moar face

looked up more references.

gunzo

Dude portrait study, and doodle

Saw a masterfully painted portrait today and really liked its style, so I decided to do a photo study while attempting to mimic said style.  Result... is weird :P  I will keep trying though.

Also need to paint more men.  I paint way too many girls.

Bonus random doodle from class.  I name it "the Dragon House".  Might color it.

Photo paintover

I've been doing a few 1-hour portraits for a friend's project.  Kinda like how this one turned out.

Did cheat and painted over a photo though :P  For speed's sake.  Altered lighting, colors, and some facial features.  Added uniform from a separate photo ref.

portrait study

been a while since I last did a study...

From photo.  Source: http://sullydish.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/sage-sohier-about-face-021.jpg

charcoal heads

Once again, I find myself in an incredibly lucky situation.

I've been feeling stuck when it comes to drawing.  I hate my drawings for being safe/stale, yet shy away from pushing it so far into stylization that it would become cartoony.  It's more of a mental block than anything.

Right at this time, they got a kick-butt instructor for our usual wednesday night life drawing session.  The instructor is an old-school commercial artists who stresses the needs to make people look attractive.  Having my head firmly stuck into the realms of realism, I disagreed inwardly but decided to give it a try.

Then it finally clicked.  Knowing what the ideal would look like does not take realism away from me.  It gives me more freedom to push things one way or another from the idealism, and allows me to capture the essence of people.  Pushing shape design is the only way I can break out of my current stalemate against myself.

Glen Orbik, you are such a badass.  Thank you.

what's a pencil sketch

pencils.. they are like photoshop paintbrush tools, except with more pressure sensitivity levels :|

Lunch study

As I was getting started on this, a non-dev non-artist tour group walked by my desk.  I had fun imagining what must have been going through their mind when they saw the ref photo of half-naked dude on my screen.

Self portrait

 Haven't done a self-portrait for a long time, so I guess it's about time.  Actually tried to set up lighting and keep the compositional tips from Marshall in mind.  This one took 2 hours and I now have a stiff neck, haha...

Pretty happy about how this turned out.  Not as good as I was shooting for, but it's my best self-portrait to-date.  It actually looks like how I see myself.