Not funny or cute

I'm not tired of drawing girls yet, but I really want to start doing real projects on my own- comics, shorts, whatever...and to tell the kind of stories I'd like to tell I can't just draw girls all the time (most the time maybe, but not all the time).

SO! Anyhow I found an amazing book filled with mugshots of old criminals from the early part of the century, and it really inspired me to try drawing some menfolk for a change!



I don't like that these are so realistic (compared to how I normally like to draw), but it really felt like I was 15 again trying to learn to draw. I've never been comfortable caricaturing something I don't understand, and man faces are a mystery to me, hence the weird shading and stuff.

P.S. This drawing is flat

I've been concentrating on drawing girls since I was a teenager...I started off drawing realistic and lovingly rendered drawings of Bjork and such, and as I got older added more and more girl shapes to the library in my head. Now drawing girls is something I do out of comfort, it makes me happy and calm! However...drawing men is like drawing in the dark. I don't have a library of man shapes. I can't make them up because I don't understand them yet.

P.S. It's hard to figure out unique eye shapes when in profile, at least for me

These ones above were from my first attempt. I was proud at first but now they look weird to me.

OH!!! Also, these are all profile drawings for a reason- profiles are easier to understand and draw (at least for me)!!! The shapes all come clear- how long a nose sticks out, how deep the eyes are sunken into the face, the shape of the chin. Of course you can make out most of those in a front view, but it's much harder to draw the volumes. Unless of course you're Jim Smith or something and can draw anything! I did some front views...they will not be shown here today!
>__<;



These ones above are my favorites that I did!! Oh, and as you can see I reverted and had to draw a lady mugshot. Hooray for short attention spans!!



A scary man who's likeness I didn't do justice at all...and a horrible drawing of a beat up lady that I got tried of drawing and didn't finish.


LASTLY!


Here are some shitty drawings done while eating dinner. I'm not sure these drawings were worth all the words I typed out. Actually I'm positive they're not- but it's good to try something new for a change! Thanks for looking!

OH ALSO
Here are two etsy stores you ought to visit! They will cleanse your eyes with nice colors and pretty pictures. If you like drawings of girls and interesting things, then you will like these!

The Miss Withers Shop

Sorry, this one's not for sale, I bought it already :P

The Marlo Meekins Shop

Thanks pals!!

Friends, Frenchies, and assistance needed

I'm excited cause I am working on something new and secret! Actually it's only kind of secret. If you like stories about girls then you might like it. Here are two girls who are in my kind of secret project:

Yes, it is my lovely friends Emli and Christine! They've been on my blog a lot lately. That's because they are fun to draw.

Also Jenny Lerew gave some good advice on a post where I was complaining about this drawing slump I've been in- to draw with a different kind of tool when you are in a rut. So I did some drawings of French film stars using a PENCIL!! Oh wait I lied, the first one is in pen.


I haven't drawn with a pencil in like 2 years. It took a long time to find one in the house.


Drawing with a pencil again was fun. I don't think these drawings removed me from my slump, but I like that they look pretty different from the drawings I've been posting lately. Jenny is a smart girl.


Wow, this one is weird. I'm not bothering to put the names of the actresses because the likenesses are really quite crappy.


That's all for those. OK now I need help (again).


My eye has been twitching for 3 days straight now!!!!!! It's really driving me bonkers. What have I done to deserve this?? Is there a weird concoction I need to make to force it away, or an incantation I can say at midnight? Is there a special eye twitch god who is angry and needs to be appeased? Seriously, can anyone tell me how to get rid of it? I'm going nutty here!

P.S. My hair is pretty long and red now. Time flies, doesn't it??

P.P.S. A new Skadi is up on Dumm Comics, you can see what happens when I try to draw men!

Uninspired- drawing under the influence, and tard update

*****OOOOOPS

I'm retarded and messed up all the links and everything on my blog while attempting to change the layout. I'll try to put them all back soon...sorry if I deleted a link to you! My list was in need of updating anyhow...I also lost the little bar thing that says how many hits I had...does anyone know how to get that back, or is it impossible? Cry!

Anyhow...


Been feeling weird, anxious, and uninspired about drawing lately...above is another inked doodle that I made to trick myself into thinking I am still being productive.

The rest of these are older...drawn late at night while enjoying a glass or two of something or other.

It's weird cause I have this stuff I'd like to post, but I keep thinking I need to save the stuff I like for the book I'm attempting to make.

That's it for now...I want to do a post about my new eyes, and a post about the cool stuff I got for my birthday, and hopefully I will do them soon, but for now all I want to do is lie around and be lazy!

HEEEEELP please read! (nevermind now)

*****EDIT
OK, I think I figured out how to use paypal, so I erased what I originally wrote for this post. I had had problems with paypal in the past, but I think I know how to fix it now. Anyhow, what I asked before was whether people preferred paypal, or paying with checks or money orders. I still want to know!! Tell me what you think please!

I don't like making posts without drawings, so here are some gift drawings I did.

One for Mom...

One for Daddy...

And one for friend Brandy!
Oh yeah, her blog lives here!
http://www.kittenswithchainsaws.blogspot.com/

Back again...kind of

Hello again! Well, I'm officially giving up as a "blogger," although I'll be keeping this site up as a kind of portfolio. I may update it occasionally in the future, but i probably won't be talking theories or anything like that. Hopefully some people will come back every now and again anyhow. I don't think most people read the type anyway. :) Here are a few drawings from the last couple months.

Another thing, I want to thank all the nice people who have taken time to write me emails. I know I'm really crappy at writing back, but it's not because I don't appreciate the thought...life's been busy lately, and I'm pretty dysfunctional at doing normal type things! Forgive me!
Well, bye!
P.S. Happy birthday John!

Semi-realistic girls

I realize my posts havn't been all that interesting lately, but I really haven't been drawing as much as I usually do! I guess I'm still not really out of my rut. Anyhow, I was looking through a bunch of drawings from the past couple of months and pulled out the more realistic ones to post here.

I suppose a lot of people would say that these are hardly "realistic," but compared to the kinds of cartoon drawings I like, these look pretty boring and uncartoony to me.

It's sort of funny, because when I was 14 or so I LOVED drawing realistic portraits of people. I'd spend hours getting every detail right and shading the whole thing. When I try to do it now though, I find I'm worse at it. My attention span has wizened and the urge to exaggerate things always takes over, even without my meaning it to. Maybe I'll dig some of them out of the closet and post them, if anyone would care to see them.

Here are some un-inspired phone doodle heads:


I actually really like how the colors turned out on the girl on the right side here...my scanner wouldn't pick up the colors, so I had to take a photo of it.

A lot of people have been demanding coloring lessons, but I probably won't do one. To be honest, I don't really have any coloring theories that I think that hard about. There's one tip I could give for coloring with markers: mix your colors and layer them, instead of just using "grass green" or "sky blue" or whatever.

Sorry for the lack of enthusiasm- I'm going to try hard to get some good mouth drawings done so I can post them!

Drawing is my enemy

I guess I'm in another rut or something...I didn't want to go for too long without a post though, so here are some month-old sketch pages.
I like some of these doodles, but as usual I don't know what to do with them.
And here is your gorgeous host! Luke says I'm not this scary looking, but regardless of the weird likeness I thought the drawing was kind of funny, and that's what matters! Right?

Hey, thanks to everyone who was able to come to the 8-bit show! A lot of people asked earlier where to get the book...I'm pretty sure you can order it online easily through Amazon, and probably other book sites as well. I left a new comment in my previous post too, so if you asked me a question recently, the answer is probably there. Thanks again guys!

Cheerleader FRUSTRATION!

Ugh, I'm very frustrated right now. I needed something fun to do tonight, so I decided to draw from movies that had actresses I liked in them. "But I'm a Cheerleader" inspired me as soon as I saw the DVD...I really like both the main actresses (Natasha Lyonne and Clea DuVall) because they're super unique looking. Really cute, yet totally unconventional. HOWEVER...for some reason I couldn't get any of the drawings to really resemble the girls. It's making me MAD!
Natasha Lyonne is really neat looking. All her features are unique, and fit together in a very strange but wonderful way. I'm mad at her though, because even though I did about 50 drawings (no joke) tonight, I could only find 4 that were worth showing. And those 4 are bleedy with marker and kind of bland.
Oh yeah, I'm also mad at her because I'm jealous of the outfits she gets to wear in this movie.
Here's Graham (Clea DuVall), the love interest in the movie. She's got totally individual features too, which I failed to capture. She's also a great contrast to Natasha, who has very round, soft looking features. Clea has a very striking face with lots of subtle angles. I'm going to try again with sketching these gals though...maybe tomorrow!
I didn't make up this outfit...it's in the movie, so don't go calling me a pervert!
Here's one of the side characters, Hillary, played by Melanie Lynskey. She's interesting too. Actually, most the actresses in this movie are interesting to look at. So I'm going to recommend this movie to anyone in need of good girl inspiration!