LATEST NEWS: After finally getting my hands on a good digital brush that allows me to draw like I do in Conte, and all the gesture drawing I've been doing for Drawing II. I really wanted to try and develop a "romanticized" drawing style for perhaps the promotional Illustrations related to 5 Days A Week. And like I always have done, I return to one of my favorite inspirations for experimentation. Below is a quick Video Work in Progress of the coloring of the above tonal gesture drawing.

It's been a while since I've drawn Mr. Hollingsworth, and being such a quirky character, I knew I could try to attack this without the trouble of having too many prior misconceptions (because in drawing, it's important not to label parts and jump to conclusions). Essentially the monotone drawing I did (pictured top left) became the underpainting, and what color I added fell as layers on top of the original drawing. This technique is extremely efficient and effective, as it is easiest to do a full "render" of tone in one color, and then add color in more flatter values. That's the way the big boys do it....so why haven't I discovered this in all these years? I must be hard headed. HA.

Now lets talk about the new style... I have always been very inspired by the work of Norman Rockwell-- more so for the character and personality he captured within such simple aspects of life. Playing on that, I've always had my own little take on expression, emotion, and of course a play with directional rhythm. So a more Romanticized Norman Rockwell-esque is where I'm headed with this. And it cold be the new face of future 5DAW ilustrations. It's indeed a tremendous breakthrough for me artistically, because now that I have the power of toning on my side, combined with my notorious cartoony exaggerations... I feel ready to throw something new out there. Thanks so much for all of the support!

Best viewed in Firefox and Internet Explorer.