Jan 24 2012

Portrait Night 1/24 (Ben Towle)

Well, that’s all folks. It was one year ago that I set out to draw a portrait every Tuesday night for a full year. I thought it would be appropriate for my final entry to attempt a self-portrait, something I don’t think I’ve done since I was a college sophomore in the late 80s. I really don’t recommend it–I really don’t need to be this intimately reminded of all my weird moles, gradually receding hairline, etc.

Later this week, I’ll work up a more extensive “project summary” blog post with some post-completion reflections/observations and full a gallery of all the portraits, but here’s the final #PortraitNight subject: me.

I look super-cranky here, but I’m a nice guy, I promise! I was just irritated because I was having a hard time successfully taking a picture of myself in the bathroom mirror. How do those “duckface” women do it so successfully?

Here’s me in real life. Sorry about the scan-of-a-printout-of-pictures. I printed my photo reference and then deleted the pics from my camera.

Jan 23 2012

O is for Osquip

There were a number of interesting “O” Dungeons & Dragons creature choices for this week’s AlphaBeasts, but once I crossed the osquip in the Fiend Folio my mind was made up. Partially I think it’s because he’s clearly the ancestor of the watery-beer-shilling “Spuds MacKenzie,” commercial icon of the 80s. The osquip is the original original party animal.Also, though, he looks a lot like the signature dogs drawn by one of my favorite New Yorker cartoonists,  George Booth:Anyhoo, here he is:

O is for Osquip

The original art for this is for sale here.

Jan 17 2012

Portrait Night 1/17 (James Honeyman-Scott)

Tonight’s #PortraitNight subject is by request. I received a comment to my earlier drawing of Chrissy Hynde requesting a drawing of the amazing Pretenders guitarist James Honeyman-Scott. Reference-wise, I wound up sort of combining the photo below with another one (that I for some reason can’t re-locate online) of him with a collared shirt and blond hair. Anyway, here’s James Honeyman-Scott:

Jan 16 2012

N is for Neo-Otyugh

I started off not really liking this creature design, but looking at it now, I think this is one of the best AlpahBeast drawings I’ve done.

N is for Neo-Otyugh

The original art for this is for sale here.

 

You can follow the other “N” entries as people post them to Twitter this morning by following the #AlphaBeasts hashtag. View all previous AlphaBeasts entries at the AlphaBeasts Tumblr: http://alphabeasts.tumblr.com/. You can also find some submission guidelines there, as well as links to bestiaries and lists of creatures.

Jan 10 2012

Portrait Night 1/10 (Pete Townshend)

Well, this was kind of an accidental #PortraitNight. I’d selected a picture of Newt Gingrich from the most recent TIME Magazine to draw, but before settling down to drawing I decided to put on a record. Near the top of the stack was Pete Townshend ‘s Empty Glass–and after putting it on I wound up doodling a pic of Townshend instead of Newt. This drawing really is more a doodle than a finished drawing, but I feel like I’ve been laboring these portrait drawings more than I should. Anyhoo… here it is:

And here’s the back cover of the LP I was drawing from:

If you’d like to suggest a #PortraitNight subject, you can do so either via the comments section here, or via my Twitter.