JohnDiBiase.com

Mr. Monk Pencil Portrait

John DiBiase — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 01:30:11 +0000

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

John DiBiase — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 00:02:01 +0000

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.

Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow

John DiBiase — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 23:57:58 +0000

After Amy’s June, 2011 birthday, I used one of the plates from our little family birthday party for her (yup! We decorated our dining room in Pirates 4 stuff) as a reference for a new pencil portrait. I had purchased a brand new pencil set earlier this year (6H to 6B), so I used that, along with an Ebony Jet Black pencil, to get the various shades and deeper blacks. This was my first attempt at drawing Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

NOTE: The Ebony pencil creates quite a shine/shimmer, so the bottom right hand corner of this photograph is reflecting the light source in the room where I had taken a photo of this drawing

Indiana Jones – via Marker

John DiBiase — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 23:53:27 +0000

My second attempt to make a caricature of a person went pretty horribly wrong. This was originally supposed to be one of those… however, once I laid down the pencil groundwork and started to color it in, I loved the way it was looking as a more realistic color portrait. It makes me want to pursue making more color portraits.

This was made using Prismacolor markers and the source was a photo of Indiana Jones that I took off my wall. The original photo had Sean Connery as well, so I actually had to create part of Indy’s jacket and body to finish the picture. It was fun!

Marty McFly – via Marker

John DiBiase — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 23:49:01 +0000

Early 2011, I started getting into trying new art projects. I invested in some Prismacolor markers and tried working on some comic-book style artwork (using references) to stretch my abilities and venture outside my comfort zone. After completing my first ever marker-based portrait (I had sketched the person’s face in pencil and then went over it in marker… only to find that it wasn’t that good of a drawing), I decided to take a realistic photo of a person and attempt to make a caricature of the person as a comic book character.

This didn’t entirely work.

I have 8×10 photos of movie characters and scenes lining the staircase that descends to our basement (AKA my “man cave”). I plucked a picture of Michael J. Fox off the wall and sketched him in pencil and then colored it in with marker. I felt, in the pencil sketch, that I had a pretty good feel for a caricature, but once I layered the color on, it was hard to not want to draw realistically (Here’s a blog with iPhone photos of the progression of it). I enjoy the end result, but it was frustrating that I’m having trouble drawing a cartoon-style portrait naturally…

Whoa Doc! That’s Heavy!

John DiBiase — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 04:55:07 +0000

I was paging through a comic book recently and saw this really excellent drawing of a person that bordered on portrait quality while still being comic book art. In the drawing there was great detail where a lot of the features were defined with lines — like where little shadows and minute details would be.

I decided to try out this technique myself. I took a photo off my wall (I have framed 8x10s of movie characters on the wall leading down to our basement) and tried out a sketch in pencil. It wasn’t bad… I was moderately happy with it, but not completely, so I traced my drawing the next night onto marker paper and colored it in. After I was done, I realized I had made some mistakes AND over shadowed it.

I threw it out.

Then I took another photo down and tried it again. This time I TRIED to keep it cartoony and more to shapes, but it’s REALLY difficult. I naturally want to make it a realistic portrait.

I kept working on Michael J Fox as Marty McFly and tried to discipline myself not to overdo it. I may have a bit, but I’m mostly happy with the result. I want to try more of these!

Eject! Operation: Soundwave

John DiBiase — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 21:12:48 +0000

Here’s the latest… Continuing with marker drawings after finishing the last pencil portrait. This is a version of Soundwave from Transformers. The source I drew it from was a page out of a comic book (from 2006 I believe)

Let’s Roll!

John DiBiase — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 05:23:12 +0000

Just finished the latest sketch. Sketched first in pencil, then colored in with Prismacolor Premier markers. (The source drawing that I used as reference was originally by Andrew Wildman)

There should be a “Captain” in there somewhere…

John DiBiase — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 05:43:58 +0000

Sorry for the inactivity on here. I’ve been busy with a ninth-month-old crawler, a sick guinea pig, a stolen Honda, and work. But in the midst of it all, I’m still trying to find regular time to work on drawings. I recently completed my first attempt at a portrait done entirely in marker. I drew it in pencil first, then went over it with a translucent sheet of marker paper using a variation of gray markers. It was fun and different for sure, but I saw mostly just its glaring flaws after I finished it, so I won’t be posting it here.

I did, however, follow that up with a pencil portrait, which I was also unhappy with, and then another pencil portrait which I actually WAS happy with! I’ll post a photo here, but I’ll try to get a HQ scan for the portrait archives soon. Using a plate from the party goods my parents got Amy for her birthday this year, I drew Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. I worked on it on and off for about a month with a couple hours here and there (not every day though). It was fun and a neat project to work on. I have no other portraits planned at the moment, so I’ve returned to drawing cartoons. I recently exercised my nerdy-ness some more and picked up some new comic books that should make good sketch sources to stretch my abilities some. I’d love to get better at drawing people (in a comic-book-style).

In the meantime, here’s Jack… Actually, maybe I’ll even post the various stages the drawing underwent in a post here, hmm? Would that be interesting to anyone? I took various iPhone shots of the drawing in various degrees of completion…

(Here it is finished)

Roll Out

John DiBiase — Wed, 18 May 2011 07:29:36 +0000

Well, it’s been three months since I made the goal to do a drawing a day. So far, I’ve missed plenty of days to say I’ve missed that goal, however, I’m still drawing more than I have in years and I’m continuing to stretch my comfort zones in the process. As I stated before, I had dug out old comic books from my early teen years and have been practicing drawing some of my favorite covers and panels. Recently, I tracked down one of those artists who worked on the G.I. Joe comic books in the early 90s and found some more recent sketches from the artist online. His name is Andrew Wildman and he often signed his work as just “Wildman.” — wonderfully expressive stuff with eye-popping detail. I found two sweet sketches he’d done of Optimus Prime online — one was in color, one was not. So I drew the black and white one in pencil, went over it in color, using his other colored drawing as a reference, and went over it in ink. I’m quite happy with the result.

I’ve invested in a set of Prismacolor Premier markers (and got most of them as a birthday gift this year!), and as I work on my latest sketch — a marker drawing of the Transformer Hot Rod — I’m practicing blending and layering shades and colors. It’s great fun and I find myself anxious to get to drawing again before the day’s end these days.

Here’s the Optimus drawing I mentioned above. It was done on a Canson Marker Pro Layout pad. I can’t wait to keep trying new approaches!