1,000th Post: Sharing Some Illustrations & Design I've Done

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Dec 3, 2021
4,909
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Pennsylvania & New York
Below are some of the distorted nude life drawings I mentioned previously, that were done purely for myself—art for art's sake as it were. They were drawn with Black Prismacolor coloured pencils in 11" x 14" sketchbooks. I'd done distorted nude drawings in the '80s in school. But, this period in the early '90s, I made a concerted effort to do drawings that weren't tied to my getting a check.

This first drawing is one of the very first I did at the Art Students League. Typically, a drawing session would start with ten one minute drawings to get loosened up, then three five minute drawings, a ten and fifteen, then a twenty-five. I don't recall the amount of time for the various drawings, but, if there's more than one figure, or if there's a lot more detail, figure it was a twenty-five minute drawing.

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The four drawings below were of a model named Wilson who posed regularly at the Art Students League for years. Wilson's wife had no idea he was doing nude modeling—Wilson told her he ran the elevator at the League.

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The model below (Christine? Christina?) didn't like that I was doing caricatures of her. She would turn away from me. If I moved to change my vantage point, so I could draw her face, she'd turn again. I enjoyed drawing her.

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These were quick one minute gestural drawings:

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This model was a bit older and had very expressive eyes.

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Below are some drawings that played with arbitrary distortion, or finding different ways to fill a page or play with proportion and perspective.

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My friend, Steve Brodner, caricaturist/illustrator extraordinaire, paid me the highest compliment after seeing the drawing below. He said, "I've waited my entire life to do a drawing like this."

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I have a bunch more I can post, but, figure I'll stop at the image limit for now. Thanks for looking.
 

Zero

Lifer
Apr 9, 2021
1,699
12,963
As my eyes traced and drank in every line, shading, and texture--I had visions of Salvador Dali paintings and the sounds of Pink Floyd flashing through my drunk addled brain. I really like your style and am curious of your artistic influences. You are a Master, I hate to think of any good talent being under the gun of time or deadlines. Awesome work! Salvador Dali- The Temptation Of St. Anthony
 

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JOHN72

Lifer
Sep 12, 2020
5,140
51,682
51
Spain - Europe
Below are some of the distorted nude life drawings I mentioned previously, that were done purely for myself—art for art's sake as it were. They were drawn with Black Prismacolor coloured pencils in 11" x 14" sketchbooks. I'd done distorted nude drawings in the '80s in school. But, this period in the early '90s, I made a concerted effort to do drawings that weren't tied to my getting a check.

This first drawing is one of the very first I did at the Art Students League. Typically, a drawing session would start with ten one minute drawings to get loosened up, then three five minute drawings, a ten and fifteen, then a twenty-five. I don't recall the amount of time for the various drawings, but, if there's more than one figure, or if there's a lot more detail, figure it was a twenty-five minute drawing.

View attachment 143971

The four drawings below were of a model named Wilson who posed regularly at the Art Students League for years. Wilson's wife had no idea he was doing nude modeling—Wilson told her he ran the elevator at the League.

View attachment 143973

View attachment 143974


View attachment 143976

View attachment 143977

The model below (Christine? Christina?) didn't like that I was doing caricatures of her. She would turn away from me. If I moved to change my vantage point, so I could draw her face, she'd turn again. I enjoyed drawing her.

View attachment 143979

View attachment 143980

These were quick one minute gestural drawings:

View attachment 143981

This model was a bit older and had very expressive eyes.

View attachment 143982

View attachment 143983

Below are some drawings that played with arbitrary distortion, or finding different ways to fill a page or play with proportion and perspective.

View attachment 143984

View attachment 143985

View attachment 143986

View attachment 143991

My friend, Steve Brodner, caricaturist/illustrator extraordinaire, paid me the highest compliment after seeing the drawing below. He said, "I've waited my entire life to do a drawing like this."

View attachment 143987

I have a bunch more I can post, but, figure I'll stop at the image limit for now. Thanks for looking.
I love this kind of drawings. Great job my friend................
 

JOHN72

Lifer
Sep 12, 2020
5,140
51,682
51
Spain - Europe
As my eyes traced and drank in every line, shading, and texture--I had visions of Salvador Dali paintings and the sounds of Pink Floyd flashing through my drunk addled brain. I really like your style and am curious of your artistic influences. You are a Master, I hate to think of any good talent being under the gun of time or deadlines. Awesome work! Salvador Dali- The Temptation Of St. Anthony
I love this artist, his paintings are very singular and unique.
 
Dec 3, 2021
4,909
41,457
Pennsylvania & New York
As my eyes traced and drank in every line, shading, and texture--I had visions of Salvador Dali paintings and the sounds of Pink Floyd flashing through my drunk addled brain. I really like your style and am curious of your artistic influences. You are a Master, I hate to think of any good talent being under the gun of time or deadlines. Awesome work! Salvador Dali- The Temptation Of St. Anthony
Did you ever do any work for MAD Magazine? I can imagine it?View attachment 144028View attachment 144029
Thank you for the very generous words. I'm glad you enjoyed the drawings. I'm hardly a Master, but, I appreciate the great compliment.

I never did any work for MAD, but, I did do a lot of work for their pale imitator, CRACKED.

files-1997-cracked-magazine-scully_1_c0335ff108e666d29a92cef6282510ca.jpg

My caricature teacher at SVA, Sam Viviano, became the Art Director of MAD.

As far as influences, they vary wildly. I'll list artists off the top of my head in no particular order, that inspired me, or whose work I love; their influence may or may not be readily apparent.

Comics: Harvey Kurtzman, Wally Wood, Berni Wrightson, Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, Jim Aparo, Walt Simonson, Barry Smith, Richard Corben, Vaughn Bode, Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Geof Darrow, so many more.

Caricature: Mort Drucker, David Levine, Al Hirschfeld, Miguel Covarrubias, Gerald Scarfe, Ralph Steadman, Jean Mulatier, Patrice Ricord, Jean-Claude Morchoisne, Paolo Garretto, Peggy Bacon, Ed Sorel, Robert Risko, William Auerbach-Levy, Philip Burke, Erich Sokol, etc.

Painters and Sculptors: Joan Miro, Paul Klee, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Lucien Freud, John Singer Sargent, Wassily Kandinsky, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, etc.

I could go on. There are so many more.
 
Dec 3, 2021
4,909
41,457
Pennsylvania & New York
They made me think of Gerald Scarfe's illustrations for The Wall...especially the last one has that sort of effect.
A funny thing: As you'll see in my above reply, Scarfe is an influence of mine. There is a Pink Floyd tie-in. I did storyboards for a video that was supposed to be projected on the big thirty foot round screen around the time of The Division Bell tour. It ended up not getting used.
 
Dec 3, 2021
4,909
41,457
Pennsylvania & New York
So, here's the back story on the other oil painting I did of a dog—it was a wedding present for two friends of ours, Kayla and Chris (my buddy that's into Star Wars and pipes)—a portrait of their Frenchie, Gordie, after Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres' The Grande Odalisque. Kayla had posted a picture of Gordie relaxing on their couch on Instagram. She wrote, "Gordie thinks he's a model, but, he's not."

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I thought, "Well, what if he is?" The pose reminded me of the Ingres painting (note the long stemmed pipe in the lower right corner).

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So, I made Gordie a model and we gave them a painting titled "Le Grand Gordolisque."

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Zero

Lifer
Apr 9, 2021
1,699
12,963
I love your work. I like to draw, but have never been to an art school; I took art in highschool but none of my teachers taught or showed any talent. I am mostly under the influence of alcohol when I draw and have been since 13 years old. I don't get to draw anymore as I would like, but I just took some quick pics from some old stuff shoved in a corner. I am drinking Old Scout rt now, so probably not the best collage. Would it be ok to share?
 
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Zero

Lifer
Apr 9, 2021
1,699
12,963
@TheIronMonkey: Thank you for your reply. In the past I would just draw as a hobby, my daughter and I were on a Power Puff Girls binge there for awhile. It's cool to see someone of your caliber in the pipe smoking hobby? When I find the free time in future retirement, I would like to take up watercolor or oil painting or both. Again, thank you.KIMG1109.JPGKIMG1108.JPGKIMG1110.JPGKIMG1112.JPGKIMG1102.JPGKIMG1103.JPGKIMG1106.JPGKIMG1107.JPGKIMG1105.JPGKIMG1104.JPG
 
Dec 3, 2021
4,909
41,457
Pennsylvania & New York
@TheIronMonkey: Thank you for your reply. In the past I would just draw as a hobby, my daughter and I were on a Power Puff Girls binge there for awhile. It's cool to see someone of your caliber in the pipe smoking hobby? When I find the free time in future retirement, I would like to take up watercolor or oil painting or both. Again, thank you.View attachment 144704View attachment 144705View attachment 144703View attachment 144702View attachment 144707View attachment 144708View attachment 144709View attachment 144710View attachment 144711View attachment 144712
Why wait for future retirement? Carve out a little time each day and paint now. Life is short. You obviously enjoy it and it's evident you have rendering skills. Set up some apples on a table and get those watercolours out. You'd be surprised by the time you can steal back for yourself if you skip one TV show, do a few different things for ten minutes less here and there, etc.