One last post for July. Managed to get this knocked out today. I did most of it yesterday but re-inked the figure as the lines in the previous version were too clean. Then I had to readjust all the colors for him as they didn't quite fit. Overall color adjustment was done to make this page relevant with the last one. It's the last line of the track but I need one more page as a transitional before I start the next.

 I've been looking at the next track in "The City Silent," and although I'd originally pegged Ricci for it, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it just wasn't his song. I started a new page sketching him tonight and it just didn't fit the lyrics I had open. Honestly, Digby would have worked well, but I didn't want to double him up as it would place too much importance on him. So I went wandering through my old stuff, looking for characters that might be able to take his place. My first thought was Joe Flash who would actually work really well for this track. But if I use one otter, I don't know that I can use another and if I have to choose between them, I'd rather have Ricci. So I went through all the Marcel images I did, sketched a bit, pulled up some images of real spider monkeys and started to redesign Marcel. I think I got something I like. We'll just have to see.

 So, I got the good word from the client today that she likes the image, so I'm going to call it done. This one is kind of special. I know it must be really hard for her as it's her husband and he's passed. There's a connection to my mom, though as he was from her side of the family. My sister says the portrait has the family eyes. And I do kind of see my mom's eyes in this. Hers were also blue.

I went about this in the usual way. Once I had the sketch, I went about the 'inking' in Procreate on my iPad. There was a LOT of fiddling about with this as there were lines that were too gently drawn and some that were too heavy and they were making a difference. I went back and forth between the photo and the drawing many times. Each color was done in grey so I might get a good idea of the balance of the piece, though I knew from the start that I wanted to do it in pink and gold. Once I had the greys done, I exported each separate layer to my Mac and dropped them each into SuperVectorizer. Then each one of those got its own layer in Affinity Designer.

I started with the skin tone first as I knew I wanted a pale orangey-pink. As I adjusted, a lot of the yellow came out, I dropped the saturation and made it lighter. There were a few back and forths with this. The lines and facial hair I knew I wanted a gold color. Originally, the glasses were going to be a darker color but I found that distracting and, as usual, I like to keep my palette pretty tight. The eyes were tough in that his real eye color is a good deal darker but, again, it made them stand out too much. Once they were "right," I knew I wanted to color the shirt the same color to help unify the image. It was easy to make the wrinkles the same color only darker.

The head scarf was the last part to be done and I knew I was going to have trouble with the Invader Zim character. In the original, they're bright neon green. My original idea was to leave them out altogether. I even informed the client that, with her permission, I would be removing them so they didn't distract from his face and she was fine with that. But when it came down to it, I not only a found a way to make them work, I think it actually looks better with them there. That do-rag is the same color as shirt and eyes just darker and less saturated, so, again, I keep the palette unified. The background is similarly the same color as the lines and glasses, just darker and less saturated.

I think this is one of my favorites, not only because I think it looks like the subject but because I know, if my mom had lived to see it, she would actually like this piece of my work. She never understood my more abstract stuff and she died before my real portrait phase, which is a shame. This is also a family member and I'm honestly glad I was asked to do it. Our family is scattered to the four winds on both sides. While I'm used to it, every once in awhile, it makes me a little sad. I was the only family member outside the immediate family on our side that was at the funeral and I seemed to surprise everyone by being there.

This entry is a good deal longer than the usual ones, just in case the client wanted to see the process. Or anyone else. This is Jimmy.

 A little update, not a huge one as I had to work today. I went in and added some detail, most notably the characters, which I think are from "Invader Zim" to the do-rag. I don't really like them as I think they distract from the face. I asked my cousin's widow if they were important in some way as I didn't want the subject to fight for attention. She said they weren't which was a relief and that she really liked the sketch, which was really nice. I told her that I'd make two versions; one with, one without. And I will. Also adjusted the glasses as one side was bigger than the other. I'm very close to going to iPad. I'm liking this so far. My sister says I captured the family eyes and, you know, I think there is a resemblance there.

 This one wasn't a distraction, more of a request. My eldest cousin, Jimmy, died a few years ago. I went to the funeral which was held just before the world shut down. It was the last time I'd seen anyone in the extended family and the first time I'd seen any of them since 1986. We are not close. Since then, I've been 'friends' with his widow on FB, sort of keeping in touch, mostly not. The other day, she posted a photo of Jimmy taken while he was undergoing treatments for the cancer that would kill him. She said that this was one of her favorite photos of him ever and tagged me stating that if I ever needed a subject for my artwork... *hint hint*. It was a surprise and one that I was flattered by as I didn't know she even looked at my work. It's also a hell of a challenge as the photo is not very good as far as reference goes (poor lightning, no shadows) which is to say, exactly like most of the reference I seem to use. It's also not a photo that I took, though in this case, I do like the expression and think it's pretty much him, as well as I knew him. Yesterday, I started working on the drawing, using a grid over the photo in Procreate, sending a screen shot to my computer and sketching from there into my sketchbook. This took about an hour. The biggest challenges are going to be the facial hair. He was blond when young and in this, his facial hair is almost white and also almost entirely indistinct. I've already overemphasized it and will have to likely do more than once drawing before I go to color. I'm thinking that this will be minimalist with line work done in Procreate and the whole thing reassembled in AD, as usual. Limited palette. More to come.

 Decided to finish yesterday's sketch on the iPad. First, I inked the drawing. Then I did a greyscale watercolor painting, initially planning to leave it like that. Then I decided to add a quick multiply layer with some color and got the final. I haven't used this approach in a long while and I'd forgotten how much I liked it. Just a little fun during an otherwise very busy day.

 Not much drawing today because of other things including the podcast and watching its movie. Went through the file of Rabbit Thing's drawings. He was a fun character, almost always joyful. I made one t-shirt of him which I wear often. It was nice to get back to him some, so I did a bit of a strut. It's hard to exaggerate him enough as that's what he's for. Might do more with this, might not.

 Sometimes I just like to draw for the sake of drawing. Was messing about with an old character that never got a real name; he was always just "Rabbit Thing." He's more or less like what if one of the rubber hose style characters actually grew up. Or something. Did a bunch of sketches in my sketchbook using an old animation design book to work on expressions, then inked and colored them in Procreate. Just some fun.

 There we go, back on track. After screwing around yesterday and being distracted by portraits the days before, I finally managed to get a page of the comic done. It actually came together rather quickly as I did it start to finish this afternoon. The pose was inspired by Gene Kelly, so Digby's doing a little soft shoe. Next page is the end of the track, finally, but it has to have a kind of wow finish. And then I need to figure out how the hell to do the next track which is, I think, one of the best ones of the whole opera. And after that, Silas finally comes back.

 I should be working on the comic so of course, I'm not. I've started a project that will take me many months and as such, I can poke at it whenever I'm in the mood. I took this photo a few years ago, meaning to make some kind of painting or something for my best friend. This is his favorite place to sit in Harvard Square and I thought he might like to have an image for times when he can't go or just to have. When I took it, I didn't notice the woman sitting right in front of me, nor her amazing coloring. Later, when I gridded this off, she was perfect. Where all about is somber and cool, she's this exclamation point of red. Like some of the other urban 'realist' things I've done, I'm going to keep the details simple but as complete as possible. So far, I'm just working on the big Harvard building and that is taking plenty of time. I'll do each piece separately working from back to front. There will be plenty of tracing because why the hell not? I could draw this freehand and do 'my impression' of it, and it would come out looking janky and off. It still will look imprecise as I will not follow the tracing perfectly. I WANT it to look hand made. Even digital, it will be made by hand. I could paint this but balancing the color would be really tricky and I'm not that accomplished a painter. I think, rather, I would get something that looks like the Picnic image I made awhile back, one which I really like and which I tried to paint with no success.

So here's to distraction!

I lied. Here's an updated version, this time using some mark tracing. The drawing is all me, but I made a 30 second outline of hair, head and little marks for features. I like them both but I think this one is a bit more solid. That being said, I spent a lot more observation time with Zelda! than I did with myself. I prefer to draw on my own, but for speed's sake, a little grid or mark work doesn't hurt.

 I guess I wasn't finished drawing today. Still felt like it, just not like working on the comic, which is not a great thing. So, when I want to draw and I don't have anything in mind, why not yet another self portrait? This one's more a sketch, based on a photo I took with my hair down, which I never do. I think that if I wanted to really finish this, I'd put some more work into the drawing or even redo it. But as this is a sketch, I think it's fine the way it is.

 Finished this today. I re-inked this over the edited pencil sketch. I narrowed the contrast down and managed to get this down to four colors. Sometimes I can manage that, sometimes not. Is it a good thing? I don't know but it feels good, in this style to keep things as tight as possible. The looseness is in the brushstrokes. I don't expect this one to go over well as it's such a weird subject. The colors, while pretty much what I had in mind, aren't likely the most appealing, either. It is what I wanted. It has energy, and likeness, which I managed without a grid, tracing or anything. I'm pretty proud of that. If I placed this over the photo, I'm betting it would be off all over the place. That's a funny thing about likeness. It's also damned hard to do portraits with an open mouth, smiling and or teeth. So I'm proud of this one, as odd as it is. 

 Did some work on this today. The top version is nearly done except for the background. I wasn't satisfied so went to do a second. Still playing about with it. One thing I did do was shorten the distance between eyes and nose which needed to be done. So I will sleep on it and come back tomorrow.

 Well, I managed to get something done today. For whatever reason, I grabbed a still from "Singin' in the Rain," one where an extra pops up and shouts, "Zelda!" in regards to one of the stars at a movie premier. For some reason, I find his goofy face appealing and so am going to do a portrait. It's a step forward and something accomplished. Done all freehand. Pencil, paper, all that. Yay me.

 I got nothing to show. Why? Because, after 2.33 years, I finally got Covid. And I know why I did, too. It's because of work, and a recent change that I warned them would be a bad idea. I changed nothing about how I worked or lived but when that change happened, within a couple weeks, boom. I truly believe that, because of my four vaccinations, I'm having a relatively easy time of it. Low fever, coughing and being stuffed up is not so hard, at least so far. I can't sleep very well, which is annoying as hell as that's mostly what I want to do. I still have taste and smell, so that's a plus. That being said, I have energy for little at all which brings me down as I COULD be catching up on the comic, doing a few portraits. It's just that I don't have the energy or focus. Don't know if I made an entry without something visual before. This might be a first. I wanted to document it somewhere.