Self Portrait Twenty-One of One Hundred

Whoops! I missed a day. Okay kids... So right before I started this thing, I signed up for the Last Man Standing (check out the link on the sidebar) competition on Conceptart.org. Thinking I would have enough time for both things (and not wanting to put off this project any longer) I went ahead and started the Self Portrait thing.

As it turns out, I don't have time for both. The LMS deadline is December 30. That's nineteen (actually, eighteen) days away. SO, I'm takeing the next eighteen days off to finish (and win ha-ha!) this round of the Last Man Standing. Wish me luck!

I'm leaving off with this little photoshop experiment. It's not much to look at, but I learned some stuff from it (I think). Sorry it's such a lame placeholder.

I'll try to stop in sooner, but if not I'll see y'all in a couple weeks!
Your friend
KC

Self Portrait Twenty of One Hundred

A lion, as promised. I'm pretty happy with how this guy came out... It was a struggle to get the head to fit on the body in a way that made sense. Yeah, it's pretty silly. Maybe I'll do something else next, even though these ARE fun. Ha-ha!

Talk to you again tomorrow!
Your friend
KC

Self Portrait Nineteen of One-Hundred

Ha-ha! Okay, another cartoon update. This was inspired by an illustration friday topic from a couple of weeks ago. The topic was zoo, and I was going to do a few of these cartoon animal self portraits as elements for a larger picture for it... obviously things got away from me, and I ended up putting them off until now. So anyway, here's the monkey cage. I don't really have a beard right now, but I cheated to keep them more monkey like.

Tomorrow I'll do a lion.

Take care and be good, kids! I'll talk at you again tomorrow.
Your friend
KC

SelfPortrait Eighteen of One-Hundred

It's late, and I'm going to bed. No talking tonite.

Good night kids! Be good, and don't stay up too late.
Your friend
KC

Self Portrait Seventeen of One-Hundred

Ryan says this one is creepy... I guess I can see that. There are some issues with this drawing, partly I think they stem from the angle of the pose. It was hard to keep still, and see what I was doing. I think I got kind of distracted too, which never helps. I'm upset with how skewed both the glasses and hat are... they're just not right. I think I know what's wrong with them, but I'm NOT going to fix them.

I'm feeling like being annoyed by this drawing is maybe a good lesson for me.

Take care and be good!
Your friend
KC

Self Portrait Sixteen of One-Hundred

Remember how I said I was worried about using my mustache and beard as props when doing my Portraits? Well, I decided to shave it off so I could see my face again. It's wierd... It's been at least two years since I last took everything off. I don't look as bad as I thought I would, and Amy thinks it's super-cute. Probably won't last long though... I'd like to have it back by christmas. If it starts to get too close without a significant regrowth, I'll shave it again though. Can't look shabby for christmas, can I?

I think I got a pretty good likeness today. I think this exercise is really helping me out. I just hope I can keep it up. Some days it's really hard not to just go to bed... Or mess around on the interweb.

See you guys (and or gals) tomorrow!
Your friend
KC

Self Portrait Fifteen of One-Hundred

This is the fourth and final image in the abstraction set. rendering down the form to just a hand full of black and white shapes... I think it was an interesting excercise, and while I could've pushed it further, I think I got some of what I wanted out of it. Mainly seeing what shapes were the most important to holding the image together, and forming a foundation for starting to paint the images. Maybe I'll explore this again a little later. I do have 85 more drawings in this series after all.

That's it for now guys, and I'll talk to you again tomorrow!
Your friend
KC

Self Portrait Fourteen of One-Hundred

Ugh... Again, I'm not really happy with this drawing. I think that's mostly because of the materials used, though. Basically, my mid tone blue marker is running out of ink, so I wasn't able to get the hard edged lines I was after. :(

Anyway, this is the third in the series of abstraction images. What I was going for here was breaking down the Tonal areas of my face into solid shapes using little to no line. In need to reinvest in some grayscale markers, I think.

See y'all tomorrow!
Your friend
KC

Self Portrait Thirteen of One-Hundred

Super happy Friday! This is the second image in the abstraction set. I was doing an Art Nouveu design at work, and was inspired to try it with my SP. I didn't do this one from life, I used the previous image as refrence. The stylistic curly-ques came out pretty good in the mustache, I think.
Okay, I'm kind of worried about how I'm gonna post this weekend, but this is all the images I have on my jumpdrive right now so... If I don't get to it now, I'll do it on Monday.
Take care, and be good!
Your friend
KC

Self Portrait Twelve of One-Hundred

Started this one as a set of four images that progressively abstract. I'm really happy with how this one turned out... looking back to a year ago (or really, more recently than that) I can see a lot of improvement. This is starting to feel like some professional work from me. More focused and what not. Sometimes it's hard to make time for this, but I'm always glad I do.
Thanks for looking, and I'll talk at you again soon... by the way, my internet is still out, so posting is gonna be tricky this weekend.
Your friend
KC

Self Portrait 11 of 100

Ha-ha-ha! I started this one, and it was coming out really... ummm... rote? I guess, formulaic, is more accurate. You know. "The head is an egg-shape, the eyes go here, the nose goes here... Blah, blah, blah" so I decided to mess around with some of my symbol props, and go crazy with my beard and mustache. That was fun, and I started getting into what I was doing, so I busted out the markers to try out some color stuff.

You can do some cool stuff with markers, and they're sooo much fun to draw with. How do you like how fat I look? Ha-ha!
Okay, if my internets still out, then I'm still one behind, but I'll catch up tomorrow if that's the case.
Talk at you later!
Your friend
KC

Self Portrait 10 of 100

My internet is down at home, so I'm running a little bit behind in my posts. I was looking at Chuck Mates sketchbook on Conceptart.org, and thought I'd give digital painting a try... Tragidy. It's actually not that bad in the grand scheme of things, but I came up against a wall pretty quickly. I think next time I'll work in grayscale. There's just too many color options in PS, and it's hard to come to grips with a new medium when you have too many variables to deal with.



Take care and be good!
Your friend
KC

Self Portrait Nine of One-Hundred

Another ball-point pen drawing. I love the way ball-point just glides across the surface of the paper. Another thing I love about it is making little squiggly marks. This frustrates some of my friends, because it makes my drawings look kind of "hairy", and it's a bad habit.

There's nothing really special to say about this drawing, except that I think it's a pretty good one, and I enjoyed doing it. Again, I think this one's headed in the right direction. The little swirrlies coming out of my ear were fun, but they don't really serve a purpose... I don't think they really even add anything as a graphic element. Just doodles to put off going to bed, I guess.

Take care and be good you guys, and I'll talk at you tomorrow!
Your friend
KC

Self Portrait Eight of One-Hundred

This little slice of heaven was skewed a bit by the angle of my drawing board. Kind of a boneheaded thing to do, but a good lesson in paying attention to what you're doing. Its ball-point pen, and marker. Relatively usual materials for me, not too exciting, but I feel like I'm getting into the swing of things, and am starting to turn out some drawings that I'm happy with.

This was a retarded post, because I had nothing really to say.

Talk to you tomorrow!
Your friend
KC

Self Portrait Seven of One-Hundred

Okay, like I said this is a little out of date. I did this for an Illustration Friday topic "Scale". I'm not going to explain it, cuz it's pretty self explanatory. I will say, though, that I have perhaps an unhealthy obsession with my weight. I'm not really fat... I know that, but I am overweight, (like the rest of America pretty much) and I'm very conscious of that.

Other than the commentary on my issues, I feel like this is a definite turn in a more professional direction. It's cartooney, but it really feels complete, and more well thought out.
Talk to y'all again tomorrow!
Your friend
KC

Day six of one-hundred

Ugh... I thought this one was pretty okay at first. But I think it was the super-cool background I was reacting to. Boy, what a stinker. This one, though, is illustrating some particular issues. The main one is that I sometimes am just not paying attention. This leads into the other issues. Formulaic drawing (I know the nose goes here, and the eyes are here... let's just do this and get it done.) and using props to say that I got a likeness...

By that I mean that I wear glasses with black frames, my hair is short(ish), I have a large unruley mustache, sometimes a beard, and I have earrings. So putting these props together on a generally egg shaped head means that I did a portrait of me, right?

Really, this is more of what I was talking about yesterday about being professional, and turning out more professional looking drawings. I'll work more on it tomorrow.

Thanks for stoppin' in again, and I'll have more to show and tell tomorrow!
Your friend
KC

Day five of one-hundred

I guess it seems kind of retarded to feel like I gave to do two posts today to make up for missing yesterday... It kind of feels like I'm posting into the void, but I think it's important to stay up with this. And the point is that hopefully people will read it. Maybe someday, I'll actually have something interesting or funny to say. Ha-ha!

Okay. I crammed this one in right before bed, and rushed it so I could just be done with it. On the one hand, that was fine because at least I got it done. On the other hand, looking at especially this one, but also these first four as a set, they seem unfinished, and more importantly unprofessional. Doing it is part of the point, but just doing it to do it isn't going to get me where I'm going. It's like going on a trip with flat tires... You'll get there, but you'll have wrecked rims, and get terrible gas mileage doing it.

I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving (or Thursday for those of you not in the states), and I'll talk at you again tomorrow.

Your friend
KC

Day four of one-hundred

Okay, internet was down yesterday, so this is kind of late. I'll post again tonite between thanksgiving parties to make up for it.

Ha-ha, alright. I kind of felt like I was cheating on this one, because really it was a design doodle I did while I was watching tv. It is me though... I'm working on a rendered down cartoon version of me for a comic idea I had. There's still some serious kinks to work out of it, but its just a beginning sketch.

Thanks for stoppin' in, and I'll talk at you later!
Your friend
KC

Day three of one-hundred

Hi again! I couldn't find my gray markers today [I think they may have dried up and gotten thrown away...:( ] but I wanted to do a tonal marker drawing. So i used the blue ones instead.

Honestly, I could've just changed it to grayscale in photoshop, but that would have been cheating. And a rediculous waste of time too. I don't really have much to say about it beyond that. I think I'm still getting into this new routine, and am having to force stuff out a little bit. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes over the course of the next 97 drawings.

Talk to you all tomorrow!
Your friend,
KC

Day two of one-hundred

Okay, day two. One thing that I feel like I should tell you, is that these images are about ten days behind. I gave myself a little lead time so I could catch up in case I get behind. Also because I started the project before I had the time to set up the blog. Ha-ha!

Looking back on this one, there are some errors. Most noticeably the eyes aren't level, and the top of my head is a little misshapen. I remember, too, that I started getting restless and distracted about halfway through. I shouldv'e taken a break and come back to it, but I didn't and ended up with a kind of muddled, unprofessional drawing. I feel like the good things about this one are outweighed by the bad.

See y'all tomorrow!
KC

Day one of one-hundred

Hi! I guess since this is the first post, I should say something about who I am, and what I'm doing. Introductions are always the hardest thing, especially when you're writing into the void... Ha-ha! So, anyway, I'm 30, and live and work in the Saint Louis area as a graphic designer and illustrator. Art has been a part of my life for most of my life. Unfortunately, looking back it seems like I had more potential than passion. I always have more work to do, and I need to expand my skill set, and discipline if I want to move forward.

That's what this blog is really about. I don't have the time or fortitude to run through four or ten pages in my sketchbook everyday. But one a day is not unreasonable. There are 100 pages in your average sketchbook. 100 in 100 days. To make things a little simpler, I'll do a set of 100 of the same subject. That way I can narrow down the variables and focus more on what I'm doing.

Finally, I have three goals.
1.Focus and self discipline.
2.More accurate portrait.
3.Freedom to experiment with media, style, and technique.

It feels like I wrote an awful lot there... That won't happen all the time.Thanks for stoppin' in, and I'll talk at you more tomorrow.