Speedpaint 26 - Aunt Carol

This started out with the intention of being a speed paint, but became a "slow paint" when I realized that I'd need to be more meticulous to get an accurate likeness. I've been picking away at it slowly for about the last week. I believe I put about five or six hours into it total. It's a Christmas present for my Aunt Carol, of her and her new boyfriend (reffed from a photo). She wanted it 8.5"x11" size, which also made it more time-consuming (previous speed paints were done 4"x6").

The most difficult part of the picture was probably the hand. I don't usually have too much trouble drawing hands, but attempting to depict one with color and volume without the help of an underdrawing or lineart...very frustrating. It went through a couple revisions.

It's probably obvious that realistic painted portraits are not my area of expertise (this is my first attempt since...high school, I think?) but hopefully Aunt Carol likes it.

Speedpaint 16 and 17 - Monkey and 4th of July

This is a Snow monkey aka Japanese Macaque from the Central Park Zoo in NYC.

Photoshop CS3, 46 minutes.
Soundtrack: Donkey Kong Country 1 OST






This speed paint is incomplete. The scene I was working on was filled with wall-to-wall people (it was taken at Crane's Roost this year on the Fourth of July). My meticulous approach to the human figures, and all the color variation in clothing slowed me down immensely. After an hour, I still had a great deal of the scene left to do, and I had lots of work to do that day, so I called it quits.

Photoshop CS3, 53 minutes.
Soundtrack: Chrono Cross OST

Speedpaint 11 - New York Subway

Photoshop CS3, 64 minutes.
Soundtrack: Persona 3 Original Soundtrack


Part 1:



Part 2:

Gator Studies

When planning out a new illustration, I find that the best place to start is to do some studies of the subjects in your picture. My next picture, actually a series of pictures, is about a boy and his pet gator. So I dug through my photo archive and pulled up a bunch of photos I've taken over the years of full size and baby alligators and did some sketching.

Here's the result:
It occurred to me as I was sketching that I'm no stranger to drawing alligators. The design of the Handra character in my Peach Fuzz books is partially inspired by the shape of an alligator's face. Here's what the Handra look like (sorry, this is the only picture of the Handra I have that's easy to access): You see? Little gator snouts!


I also did some general figure sketches just to keep my people drawing skills up. (Hopefully no one's bothered by some mild nudity here). Here's an excerpt from the exercise: