Work in Progress (untitled, Moleskine)

Okay, so I've stated numerous times in the past that I have a hard time with procrastinating when starting a drawing. And it doesn't matter whether it's a sketchbook drawing from my Moleskine or a full blown piece. I find myself posting more unfinished drawings lately. But in some cases I'll post an unfinished drawing if it's taking me too long to finish and I need some content for this blog (as is the case for this post).

The other day I was looking through one of the several poster shipping tubes that I have put away in the corner of my room and I came across a few unfinished pieces. One of them I stopped halfway through because of a rather interesting object I decided to add to it. I'll explain in another post once I get a chance to pin it down and take pictures of it (since the drawing has been in the tube for several years now, it naturally rolls together like a poster). But I digress...

Another unfinished (for now) sketch

The problem with me is that I don't usually start a drawing with much of a goal in mind. Meaning that I don't know where it's going really. An example is the image above. While the two images don't really look cohesive, eventually they will once it's finished. Though I'm not sure how I'm going to accomplish that at this point.

Therein lies my biggest problem, not enough planning or organization. I just start something with not much of an idea as to what's going on really. That's usually the reason why sometimes I don't complete a drawing, that or the drawing just sucks. But then other times, in those rare instances, I end up with a drawing that's far beyond my own expectations of what I'm capable of.

Ballpoint Pen Practice

I've either taken a break from drawing or just been lazy recently because I haven't been keeping up with posts this year. Usually I start up again whenever I see something, or someone, that inspires me. This time it was the work of Jim Rugg whose work I first became familiar with from the Drawn Blog which I frequent on a daily basis. His ballpoint pen drawings are awesome to say the least.

They remind me of old drawings and sketches I used to do in class a long time ago when I was in high school. I would have 3-5 sheets of notebook paper stacked on top of one another. The top one or two sheets I would use for actual note taking. The next couple of sheets were the ones I used for drawing and then I would usually have a final bottom sheet to give the ones I was drawing on a softer surface so that it would be easier to shade and bring about a smoothness to the pen, rather than pen and paper on a hard solid surface. Had I kept all the "doodles" (I hate that word) that I created back then (and some in college), I would have at least a hundred. But sadly they're all gone... Then again, I doubt they were even as good as I thought they were back then.

Unfinished practice in ballpoint

I wanted to try it again. Even though I mentioned in earlier posts that I was going to try ballpoint pens again, I have yet to fully experiment with them (besides this drawing). I'm going to look into getting a set of colored pens and really bust out an actual, complete drawing. Until then, there's this one from my moleskine.

Obviously it's not finished and I don't plan on finishing it unless I feel that I could add more to it. It started as a picture I found online, but mostly though the face and right arm are what I took from the original. Once I started with the pen he looked different from what I had planned so I changed it up quite a bit. So much so that even if you saw the picture you wouldn't find much, if any, similarities.

Finished Face (Ink & Marker Complete)

Fully inked

I've finally gotten around to finishing this drawing... well, as finished as it can be. I still need to go over it in ink and color again to get some of the patchy spots and fill in some of the ink that faded when I erased all the visible pencil markings. But it's done for the most part.

The first drawing is the completed ink version which, I have to admit, looks really good. Actually it looks better than the real version in my sketchbook. I think that's because of the high contrast when scanning a black and white photo with my scanner.

Fully colored

I think I might try some color changes on the inked version in Photoshop just to see what other colors it might have looked good in. Considering that now, I should have done that to begin with before I colored it in. I didn't really have a color scheme in mind when I started adding color, but luckily it came out looking good.

Finished Pencil Drawing (Face)

So it took me alot longer than I thought it would (but considering I'm a big time procrastinator I guess maybe it was sooner than I thought?) but I finally finished this drawing... at least the penciling. All I have left to do is the inking. Which may be the hardest part next to actually coming up with what to draw. And of course, I still have yet to purchase the Koh-I-Noor pens, which are out of stock until 12/22. I think I might have to buy some other pens in the meanwhile. That, or just use one tip size throughout the whole thing.

If you look back at the previous version(s) of it, you can see how much has changed since I first started it. And actually, when I originally started drawing I began with only the face. I really didn't have much of a goal, which is the way I usually go into a new piece (sketchbook or otherwise). Sometimes that can be a good thing, but other times it may not work out the way I had hoped. But I think this did. Hopefully the ink and color come out the way I hope they do. The next step after I've finished is to maybe do something similar on a larger scale.

Mechanical Face (Unfinished)

Just over a week ago, on Halloween of all days, I started a new drawing. I guess you could say that I was inspired by the "holiday" to draw something a little bit on the morbid side. Of course though that would have mostly to do with the non-stop horror/suspense programming that was on display on most of my local television channels all weekend long leading up to the 31st.

So I started drawing this mutilated face (sounds worse when I type it out) that I used to always draw in high school. I don't know why. I think I was inadvertently influenced by H.R. Giger or the Alien movies or something else he did in the 80's or 90's because alot of my doodles (btw, I hate that word) had that organic/mechanical combination that he was so good at. I don't even like mentioning him, because in no way am I trying to mimic or copy his work or his art style.

My original intention wasn't to add all of the machine-like pieces throughout the drawing. I was going for a more organic feel. When I started it, I was actually hoping to finish it the same night. But it's now been over a week and I've gone back and forth erasing alot of what I had originally started. And now I'm going to completely fill in both pages. My view of what I was supposed to draw changed drastically. But then again that's usually what happens. I go in with no real vision or goal in sight.

Obviously it's not done yet. Like everything else on here it's just a rough draft and I'm going to either post the completed work the next time, color and all, or a version in between in ink. I'm trying to finish up all the rough pencil work by this Thursday night. Ever since the Koh-I-Noor pens I've been wanting to get have received a significant price drop they've been out of stock.... And literally, just as I wrote that last sentence they moved the date up on when they will be in stock again. Oh well, at least that saves me 2 train rides and about 3 hours (round trip) to get into Pasadena to get them...

Finished Frank Zappa

It took a little longer for me to finish this drawing from my previous post (which should come as no surprise since I'm a habitual procrastinator) but I finally finished it... even if it doesn't exactly look complete. The original picture only shows a small portion of the guitar and even less of his left hand so I decided not to try and draw half a guitar. I guess I should have made it so the bottom of the page cuts it off naturally, but then there would have been all this negative space above him, which I hate. Sometimes I wonder if that's me trying to make it look good composition wise or just some random bout of OCD.

Hopefully though, you can tell who it is or at least recognize him enough if you're not sure. It's Frank Zappa, contrary to what a friend of mine thought from the original pencil sketch, she said it looked like George Harrison. And actually just now I did a Google image search for George Harrison and it kind of did look like him in the 60's with the long hair and mustache. At first I thought it was a bad sign, but in the end I think it came out good.

Since I've been trying to stay away from crosshatching I thought I would just use gray tones to shade instead. For this I used 3 shades of Copic Markers since the original picture was also in black & white. I also used a Koh-I-Noor Rapidosketch drawing pen, which is my favorite drawing utensil until I finally buy their 7 piece Rapidograph pen set. I've always been hesitant to purchase the set, since it retails for about $100-150. Recently though Blick Art Supplies has the set for $60. I need to get those pens. And also these Copic Multiliner SP Pens (another $70). I think I might start selling drawings. More accessible ones though, by that I mean cheaper and smaller. I'll try to post some examples of what I mean in the future.

Work in Progress

Since I haven't gone back to my previous drawing, it's so tedious to the point that I'm kind of over it for the time being, I thought I would draw something similar to the Bertrand Russell ink drawing I did a while back. By that I mean similar in style. Cross hatching, high contrast, etc. I guess you'll see once it's complete. But for now I have a rough sketch that I thought I would post.

Unfinished Frank Zappa

There's still alot of work left to be done. Mostly getting the scale right. Since the guitar and his right arm are angled so weird, I have to get it right to show the correct perspective. At the same time his head is tilted forward. Actually just looking at it right now, I know I need to add more hair to the top of his head.

After I finally finish getting everything right and have completed drawing him and his guitar, I'm then going to go over it in ink. I'll post that and the completed drawing once I'm finished (soon, I hope).

I usually tend to not draw portraits of people, known or otherwise. I always have a feeling that it doesn't exactly look identical to the original. But then, recently I just kind of figured that there's really no other way to get it down then to just try it. Even if it doesn't look like him it doesn't really matter.

Unfinished Drawings

Okay, so it's been a really long while since I had any updates or new posts... longer than I thought actually. Until I looked at the date I didn't realize how long it had been. So to make up for it I'm going to post some new artwork (and some unfinished work as well).


Anyways, I was unable to finish the drawing I was working on in the previous post. I was updating it often, you can see in the last few posts that I was working on it. It was a little ambitious of me considering all the intricate line work and using that paint marker I'd never used before. As soon as it dries and I try to apply ink, the paint seems to flake off. Not all the time but about a good 5 minutes into it, it inevitably flakes off, which I then have to color over, again. All of this was way too tedious so I never finished it.

Eventually I will finish this, someday...

As you can see, I wasn't even able to finish one of the colored sections. Too many mistakes. If I drew over it in ink too hard the paint flakes making me have to add color over it. This could eventually damage or tear the paper. But I think I'm going to eventually finish it. Looking at it now after not seeing it for such a long time makes me like it alot more than I did when I was first drawing it.

I have a bad habit of being overambitious sometimes. Usually when that happens I don't end up finishing what I start. That, and my tendency to procrastinate too much. I thought that I'd post a few other drawings that are also unfinished.


I'll start with this one since I already posted it on this blog. The reason why I didn't finish this drawing is that I added more of the "sticks" throughout it and honestly, I was just unsure of where it was going. I drew the skull first, but then just added all the "sticks" and had no idea what I was going to do with it. Plus, I wasn't very fond of the color scheme I used.

This one I have a legitimate reason to have not finished it. (Also from a previous post) This I was drawing at a friend's house while out drinking. I didn't really expect to finish it, but add to the fact that I was a little tipsy and drawing rather quickly, there's no way I would have.

My outdated tv and some random books

This is one of the first drawings in my Moleskine sketchbook. Actually, my third but the first one that wasn't a hand/arm. I was really just eager to use my Copic Markers so I sat on my bed and drew a portion of my room. I didn't finish it because I didn't like how it came out.

A logo I designed for this blog, but never finished

This one was supposed to be say achromatic (color) spectrum, but it's hard to tell since the scan didn't pick up the graphite pencil. And actually, that's the best part of the drawing. But I don't really feel like scanning it again (too many problems with my scanner/printer... it figures, since it's not a standalone scanner).

Some kind of pseudo sea monster looking thing

This final one, I don't know what I was doing. I think I just felt like doing something I hadn't done (or hadn't done in a long while). If you know any of my older work it's very reminiscent of what I used to do. I tried to stay away from cross hatching to give it a different, almost comic/cartoon feel. I dont know why I never finished it.

So hopefully someday I'll be interested in these again, at least enough to finish them. Well, most of them at least. But if I do I'll be sure to post them.

Finished Bertrand Russell Portrait (with Quote)

So for some reason I haven't really been drawing as much as I'd like to lately. I think it has alot to with the art show and all the work I did at the last minute that kind of turned me off to it. But really though, I had been in a considerable drought even for me.

The other night though for some reason I decided to finish a drawing I had started a while back in my Moleskine sketchbook. It was already my favorite drawing in the book but became even more so when I completed it. It's a portrait of Bertrand Russell, philosopher and logician, along with a quote of his that I not only like, but fits the space rather nicely.