Luke Russert
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Luke Russert, with UFO.
 Sketches
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Bun E. Carlos
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Barry Hannah
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I have three illustrations in the March 2011 issue of The Oxford American. This issue is about the author Barry Hannah who died one year ago this month.
Here’s some of the process, ink and gouache, assembled in Photoshop.
Here’s a repeating pattern tile I made from the drops.
Bad Military Guy
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One thing I don't think I will ever need to worry about is copy infringement for source images. I never seem to capture the photo I'm looking at when I draw. The drawing seems to take on a life of its own. So maybe you can guess who this is but trust me it looks nothing like the photo reference. Brush pen line with gouache color, with a bit of Photoshopy work, not much, just color and erasing here and there. No new pixels were created.
NYTimes illo in today's Home section
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Above is an illo, from today’s NYTimes Home section. Below is the sketch. The story is about universal remote controls, how they don’t necessarily work that well. I arranged the letter buttons to suggest the shape of the remote, and to allow some of the letter buttons to overlap the thumb and finger to imply that it wasn’t working. The floating letters suggest a flimsy, rickety construction, as if pushing a button causes it to move and move around the other buttons.
Cycling print
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Here's a project I'm currently working on, a screen print for an upcoming exhibit.
I’m trying out a pre-sale model using Kickstarter to fund the project, details here. Project backers get a signed edition of the final screen print and, with a larger pledge, can get their name embedded within the art work, ala Hirschfeld’s “Nina.” Above is the image so far. This shows preliminary hand lettering placement, still waffling over what top word to use; Psycho, Savage, Monster… 
Above are the initial steps into Photoshop where I’ll design the print. I first refined the sketch a bit, enlarging the front wheel, adjusting the road, other little tweaks. Then I chose a background color starting point, a warm red, suggesting heat, anger, blood. The next step will be to define the edges and add one or two more colors to the palette. I will also be refining the face with ink line work as well as other details. Not sure about the road, think I prefer the severe straight-edged version over the s-curve. The lettering has not worked its way into the composition yet.
I may look at adjusting the face and lettering but this first step was to get the arrangement of the body and bike within the format. This bike is very simplified intentionally to place more focus on the face of the rider but could use some corrections and details here and there. The word “Savage” may change, looking for a word that sounds well spoken with “Cycling” and suggests a fierce, focused, beast-like energy and attitude. This version is a refinement of the next two sketches. The word “Savage” replaced the word “Psycho.” 
Fingerspelling
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I’m working on a series of fingerspelling images. This is the letter “N” I drew at church as a quick reference drawing for the project. I wanted to add some hand lettering and “Luke” came from today’s lectionary (I know, begins with an “L” but I didn’t hear any interesting “N” words and couldn’t remember the sign for “L”). A couple of things I’ve learned about fingerspelling…
Sketchbook exchange updates
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I made this for my sketchbook exchange with a friend of mine, started out as a drawing of David Suchet as Poirot, using a Nikko G-pen nib and brown ink, then became overrun with some doodling using Dr. Martin’s True Blue dye.
Dell-user with frog eggs.
This began as a doodle with Nikko G-pen nibs and red ink, added gouache for the light blue areas.
Shoe
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A drawing of my shoe at church on Palm Sunday, with frog eggs.
Doodle with collage
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This is a doodle with collage from one of my sketch exchange books, random drawings around this tree, also incorporated some collage using Eric Carle’s technique. The pink is ink that had bled through from the previous page.
Wooly orb
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This is a sketchbook exchange entry for Aaron with some heavy influence from him. I made this with a Yasutomo Niji Waterbrush pen filled with Coffee Brown Dr. Martin’s Dye. I bought a full set of these dyes at Art Materials about twenty years ago and have never really used them, actually wasn’t sure if I still had them, then found them buried in the back drawer of my drafting table. A little messy filling the pen with the eyedropper but it flows through the pen fairly well. More to come, with additional colors!
This drawing began as a dot and then became a wooly dot and then an aura or explosion, just an exploration in waterbrush pen line quality. Done while listening to Wolf Parade. Sketching at Spyhouse with students
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I brought my Thursday class over to Spyhouse this afternoon to do some observational research, looking, listening, sketching. I had time for a quick brush pen sketch of a young man concentrating on his laptop.
James Whitmore in Them!
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Sketchbook exchange
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I'm exchanging sketchbooks with a few artists this year. This image is the first page of the book I'm exchanging with Aaron DeYoe, made with a brush pen, colorized in Photoshop.
Kaki King
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This is Kaki King, guitar virtuoso, from AMG,
"appeared on albums from Tegan and Sara and the Foo Fighters and contributed to the soundtracks for Into the Wild and August Rush."Drawn rightside up. Fink (UK)
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This is a sketch of Finian Greenall, records as Fink, from Brighton, has evolved from ambient techno to acoustic folk with a DJ slant, his music reminds me a bit of José González, messed up the ear so drew a better one, photo reference here.
Lou Reed
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Nick Cave
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I’ve been using Danny Gregory’s method of drawing upside-down combined with Jack Unruh’s semi-blind contour drawing method with some mixed results, often ending up with some wild distortion. For this one, I drew rightside-up and, after blocking in the head a bit, started with the left eye worked my way through the face and hair and down to the shirt. Reference photo can be found here. Love that mustache!
Neko Case
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Neko Case’s music, according to All Music Guide, has “smoky, sophisticated vocals,” and, “dark, country-noir,” and, “sad cowgirl blues with all the rustic nuance of Patsy Cline.” Case possesses a “hauntingly beautiful alto, a siren call fashioned from country’s might and pop’s melody,”
Daniel Ellsberg
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This is a ballpoint pen sketch with color of Daniel Ellsberg.
Dan Deacon
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Dan Deacon’s music is described by All Music Guide as, “influenced by diverse artists like Devo, Talking Heads, Scratch Orchestra, Raymond Scott, and Conlon Nancarrow,” and, “whimsical electronic music sensibilities” and, “filled with hyperactive and often challenging electronic detritus,” and, “an extravaganza of noise-pop that looks, not to the dance field, but to the slowly burgeoning indie rock fetish of voices, either in harmony or in chorus.”
MLK
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More Pentel brush pen drawings
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The reference photos for these are here (among many other sites) and here. My Pete Townshend sketch looks a bit like someone I know and the Thom Yorke one looks a bit like someone else I know.
I was searching for a good Gene Simmons reference photo and couldn’t find anything I liked but stumbled upon this photo of Ringo Starr within the search. It was with a trivia quiz asking what band Ringo Starr played in prior to The Beatles. The answer (Paul Revere and the Raiders, although according to Wikipedia, he actually played with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes) included a Gene Simmons reference. I can’t find a credit for the photograph, found uncredited here, here, here, and here.
Mos Def looking a bit like Castro maybe, some distortion. This is from an upside down reference photo. I’m using Jack Unruh’s drawing method, blind contour drawing starting with one eye and working out from there, creates distortion. But I’ve noticed if I combine that with a reference to the frame, drawing the negative areas around the edge of the page (I crop the reference into a proportion matching my Moleskin), I get a bit more accuracy. So the Sillitto drawing is a little less distorted. Lorenzo Sillitto is the guitarist for The Temper Trap (sound like a Travis/Deerhunter blend).
This is a drawing of the actor Paul Bryar in an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode from 1955 called “Salvage” made using an upside down screenshot reference, drawn with a Pentel brush pen.
Kong!! This is from a photo from issue #108 Famous Monsters of Filmland of a sculpted Kong figure from the first film. Basil Gogos used this same photo for his painting featured on the cover of that issue.
This is a bundled up wool sweater portrait using an upside down photo reference with a Pentel brush pen and some messing around in Photoshop. January is just way too cold for me.
Pentel brush pen drawings
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My daughter signed up to promote her ballet troupe’s Nutcracker performance this season. She dressed up in her soldier outfit and handed out fliers at the Mall of America on Black Friday. She didn’t want me hanging around so I walked down to Crave (website plays music) with my sketchbook and pens and drew people at the bar.
The cap of my Kaimei brush pen came off (found out this is common) and the brush tip dried up. I tried re-wetting it, washing it, all of the online suggestions I could find but no luck. So I set it aside and looked for some other options. In one discussion board, I found this list which also includes recommendations for nonbrush tip pens: Pentel GFKP Pocket Brush, Zebra brush pen, Rotring Sketch EF, Rotring Rapidoliner, and Sakura Micron 08. I decided to try out the Pentel brush pen (recommended by one of the Wet Paint staff persons). I’ve also been using a Pelikan P58 Style Fountain Pen and a Zebra F-301 ballpoint pen, and a red Uni-Ball roller ball pen. These drawings are from Crave and from church, my first using the Pentel brush pen. The top one includes a draped table from church, used for a baptism. The middle sketch is of a burly man in sweats watching football at Crave. The bottom sketch is from church, more back-of-the-head views. Sketching with students at Nina's
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Today, I was sketching with my students at Nina’s Coffee Cafe, actually spent most of my time grading but got in a quick couple of sketches, one here with some notes from my friend Zak Sally’s presentation to my other class. In addition, a couple of sketches from September, sketchbook catching-up day.
The top sketch is of a man who was sitting with his wife and little bean newborn. They spoke with an Eastern European accent. Another man sat with them who spoke without an accent or with a less noticeable one and resembled this man, maybe brothers? This second sketch was drawn at The Bulldog in September, the bartender that particular day. He wore a PBR knit cap and served me a few Maredsous Blondes. The red drawing with him is a man from Nina’s from today, two views, with some chairs and a cup. This third drawing is from September, at the Irish Feis. This man didn’t look as David Lynchian as he does here. I was also drawing some of the dancers’ outfits, colorful, with shiny rhinestones and decorative stitching. Sunday sketches
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It seems my sketching during the church service is gaining notice. Talked with a member of our church’s exhibit committee briefly about showing some work. Another will be contacting me about a poster design for an event they’re planning. And in the pew in front of me, a restless boy was leaning back trying to see my drawing of the violinist and then looking back at her, comparing the two, or maybe just trying to figure out what I was drawing. When I finished, I handed my sketchbook to him and asked him if he wanted to draw something. He said no but asked if he could see more of my drawings so I let him look through it. After handing it back, he handed me a small piece of paper and asked, “Can I have your autograph?”
Kal Penn portrait
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When I started this, Kal Penn was in the news for leaving House to join the Obama administration. The sketch was drawn upside-down using my Jack Unruh inspired semi-blind contour drawing technique, resulting in some distortion. I corrected a few proportion and alignment issues and added color and texture.
Sunday sketches
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Two parishioners sitting near me during the 9am service on Sunday.
Sketching food
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This week, I took my digital illustration classes outside of the computer lab to sketch food. For my sketches, I decided to start with candy, found out that pretzels aren’t the easiest thing to draw. Then I tried a cupcake from Starbucks followed by a pig’s foot, a fish, and some vegetables from an Asian market.
Sunday sketches
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These are from the previous two Sundays.
Smokepuffs
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I did this image a few weeks ago for a story about genetic markers and second-hand smoke. I first sketched out a tattoo cloud on the figure's chest. The client asked for more clouds to suggest a larger number of genetic markers (below: sketch with alternate sketches).
Sketching at church with a ballpoint pen
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Grandma and Grandpa Behar
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Couple of sketches
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Above are two sketches of John Updike. I've been tracking the NYTimes' obits this year for some portrait projects and these two studies are in preparation for that. 
Incorporating reference drawings
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New bus sketches
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Robert Kennedy portrait
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Forty years ago, as he was celebrating his victory in California’s Democratic presidential primary, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. To mark the occasion, Op-Ed editors invited his children to share their memories of him. Feeling left out and a little somber on the anniversary, I decided to have a try at it using the same observational process I'm using for my thesis. I think I used the same reference as Andrea Ventura. I was 6 when Robert Kennedy was assassinated. There is this foggy memory of me sitting on the floor in the living room in front of the TV watching the news. I could feel that my parents were sad, maybe they were crying (my mom anyway, my dad never cried). I've always connected this memory to John Kennedy's assassination but I was not quite 2 at that time so maybe it was Robert Kennedy's death. New bus drawings
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Bus sketches
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