It's A Likeness, Pilgrim: Attempting To Sketch John Wayne

It's amazing how much you can fit in a day. I managed to do a ton of yard work, take the family to Hobby Lobby for some creative supplies, get home and hit some cleaning chores, then sit down to work on some of my sketches for the "Drawing Board" show. I'm still adding to my Western Film Heroes series, and a list like that wouldn't have been complete without John Wayne.

I used a terracotta sketching pencil to do my initial warm-up sketch.

I did my next sketch with a Sumi brush and crimson India Ink. Similar to the Lee Van Cleef sketch I did a couple of weeks ago, I didn't do any initial breakdowns before I did this one. It's fun to just dive into the ink really quick and see how accurate my hand/eye coordination is.

Of course, these sketches moved me towards my final ink drawing, which I did with my trusty Sable and Super Black India Ink.

Like most of the work I do, I would say that this is only a likeness of John Wayne. I just don't think I'm skilled enough to do anything that's dead-on. Maybe if I'd commit to something over a period of time, really work on it for day and days... but that's just not the kind of time I have.

As I said in other posts, I'm not too happy to have these works appear in a show. I just don't think they're good enough for that. They're fine as hobby pieces, but gallery works... no dice.

As always, I hope you dig and I thank you for taking the time to put your eyes on my sketches. If you have a moment, why not leave me a comment? It's a great way to make a new connection.

An Ink And Water Color Sketch. "Super" In Name Only.

I've never used water colors before, but I went to Hobby Lobby with the family this afternoon and a cheap set of water color paints caught my eye. I experimented with an India Ink wash last week, so I kind of figured that this might be something like that. I wanted to start with something simple, so I picked "Supergirl."

Like most of the comic characters I do, I started with a quick pencil sketch first...

Then I moved on to the inks...

Added the India Ink wash...

And finally tried my hand with the water color...

For a first try, I'm pretty pleased. It's definitely like trying to control chaos, but I think that I could learn to like working in water color. If it anything, it was nice to do something different. I hope you folks dig it.