August 30, 2012

My portrait demo on sale now!

The sale price for my video demonstration is on for just a couple more days (goes back to regular price Sept 1), buy now if you're interested!



Here's the final drawing from the video.




This last image is a value analysis that I hope those of you interested in portrait drawing will find helpful: it has a noise reduction filter laid over it to remove detail and texture leaving only the value structure. It's nerve wracking to do a live demo like this one, the video crew won't come back another day if you wreck the portrait being filmed so you have to have some ideas about holding the drawing together. My idea is to carefully keep the value structure organized and grouped for a naturalistic lighting effect that is believable and clear, and that lends strength to the composition. I hope you enjoy the video.

August 18, 2012

My Portrait Drawing Video is Here!

I'm excited to announce that my portrait drawing video is now available for pre-sale! Order before the end of August to get the sale price, it will come online for download the middle of September, complete info and description are here.




August 14, 2012

Portrait in Charcoal

I'll be on the theme of portrait drawing in my posts for the next couple of weeks, and if you're in the LA area come on out to my Workshop this Saturday, August 18th where I'll show you how this is done.


This one is done with charcoal and white nupastel on strathmore 500 series charcoal paper.

August 07, 2012

Portrait Drawing Workshop on August 18!

I'm very excited to invite you out to my portrait drawing workshop on Saturday August 18, 12-8pm. To enroll contact The Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art, (877) MY-LAAFA (695-2232)

For this workshop I'll present a slideshow that will take you through the principles you need know to successfully draw a portrait from life, I'll do a full demonstration in charcoal then turn the time over to you to draw from a live costume model with me as your coach. The workshop will include:

• The fundamentals of constructing the head with the values of light and shadow.
• Principles for creating the illusion of space and volume on a 2 dimensional drawing surface.
• Ideas for portrait composition and creating a likeness.
• Techniques and tips on materials and the drawing process.
• Instructor demonstration from a live model.
• Student drawing time from a live model with instructor feedback.

See you there!

August 02, 2012

Earth invades Mars on August 5th!

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-Update 08-06-12: Congrats to the JPL team for nailing what looked like an impossible landing! It was incredible to watch events unfold live on the big screen. If you didn't have a chance to see it check out the replay here which includes cg recreation, and this extended version that stays inside mission control and gives a good sense of the suspense and celebration.-

I'll be down at the JPL/Planetary Society Planetfest in Pasadena this weekend for the Mars Landing, it's fun to be alive in a time when people are sending robots to other planets.

No, mars does not have rings, this is actually an illustration of an interstellar probe visiting Barnards Star, a nearby red dwarf I sketched back in '93, it's all I had handy.

And since we do the occasional science fiction reference here, the recommended read of the week is David Brin's new novel Existence. It's a tour de force of life in 2050 and uniquely solves the Fermi paradox but with the appropriate mystery, threat, thrill and horror of first contact.