And done. This is Brian, or Slow Bear as we sometimes call him. He's a really nice guy and a great baker. I played around with the colors a LOT and redid the lines as they were too fussy and there were too many of them. And while there might be a little grey in his beard, I left that out, too. He seems to like it, so that's a good thing.

 Getting started on the next portrait. This is my friend, Brian. He's a very warm, funny person. I took some video of him this past sunday without him knowing, though I told him after the fact. Sadly, he was eating through some of it which made the reference unusable. I wanted to capture a typical expression from him, something fun or just -him-. I think I managed it with this. I can also see this not going over well. The cocked eyebrow and the head forward show that he's listening and perhaps a bit skeptical. Which is good. The proof will be in the finish. I have another pose which is more smiley and, to my eye, dull. We'll see how this goes.

 Not going to post this anywhere else except Flickr, but this was a late night experiment. Professor Mackin from "Prince of Space," an awful Japanese sci fi movie for kids that was made tolerable by the folks at MST3K. I took a screen grab and thought to use it at some point. I don't think it's my best work by far but there's a certain awkwardness to it that I like. Moving on.

 

In the mood to draw, but not ready to go back to the comic just yet. I was looking through old portraits and came across one that's been sort of poking at me for awhile. It was called, "Melaroid," as it was based on a Polaroid photo I'd taken of myself when I lived in Florida. I got a LOT of use out of that old camera as it was the only thing that gave me quick reference at the time. There was no digital photography to speak of and smart phones were still a dream. The photo, which is buried somewhere, was taken in our apartment in Hollywood, Florida. There was a bad flash but some interesting colors. So I painted it in acrylic. But the basis of the painting was done in a very old version of AI. That file, which my computer thought was a SimpleText file was openable by AD. So I tossed a jpg version of that onto the iPad and played about with it. I changed the composition quite a bit as well as the colors. This is more an exercise than a finished work. Again, just to exorcise drawing demons.

 Finished this tonight. I adjusted the colors a lot and also had to do a good deal of editing on the face. There were things that were just not right about it. Live and learn. I'm pretty happy with how this came out. She seems joyous. I hope I did her justice. Not that she'll ever know. Emma Dabiri. I should look her up and see what she does. :D

Not a finished image at all, but the tiny amount of work I was able to do on this today as it was a working day in retail. I used a searched image of 'coffee and cream' to get the basic color and went from there. I generally like it but it's again, something I want to sleep on before I decide one way or another.

 Did most of this at the dealership while I waited for my car to be done. But I forgot my glasses which was really annoying. I could mostly see, but fine details eluded me. I came home and made a bunch of adjustments and even made one after I made this WIP. It's going to take a lot of fiddling to get things just right, but in general, I'm pretty happy with it so far. We'll see how it goes. Color selection on this is going to be interesting.

 I have a car appointment today and wanted something to do while I wait. So I started on the next portrait. This is from another episode of Portrait Artist where I took a screen shot of a pose I liked. This is a difficult one as she's smiling huge. But she has such a great face I wanted to give it a try. I already see some editing I'm going to do. The ends of her hair are, for my taste, too fiddly and I will likely simplify them. Her name is Emma Dabiri and I know nothing about her but she seems pretty amazing. As always, the sketch looks rough perhaps even a bit crude. It's there to tell me where things are supposed to go. I'll refer to the photo a lot while doing the inking that's to come. Here's hoping.

 Something just wasn't working. I couldn't place my finger on what it was but I couldn't get the likeness where I wanted to get it. I redid the hair, a lot of the facial lines but still, there was something I didn't really like. So I started a second drawing on the iPad and I just didn't want to do another full grid. The original drawing, I thought, had all the information I needed. Perhaps it was the approach that wasn't working. So I opened a new canvas and decided to try and do tones instead of lines. And that came together really fast, though I screwed up and kept drawing on the wrong layers, meaning my grays weren't separated like I wanted them to be. I kept going anyway and shoved the image, one layer, into SuperVectorizer and wasn't displeased with the results. Then I played about with color, a lot. The first attempt had him orange skinned, blue haired. It was ok, but not great. Second was a set of purples. Finally, I decided on an old standby; taking the palette from a Rembrandt self portrait. Looking at the painting, I could tell that the varnish had yellowed a lot. I've been watching a lot of painting restoration videos so this now seems a lot more plain to me. I'm getting that no one wants to take the chance on restoring a Rembrandt these days. I toned down the cyan in each color and, after fiddling a little more, got the above. I also did one thing I've never done; I sampled Neil's real eye color and tossed it in under the highlights. That tiny touch of grey-green really seems to focus the portrait yet doesn't stand out badly at all. So, struggle but success? I'm pretty happy with it. I learn a little bit more with each one.

 Working on another portrait. I think, even more than cartoonist, as I get older, I wish I was a portraitist. I'm getting better but there's always so far to go. I snapped a screen shot of a recent interview with Neil Gaiman. His is a very interesting face. I did a freehand drawing which was ok but then went to the grid. I overdid the lines as I needed them as a guide. It seems that more and more of my art is about the editing and not as much about the mark making. The top is overdone and unflattering. But it shows me WHY the lines are where they are. Then, I leave more and more of them out. The point for me isn't to make something utterly realistic, like Lucien Freud but still representative. The bottom is where I am now. It's getting there but the likeness isn't quite there and the hair, though his hair is quite scattered, is too fussy for my tastes. Not sure if I'll have to go back and start over or not but for now, it's not where I want it to be.

 Here are the pages of track 6 all thumbed together. Upper left and lower right corners do reflect each other. It doesn't make a lot of sense to put these in this order and configuration as they'd otherwise never be seen this way. That being said, it allows me to see the track all at once and, when I get the chance, adjust anything I feel is out of place. I think it's safe to say that the theme color of this track is purple.

 Page 135 and track six are done. I'll likely throw together a thumbnail page for the whole thing later to see how it flows. Final adjustments, if any, will be done and I'll throw it into a PDF and up on Gumroad, where it'll join the rest of Act 2. By referencing the colors at the beginning of the track, I was able to, I think, suggest a return to the mundane and his coming down from his trip, his daydreaming or both. This track was a lot of fun to do. I'm glad I experimented with the photos. I will likely use them in different ways in the tracks to come, though probably not as literally as I did here.

Started the next page, the last page in track six of City Silent. I knew I wanted something that would visually suggest that the trip, the 'spirit' of what Digby was feeling and talking about was leaving. Hence the smokey colors flowing out of him and the return to the lineless and dully colored style of the beginning of the track. Got a lot done but hope to be finished tomorrow. And I have subjects for two or three more portraits, if I can just find the time.