If you’ve been following me on the Book of Faces, then you know I’m still chugging away on the whole manga self-portrait thing. My style has been developing, and I’m quite pleased with several of the drawings, but I don’t think I’m producing consistent enough images yet. I’m getting a little too caught up in the abstraction of the linemaking (something I’ve always loved) and often forgetting to pay attention to the underlying anatomy. I’ll get there, though. Here are the next 32 portraits, collage-style.
#56 is NOT supposed to be my Steven Segal face…+
When I got to #50, I wanted that to be the only one I did on that day. There’s no good reason, the numbers just made sense to my brain with it being some kind of arbitrary milestone. That’s why there are 2 photo referenced portraits back to back (#51 and #52, note the hallmark of the photo references in each: my glasses). There are several on this page that I really like.
#70 and #78 make me chuckle when I look at them, 2 of the strongest non-referenced portraits to date.
At some point around #36 I had started giving each portrait a quotation type caption, verbalizing the expression of each portrait and the interaction between the daily 2. I’m always looking to streamline things so there’s more time for actual drawing, especially when it comes to managing this site, the FB page, and now the Deviant Art page, so I decided I should just add those captions directly to the drawings word balloon-style. I don’t know if it actually saves me any time, but it feels like it and it makes my brain happy. And at the end of the day, what we all really want is a happy Toby’s Brain, isn’t it?
Speaking of making my brain happy, I need to start today’s manga self-portraits, which have come to serve as my daily art warm up for other projects. I just wrapped up the second of four revisits to previous projects (I don’t know if I’m supposed to talk about them or not, so for now, marvel at my vagueness). It’s posing an interesting challenge, but the real treat for me is twofold: I get to go back and fix some things that have been bothering me that I now have the technical digital skills to improve, and I get to compare my newer methods and workflow with how I produced the images originally. Can you say “much more efficient”? Cuz I can. About my process, I mean. Obviously I can say “much more efficient”, because my mouth works…though if you’ve never met me in person, you might not know that…so I guess you’ll just have to trust me…
Anysquids, yes, what was taking me close to 100 hours (yes, that’s the correct number of zeros) now takes me 10 or less (also the correct number of zeros). That’s a huge deal.
Today, hopefully I’ll squeeze in some work on 10 Things. I really want to get that done so it’s not hanging over my head anymore. I’m ready to focus on getting the t-shirt venture running, as well as some related ideas. Plus, I’m really getting eager at least to make some more concept art for Revery. I may need to replot a few of the thumbnailed pages to make room for some other scenes. Anyone want to volunteer to do all the things in my life other than draw and workout? Anyone? Anyone?
Darn.
Please let me know what you think, it makes my brain happy.