New Etsy Shop!

After the gentle suggestion of some family and friends, I’ve decided to open an Etsy shop for those interested in purchasing prints of some of my art.

For now only some of the drawings are available (six, at the time of this post), but I hope to add more. If there’s a particular drawing I’ve done that you’d like a print of, please contact me and I can special-print that one for you (and we can just handle payment directly thru Paypal). All prints can also be personally signed by me and addressed to you or anyone you’d like!

Here’s the store link: http://www.etsy.com/shop/JohnDiBiaseArt

Nathan Fillion as Rick Castle

While I don’t watch much current TV, one show I do faithfully watch is Castle. As I was trying to think of new subjects–and after watching one of the last shows of this fourth season–I naturally thought of Nathan Fillion as Rick Castle.

Lately, I’ve been trying more and more to use a full range of pencil weights instead of usually laying it out in a light pencil and then diving write in with darker/softer pencils. I’ve been pretty happy with the end result.

Myrna Loy Portrait

This drawing of classic actress Myrna Loy, was completed at the end of April/early May 2012 and presented a different challenge. The soft look in the photo was a different texture than I usually work with, and simply using an ordinary paper napkin as a blending tool ended up serving pretty well. It’s one of my favorites of the recent string of projects.

Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly Portrait

After doing a marker drawing of Marty McFly, I had wanted to do a pencil portrait of one of my favorite film characters. After one attempt of a different source photo failed, I was pretty happy with this one’s outcome. And it’s another example of, what I feel is, drawing in the background adding to the result.

Peter Venkman Portrait

I believe this drawing was done last fall sometime, but it was a fun project. Aside from this film remaining at the top of my list of favorites, it was fun to experiment with a different size source photo… and then to decide whether or not I should add in the background. In the long run, I certainly was glad I did.

Harpo Marx Portrait

It’s no secret that Harpo Marx is one of my favorite classic actors. When I was unsure of what to choose as my next project, I opted for this gem of a photo as my next source. So here’s my second Harpo drawing…

Michael Scott (Steve Carell) Portrait

As  a fan of Steve Carell and The Office, I’ve tried to do some drawings of Steve several times over the years (the closest “good” one I’ve done was from his Evan Almighty promo photos, but I don’t like it enough to share it ). This sketch was completed over a couple days in April 2012.

Han Solo Portrait

I’d started a drawing of Han Solo about eight or nine years ago, but never finished it. So last fall, while I couldn’t find the first drawing, I started a new one during a new season of drawings. This one is from Empire, I believe, and I used an array of different pencil weights to complete it. I hadn’t finished it come last month, but took some time to wrap it up one evening.

Tonight I found the original unfinished Han Solo drawing and hope to finish it up this weekend!

Mr. Monk Pencil Portrait

Here is the latest pencil drawing. As usual, it was created on bristol board with various grades of pencil to provide various shades. I tried to keep layering it despite the temptation to just render it “finished” too early. However, I think I tend to over-do some drawings while under-doing others… and I didn’t want to go overboard here either. This drawing was started on August 7th and was worked on in about 10 different sessions ranging at an hour to a couple hours a piece, until it was completed on August 23rd, 2011. (the placement of my signature on the drawing was entirely for self-amusement )

Note — this is a photograph of the drawing, so some of the source light is reflected off the shiny ebony pencil portions.

Daniel Craig as James Bond

With the release Cowboys & Aliens approaching, I felt it appropriate to take a stab at drawing Daniel Craig as James Bond. I’m in a mode where I’m really enjoying working on portraits again and in looking for new projects to start, I decided Craig would make a fine victim. Again, for this one, I used an array of pencils and an Ebony Jet Black pencil to get the end result. It was drawn in July, 2011.