I could go more detailed on this one and try and push the realism more, but I liked the sketchiness in it so I'm keeping it like this.

Different type of speedpaint this time. Sketched the head myself - I wanted a bit of a slightly cartoony face on this one - but I used references for the lighting direction and for the color palette. The challenge on this was painting with two colors that have nothing to do with human skin tone and pulling them off as two light sources while also keeping a believable sense of value. Its not super great, but it was a good exercise and it was fun to paint with these colors, even if I cheated and used an eyedropper tool for my reference.
This one took longer - around 3 hours.

Another speed paint. This one took me about an hour and a half, and while it's not amazing or anything I feel like I'm getting faster. Also, I only used reference for the hair colors (and it still doesn't look great), but no reference for the face or skin colors.

Midnight Figure Painting (Tasteful Nudity Warning)

I need to speedpaint more. I love this site: http://artists.pixelovely.com/  it has some really good photo reference and the models are usually in poses you can't get in real life cuz no one can stand still that long. I want to get to the point where I can be familiar with the value and color ranges for basic figure painting without having to look at references. I did some clicking around with the eyedropper tool and looked for patterns in the skin tones I was painting from and I think I'm starting to catch some things.

Oh, PS - there's nudity. Actually, I think this is the first time there's been nudity on this blog, but I feel like its tasteful and not erotic. And not even painted all that well, c'mon.

Trying out some new things in the ol sketchboork

More gorilla sketches - Hogle Zoo

Went to the zoo a couple weeks ago. I don't know what it is about monkeys, but they're always the most fun to draw.

Proposal #3

That's right! I got asked to help another chap propose to his girl. And in case you didn't catch the two other times I did it, let me just tell you that I'm a pro by now.

Earlier this week, I got a call from Minnesota... and the only people I know from there are my grandparents. I got taken by surprise when it was a guy named Alex on the other end asking me if I was the "drawing guy." Apparently, he'd found this ad that I put up on ksl a loooong time ago and wanted some help proposing to his longtime girlfriend. We set it all up to meet in the Southtown Mall in Sandy after they had lunch. I brought one of my best friends Ben with me to help take photos and chat while I drew. She didn't suspect a thing!

And just like that, a beautiful relationship gets capped with a diamond. Ben and I were talking about the experience afterwards - about how in the wake of doing something like this, you feel absolutely elated that you could assist in making people so happy. Every couple I've drawn has just radiated happiness and left beaming from ear to ear, and the nerves and anxiety (both the boyfriends' and mine) leading up to the drawings' reveal make it that much more of a payoff.

On the other hand, I'm still single! and I've been single every time I've done these proposals! So despite the elation, I'm tired of watching other people have their dreams come true while I'm still flying solo!

Anyway, on a completely different note, Ben and I decided to check out an interesting shop at the mall before we left: Fetal Studio. And with a name like that, you're probably wondering "Fetuses for sale? Where can I get one!?" Well dummy, they don't sell them, they take 3D pictures of them, and as a male-rights activist I wanted to see if they would even serve someone like me there. The conversation with the employee there went something like this:

Me: So I don't have a baby. Obviously. But what if I still want to buy your services.
Her: ...You don't have a uterus.
Me: Yeah, but what I do have is other organs, organs that might look pretty great in a 3D ultrasound.
Her: I don't know. We've never done one on a guy before.
Me: Look, I could eat alot of food and you could ultrasound that. That's almost the same thing, AND we'd know what it looks like to be food in my stomach.
Her: I guess we could try, but I really don't know what would happen.

Pfffff, feminists. They think we don't have feelings.