Victor Juhasz Sketch

Quick sketch I did of artist Victor Juhasz, I love his work, so full of life and character. Click here to check out Victor's work.

Mama Grizzly, NY Observer

The original idea for this cover was much different and was drawn realistically, meaning that it was not a caricature. The concept and execution of the concept was a bit to controversial and had to be scraped, leaving me with only two days to paint "plan B". I may share the other sketch soon, or I might even paint it and share it then? We'll see?





As mentioned above, I only had two days to paint this, so I kept it more loose and painterly which I love to do anyways. So, I painted fast, but had loads of fun along the way!



Detail to share texture and so on . . . hope you enjoy!

Fire the Rich

I can finally share my second cover painted for The Utne Reader. I absolutely love working for The Utne Reader . . . the art director is great to work with and as I've said before, that goes a LONG WAY!




I had a real blast painting this, I had nearly two weeks to paint both the cover and the inside illustration, and believe me, it took every minute I had.



Head detail.




I'd like to thank all my friends who helped pose for reference, you all did great and were a huge help!!! And thank you Otto for taking pics for me!

They Called me Mad!

Click here to order your copy

Cory Chisel - Work in progress

I'm nearly finished with this, only a few little things that I would like to do before I call it finished. This is in my sketchbook and was done as a study for a larger more finished looking painting that I will do for my friends Cory and Ade. Hope you enjoy seeing the process along the way.

Click here to check out Cory Chisel!

Two cool Interviews . . .

Click here to see the interview with me.



This is cool, my Dad was interviewed as well . . . my Dad is a great painter and has been a big influence throughout my entire life . . . it's cool to hear what he thinks of my art.

Click here to see my Dad's interview.

Oil block in . . . Bowie Faas.

Sketch of Bowie Faas.



First two steps of the block in . . . I'm using oils on Arches 300 lb hotpress watercolor paper. I first gessoed the front and back of my paper. Stained it with some burnt sienna, transferred my sketch with Saral transfer paper and then began my block in.



I only worked on this for a couple hours last night so this is still in the block in stage. Hopefully I'll have time soon to tighten it up and bring it to a finish?

Painting done for Photoshop Tutorials

This is the final painting that I did for Photoshop Tutorials, and the subject, or model is a guy that works for PS Tutorials. The tutorial is an in-depth step by step on how to paint a portrait in Photoshop, using the brushes that come with Photoshop. It will be available soon and when it is, I will add a link to follow.



Detail. Click here to see the tutorial.

And a reminder that my next class for Schoolism starts this Friday, there are still a couple slots open, so sign up today.

Student work at Schoolism

My current class at Schoolism is just about finished and my next class starts this Friday on the 18th. The piece above is a work in progress by my student, Duane Harding. This piece is for the final assignment of my class, he's got one more lesson left, when finished, Duane will have completed a beautiful finished illustration. This should give you a good idea of some of what we do in my class at Schoolism.
My next class at Schoolism starts on Feb 18th! There are a couple slots still open, so sign up today!

New Self Portrait

Finished.

Detail of brush work.

Update on Self Portrait.

Today I worked a bit more on the eyes, nose and mouth . . . nearly finished, only a bit left to do.

New Self Portrait Work in Progress

I'm working on some new painting techniques for my portrait work . . . I want to be more painterly and expressive, less photo realistic . . . trying to push myself and having a blast . . . feels good to play around. I'll be messing around with some acrylics today too, more to come on that soon.



I wanted to share the looseness and brush work with you all, so this is a close up crop of the painting. I'll post the final when I finish it.

Zach Galifianakis warm up sketch!

30 Minute sketch.



Some of the steps . . .

Back from New York

Just got back yesterday from my quick two and a half day trip to New York. Too short . . . I was there for the Society of Illustrators 51st Annual of illustration show. This is me standing with my painting of Scott Storch. It was a great time, hanging out with artists, friends, and art directors. There were many great pieces in the show, if you ever get a chance to go to the show, you should!

The painting to my left is Steve Brodner's Gold medal piece, congrats Steve!



Steve Brodner's Gold medal piece, painted for The New Yorker . . .



Me with Mr. Steve Brodner! Steve has been an influence of mine throughout the years, so it was cool to see my painting hanging next to his.






The text next to my piece in the show . . . thank you James for letting me beat you to a bloody pulp!



I love Norman Rockwell, here's a pencil sketch by Rockwell which hangs proudly at the Society of Illustrators!

Tommy Lee Jones Speed Paint and Letter from Student!

30 Minute speed painting/sketch of Tommy Lee Jones.



Detail of sketch, to show how loose it was painted . . .



I'd like to share this letter with you all, written by my student Kerim to fellow classmates at Schoolism.



hello all,

i was looking through all my class notes the other day and realized how much stuff we all actually learned in this caricature class and how its almost impossible to remember all of it now that we're almost at the end... so i start...ed compiling a list of all of the valuable things Jason has told us, to have on my desk to refer to from time to time and to keep me from having to watch all of the video lessons and critiques to refresh me on what we had learned in previous weeks...

hope that made sense :)

anyways... also, please, keep this list for yourselves (or ask Jason's permission before distributing to others) to respect all of the work Schoolism and Jason have done to help us all improve as artists.

other than that, jason, i hope i did you justice... and for the rest of you, enjoy!

good luck with your final assignments!

----------------------------

words of wisdom from jason seiler
(gathered from all schoolism lessons and various student critiques)

humble yourself

find the true character of the person

keep it simple

look for simple shapes and size relationships between features

eyes and mouth, then head shape most important

think in terms of inner face and outer face

simplify the weight, where is it?

exaggeration: for every action, theres reaction

compare faces side-by-side to point out differences between people

when sketching: start light and thin, think shape and structure

when darkening lines, dont trace. use as guidelines and improve
upon whats underneath

caricature drawing = study of person's true character

exaggerate the truth by pushing the features

get the placement and general shape

don't settle for a weak drawing

perfect practice makes perfect

flip drawing and reference upsdide-down or sideways to turn off left
brain

sketching = adjusting

step back to get a fresh look. zoom out to not get caught up in the
details

squint your eyes to help simplify

what makes person unique and interesting?

what stands out and why?

tell the story

be encouraged, don't give up

don't distort, exaggerate

thumbnail sketching: give yourself choices, possibilities

look at face. what comes out furthest, what goes in, what's narrower,
further?

where is the widest point, thinnest?

find the triangles

focus on placement of features, not details

exaggeration: everything must follow - its the combination of

features relating to each other

likeness is king

width and weight: find the shape of head

pay attention to angles

look away from person. draw the impression of person

follow the form, exaggeration must follow

keep going. start sketching. start over!

think about planes of face, contours of face

sketching = adjustment & problem solving

for beginner: study portraiture before caricature

do thumbnails

develop yourself as an artist - sketch, think, learn, draw, paint, see

hair: get the main shapes first. slow down

don't do one drawing. explore and sketch lots of thumbnails

don't exaggerate one feature but all features working together

doing thumbnails are like taking notes

when doing thumbnails, think in animation drawing style

value painting: start with 4-5 values only and move towards more
complex later

what is the reason for what youre drawing?

try to capture the essence of person

what is a caricature to you? strong caricature, strong likeness,
essence.

hair: try to paint it in, dont use speckling

paint with feeling

think cartoon first

what pops out the most?

thumbnail = plan of what could be. possibilities

shape = placement of features

caricature = character, structure, likeness, exaggeration, humor,
truth

don't get caught up on things that dont matter

pay attention to shapes in between. negative space

eyes: capture the shape of whites of eyes

think in planes/angles

exaggerate and push but still think about anatomy

process: start light. block in general shape. placement. build up.
adjust

slow down. spend more time on the eyes, mouth, nose and head
shape

shapes - width, weight, depth, contour lines

what is the most important thing? whats next?

where is the humor?

humor? you mean humor 'haha' or funny like a clown humor?

umm hello... are you listening to me?

am i talking too much?

do you think i could sell this list on ebay and make money behind
jason seiler's back?

does reading this list make me look fat?

do you think drinking 6 cups of coffee a day is bad for your sense of
humor??

anyways... jokes aside, i hope making this list was helpful to all of
you. but most importantly, don't forget to thank jason for sharing his
wealth of knowledge with us. thanks jason!

peace out
kerim (aka. jerkyturk)


My next class at Schoolism starts on Feb 18th! Sign up today.