Quick black and white caricature of Agatha Christie for a competition on Wittygraphy. Added a filter effect at the end to age the picture and give it that sepia look.

Tom Waits caricature

Heres Tom Waits, not a very good likeness but I at least tried to jazz it up a bit. I was going to write about Tom and what an influence his music played in my life ever since Rain Dogs was released. But I won't. I will recommend him though and just say go and listen to some. If you have a musical bone in your body and an appreciation of the rich diverse history of Real music you'll enjoy it. One from the heart.

Started with an appalling sketch as usual, I'm so impatient to get started I really just do a fast sloppy rough sketch and then start to build the face with paint and work from there. You can also see how I changed the whole pallette as I went along too, there seemed too much blue in it before. It came out ok, could try harder!

Mitt Romney Caricature

Had a go at painting a political caricature yesterday and decided on Mitt Romney, the Republican Partys official Presidential candidate. Seemed like the right thing to do and he was an interesting challenge as he doesnt get too much coverage of these election run-ups here in the UK till much later in the season.

So my excuse is I'm unfamiliar with his face. So there. Heres the process of painting him using a photo for reference, working against a dark background something like the brilliant Jason Seiler did with his Tim Burton caricature. Heres a link to a video of Jason painting: Tim Burton caricature and heres my process:



 
Overall I'm pleased with the result and am going to see about selling this image on various products over at my Zazzle store. I think I managed to exagerrate more this time and it feels more like a cartoony approach, more entertaining heolpefully.

So one of my favourite all time tv shows was the Sopranos, just a masterpiece of balance and writing which never failed to grip and amaze. I'm a fan. Junior (Corrado) Soprano was a key character in all of this played by the amazing Dominic Chianese. Heres another attempt of mine to paint a caricature, Photoshop, standard brushes ladida. This is the process:

Took me just over a day on the weekend what with various gardening chores etc blocking my available time. Again I feel I could take the detail further and again I'm not sure if I managed to catch a likeness or even exaggerated the features enough. Next time!

Boris Johnson Caricature

Managed to squeeze in this caricature painting today, Photoshop, standard brushes blah blah. Haven't finished to as high a degree as I'd like but what the heck it looks ok from a distance. Probably whack it on a T-Shirt over at Zazzle see if there are any takers. Heres the process from sketch to final.

I think it came out ok, want to try and exaggerate features more but for getting technique down this did the job.

Stone Roses caricature 2012

So I got the caricature bug as an excuse to not get on with my work, everybody needs a break is my excuse. I saw a picture of the Stone Roses before their reunion tour and thought it would make an excellent challenge and make great reference. Lots of character, great band, give it a bash. Overall it took me a day to paint it so considering I work 99% of the time in 3d was pretty good going I think.

Its a bit rough round the edges and needs finishing really but I'm going to move onto a new painting, maybe revisit this with fresh eyes later. It was done in Photoshop using the default brushes. Heres a pic of it in early stages where I'm roughing it in. You can see the sketch below which I had to get into PS with my camera as I haven't installed my scanner yet...yeah its a rubbish sketch.

Twilight Caricature(!) Robert Pattinson

Had a go at caricature for the hell of it, drew the first picture grabbed from google images which happens to be Robert Pattinson from Twilight. Funnily enough I had some Halloween products removed from Zazzle because they had the keyword Twilight in them...crazy. Here's the WIP sort of for those that like to see a bit of process:

It could use a bit more work on it but it got me used to working with the tablet again and a good test of my new PC (after 6 years! Luddite i am)

Thought it'd be fun to post a WIP of a digital painting I'm attempting at the moment even just for the fact it might spur me on to finish it. Started yesterday, no reference though I have the amazing work of J.B. Monge in my mind as I'm working, amazing guy, I can highly recommend his books, have a search on Ebay!

Sketch of singer from Kasabian

I must admit to not knowing what Kasabian sound like (sorry!) but found a picture of the singer that looked a nice challenge, difficult angle, kinda foreshortened. So here he is, the usual pencil with highlighted white pastel. Better proportions, better values, hopefully an improvement but regardless every attempt feels like a step forward even if the results aren't up to scratch.

And heres an attempt at Sanguine with white pastel on recycled brown paper. I think the problem here apart from the obvious one of "need more practise!" is I draw too small! I've always drawn on a very small scale and I need to snap out of it.

Another quick sketch on toned paper trying to get form and values right. Used a photo of Neil Young as reference, there's a slight likeness...I need to practise more on proportion etc. Anthony Ryders "Figure Drawing" book has been a great help.

Sketching in pencil on toned paper with hilights

Heres a sketch from a photo (Mick and Bianca Jaggers wedding from a colour supplement!) took about half an hour and really got me back into drawing again. I very rarely do artwork outside of a computer and its about time I learnt to draw! This is just a 2b Mars Lumograph on Canson grey paper with white chalk highlights, not a very good photo of it...