The Story of Dyannie

I'm a huge sucker for kiddie movies and musicals, so when I finally watched Annie [for the first time a year ago] my mind was pretty much blown. Like, I got goosebumps during "Hard Knock Life" even after the 38th time of rewinding it. I know, it's ridiculous, 1982 is calling me and wants its pop culture reference back, Aileen Quinn is on Medicare by now, etc. I don't care!

Now, when I was 21-23, I had a huge obsession with Bob Dylan. The poetry from his first several albums appropriately struck me at the time in an incredibly significant way. To me, there was a great deal of comfort in knowing that abstracted language and themes of youthful restlessness and cynicism could be so timeless. I was so grateful for the gift of Dylan in the way his work was an elegant homage to the silliness of pretension.

So, what do you think the first thing I thought of was when I saw this screen shot:

Um, that's what I thought. So I created this portrait as a result:

  

 
Does anyone else see the resemblance? Maybe I'm the only one who's watched Annie in 25 years anyhow, but it still kills me every time I watch it. Look, I know the movie is based on the classic comic then Broadway play. But I like to think that Bob Dylan stole the "moth-eaten thrift store sweater and teased curly fro" look and the costume department just had to throw their hands up and roll with it.

Pin Up Academy

I've been working on this request for a piece, a pin up girl in WWII garb against a spade background. It occurred to me that the colloquial term "cheesecake" for a piece of of pin up art has the connotation of being light, airy and undisciplined.

But besides the obvious one-note subject matter, pin up art is some of the most consistently academic portraiture of the 20th century. And truly, how one-note can an image be when the sex appeal is neither vulgar nor exaggerated, but the work of a subtle blend of the ethereal lines of feminine beauty?

Take a look at this image I use for reference:

I mean, such a stunning painting. Certainly, executed quickly for a fast turnover, but the effortlessness and ease of the style of this piece is so telling of the mastery of the artist. The figure is lush and intangibly attractive, but she is grounded in the reality of imperfection and rendered with a rather loose command of the brush. The lighting is not truly realistic either; it's simply been used as a reference guide to flatter the most classical shapes of the female form.

But every element of these pieces are tied to the traditional techniques of academic painting. Just because the subject is a woman in a (perhaps) provocative pose, can we really afford to cast these artworks off as mindless fluff? If we can get past the (admittedly threateningly) gorgeous image of a woman being sensually alluring, we can see pin up art as an incredibly disciplined vehicle for expression that we can all react to with feeling.

Connor

Many months ago, the TeamConnor foundation came and spoke at my dad's work. He was so moved by their presentation, he asked me to do a portrait of the little boy that inspired their work. He loved baseball, so I created a portrait of him as an old well-loved baseball card.

I have to say, knowing some of this child's story made this difficult to work on. But I do hope it it does just a little to honor his memory.

Shading Tutorial

I have a new video tutorial! It's a very basic lesson on shading, using the rose drawing from the previous tutorial I made. Hope you like it!

Prints for Sale!

Really, this has been a looooooong time coming, but we've finally got a small library of prints up for sale at ebay and etsy. Currently, we're offering 8 1/2" x 11" sized prints, but we'll soon have 11" x 14" prints as well.

Prints come on 120lb Eames Canvas Cover paper in either Pure White or Natural. This is a great heavyweight paper with a neat canvas-like texture. Pure White is true to the original color while Natural has an antique look.

Check out ebay and etsy for a listing of prints, I'll be listing more every month.

Eraser v. Eraser

In my last video tutorial I recommended using a pliable, or kneaded eraser for the drawing we were doing. I wanted to be more specific about why this type of eraser is so good to use for drawing.

Here I shaded four test boxes with a 2B graphite pencil.

Pliable or kneaded eraser

As you can see, our kneaded eraser can be molded to fit any shape you need. It's also very thorough in its erasing. These shaded boxes are holding a lot of graphite and the eraser still pulls it off with no mess.

Pros:
- flexible and mold-able
- clean and thorough
- bounces when rolled into a ball

Cons:
- will eventually become sticky and useless





Here we have a basic rubber eraser in cube form. I worked at the test box using a good amount of elbow grease, and still it does a weak job removing the graphite. Also, look at the mess left behind (these are tiny fragments of rubber).

Pros:
- easy to get your hands on these for cheap
- they will eventually erase

Cons:
- extremely messy
- not particularly effective at erasing
- awkward shape

Ah, good old Red Rubber. This type of eraser is very similar to the rubber above, but it is slightly firmer and therefore slightly better at erasing. On the other hand, it's just as messy.

Pros:
- most common type of eraser
- pretty good at erasing, especially large areas
- reminder of the good old days

Cons:
- again, quite messy
- takes a lot of effort to get it to work in fine details

This pencil eraser made of vinyl, is pretty excellent for erasing tiny details. However, it takes so much elbow grease to erase that I find I frequently have to re-sharpen the tip, quickly ending up with a tiny stump of a pencil. Vinyl erasers tend to be cleaner than rubbers, but they also tend to glide on the surface of graphite, smearing it rather than erasing it.

Pros:
- slightly cleaner than rubber
- pencil tip gets into fine details

Cons:
- not necessarily excellent at erasing




I think you know where I stand with erasers, and what I recommend and prefer for myself. But you know what they say about opinions. Every eraser will have its place at one point or another, and you should experiment and see what works for you. 

And of course, enjoy drawing! No one says you have to erase anything anyway. Drawings that show every line of progress are extremely fascinating. Go for it!

How To Draw a Simple Rose

I've been wanting to make drawing video tutorials for some time now. It seems my most practical education has come from watching other folks' video tutorials, and I'm so glad to finally get to give it a shot.