Joaquin Phoenix

This week's Illustration Friday topic is Phoenix, so I drew actor Joaquin Phoenix. Walk the Line and Quills are excellent films he's in.

Nightmare Hippy Girl

This is my Illustration Friday entry for the word Peace. At first I thought I'd forget about this topic (because it's lame), but a week of watching Disney movies and playing Barbies with my nieces inspired this drawing. It's one of those hippy girls with big eyes and her head in the clouds.

Again, the quailty sucks because I dont have Photoshop here. When I return home, I'll rescan everything.

The 60's

This is a drawing I did for my mom, for Christmas. It's her with my grandparents. I dont know how old she is in the photo. Maybe if she looks at my blog she can leave the information in a "comment"?

The scan is a bit choppy, because I don't have Photoshop here in Dallas. I'll try to fix the quality when I get back to Massachusetts January 4th.

xXxMas

Some holiday cards I sent out this year.

Devil Town

I just found out I'm in a dry county. Yee-haw.

More Drawing Less Talking

Jon reading the paper, at Cafe Depot, in Montreal.

Also, I'm leaving for Dallas in the morning. I don't know if I'll have the capability to post while I'm away yet. If not, see you January 4th!

Oh, and this:

No & YESSS!

This is a drawing from when I went totally insane a few weeks ago. But now I'm back.


AND I would like to officially announce... I FINALLY beat Liz at Scrabble! 269 to 195! I think "Henchmen" is what got me going, and when I got "Aqua", well that was a gift from baby Jesus himself! What a thrilling Saturday night, eh?

No rematch date has been set at the time of this posting.

"H" is for "Help"

This is a continuation of my American Sign Language letter series. And I scanned it on my brand new scanner/printer machine. It works great and was well worth the $18USD, thanks Jazz!

Jobs are Dumb, Anyway

I thought this was an appropriate illustration for today, because I got turned down for yet another job I interviewed for. I hope some nutty kid out there is printing these and cutting them out, because it takes quite a while to make sure all the clothes fit my Paper Doll Jeannette.

Desks are the new Coffee Shops

While I was in Montreal, Jon had a lot of school work to do. So, sometimes I'd sit on the futon in his office and draw draw draw. This is the view of the corner of his desk, looking out the window at the building behind his apartment. And there is a vine.


I guess posting pictures of your desk is very cool nowadays. Here are some examples, Frederik's desk and the On My Desk blog.

I'll give you a little tour of my desk. It sits in the corner of my bedroom, and you can see I took this photo while I was working on this painting. I have my little Goblin Self Portrait on the wall, so I don't forget what I look like while I paint. Easier than a mirror. There is a solar system mobile I got in France when I was 16, hanging from my lamp. Under that you can see my South African princess Barbie. And then there is the painting I did of Jon in the corner. I don't just surround myself with my own work, I have some other better known artists hanging in my room, too.

Under my desk is this cool little cart I got from IKEA, I call it my Aht Caht. It holds a bunch of paper and supplies, and rolls out so I can put my pallate on top of it while I work. And you can see a bit of my bookshelf, and my lovely plant I named Courtney Cox Arquette. No relation to the actress.

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

I've come back from Montreal just in time to celebrate my Sketchblog's six month anniversary. I think I started this blog because I was scared that after graduation all my pencils would disappear and I would never draw again.

While I'm here I'd like to thank my continuous unemployment (or as I now call it, unemployability), for allowing me all this time to draw, scan, comment, obsess, etc. One day I'll do this for a living.

So, please go ahead and grab a slice of pretend vegan cake, and take a minute to browse the archives while you celebrate. Here are some of my favorite entries:

My Rock Collection
Mural
Trouble
Braid
Dylan Smoking
A & B
Sluggy Liz

(And you can totally print that cake out and make your Paper Doll Jeannette blow out the candles.)

Paper Doll Accessories

Nothing goes better with your Paper Doll Jeannette than this blue zip-up hooded sweatshirt and brown paper bag mask.

Paper Doll

Click the photo for a larger, printable version. Cut out the pieces and enjoy. Bring Jeannette to school, work, or keep her in the bedroom. A navy blue hoodie and a "Lame Interview Outfit" coming soon.

Our Quest/Journey/Voyage

Some doodles, plus a drawing of Jon from our trip to the New Hampshire border (anyone from New England knows what that means). I've been working on drawing people while they're not sitting still (at all, even a little).

Gargantuas

ADT Holiday Card

A few weeks ago I was commissioned to do a holiday card for an ADT employee. Here's how the magic happened:


This is a color study, which is just the pencil drawing with some Photoshop splattered on it.


Then, I outlined it (and gave a guard a sex change operation).


Here's a bit of the watercolour.


This is the final watercolour piece scanned.


This is the painting with a little bit of digital tweaking, cropped, and ready to go.

Insomnia

My iPod on shuffle.


He caught the moon.
I've seen a bridge like this before.


It's like a dance.


I don't remember drawing this.


My love of rocks and bunnies.

I drew these between 3 and 6am this morning. It's 4:10pm, I havent slept yet. Actually, I slept two hours at Jon's this afternoon. I'm trying to stay awake, so that I might sleep tonight.

[Don't forget, the next World Wide Sketchcrawl is December 9th! Visit the site to find your city. I'll be participating in Boston. An excellent adventure.]

F

A quick sketch of the ASL letter F. I drew this at like, 5am, so for some reason I thought it was very important to emphasize my new black nails (that inspired my to dye my hair black, too).

Jeannette Doesn't Work Part II

(click image for larger view)

This is the second installment of my "Jeannette Doesn't Work" comic series. Documenting my struggle to make money post college graduation. The first one is here and describes the adventures of standing in front of a door for eight hours. The above piece goes all the way back to October, and my temporary job working at a Halloween store.

And I've had plenty of shitty jobs since. You won't even believe what the next one will be about. I should be on the cover of the UMass Dartmouth brochure.

Boy

This is my second or third drawing with a mechanical pencil.

Caffeine Induced

Some stuff from today, drawing with Liz.

Invention

This is the cart I wheel around while I'm busking on the streets of Montreal. You can watch my Hamster, try on rings, and so much more.

Sluggy Liz

Here's the closest I've come to documenting my "process."


First, a detailed pencil drawing.

Then, I paint some.

Then, I'm done.

That's it. This piece was made for an unreciprocated painting swap with Liz. I'm sure she's cooking something crazy up.

Extraterrestrial

I didn't draw this one entirely accurately, but you get it.

Victim

Thanksgiving Sucks Anyway

My finished Thanksgiving card, slow cooked and ready just in time for Illustration Friday. I'm not a big fan of this topic, though (or looking through dozens of illustrations of dead turkeys and clichéd Natives on IF).

D

Babel

I just came back from seeing the movie Babel. Pretty good flick. Anyway, it inspired me to do a little sketch of one of the actors, Gael García Bernal.

C is for...

This reminds me of a dinosaur.

A & B

When I was in high school, in Florida, I took American Sign Language for two years. So, now I'm attempting to illustrate the ASL alphabet to hopefully improve my hand drawing skills.

Models

A little lunch break doodle. What kind of soap do I use to wash the retail off of me?

Clear Eyes Is Awesome

I was born in the 80's. I've watched too much TV.

Anyway, I was very surprised and delighted to see that my topic was chosen for Illustration Friday this week. Too bad the word I submitted was Clear. For the last few weeks IF has had themes related to translucency (Ghost, Wind, and Smoke), so as a sort of joke I entered a bunch of topics that mean clear. Like crystal, translucent, see-through and limpid (yeah, I used a thesaurus).

Couldn't Penelope have picked my word when it was Peas? Oh well! My website hits are way up, and I got to draw my first portrait of Ben Stein! Here's a link to one of the Clear Eyes commercials, via YouTube.com.

Temping

(...view all)

This was my day, today. Click to view whole comic.

And let's all sing Happy Birthday to Kurt Vonnegut, today.

New Sketchbook

This is the cover to my awesome new sketchbook. I'm so lucky I found one with a picture of Jonathan De Luca customized onto it. I hope many nice illo's come from this appendage. And I'd like to dedicate all the future fruits my sketchbook bears to the cashier at the art store. We know you nibbled on that eraser.



And, yes, I know, if I had puffy paint this would be a whole lot better.

Dylan Smoking

I am between sketchbooks right now, but I found a corner near the front to do a quick sketch of Bob Dylan. Done with pencil, Micron 005 pen, and a Prismacolor marker. About 3"x4".

Smoke

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "smoke." I figured I'd post this one from my portfolio. This image is also available as a postcard in my shop.