Top 10 Sketchbook drawings, February 24 to May 9

What a change! Last sketchbook's theme was gesture drawings, and although it went fast (January/February), I ended up with little worth scanning in. So this time around, the theme was finished drawings. I ended up with a lot more stuff rendered beyond mere gestures, and am a lot happier with the results. Here's my top ten favorites, possibly out of order.

#10. Southern slave-owning dwarf concept. Fun and challenging to draw!

#9. Head study. This is a lighting scheme I love to draw, which really clicked into habit from an Alex Ross lighting study for "Uncle Sam." Read it, it's amazing! I was watching Bill Mahr while drawing this, and I think Bill's certainly distinctive mug leaked into this.


#8. Muscular Russian head. Same lighting scheme habit as above.

#7. Two heads of opposite gender and emotional polarities. There's some braid studies to the left of the girl's head.

#6. Assorted roughs, plus a Hans Dahl-esque girl. I admit, I largely chose this in my top ten because I felt lacking in full-body drawings. As always, my love of drawing heads gets too much exercise. The text is me cataloging "monster-style" teeth I like to draw on monsters. Exhibited in rough is a favorite--inward pointing teeth.

#5. The hornbill at Woodland Park Zoo. I live near the zoo, I'm a member of the zoo, and I draw there as often as possible.

#4. Caricature of my dad. He's a bike rider of rare enthusiasm, and I tried to make this caricature of him as extreme as possible. I'm hoping to spruce this up in photoshop as a Father's Day gift for him.

#3. Bowing Satyr. I was quite happy with how this turned out. I was experimenting with something I like about certain Frazetta paintings, where he makes figures' cast shadows strongest on their own person, with shaded chests bleeding out and shadowing much of the lower body.

#2. Brick Fuggler, private dick. Why is this guy so fun to draw? I like that I can go back to older ideas for new inspiration.

#1. Head swarm. This was a lot of fun, and it made me realize how broad you can get when you try and draw in several styles all packed in together. Plus, I love drawing heads! The ugly old man at 6B and the Sean Penn-ish caricature at 3D are probably my favorites.

And although these are nice, I think the best drawing this time around is still the one I previewed in my previous post. So technically, this list goes to eleven.

My next sketchbook will be a new hurdle I am bound to struggle with. Why? Because the goal is to ONLY draw in color. Here's hoping it works out!

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