless, I was very impress by that act of generosity. It was done with no fan fare, no TMZ reporting, no PR spin. It was like a fellow co worker bring in donuts one morning.

Ever since then I wanted to create and give him a portrait. Up to that point in time, I had done one for Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph (Both women were very thankful for their art work).

I did do a pencil sketch of Tracy at the time but never made a finish piece of art.

So as of today, that has changed.

Tracy, thanks for the burgers, even though I wasn't fast enough to get one.

WHERE ARE MY SPEEDBALLS & QUILL PEN POINTS?!!

This week's portrait subject is Taylor Swift.

During the summer of last year, I rediscovered the artworks of Peter Max, the guy is amazing, his use of color and design leaves me in awe.

I saw he did a portrait of Taylor. Up to that point in time I feel shame to admit it but I had no idea who she was. But thanks to the internet that changed immediately. What came to mind looking at pictures of her was that she looked liked a Gibson Girl.

The Gibson Girls was the creation of Charles Dana Gibson, a pen and ink artist during the turn of the 20th century, a time when being an artist was on the level of being a rock star.

I wanted to do a Gibson like drawing of Taylor since then but never made the time. But thank to this wonderful, time consuming project I created for myself, I thought this would be the perfect time to do it. Only one problem…

ALL MY FREAKIN' PEN POINTS ARE MISSING!

I've some how manage to misplace them some where in my studio. I'm sure I'll find them when I no longer need them.

To complete this drawing I ended up using my Koh-I-Noor Rapidographs and a brush marker. I think got the look I was after in the end.

NEW YEAR CHALLENGE

2015 was a great year for drawing. I held several drawing events, including one in New York and in Atlanta. Atlanta's Dragon Con was especially fantastic with a turn out of close to 200 people coming to drawing with me. I can't wait to get started again this year and see what new locations I can bring the events to.

Last year I drew a lot of people, I mean A LOT! This year I thought it would be fun to challenge myself with a weekly project, one portrait posted every Monday for the entire year. That's 52 drawings of people, randomly picked, friends, celebrities, etc. The only restrictions that I will place on myself is that they are all done in a square format and incorporate my circle design into the images.

To start it off, the first portrait will be Saoirse Ronan, from the movie, Brooklyn. She just stood out in every scene with those bright blue eyes and black pupils, almost haunting.






Also, keep an eye on www.cosplaylifedrawing.com for up coming drawing events. This is going to be a huge year for drawing.
"Bringing Life Drawing To The Masses… One Event At A Time!"