Inspiration: Harvey Dinnerstein

One of my biggest regrets in life is that I never pursued formal art training...not that I didn't have the opportunity but the discipline to do so wasn't there as a young man. This is why I respect not only the brilliant work but the work ethic of young artists like Joe Bluhm and Jason Seiler who at an early age are constantly focused on improving their already formidable skills...I mean at their age my main concern was trying to find an open after hours club.

Anyhow that is water under the bridge and so back to my opportunity to study under The Contempory Realist Master Harvey Dinnerstein. I attended The School of Visual Arts for a semester and a half in 1972 and although Master Dinnerstein was unfortunately not one my Instructors he was teaching there at the time. I do remember sitting in on several of his drawing workshops working from live models and being totally in awe(...and Mr. Meltzer was one of the models he usually brought to class). Only now do I realize how I blew a really big chance to learn from a modern master!!

I recently came across "Underground Together: The Art and Life of Harvey Dinnerstein", a retrospective of his life work. It's a beautiful book and for anyone who loves realist figurative painting it's a must! His portrait work is absolutely stunning as is his documenting of the civil rights movement.

Harvey Dinnerstein / Wikipedia

Underground Together: The Art and Life of Harvey Dinnerstein (Hardcover)

Frey Norris Gallery

...and now Angie

After attemping to do a sketch of Brad I figured I should do the "companion piece". Of course a beautiful woman is every caricaturists nightmare but Angelina does have distinctive features that one can emphasize. Anyhow I hope That I've come close!

Buscemi

Brad Pitt

I've been wanting to do one of him and Angie and was inspired to give it a shot after a recent post on the DrawingBoard...I found him a little tough to do but I think I'm close. It was an older reference photo and he had close cropped hair so maybe I'll revisit this should I come across a better shot to use.

Bob Marley

Happy New Year...let's hope sanity prevails over madness!!!

Spaghetti

A quick sketch of an iconic character...guess I'm in the mood to watch some Italian Westerns!

Inspiration / Diego Rivera

I don't think anyone can doubt Diego Rivera was a great caricaturist...most of the subjects of his murals were brillant examples of that! I believe he and Miguel Covarrubias were friends so I'm sure they influenced each other. Being politically active towards the left he used caricature to make commentary and possibly annoy the "Millionaire Industrialists" that commissioned his work. But beyond the content, I love the way he used exaggeration of facial features including his own.

Oh, I added a sketch of Frida Kahlo as well since they could've been considered the "John & Yoko" of Mexican Art...and she was pretty damn good herself!!!





Diego Rivera Web Museum

Rivera (Taschen)

Tommy Lee Jones

The brilliant Chris Wahl started a "Tommy Lee Jones" Jam on the Drawing Board and after seeing all the great contributions I thought I might throw one up there. I may take this further and digitally paint it...he's got a great face for caricature, probally the only face craggier than my own!

BB King

The "King" of the blues is the subject of the October NCN Let's Draw thread. I started with a study of his head and plan to add other elements...this should be a fun piece!!



*Updated piece by adding his body & Lucille...also started blocking in some color to see where I'm going with it.
*Updated by changing background color and reworking "Lucille"

*One more update on the piece...I posted it on the CG Society Forum and was honored by having it placed on the top tier above the threads...just way too cool and that made this semi-old man very happy :)

What's Going On

Almost forty years have passed since this masterpiece was released and unbelievable as well as sad it still rings hauntingly true today!!!

Amazon: What's Going On

Paul Newman

One more guy that personified cool leaves us...he definitely did not have a "failure to comunicate"!!!

*Updated post with a pencil sketch that's a bit more of a stretch and a more refined version of the "portrait"!
*Updated 10/08/08 with final version "Young Newman"...although I could probably finesse it's time to walk away.

Audrey Hepburn

This one was done for the monthly "Lets Draw" thread over at the NCN forum...many terrific entries...another great reason to join!

Fear [S] of the Dark

FEAR[S] OF THE DARK

Animated Charles Burns...very cool!!!!
*video courtesy of Yahoo

Tekkonkinkreet

I originally came across this post about the background art in the anime film "Tekkonkinkreet" on the Lines & Colors blog. The links it provided had the most amazing stuff I had seen...the attention to detail was incredible!!! The book (books as I later found out) were not available in the U.S. so I went to Amazon Japan and was able to order them. Although the books are small in size the artwork on their pages make them well worth owning!!!
The book with the White cover has the finished color renderings and the Black cover contains the original pencil sketches that the later artwork was based on. I guess they could've combined both books but in any case they're both terrific. I'm not a big fan of anime but I will definitely rent this one just for the beauty of it's production art.














Tekkonkinkreet: Black & White

"i seldom do" Live Journal / Tekkonkinkreet

SOFTIMAGE|XSI User Profile: Studio 4°C TEKKONKINKREET

Studio4c