Study of Piers Morgan

Paint study that I did today of Piers Morgan.



I'm wanting to be more painterly in my work, so I was happy with the brush strokes that I ended up with on this caricature.




This is my thumbnail sketch, done in one minute.



Loose sketch, quickly defining my thumbnail sketch. This took about five minutes.



First step in block in . . .



Second step in block in . . .




Third step in block in . . .



Fourth step in block in . . .

Seasick Steve

This was a fun piece to work on. My hope is to do a lot more illustrations similar to this in style . . . I'd like to get more than just caricature work. I enjoy the work I do, but would like to branch out more into other areas. One of my favorite magazines to illustrate for has been Rolling Stone. I love music and painting, so it's a perfect fit!

I do enough of my own interpretation in the work I do, so sometimes it's just fun to paint and create a cool looking piece of art. In a way this piece is more of an experiment. I'm trying to develop a new illustration style, it's just plain 'ol fun doing something different from time to time.

I also love the blues as well as Jack White . . . this last year, Seasick Steve was picked up by Jack White's label and that too is a perfect fit! If you haven't checked out Seasick Steve or Jack Whites label, "Third Man Records", then you're missing out!

R.I.P. Amy Winehouse

R.I.P Amy Winehouse. She was so talented, and had so much going for her, but couldn't seem to escape her own demons, so sad. I was really looking forward to hearing her new album. I did this caricature of her back in 2008.

Sketch of character . . . not being used.

Sketch of background character that for various reasons will no longer be used . . .






Things were changed and edited in the painted version, which will actually never be printed. If I had it my way, the painted version would have been much closer to what I did in my sketch. This guy was in the background of a much larger illustration and is only about 4 or 5 inches in height on the illustration, so I simplified a lot of the rendering. Again, this character is no longer being used . . .

WIRED magazine article on caricature

Painting of the author.

Nearly a year ago now, I was interviewed by WIRED magazine, you can read the article

HERE.

The article was "supposed" to feature caricature art by me and a few other artists. I sent them several examples of my paintings but instead, they decided to drop that idea and have a few of the artists from the interview draw or paint the author. I was busy with other work and only had a couple hours on the weekend to do a quick painting of Ben, the author. Even though it was done in a rush, I still enjoyed how it turned out . . . of course, I would have liked a little more time to refine the likeness a little more but I guess there can always be something to complain about, right? :) As for reference, I prefer natural pictures, not posed, especially when I am unfamiliar with the subject as I was in this case. The reference pics that I was given were taken in a studio and were posed. Not much of any character was showing through at all. The lighting and coloring was horrible too. So, to fix that, I had to do some photoshop color correction to my references to get them looking someone "normal" before I started my painting. It seemed to do that trick . . . overall, I think it's a good article, and I'm honored to be featured in it as well.


Step by Step









This is a picture that I took of the magazine . . . my full painting is featured here in the front part of the magazine and a cropped version of it is featured in the actual article.



This is what the cover looks like of the current issue of WIRED. Fun article about what caricatures can teach us about facial recognition. I was interviewed and featured in this article along with a few other caricaturists. Pick up a copy if you can.

The Sperminator!

Quick color sketch . . . my goal with this was to block in while keeping my image smaller than usual, and zoomed out, only using large brushes. It was a lot of fun.

Idi Amin Dada

Study of Dictator Idi Amin Dada.

Andy's Best Man - NY Observer

Sketched this out on Friday, quick block in of color on Saturday, painted Monday and Tuesday.