Frank Underwood

I have been slowly getting back into painting. Here is a painting I did of Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood from House of Cards. The show has been great, I just watched the last episode of season 2 a couple days ago. Frank is a very interesting character, and this painting sits next to my painting of Tywin Lannister on my mantle. I decided to do a painting of him as a warm up before I tackle more complicated paintings. I am happy with how the painting turned out for not painting in over 6 months, it is a little rough around the edges. This was done in Zorn palette, so just 4 colors were used to paint it.

15x20 Long Figure Drawing And 5x7 Dog Sketch

New figure drawing that I recently finished. I wanted to try a new surface so I did this on Hot Press Illustration board. Overall I am quite happy with the drawing. The head to come out a little big. I did what I could to fix it. This was a very tough drawing to do.

Horse Portrait

Horse portrait drawing I did as a demo for my animal portrait drawing class at Watts Atelier. First time drawing a horse. It was a challenge but I am happy with the results. Teaching the class was a lot of fun. I felt like my students all came away with a good piece to be proud of. I have a separate site for just my pet portraits now, check it out at http://www.mattdrawspets.com/ 

Long Figure Drawing

New long figure drawing that I recently finished. Really happy with the way this turned out. I feel like each times I do a new long figure drawing, it's better than the last one. I am still proud of the last one I did, the guy with the huge beard. I submitted it to the ARC Salon, so I am hoping it gets in. These long drawings are fun to do, even though they take a long time to do and can be very tedious, but its a great way to focus on edges and anatomy, both literal and exaggerated. 

"Self Portrait" And A Dog Sketch

Being that my name is Matt Smith, I often get referenced to Matt Smith the actor from Doctor Who. So yes, I am an artist and I play a doctor on TV, or did, the Doctor regenerated and now someone else plays him and took my job. So I decided to draw a self portrait, its been a long time since I have done one. The dog sketch is 5x7, I wanted to add a mini pet portrait to what I am already offering on Etsy for my custom pet portraits, https://www.etsy.com/shop/MattDrawsStuff. I got this review today from one of my customers;
"I purchased this as a gift for my daughter. I gave Matt a photograph of Duke and he captured his appearance and even the loving way he looks at us in graphite. It brought tears to my daughters eyes when she received it! Matt is great to work with and he makes the whole process seamless. Thanks so much Matt!!!!"

Happy New Years!

Well its a new year and I would like to start the new year off by posting the last 2 pet drawings I did from last year! The dog is named Duke and the cat is named Luna. Duke may be my favorite pet drawing I have done so far, I wanted to keep it for myself. He kind of looks like one of the models I used to draw in class. of there is ever a pet looking like a person. Luna, I had to draw from a cell phone pic, so it wasn't the best of reference, but I made it work and I am quite happy with the drawing. A real cool looking cat too, all black with these huge ears.

Figure Drawing Demos And some Figure Drawings

It has been awhile since I have posted any new charcoal figure drawings. Here are some of my more recent favorite drawings. The demos are about 25 minutes long and the other drawings around 2-3 hours. I feel like my ability to demo is getting stronger. Teaching has been a lot of fun and its quite rewarding.

Two New Dog Portraits

New dog portraits I recently finished. The top one is named Mr. Darcy, my friends new puppy, super soft and fluffy, and awesome. The 2nd dog is named Sam, a friends dog from their childhood. I had to do this drawing from an old and small photograph. The photo was scanned and blown up, but not a lot of details to work worth. I had to fight hard for my edges and figuring out the shapes and details. I am quite happy with the end result with what I had to work with and what I turned it into!

Long Figure Drawing - Big Beard

Here is my newest long figure drawing. I would say around 30-40 hours went into this one. This is definitely my best long figure drawing yet. The drawing was a bit of a struggle to get through, but in the end I feel like it is steps above the last 2 that I have done. When you have an interesting person to draw though, it can add so much to the drawing itself.

Happy Halloween, Zombie Dog!

Well its the scariest time of the year. I did a drawing of my roommate's dog as a zombie to celebrate. Even though I made him look pretty freaky, I feel like I caught his likeness quite well still. I have been doing a lot of pet portraits lately and have created an Etsy shop for anyone interested in getting their own portrait of their pet, http://www.etsy.com/shop/MattDrawsStuff. You may also order from my blog just click the "pets" tab.

Two Cats And A Meerkat

A few recent drawings that I have done. The 2 cats are named Zook and Zena and the meerkat is from a photo I took at the San Diego Zoo. The meerkat was from a direct light source, the sun, creating nice clean light and dark shapes. Zook too was direct lighting from the sun, but it appears to be cloudy, as the lighting looks more diffused, creating softer shadows. Zena was the most difficult. She is being lit from behind by the sun, so I am assuming that her face is all light from bounced light. There were a lot subtlety going on in the lighting, making it hard to figure out. When you understand structure and form in general, and you understand what is going on in what you are drawing, it makes handing difficult lighting situations much easier.

Spike The Parrot

My second drawing of a parrot, this one though is a pet from someone I know. Similar to my drawing of Grizzly, there is no direct light source on this bird. From the photograph I drew this from, it appears to be a bright sunny day, however the parrot is in shadow, so all the light that is hitting it is from reflected light. I guess you could still say that it is a direct light source, being that its bounced light from a surface, its just a bit softer than you would expect from being directly light from the sun. It is good eye and brain practice to draw from different types of lighting. Sometimes you may even find it easier. Many times when I have done a drawing from life and we set the lighting up differently, the shapes and edges become clearer to me, making it easier for me to draw them.

More Dogs, Arf!

Two dog drawings that I have finished recently, Grizzly and I believe the other is named Abba. I am quite happy with the drawing of Grizzly, because it was done from a photo with overcast lighting. Overcast lighting (cloudy day) there is no direct light source, shadows tend to be soft and non existent, making it difficult to see form. A lot of highly trained artists love to use overcast lighting for the challenge it provides. This is my first attempt at drawing something in overcast lighting and I am happy with my results.

White-crowned Hornbill

Drawing I did of a White-crowned Hornbill that I photographed at the San Diego Zoo. These birds have a real interesting beak. The biggest challenge I had with this drawing was doing the white feathers on its head. Even though the lighting is not intense in this image, or in the photograph I shot, the feathers were blown out and I had to do some inventing/guess work. I am quite happy with the way my drawing turned out.

Reggie

Drawing I did of my sister's dog. I thought the drawing was going to take a lot longer due to all the curly hair. I had a lot of fun trying to design it all out, it is definitely a challenge, but a fun one, as it provides a good opportunity for interpretation. As long as the design doesn't destroy the form, there is a lot you can do with hair like this.

Parrot

Drawing of a parrot I did the other day. The park up the street from me, there are people outside that always have parrots. I think they are a bird adoption group, anyways, whenever I walk by and I have my camera, I photograph the birds. I like this photo in particular so I did a drawing of it.

Long Figure Drawing #2!

Here is the 2nd long figure drawing from class. This was a total of 40 or so hours, I lost track at one point. 15 hours in class and the rest from a photo. One thing that I am really happy with in this drawing was that I thought more about my edges, not exactly what I saw on the model, but what could I do to manipulate the edges to create a stronger/more interesting drawing. Often times I am too accurate, where I will make something look how it is as I see it and not always think of the image as a whole and I felt like I got away from that a bit, I could have done it more so still. I am currently working on a long portrait study, where I am thinking about my edges more so, I am curious as to how it will turn out. Will post it when finished.

PACT: Professional Artist-Client Toolkit

This maybe the first post I have ever done with out any artwork. PACT is a group of professionals trying  to raise the standard of living for fantasy and sci-fi Illustrators. They have started a fundraiser to raise money to create a website and hire lawyers. I am not affiliated with them, but I believe in their cause and have donated, being that I work in this field as well and would like to continue to grow in it. Here is a link to their fundraiser,  http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/pact-professional-artist-client-toolkit.

Thank you!

Long Figure Drawing

Here is a figure drawing I finished a month or so ago. Finally got around to taking some pictures of it. This is the best drawing I have ever done, of course I did spend 30 hours on it, so it should be! I spent 12 hours in class and finished the rest at home from a photo. I really love the Russian drawings, and it was nice to be able to take some time and try to do the cool calligraphy that they do in their drawings. Graphite is one of my favorite mediums, it can be really relaxing to use. This is also the second time I have photographed drawings with my new camera. This time it was much more successful, not sure if I had it on a different setting or what. I will have another long figure drawing posted soon hopefully.

First Oil Painting In Nearly 2 Years!

I haven't done an oil painting in nearly 2 years. Most of the work I have been doing has been pencil renderings or other black and white stuff. At first the painting was a real struggle, it took a few days until I got the hang of it again. I am real happy with the way it turned out. One reason why it is successful for not painting in nearly 2 years is from all the learning I still have done in graphite. The same principles apply still, its just trying to figure out how it works in paint. While I am happy with the painting, the frustrating part is know how much better it would have been if I didn't stop painting for 2 years.