getting antsy

So it's the same old story, I'm busy with shoe orders, new part-time work and drawing tons of stuff, but none of them are at a stage where I'm confident to show them. Hence, you'll just be getting a picture today.

This week I found this really neat site that helps me get and actually understand figure drawing. I've always sucked at drawing figures from my imagination which is why I'm pushing myself to learn this. Also looking forward to participating in the sketchbook project. Hopefully, I can make the submission in time. Because of this I'm getting "antsy" with a lot of things. And yes, I will be cheesy and post a picture of ants that I took with my phone.

I'm hoping to draw this one day. I just haven't gotten around to it because I know that it will be insanely meticulous. 

Black ants and their little white babies. ( I actually thought it was food at first.)

another four color pen creation

Although this picture is far from done, I wanted to show you what it looks like in the process. (Okay, so I simply don't have any finished drawing to post today.) I have several sketches on paper as well as quite a few still bobbing and floating inside my head. (Jo, I'm still coming up with some rough sketches for your story, so hang tight. =)

Anyway, for this drawing, I used my Dong-A 4 color pen again. I'm starting to just love the convenience of having four colors in one pen right in my hand whenever I need it. I got myself two other similar pens today. Although the other two were generic (it has Spongebob and Tigger as a design!) I think they work quite well.

I'll make sure to post the finished version of this once it's done.

The picture kind of makes it look weird. It looks much nicer in my sketchbook. =(

Say Hi to Julia

Dear sleepy head.

Julia likes to sleep in during the day and often stays awake until the wee hours of the morning reading books with informative but otherwise useless facts about everyday things. She loves stocking up on useless info in hopes that one day she'll actually be able to apply it in her everyday life. Her current favorite book is The Straight Dope from Cecil Adams. 

She hates having her photo taken because she says that it makes her look more bug-eyed than usual. Whenever she drinks coffee to stay awake, she ends up dozing off in less than an hour after drinking. Hence, she's officially banned everyone at home to buy coffee. She downs a glass or two of Coke to keep her awake instead.

some things are just not meant to be

Why am I double posting? Well, I have nothing better to do. Actually I do, but I'm procrastinating so I'll pass this blog post as something I MUST do so I won't feel so guilty. Anyway, as mentioned, still got plenty of things on my plate. Will be illustrating my friend's story pretty soon, if only I could get our damn printer to work. Rushing a pair of Jordan custom shoes, writing articles (WORK), looking for MORE work (to pay the bills) and possibly (crossing fingers and thumbs) joining an international art/sketchbook project. Also need to start on my Japanese Moleskine "plague" themed sketchbook and my portrait/painting sketchbook.

Speaking of portraits and paintings, guess what I found at our backyard.

singing with the weeds

 This was a portrait that I started a couple of years back. I think this was acrylic on board. After jetsetting for a couple of years and recently just came (visiting, really) home, I found it like this. Apparently, my mom found no use for it and dumped it here. It's all torn and the rain and sunshine like to bully it. Occasionally, stray cats like to snuggle up to it or use it for a scratch post. It's supposed to be Julian Casablancas. I kinda feel bad for it but I'm too jaded to pick it up or salvage it. There's another portrait of a girl behind it. At least I know he's not alone.

up close and personal

Been a hectic week. In between working on some shoe orders, drawing, looking for a new job and worrying my ass off about what to do next. Seems like this is going to be a never-ending cycle. Pretty much feeling like a hamster inside his wheel.

Anyway, I'm glad to say though that I finally found a 4 color pen. Been on the hunt for a while and finally stumbled across it in one of the smaller bookstores. It's pretty handy, still blots once in awhile but I guess can't really complain. The brand that I got was Dong-A. I was looking for Bic but no luck. Anyway, here are some of the scratches I've done so far with my new pen.

Creepy Minnie Mouse....

Not really into Minnie Mouse but my pillow has a cartoony picture of her and I just decided to doodle this on my way to la-la land. I've always looked at Minnie as equivalent to Doink the Clown or any of those creepy/scary clowns that you see in horror movies. Dunno, she gives me the creeps for some reason. I only like the bow in this picture.

If you take this picture and hold my hand against it, you'll find that it's exactly the same size.
Didn't mean for it to but it just came out that way.

Unfinished drawing of my hand...duhh. I always try not to draw at night since it just gets awful for my eyes but for some reason it's relaxing to draw at night. Anyway, I'm liking my 4 color pen so far. I just wish it won't blot too much because it does. Sucks. Oh well.

then the third day came

I know that it's been awhile since I've posted anything on the site. Been feeling rather lazy lately. After chasing over countless deadlines, it felt good to finally get a breather. But now, it's back to the drawing board. I'm still waiting for my Japanese Moleskine to get here, a couple of art books that I really want, and maybe a lot of inspiration to hit.

Been reading tons of cool blogs though. I'll definitely post links here once I get the motivation to do so. Anyway, to make up. I'll post several drawings/doodles that I've done. Here's the first one.

Why so sad?

This was done using Sharpie markers on my pocket Quicksilver sketchbook. The paper on that sketchbook is a bit thick, a lot like cardboard so the markers didn't bleed through as much. It's just a quick doodle. I didn't even put much thought into what I was doing. It's my first drawing on that new sketchbook so it was a bit intimidating and I simply wanted to get it over with. For some reason new sketchbooks always do that to me. 

My shoe paints.

This was done just last night, in between watching an anime cartoon and talking to my little cousin. Yes, multi-tasking flows in my blood. Not sure if that's good or bad though. Anyway, I haven't painted for like ages so I thought I'd give it a try again. These were done using acrylics and pen on my Moley. I painted the background a yellowish ochre as a base. I've been motivated to just aim for quantity rather than quality for now. I think there's something about producing tons of work and learning from them that helps you get enough drive to improve your skills. 

 

Finally, this was completed just this afternoon. I actually got the concept a couple of nights ago when I was having trouble sleeping. I don't know, I just got an impulse to draw an eye at 2 AM. I started making the outline and noted down some ideas then simply inked them in today. This took about an hour to do. I do want to make a color painting out of this and maybe improve on some things later on. We'll see if I actually manage to do that though. =)

Soompi shoes

Characters are owned by whoever made them. =)

This was one of the projects that have been keeping me away from my Moly for the past couple of days. I still have about 3 pairs of shoes to finish off so I guess it'll take awhile to get back to my "everyday sketching." Then again, that's just my excuse.

SMILE

Smile!!

Here's a small doodle that I took from my Moley. I'll post more pics of other works as I'm done with them. I'm still trying to get my hands on the Japanese Moleskine, to create an all portrait or themed Moley; hopefully I can get it by next week. Crossing fingers.

Been dragging my carcass behind me

I think this is Avril Lavigne's logo, anyone?

I know I've gone AWOL the past couple of days, well, as usual I have a good reason. I've been trying to keep up with shoe orders left and right. Currently, I'm working on a Brandon Boyd design for Odessa; Pooh and Piglet; and cute Korean characters for my brother's friends. Don't have much time to draw new stuff but I promise I'll definitely get to sketching again. Just being sidetracked by commission work and some writing stuff. 

For the meantime, here was one thing that was keeping me off my Moleskine for the past couple of days. It's a customized piece of headphones. No, this is not my design. My client provided me the images as well as wanted the Beats logo placed on there, so please don't throw legal letters down my way.