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Hi Everyone!
My name is Dane and I’m an aspiring illustrator from Calgary, Canada. This is my second stab at the 100 day art challenge. My first challenge was to create a colour illustration everyday, but I found that prompt to be a little too vague, and colour isn’t really a priority for me right now. I am really interested in editorial illustration and celebrity portraits for publications like the New Yorker, so my second go around will be focussed on doing a portrait, mostly of celebrities, each day to build my characterization/likeness and design skills. Current editorial illustration tends to be more stylized, but I’m really interested in trying to incorporate some of the techniques used by Mark Westermoe and Chris Legaspi in their movie poster illustrations. I’m going to keep my media choice open so that I can explore different techniques, and I will be attempting different levels of finish, some sketchier and others more refined.
For day one I did a quick mixed media sketch of Ariana Grande on toned paper using a combination of prismacolor, verithin and chalk. Please feel free to give suggestions on which celebrities/public figures you would like to see!
Thanks!
Dane
Day Two:
Today I did a sketch sketch on tonal paper of Jude Law as The Young Pope. This one was heavily inspired by the work of Drew Struzan and Mark Westermoe, and combines some black and blue prismacolor and verithin with white prismacolor. I didn’t take this one very far but I really liked the challenge of doing a white costume while at the same time not making it too much the focus of the image. Very interesting show by the way!
Day Three:
Today I decided to do one of Chris Legaspi’s exercises that he recently shared in one of his live streams where you focus on getting a quick read by really zeroing in on the unique head shape of the person you are trying to draw. This is a really useful skill for my focus on editorial illustration and celebrity portraits, as the ability to get a likeness is even more important in those kinds of scenarios. I went really loose with these, and just thought of random celebrities that I haven’t really drawn before.
Day Four:
Today I decided to do an animal portrait instead of a human one! This was a great opportunity to explore pen and ink technique, along with a subtle treatment of water-colour just to indicate the warmth of the fur contrasted with the coolness of the skin. Throughout this challenge I would like to explore some more of these animal portraits, as I find it interesting how the pose of the animal can be used to tell a story!
Day Five:
Seeing as costume is a such an important part of portraiture, I chose to focus today on some costume quick sketch from the reference library, going freehand with my fountain pen to keep the sketches loose and expressive. I’m very fascinated with how simple mark making and indications can be used to suggest a face, especially when looking at a whole figure where there isn’t space for small detail. I’m going to continue these costuming exercises, and see if I can continue to develop my ability to suggest structure and detail without putting in smaller marks that clutter the image. For those who haven’t checked out Bill Perkins’ and Charles Hu’s lectures on costume design, I highly recommend it!
Day Six:
Today I decided to do another animal portrait/figure instead of a human one, as I am fascinated with the similarities between humans and primates, and how to use the structure of the primate head to better understand parts of the human facial anatomy like the muzzle protrusion and brow ridge areas. I also like to study primates because for some reason I have an easier time indicating fur than I do hair. I decided to use a more classical pen and ink technique for this illustration rather than my typical more expressive linework, as I also want to strengthen my dexterity and rendering abilities.
Day 7:
One week in! For today I decided to focus in a bit more on some of the facial features. I challenged myself to use mostly pen and ink and a chunkier brush pen for the so as to try and focus more on the planes than the minute details. I also like to incorporate a bit more of a Golden Age of Illustration and classic comics look into my work, so this was a good exercise in building dexterity.
Day 8:
Today I decided to do something totally out of my comfort zone and try out the illustrator Kim Jung Gi’s approach to drawing the head, which is to essentially freehand it with a brush pen with no pencil sketch. I typically like to construct my heads very carefully using a combination of Steve Huston and Mark Westermoe’s approaches, but instead I had to make decisions on the fly. I did start out with a very high value neutral gray marker as somewhat of an underpainting, so to speak. Then I went in with a chunkier brush pen. This isn’t my favourite approach, but it has taught me to think even more about mark making. Charles Hu has a really great video in the costume series where he uses a brush pen, so I also used that as a starting point!
Day 9:
Today I did some pen and ink freehand sketches in my sketchbook exploring some unique faces. I attempted to add a little bit of warmth on one of them in copic marker but it was a bit too strong, so next time I would do it with watercolour. I definitely like the idea of combining the white of the paper with some small spots of colour, and I often incorporate this approach into my celebrity portraits. I also tried to introduce some of the scribbling, looser lines used by artists like Sargent in his charcoal drawings and Heinrich Kley in his ink work. Working without a pencil drawing is quite liberating and I want to keep exploring these looser types of sketches in order to make even my more finished work more energetic and interesting.
Day 10:
Today I did a quick sketchbook study of a Sergio Toppi piece using a crow quill nib and brush pen combination. This was a good exercise in hatching technique and the stylization of facial proportions.
Day 11:
Today I decided to have some fun in my sketchbook and explore a looser style inspired by urban sketching and current lifestyle illustration. I chose Howard Stern as my subject as his unique likeness gave me many ideas for exaggeration and caricature. I used a combination of a water soluble brush pen, leading to some bleeding and mixing effects and coloured inks. I’m thinking of using this study as inspiration for a more refined portrait as part of my ongoing editorial celebrity portraits project.
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