Self-Portrait and OVER 1000!

Here's the first painting project of the semester. I meant to upload it much earlier, but I kept on forgetting to bring a camera so I could take a higher quality shot of it...So you'll have to settle for these cell phone pics.




I started with a quick charcoal drawing and light washes of color. Then I blocked in the skin tone and the white of the shirt.




Next I fill in the background and slap on a few more layers of paint. Then I added my mustachio and chin hairs! Incidentally, this was painted by looking at myself through a mirror.



Here's the end result. I added the wrinkle in the bottom right at the suggestion of my professor to counter the motion of the hair. It doesn't look all that much like me, probably because I did a funny raised-eyebrow expression and had a top-down angle on my face. But I had fun painting it and am learning a lot.

On another note, I have accumulated 1,125 page views! Yatta! Thanks for coming to my website and having some interest in the work of a will-be toy designer. I'll try to update more frequently! Promise!

Comic-Con

As some of you guys know, February 6th-8th was the New York Comic Convention.

It was awesome.

It was the first really big convention that I've been to. After walking around the convention floor all weekend, my feet hurt for the first time since move-in day! I was fortunate enough to meet David Gibbons, the artist for Watchmen, and Clay Enos, the unit photographer for the Watchmen movie. Mr. Enos and Titan Books put out and absolutely amazing book called Watchmen Portraits. Like the name implies, it's a huge book full of black-and-white portraits of actors and actresses from Watchmen. If you've got the money and are a fan of Watchmen, it's definitely worth picking up. Amazon has it for the great, great price for $31.50. I also met Gabe and Tycho from my favorite video game webcomic, Penny Arcade.

On Friday the 6th, when I was wondering around the convention floor, I spotted some authentic, original artwork by Ashley Wood. When I saw a huge original Zombies Vs. Robots painting, I nearly passed out! Ashley Wood is my favorite artist and I was absolutely floored to see his paintings and sketchbook pages in person. I could've studied his paintings all day. Seeing photos is one thing, but seeing the actual layers of paint and the brush strokes is something completely different...If I had a spare $400, I would've picked one up, but I had to settle for drooling over the display table. Someday....

Well, I'm not planning to write up a big con report, but going to NYCC was a great experience. Not only did I get to fanboy-out, I recieved a bit of inspiration and a goal to shoot for. Tonight, on this blog for all to see, I am making a vow: Someday, I will be sitting behind a booth a Comic-Con, showing my artwork, selling my toys, and making a name for myself. With any luck, it'll happen within the next ten years.

That's all for now. School is back in motion, work is starting to pile up. I've really been enjoying painting lately because we're focusing on portraits and the human figure. In my next update, I'll post some pics of some new work. I'm pretty proud with my self-portrait and the process behind it is pretty interesting, so be ready to read about that!


Lesson learned and the wheels keep turning