Random/Recent

The top image is a portrait I drew of my grandma from her high school days. It was an exercise for me to see how close I could get a drawing to look like a photo. It's funny, I don't see  what's off in a drawing until I scan it and put it on the computer. For the most part I'm happy with how it turned out and look forward to doing some more drawings from photos.

The middle drawing is of the Disney Pixar character, Wall-E. I used colored pencil and marker for this peice. It's for a co-worker that's going to give it to her grandson for Christmas.

Finally, the last drawing is a mild caricature of another one of my co-workers. It was supposed to be a warm up drawing but I was having fun with it and took it a little further. 

Twilight Drawings

A couple weeks ago I went and saw Twilight on opening night at the theatre. My friend told me it was a movie about Vampires and love... so I'm thinking, "cool, I really liked the Underworld movies, this could be good." I didn't realize what I got myself into till seeing about 50 high school girls lined up waiting to see the movie. Anyways, I thought it was kind of funny that one of the vampires falls in love with a high school girl, considering he's lived to pass several generations. What a loser. 

Figure Studies

Pretty sure it was comic books that really got me inspired to draw more and the human figure has always been a favorite of mine. Especially, drawing Spider-Man and Venom. They're fun to draw doing these crazy acrobatic/dynamic moves, and Venom's just fun to draw as a bodybuilder on steroids that slobbers everywhere. 

These studies were to test my knowledge of anatomy and see where the week points are. I'm still learning about the lower torso so that's why there's a lack of construction there. The perspective in the ground plain is a little off too. All in all, these were fun mini puzzles to fit and piece together. 

Figure Study

In my quest to become a better quick sketch artist, I've started drawing figures from photographs. I'm also doing this to learn how to see value and render the figure. These are drawn with charcoal pencil on newsprint paper. Each figure took about 4-5 hours. 

For this caricature of Arnold Schwarzenegger, I used the same procedure from life drawing classes. It's kind of like a 1,2,3 step process that helps create a strong foundation for the drawing. I've learned this creative process while taking art classes at Studio 2nd Street

Hope you guys enjoy!

Tommy Lee Jones Caricature

My friend showed me this site called drawingboard.org. It's a giant forum and I checked out the caricature section. The artists were posting their versions of Tommy Lee Jones so I decided to take a crack at it.

Purgatory Sketch Club

A group of artists and I started a blog (Purgatory Sketch Club) where we do these "challenges" every month. The challenges range from Cowboys and Indians to 80's cartoon characters. It's a fun way to get each other motivated and create new art. 

These are some of the images I've created for the blog challenges. The top image is a group of guys in line at a comic convention. The middle image is the Transformer known as Starscreem. The bottom image is an Orc, ready to lead his army to battle. 

The challenges are fun because they're usually something you wouldn't draw. It pushes you to explore more with your art. It also helps you create work for a portfolio if ever needed.

T-Shirt Designs

These were a few t-shirt designs I did for a rugby company. The lady I worked with would give me these slogans she wanted on the shirt and the rest was up to me to figure out. It was a fun side project because I got to put my anatomy class work to practice. 

Head Studies

Since moving to California, which has been about 9 months now, I've been studying portraiture. The bottom two newsprint drawings were done in 2 hours with instruction from my teacher. I'm still learning the different planes of the face but the latest challenge has become rendering with charcoal. The top drawing are studies of women from a magazine. Influenced by J. Scott Campbell and Tom Richmond, I've always admired how these artists can make women look sexy. This was my shot at it, taking a little bit from what I know along with their expertise. 

Spider-Man / Gambit

The Spider-Man drawing was inked back in March and I decided to color it now that I have my NEW COMPUTER! To keep with the comic book theme, the bottom drawings are of my favorite X-Man inspired by Kenny Parks. Enjoy!

Live Caricatures

These drawings are from last week at Legoland. I carried a camera with me for most of the time taking pictures of my drawings though out the day. The goal was to take the good/bad/and the ugly so that I could look at them at home and find areas of improvement in the drawings. These were some of my favorites. 

Lately I've been averaging 1 - 2 "reject" drawings a week. Usually the only problems I have are with young - teenage girls and their mothers. I did have a father get bent out of shape a couple weeks ago, that was a first. Usually though, I never get rejects (that I know about) and what's weird to me is, I don't think my "live caricature" style is that exaggerated. If any thing (and I'm not crazy about this) but my drawings seam to lean more towards being "cute." At least that's what the customers say. The park that I draw at (Legoland California Resort) is geared towards kids and parents so I can image most people getting a caricature aren't looking for exaggeration as much as a good likeness. Actually, it seams like people are more interested in the body we give their faces to go with the picture (ex. Jedi, Princess, Fairy, Power Ranger, etc.)

Selling retail caricature has definitely given me thicker skin about my art. My first year drawing caricatures, if I got a reject drawing, it crushed me on the inside. Now a days, if I know the likeness is a good one in the drawing and the customer hates it, it's no big deal. In fact, I like playing the "I'm a starving artist" card and let them know that this comes out of my pay check if they don't buy it. And truthfully, it kind of does. 

To end this post, I will say that it's an adrenaline rush when you're drawing someone and you have a good hunch that the person you're drawing won't be ready for the truth when you give it to them. It's even more fun though when you show the person your drawing and they love it! Can't describe the feeling much more than a natural high and that's something I want to push more towards these next couple months at the park.

Side Tracked

Bet you can't guess who my favorite super-hero is? I got inspired to do this one after looking at Sean Galloway's work the other night and colored it before work the next day.

Inspired

Comic Con was awesome this year and I want to start creating a bunch of art to put together an ash can for next year's convention. Maybe sell some prints too, who knows. Here's a Spider-Man drawing I did a couple months ago that still needs to be colored. It feels selfish some times with all the work put into creating art, studying art, promoting yourself, updating blogs. But if the work you create has some kind of meaning to someone, I think it's worth it. That's going to be my main focus this coming year.

It's officially summer at Legoland. I've been working more which means less time to draw at home. I have a few T-shirt designs I'm working on but can't show them off till the client gives the ok. On top of this, I'm taking two drawing classes and it's more than enough to keep busy.

A group of us artists from Legoland started an art blog to share, critique and motivate each other with our work. I post drawings here that aren't on this blog. Here's the link.

http://purgatorysketchclub.blogspot.com/search/label/Taylor%27s%20Posts

I haven't brought my camera to work in a while but here's a caricature from a couple months ago. I love doing caricatures for people that are happy to be drawn and not in a rush with their day. I take my time, so the drawing turns out better and we usually joke around or share some laughs. This family in particular made my day.

Friends

This is a drawing of my buddies and I from high school. I did a drawing similar to this about five years ago on a larger scale. Back then I didn't know what caricaturing was so the likeness was missing. I wanted to recreate this drawing to show myself the progression of my artistic abilities and also show how we've changed since high school. Pictured from left to right is myself, Bones, Dero, and Big C.

These are some cardboard caricatures I did of friends from Legoland. It's experimental. I liked how they turned out and plan on exploring this more in the future.

Drawings from the Park

Check out the sweet anatomy on this bovine. As you can tell, I don't draw cows very often. Also, I thought it was funny how her hair clips look like devil horns. Didn't realize this till after the drawing was done, but oh well!

This guy was the coolest. Usually when I ask an adult if they'd like a caricature, they walk away or just laugh at the suggestion. But this guy wanted one and lately I've been dieing to draw anyone that's old enough to see a PG 13 movie (we draw a lot of kids at the land of Legos), so this was a real treat.

Memory Sketches

I really miss Minnesota sometimes. Some people say they would go crazy if they ever lived in a small town and went to school in Bemidji. Part of that is true, but it's the people there that make it more than worth it. These are some memory sketches of my friends from back home.

New Furniture (and Artwork)!

My boss from Legoland dropped off some couches for our apartment the other day. The guy who used to own them is a character designer for the new Transformers and Spider-Man cartoon shows so that made the furniture that much cooler. Check it out! Our living room is actually starting to look like... a living room!

Here's some new art from my classes this term. I'm focusing on portraits the most and my figure drawing class. I'm also enjoying reading about other artists like Alphonse Mucha and Norman Rockwell. All very inspirational. That's all for now.

"Who Wears Short Shorts?"

Well, It's official. My dignity has been totally compromised at Legoland. As if the striped shirt wasn't goofy looking enough, the employees alternative to pants are short shorts and red socks. I tried it for one day and have to admit, they're really comfortable. But with comfortibility comes lack of respect (from your coworkers and guests.)

Here's some caricatures from the park.

On a side note, the drawing classes at Studio 2nd Street are going well. It's weird. Lately all I'm interested in is drawing and getting better. Girls usually cross my mind during the day, but not often. I'm really focused with what I'm doing and love learning with my teachers.

Portrait Studies

New photos from the land of Legos!

Caricature booth.

Kid with Chicklet teeth.

Wall Sample. We hang samples of our work on the wall for people to see what our work looks like.

This gag was used on last summer's Mad Magazine Spider-Man cover.

Drawing kids gets tricky after a while. With adults, it's easier for me to see different shapes and features. Babies are challenging if you're going after exaggeration.