happy anniversary

I just realized today that it has been more than a year since I started this blog (the first entry appeared in November of 2010), and I let the anniversary date slip by unnoticed.  Not that I'm going to do anything particularly special here to mark my year-plus of blogging, but I thought I should make a note and try to feel a little bit accomplished.  Anyway, here are a couple of recent drawings, both of which took far longer than they had any right to.

Jared Warren and Coady Willis of Big Business, from a photo I found on the internets.  Somehow, that super-ugly splatter-painted bandana sort of grew on me while I was working on this.

Victorian couple, also from a photo found on the internet.  The thing that struck me most about these people is that they looked so wary, as though they had been through a lot and no longer expected too much from life, though I'm not sure this comes across so clearly in the drawing.

back in the day

These are based on photos from the same book as was the lady from "a lady, a gentleman, and a monster,"  Victorian and Edwardian Fashion: a Photographic Survey by Alison Gernsheim.  I haven't really read the book -- mostly I've just looked at the pictures -- but I have learned some things, namely that once upon a time, there were many varieties of men's neckties, some of them bizarre and/or comical.

It's hard to believe, the getups people used to play sports in.  This lady was pictured with other "tennis club" members, and the men were in suits and big bowlers.  Huh.  The fact that they all held their rackets and everyone's outfits matched led me to believe they actually played in these clothes, but maybe I'm wrong.

period pieces

I am currently working on a little (as in only six pages) period piece, an adaptation of an old folk tale.  In these sketches, I was just trying to get the appearance of the characters and their clothes.