300th post- and a baby drawing to boot!

300 posts! Wow! I can't believe I have that many...crazy.

I don't have a whole lot to comment on this drawing...like, I have no idea whose kid this is, or how the person who gave me the photo is related to the baby...or how old the baby is...or any of the usual information people usually give me.
A co-worker of mine, asked how much I charge and before I even spit the reply out he handed me a picture of this adorably cute baby with mass amount of wrinkles and a cute old man face. Totally adorable. And a super fast draw, it only took a total of about 2.5 hours to complete.
I gave the drawing to my co-worker this morning and he didn't even look at it- just ran it to his truck and came back in to work- so I have NO IDEA if he even likes it or approves of it. Sometimes that's frustrating. I just want people to be happy with their drawings- that takes just a few small seconds of looking at the drawing and getting a first impression of it...if your first impression is you like it- then awesome! If your first impression is something is wrong- then there probably is something wrong...so let me know, so I can make it better.

Ah well, 300th post and it just so happens that I had a hand drawn portrait for ye fine folks. (yes I said "ye")
Thanks to everyone who has been reading the blog. Your peepers are much appreciated!!! Now go tell some more people to stop on by and read it :)

Pirate in color

Since the last post was such a hit (sarcasm), I thought I would post this bad boy.

He's finally in color. I'm not sure how I feel about him. Extremely glad that he's somewhat completed. Still thinking of ways to tweek the image though.

I lost track of how long I had been working on him as I stopped and did other things because I was getting frustrated.

Seriously though. This time someone please leave a comment as to whether or not you like him or don't like him or have suggestions as to something I could change or a different color to use or something. I feel like the last one just sank in the water (no pun intended)- and I really wanted some feed back as all of this color stuff could end up as prints and I don't want to waste the money making them if no one likes it.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks!

Head Above Water

So this is what I've been working on today. Caused by the inspiration from yesterday. It looked way cooler as just a pencil sketch, but without any shadows it was hard to tell what was going on.

For those of you who still can't see it- it's a girl in the water...you can only see the top of her head and her hair. I know, it's a little difficult to see.

Let me know what you think, as I would like some constructive criticism to improve on my work in Photoshop.

I think I went a little overboard with the highlighted dots, they looked really cool on her face and hair, so I started adding them to the water and I think...well...I just over-did-it.

Again, any criticisms would be awesome.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!

inspiration

Lately I have been doing everything I can to not do what I should be doing...awesome, huh? Yeah, well I just got an awesome visual slap across the face to wake myself up.
I've been painting the Pirate- although not at all this week. Why? I don't know...bored maybe? I'm just not feeling it. So instead of starting on a completely different drawing to paint (in Photoshop mind you, I have no patience for drying of paints...actually I do, I just don't have the space to do it in right now-so I make excuses)- I pick up a book; I knit (you know, on an afghan that isn't even 1/2 way done right now); I surf new apps for my iPhone; I play solitare...watch tv...work out...space out. WHY can't I just get motivated?!?
...I received an email from Kidrobot today and clicked on one of the images, just for fun (and to put off doing anything artistic...)- I hadn't ordered anything from them in a long time...but I wanted to see what I was missing out on. I surfed their site for a few minutes and found the new Sam Flores vinyl...which was obviously sold out because of it's awesomeness. So in the wake of being devistated that I missed out on yet another beautiful piece by him I google searched his name and found this: http://www.upperplayground.com/blog/sam_flores his blog.
Thus the visual slap in the face.
Awesome.
I want to paint like he does.
I want ideas that would be as awesome as his.
So what next? Well, the sketchbook is in my hand (the computer is at home, so that'll have to wait)...but art it is.
Thanks Sam Flores for the inspirational slap in the face, I needed that.