Mark Draws

Princess Leia

2012-01-27T05:55:00.001-08:00

One of my very favorite apps for the Mac is Autodesk's Sketchbook Pro. I use it all the time for sketching because it's digital pencils feel just about as close to the real thing as you can get. I use the pencils so much I've kind of neglected the other great tools the program has. Last night I tried to rectify that by playing with the digital markers and brushes. The result is this sketch of Princess Leia.

New York Observer

2012-01-27T05:51:00.001-08:00

It was my turn for another NY Observer cover this week. This week's cover story was about the current outrage over the SOPA and PIPA bills that were getting rammed through Congress before public outcry as well as several very visible protests by several major websites put those bills on hold. The article focuses in particular on the fact that most of the Congressionsl leaders (such as Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, seen here) don't have a clue about how the Internet actually works. Thanks to Lauren and Scott at the NYO for another fun job.

Martin Luther King sketch

2012-01-16T17:18:00.000-08:00

Today is Martin Luther King Day, so in honor I did a sketch of the great man over lunch. Ballpoint pen in the ol' sketchbook.

Final Helena Bonham Carter

2012-01-09T16:49:00.000-08:00

I'm calling this one done. I wasn't digging the original color scheme, but I think it all came together when I decided to use green as my focal color. The hair was particularly fun to paint, and probably took nearly as long as the entire rest of the image. Her hair is actually more brown, but I darkened it here in order to blend in better with the background.

NEW! I just heard a very cool development. This caricature won the weekly MYFX challenge over on the forums for one of my very favorite magazines ImagineFX. There were a bunch of great entries so I'm flattered that I won the most votes. Thanks to everyone who voted for me.

HBC- wip 3

2012-01-09T09:32:00.001-08:00

I have the main structure worked out o. HBC. Now it's all about working out the fine details, such as the hair from here.

Helena Bonham Carter - Progress

2012-01-07T18:40:00.000-08:00

More progress on HBC. Once I'm happy with the overall structure, I start zooming in very tight and begin working with a progression of smaller and smaller brushes to tighten up details.

Helena Bonham Carter - WIP

2012-01-07T08:34:00.000-08:00

This is the very early stage of a painting I'm doing of Helena Bonham Carter in full Bellatrix Lestrange garb. This is the block-in stage, and I'll be the first to admit it looks pretty ugly right now. For those interested in such things, what I've done thus far in Photoshop is do my sketch on a separate layer, then on another layer below and one above the sketch layer, I've begun laying in rough color with a basic hard round Photoshop brush I've made a few tweaks to. From here I'll continue tightening up details and moving on to using a couple of other custom brushes as well.

Daniel Craig

2011-12-30T18:23:00.000-08:00

I decided to try a caricature of Daniel Craig. The trick here with him is he has so many caricaturable features you really have to pick and choose what you're going to exaggerate. I decided I'd focus primarily on his jutting ears and especially his huge, neanderthal brow. As usual, this was painted in Photoshop.

The Krampus Christmas Special

2011-12-23T20:52:00.000-08:00

Of all the Rankin & Bass Christmas specials, I can never believe they never did one featuring the Krampus, so here's my interpretation. Merry Christmas everyone!

Bruce Lee

2011-12-21T19:45:00.000-08:00

Quickie caricature of Bruce Lee for this week's Caricaturama challenge on Facebook.

Ricky Gervais

2011-11-26T12:01:00.000-08:00

Here's my entry into this week's Caricaturama challenge on Facebook. This week's victim is Ricky Gervais.

The New York Observer

2011-11-22T06:40:00.001-08:00

Here's my latest cover for the New York Observer. Because of the short week for the folks at the Observer, I actually had all weekend to work on this for a change. Even still, I kind of wish I still had another day to work on it. Oh well, such is the life of an illustrator. The article has to do with three city leaders (John Liu, Bill DeBlasio and Scott Stringer) and their reaction to Mayor Bloomberg's treatment of the Occupy Wall Streeters.

Mitt Romney Sketch

2011-11-14T18:13:00.000-08:00

Quickie sketch of Mitt Romney. About 40 minutes in Photoshop.

The Walking Dead

2011-11-05T15:03:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I loooovvvveee zombies. So it goes without saying that I'm a tremendous fan of the Walking Dead TV show and comics. I really wanted to try something different with my next portfolio piece. I've been working on this on and off for the last two weeks and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Frankenstein

2011-10-20T18:33:00.000-07:00

I liked how my Bela Lugosi painting came out, so I decided to move onto the next logical choice. Here's my take on Boris Karloff in his most famous role. Once again, I was trying to emulate the look and feel of the Famous Monsters of Filmland covers I like so much.

NY Observer cover

2011-10-19T17:23:00.000-07:00

Here's my latest New York Observer cover. This one was a little difficult illustrating because it was more of an abstract concept than usual. The story has to do with the ultra-elite Manhattan private school for girls The Spence School (Gwyneth Paltrow, among others, went there). The school is building an ultra modern glass breezeway connecting two of the buildings on their campus and the local residents are up in arms because it doesn't mesh with the local architecture (jeez, this is seriously the biggest thing these people have to complain about?). Here's the idea I came up with: several of the locals pressed up against a glass wall with a snooty, oblivious schoolgirl in the foreground.

Herman Cain sketch

2011-10-19T17:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a sketchy painting I did of current G.O.P. Presidential candidate flavor of the month Herman Cain. This took about 90 minutes in Photoshop.

Bela Lugosi color

2011-10-13T08:24:00.001-07:00

I went in and added color to my Lugosi painting. I took my visual cues here from the work of the great illustrator Basil Gogos, who gained fame in the 60's and 70's for painting many amazing covers for Forry Ackerman's Famous Monsters of Filmland. One of the things I loved most about those covers were the artist's remarkable color palettes he used. They were all ultra bright and shouldn't have made any sense, but somehow they did.

Bela Lugosi Black and White

2011-10-12T20:32:00.000-07:00

Every year around Halloween I try to do at least one monster painting. This year is the great Bela Lugosi. I think I'm going to try colorizing this and seeing how it goes.

Cheyenne

2011-10-07T20:07:00.000-07:00

A while back I found a really incredible set of vintage photos online of a bunch of Native Americans taken sometime in the late 1800s. This is a member of the Cheyenne tribe. He had such an incredible face, I just had to paint him.

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

2011-10-06T04:07:00.000-07:00

I heard the news last night that Steve Jobs had died. It's truly sad day for the entire world he helped change. There aren't many people you can call a true visionary, but Steve was one of them. I've been using Apple products for most of my adult life. I spent about an hour sketching him on one such device last night.

Mila Kunis

2011-10-01T05:38:00.000-07:00

Here's a painting I've been working on and off on for a little while of actress Mila Kunis. I was tempted to paint a Meg Griffin hat on her head, but I didn't think most people would get the joke.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

2011-09-29T17:05:00.000-07:00

Several months back I was hired to do a cover for the Nashville City Paper. It's a long story, but the short version goes there was a bit of a mixup with the schedule and as it turns out I had to turn around the entire cover in just about seven hours. This is far and away the shortest time I've ever had to do a cover for any publication and on top of that there was surprisingly little photo reference to be had of the people I had to paint. I finished on time, but I wasn't really happy with the result, but at the time I figured at least it was done and that's what mattered. The story, incidentally, had to do with a crazy contract/real estate deal involving three former Kansas City Royals, Dan Quisenberry, George Brett and Willie Wilson. Today the AD from The City Paper realized he never sent me a copy of the cover to show me how the final layout turned out. I have to admit, seeing it now months later, I like how it turned out better than I did before.

New York Observer Cover

2011-09-27T18:04:00.000-07:00

Here's my latest New York Observer cover. This one was particularly difficult because it was almost impossible to find a photo of the main subject. The article is about a guy named Bill O'Reilly (no, not that one). He's a Republican political strategist who ran the campaign of Bill Turner, who won Anthony Weiner's House seat in a heavily Democratic district. After much searching, I only found a single, not very good photo of the guy. I take a little comfort in knowing that even if I messed up the likeness. No one is going to know what he looks like anyway.

Peter Dinklage

2011-09-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

I cleaned up my painting of Peter Dinklage and added some color. Here's how it turned out.

Peter Dinklage WIP

2011-09-21T19:40:00.000-07:00

I started painting over a ballpoint pen sketch I did of actor Peter Dinklage, who plays Tyrion Lannister on one of my favorite shows, Game of Thrones. My man Peter just won an Emmy for his role, so now seemed like as good a time as any. This is my result after about 90 minutes. I think I might polish it up some more and take it to a more finished piece.

John Krasinski

2011-09-18T19:34:00.000-07:00

I have to confess, I've hardly ever watched NBC's The Office. Mostly because I love the original British version of the show and I always found the American version to be a pale imitation. Here's my version of series star John Krasinski for this week's Caricaturama challenge over on FaceBook.

Sting Sketch

2011-09-14T16:24:00.000-07:00

Here's a digital sketch I did of Sting as he appeared in the movie Dune. This was done for one of the Caricaturama challenges over on FaceBook. I kept it fairly loose. You can actually still see the undersketch through the digital paint.

Lord Alan Sugar

2011-08-15T17:10:00.000-07:00

This is a cover illustration I did for a new U.K. iPad-only publication called The Browser. This is Lord Alan Sugar, host of the British version of The Apprentice. This is my preferred version of the cover, which is slightly different from what will actually appear.

James Franco

2011-08-10T19:11:00.000-07:00

I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes the other day (terrific movie, BTW). As anyone who does caricatures for a living can tell you, after you do it for a while you start to size up everyone you see to determine how you'd distort that person's features. In this case, after staring at James Franco up on the screen for a couple hours I began to notice his overlong chin and ever-stoned look. Eventually, those observations led to this.

Lady Gaga

2011-07-27T18:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a painting I just finished of Lady Gaga. I took this one as a bit of a personal challenge. She was a bit of a tough one to caricature, not because her features weren't distinctive, but because she's always either changing her appearance or covering up her features behind huge glasses and other crazy crap. This is based on this Rolling Stone cover, BTW.

New York Observer Cover

2011-07-27T18:26:00.000-07:00

Here's my latest NY Observer cover. This was an ultra-rush for the magazine, so I had to pull out a bunch of time-saving tricks in order to get it done on time. The basic premise behind this illustration involved a series of editorial shake-ups at Conde Nast publishing over trouble they've had launching their iPad versions of their magazines. The idea was to show their art director as an app on the tablet behind deleted by the Conde Nast publisher. The pad and the icons are fully illustrated vector objects created in Adobe Illustrator and the hands are painted in Photoshop. This cover was especially bittersweet because it was the very last cover by the awesome Design Director Ivy Simones, who has moved on to another job with another publication. Ivy will be missed.

Peter Dinklage

2011-07-05T19:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a recent ballpoint pen sketch I did of my favorite character from one of my favorite shows. This is actor Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones.

New York Observer Cover

2011-06-22T17:29:00.000-07:00

I got to do another cover illustration for the ever-awesome Ivy Simones at the New York Observer. This is for their Gay Power List issue. From left to right are New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, movie producer Scott Rudin, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and fashion designer Marc Jacobs. I had a little more time than usual on this cover, so I really had time to focus on the likenesses and some of the fine details of each of their individual features.

Courtney Love

2011-06-09T20:09:00.000-07:00

Here's a painting I did of Courtney Love for this week's Caricaturama Challenge over on Facebook.

Gil Scott Heron

2011-05-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

I heard the sad news today that the great musician and poet Gil Scott Heron died. Here's a digital sketch I did as a tribute to the man.

Donald Trump

2011-05-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

I decided to give a go at everyone's favorite almost Republican Presidential Candidate The Donald. This was painted in Photoshop and the new and awesome Corel Painter 12.

Robert Johnson

2011-05-08T19:22:00.000-07:00

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the great blues guitarist Robert Johnson's birth. So the legend goes that when Johnson was young he met the devil at a crossroads and he sold his soul in return for his musical talent. Here's a painting I did to commemorate the date.

Franz Kafka for Kids

2011-05-05T19:38:00.000-07:00

The current Caricaturama challenge over on Facebook is one of my personal favorite writers Franz Kafka. There's a ton of brilliant work being produced for this challenge. I wanted to try something completely different though, which led me to thinking what a Franz Kafka children's book would look like, an idea that amuses the heck out of me. So here's my take on a childhood classic.

David Letterman sketch

2011-05-04T04:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a digital sketch of Letterman I was messing around with. I'm not sure if I'm going to clean it up or not. It's still pretty rough, but I think the likeness is there.

How to Use Vector Objects in Your Digital Paintings

2011-04-28T19:28:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make: I've only been digital painting for a couple of years now, and for many more years before then I did all my illustration work in vector programs like Adobe Illustrator and Flash. So even though I love digital painting with Photoshop, I still find opportunities to speed up my workflow by returning to my old vectory ways. Such was the case when I was hired to do my second cover for The New York Observer. It's a real honor getting to work for the Observer, considering the amazing array of talented illustrators that have done covers for them, and Design Director Ivy Simones is awesome to work with. But being a weekly newspaper, the deadlines are extremely tight so in order to meet my deadline I have to use every trick I know in order to produce good work in the most efficient and timely manner possible. In this particular instance, by the time I received the okay to paint my original sketch, I had a little bit over one day to do the final illustration. I used to work a few years ago as an art director for a monthly magazine so I know how important it is for me as an illustrator to do everything in my power to make the AD's life easier on deadline day. The editors were pretty specific in their request for not only doing a caricature of author Martin Amis and three other New York scribblers, but also they wanted a typical NY brownstone apartment building, a fence and even the Brooklyn Bridge in the final image. Whenever I have complex objects like buildings to illustrate, I find it's easier for me to first build the underlying structure of the object in vectors, then paint over those shapes. I used Adobe Illustrator to build the foundation of my background objects, but Photoshop's pen and shape tools can be used pretty much the same way as Illustrator.

I started building the fence first. I used the pen tool to draw a simple shape for the one of the slats.

Next, I wanted to give the object a little dimension, so I selected Copy (Command + C, or Control + C on a PC), then Paste in Back (Command + B). With the background object still selected I used the arrow keys to nudge it over to the right a little bit until it looked like this:

There I had my first fence slat. I copied the object several times. In Illustrator you can do this quickly by selecting the object, then by holding down the Option and Shift keys while dragging the object to the right to create an exact duplicate of the fence. I did this several times, then added a long skinny rectangular cross-beam on top until the finished piece looked like this:

I continued this process of creating simple shapes and setting them each up on individual layers until I ultimately had the barebones version of my background.

Then, piece by piece, I selected the individual elements from my vector background and pasted them into my Photoshop document as Smart Objects (you won't need to do this step if you build your pieces in Photoshop to begin with).

I went back to work on my fence again. I used the Magic Wand tool in Photoshop to select the top and bottom section of my first fence slat like so:

Then, because I knew time was short, I chose to add a real wood texture from a photograph. I dug up a cheap stock photo of some wood planks. Then used the Marquee Tool to select one of the planks. I selected Copy (Command + C), then returning to the selection I made in my vector object I chose the Paste Into command (Command + Shift + V). This actually auto-generates an editable mask around the texture and placing it on a new layer that fits perfectly.

And it looks like this:

I repeated this process for each of the wood slats until I had the entire fence built. After that, I went back in and reduced the transparency on each of my wood texture shapes. Then I used some custom brushes I've put together over the years, and painted over the wood textures so that they blended into the rest of the illustration. Lastly, I painted some shadows I on a Multiply layer. The complete fence looked like this:

I did much the same thing by pasting in some brick textures into the main structure of the brownstone. This saved me a ton of time I would have otherwise had to spend paintstakingly rendering each individual brick. If I'd had more time I probably would have done just that, but time was at a premium and even by taking these shortcuts, I still ended up finishing the illustration with literally minutes to spare before my deadline. Ivy was happy, which of course made me a happy boy as well.

New York Observer

2011-04-27T04:37:00.000-07:00

My second New York Observer cover is on the newsstands today. Thanks again to Super Design Director Ivy Simones, who is all around awesome to work with. They were pretty specific this time around what they wanted. The cover article deals with the famous British author Martin Amis moving to Brooklyn. They interviewed several other New York authors and asked them what they thought of this move (hint: most of them don't like him). Behind the fence, from left to right are authors Jonathan Ames, Jonathan Safran Foer and Jennifer Egan. Here's a bigger version of the illustration.

Natalie Portman

2011-04-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a digital painting I did of Natalie Portman for the latest Caricaturama challenge over on FaceBook. The reference shot I used is from the movie "Closer", which I've never actually seen (although I probably should, considering she plays a stripper). I really loved the colors from the photo and thought it would be cool to try to capture them here.

Obama and Paul Ryan

2011-04-19T17:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a self-promotional image I've been working on of President Obama and Representative Paul Ryan, who each released competing budget plans within the last couple weeks. I got the idea of depicting the two of them in a tussle after hearing the President invited Ryan to sit in the front row while he unveiled his own plan, simultaneously trashing Ryan's plan for destroying Medicare as we know it and giving big more tax breaks to the very wealthy at the expense of everyone else.

David Hasselhoff

2011-04-10T17:34:00.000-07:00

I took my little boy to see the movie Hop this weekend and it was completely horrible. It did contain an extended cameo from The Hoff, and as I watched him on the giant screen I started to formulate how I would do his caricature. Here's the result.

Daniel Day Lewis

2011-04-02T20:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a painting of Daniel Day Lewis I did for this week's Caricaturama challenge over on Facebook. The reference for this one comes from one of my favorite movies I've seen Lewis in, There Will Be Blood. I intentionally kept the brushstrokes blocky and I was certainly channeling my inner J.C. Leyendecker here.

Michelle Bachman sketch

2011-03-31T20:12:00.000-07:00

Quickie digital sketch of crazy-eyed Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachman. About 20 minutes in Photoshop.

New York Observer cover

2011-03-31T16:32:00.000-07:00

I was extremely honored to be able to a cover recently for The New York Observer. For years, The Observer has published covers by some of the finest illustrators in the world. It's like the Justice League of Illustration: Drew Friedman! Victor Juhasz! Philip Burke! Edel Rodriguez! Robert Grossman! Barry Blitt! Jason Seiler! Dale Stephanos! And the list goes on and on. I'm humbled to be in such company (although I think it makes me more the Gleek the purple monkey of this particular group of Superfriends). Design Director Ivy Simones was awesome to work with (as well as being one heckuva designer). The cover is of SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro. The article is highly critical of the job Ms. Schapiro's been doing, but the thing that struck me about the article was despite the growing criticism, everyone seems to still like her. That made me think there must be something about this Mary woman, which led me to doing this parody of the poster for the movie "There's Something About Mary".

Sharon Stone Sketch

2011-03-27T20:12:00.001-07:00

Digital sketch of Sharon Stone for a Caricaturama challenge over on FaceBook. Painted in Photoshop.

Liz Sketch

2011-03-24T04:04:00.000-07:00

Lunchtime sketch of Liz Taylor. Drawn in ballpoint pen.

Guy Fieri Sketch

2011-03-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

Doing some sketching in Photoshop. This is celebrity chef and TV host Guy Fieri. About 90 minutes in Photoshop.

Prints for Sale

2011-03-21T17:58:00.000-07:00

I just started a new venture with my new bud, the great British illustrator and comic book artist Des Taylor. Des has begun an artist's collective known as "The Lost 20" of which he asked me to join. You can purchase limited edition prints of my or any of the other great artists in the collective on the site. Check it out here:

http://despop.co.uk/?page_id=4&category=11

Reality Queens for Playboy

2011-03-18T16:50:00.000-07:00

I was extremely honored to be able to do my first spot illustrations for Playboy. Senior Art Director Bruce Hansen was a pleasure to work with. The column by comedian Lisa Lampanelli deals with the trouble involved with dating today's reality TV stars. Here's Kate Gosselin, Kim Kardashian and everybody's darling Snooki.

Elvis Presley

2011-03-14T03:59:00.000-07:00

And here's the final. Uh-huh-huh!

Elvis WIP

2011-03-12T19:50:00.000-08:00

I know, the world needs another Elvis caricature like I need another hole in my head, but here's what I'm working on right now.

Paul Giamatti sketch

2011-03-09T19:06:00.000-08:00

Here's a digital sketch of actor Paul Giamatti I did tonight. This is about 90 minutes in Photoshop.

Muammar Gadaffi

2011-03-08T18:35:00.000-08:00

Here's a digital painting I did of Libyan dictator Muammar Gadaffi. This started as a simple sketch in Sketchbook Pro, then kept developing into a final piece.

Another caricature commission

2011-03-07T18:24:00.000-08:00

Here's a new commission I did of a marketing professional and cool dude named Blain Skinner.

Charlie Sheen sketch

2011-03-03T19:52:00.000-08:00

Here's a rough sketch I painted today of the current Jerk-of-the-Moment Charlie Sheen. This about an hour and a half in Photoshop.

Nick Cave(man)

2011-02-27T13:39:00.000-08:00

Here's another painting I did for this week's Caricaturam 3000 contest over on FaceBook. The subject this week was singer Nick Cave. There are ton of fantastic entries over there, so I decided to do something a little different. I was pretty much raised on a steady diet of Mad Magazine, and Mort Drucker and Jack Davis are gods to me. I think this shows their influence.

Scott Walker sketch

2011-02-22T20:06:00.000-08:00

I did a little sketching to unwind before I go to sleep. Here's a speed painting of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who, as you probably know, is doing his darndest to take away the rights of state workers right now under the guise of fiscal responsibility. Yeah right. This was one hour in Photoshop.

One more Bardot

2011-02-20T18:45:00.000-08:00

I found so many great reference photos I couldn't resist trying one more. Here's a value painting I did of Brigitte Bardot in Photoshop. Now I'm tired. Markie need sleep.

Bardot

2011-02-19T18:34:00.000-08:00

Here's what I'm thinking will be my final submission for the Caricaturama contest. I'm tempted to tweak it a bit more here and there, but I've got other projects in the pipeline I have to get to.

Brigitte Bardot - WIP

2011-02-17T19:19:00.000-08:00

Here's a painting I'm working on for the Caricaturama Showdown 3000 competition over on FaceBook. It's a weekly competition open to caricature artists far and wide in which every week a new subject is named and the winner is voted on by the group, and he or she gets bragging rights and also names the next week's subject. This week is French sexpot Brigitte Bardot. Here's my work in progress. I've still got a way to go.

Cee Lo Green

2011-02-14T20:13:00.000-08:00

Cee Lo Green's album "The Lady Killer"has been in heavy rotation on my IPhone lately. I spent a few hours tonight painting the man himself. He has a really unique shaped head that made for a fun caricature. I chose to do this in black and white in order to focus on the capturing the values. This was done in Photoshop over a ballpoint pen sketch.

Private Commission

2011-02-12T08:32:00.000-08:00

Here's a private commission I just did of Stefan Mumaw, the incredibly talented Creative Director of Reign, a Kansas City ad agency. Stefan has authored five books on design and the creative process (I highly recommend Caffeine for the Creative Mind). I'm incredibly gratified he chose me to paint his new profile portrait. Extra thanks to the mighty Von Glitschka, who steered Stefan my way via Twitter.

Emma Stone Sketch

2011-02-08T18:33:00.000-08:00

I did a little digital sketching tonight. This time I used a pic of actress Emma Stone (Zombieland, Easy A). This is after about two hours of painting in Photoshop.

Rupert Murdoch

2011-01-22T06:19:00.000-08:00

I began painting the sketch I did a few days ago of media mogul Rupert Murdoch. All those wrinkles turned out to be a lot of fun to paint. I simplified my painting method a bit this time around, and I think the result came out pretty well. This was all done painting with two basic Photoshop brushes on a single layer.

A Couple of New Sketches

2011-01-18T19:21:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of recent sketches from the trusty 'ol sketchbook. The top one is media mogul Rupert Murdoch and below is Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Both are done in ballpoint pen on paper.

Vamp

2011-01-17T19:52:00.000-08:00

Not a lot to say about this one. I was just sort of playing around. It started out as a straight portrait and over time it just sort of morphed into a vampire. This all Photoshop from start to finish.

Kristin Stewart Sketch

2010-12-29T19:18:00.000-08:00

One thing I need to do all the time in order to keep up the artistic muscles is sketch. Either pencil on paper, or in this case, all done on my Mac in Sketchbook Pro and Photoshop. If I don't sketch constantly I grow rusty really fast and it makes it that much harder to get going when I have a client with a job. I keep a folder full of celebrity photos on my computer for whenever I have some down time between projects where I'll grab some reference pretty much at random and practice. This time it was "Twilight" actress Kristin Stewart (or "K-Stew" as the tabloids seem to be referring to her). She's got a great face for caricature because of her really prominent forehead and chin, which is what I chose to exaggerate here. This is after about two hours of work. I'm at that stage where I could turn it into a finished piece with a couple more hours of polishing and smoothing, but I think I'm going to leave it where it's at. It was just practice, after all, and I really like the roughness of it.

Bob Redux

2010-12-01T17:45:00.000-08:00

A couple things were bugging me about the likeness. I tweaked the nose and chin and I think it improves the likeness overall.

Bob Dylan Sketch

2010-11-30T19:04:00.000-08:00

I spent a couple hours tonight painting over a ballpoint pen sketch of a young Bob Dylan. Here's what I was able to accomplish.

Keith Richards

2010-11-21T07:37:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure anyone should attempt to paint Keith Richards other than Sebastian Kreuger, but I tried anyway.

Sketchbook Dump

2010-11-12T18:40:00.000-08:00

I finished up a new sketchbook. Here are a few of the better things in it.

Sherlock

2010-11-11T19:05:00.000-08:00

I've been a big Sherlock Holmes fan ever since I was a kid. I've read all the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories and many, many of the pastiches that have been written over the years. I've seen dozens and dozens of movies and TV shows, including all the Basil Rathbone and (my favorite) Jeremy Brett movies. So when I heard the BBC had aired a new version set in the modern day I was, to say the least, skeptical. It turns out, Sherlock is pretty brilliant. It's funny, exciting, smart, and just plain fun. Here's my take on the two stars: Martin Freeman (Tim from the British Office) as Watson and the remarkably named Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes. BTW, if you haven't seen the show yet, I highly recommend it.

Painting Tutorial

2010-11-05T12:17:00.000-07:00

For anyone who's interested, I wrote a digital painting tutorial to accompany the Clint Eastwood painting I posted below. It can be found over on the very excellent blog Illustration Pages. http://bit.ly/9Unl7Z

Clint

2010-11-02T19:48:00.000-07:00

Finished this up tonight. I'm putting together a tutorial on how I painted this one. I'll post the how-to soon.

Clint Eastwood - WIP

2010-11-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

Working on a Clint Eastwood painting for a tutorial I'm putting together.

Me and Stan Lee

2010-10-30T15:19:00.000-07:00

Anyone who follows my work knows I paint a lot of famous people. This is the first time I ever was able to give one of my paintings directly to the person. What made today especially gratifying is that the person I painted just happened to be Stan "The Man" Lee, creator of Spider-Man, The Hulk, Iron Man and the vast majority of my childhood heroes. Today at the Detroit FanFare show I was honored to be able to present one of my signed prints to Stan Lee. Even better: he seemed pretty blown away by my work ("Brilliant," was the exact word he used). Today was a really good day.

Detroit FanFare 2010 Limited Edition Print

2010-10-30T02:47:00.000-07:00

I'm excited to announce that the folks who running the Detroit FanFare Comic Convention this weekend, in honor of Stan "The Man" Lee attending, are going to be selling limited edition prints of my Stan Lee painting at the main convention table. Each print measures 9" x 12 1/2" and is printed on a very nice glossy stock. This is a limited edition of 300, and each one is signed and numbered by yours truly. In the words of the infomercials, but wait...there's more! This little beauty can be yours for a mere $15. So if you're planning on attending the show and you've got an extra fifteen bucks burning a hole in your pocket, please pick one up. Gracias.

ImagineFX

2010-10-26T16:15:00.000-07:00

Another one of my illustrations is in the new issue of ImagineFX Magazine (issue #62, for those keeping score). A few months ago IFX announced they were having a zombie themed issue with a contest that involved painting their Editor-In-Chief Claire Howlett as one of the walking dead. I didn't win the contest, but I was among the four runners-up, which meant I got my illustration printed in the book. It's an honor being recognized, especially considering how fantastic so many of the entries were. And yes, if you look close you may notice for some reason they cut half of my last name off and printed it as Mark Hammer. Oh well, you win some...

They like me!

2010-10-25T15:37:00.000-07:00

Check it out, my work is featured on the very cool website IllustrationPages.com. This site was listed as one of HOW Magazines Top 10 Websites for Designers in March 2010, so this is quite an honor. Please click over here to read more.

Nosferatu - Final

2010-10-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

I tweaked a few more details, sharpened up some lines and added a few color tweaks. Here's the final. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. I think I might try another monster or two in this style.

Nosferatu - Now With Color

2010-10-22T07:03:00.000-07:00

Nosferatu WIP

2010-10-21T20:06:00.000-07:00

I wanted to do at least one monster before Halloween. I'm still working on it, but here's still one of the coolest makeup jobs in film history, Nosferatu.

Ms. Marvel

2010-10-11T19:26:00.000-07:00

After painting Stan Lee, I got on a bit of a comic book kick. Here's Marvel superheroine Ms. Marvel. This took about six hours in Photoshop.

Nashville City Paper

2010-10-07T17:10:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to illustrate the cover of this week's Nashville City Paper. The article deals with Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and his choice to govern by surrounding himself with a series of "Task Forces" that consult on everything from public safety to the water department (read it here, if you're interested). City Paper Art Director Bret Pelizzari had a very clear vision of what he wanted to see. BTW, the model for the shadowy figures in the back are all me. I had my wife shoot a whole lot of reference photos of me trying to look tough. This is painted in Photoshop over a pencil sketch.

I'm in ImagineFX!

2010-09-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

I had a nice little surprise today. I picked up the October issue of ImagineFX and what you know, one of my paintings is in it. I did this about a year ago for a contest the magazine was running to paint the cover for the issue. I didn't win the contest and, truth be told, when I look back at my entry I can see about a million things I wish I'd done differently and/or better. But when I checked out the magazine I was pleasantly surprised to see my painting ended up among the runners-up. This is pretty gratifying considering they apparently received over 300 entries. It's an honor just to be part of such an amazing group of artists. BTW, this was done by flip-flopping between Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter.

Stan Lee

2010-09-24T19:46:00.000-07:00

I finished my painting of Stan Lee. I wanted to add a few ironic touches to the painting, so I put the Marvel Comics legend into a classic Superman pose, showing off one of his famous catch phrases. I also wanted to make sure I gave it a bit of a Jack Kirby flourish, so I added some Kirby-style crackles to the background. I painted this jumping back and forth between Photoshop and Corel Painter (with just a bit of Adobe Illustrator for the background).

Stan Lee - WIP

2010-09-22T19:40:00.000-07:00

I'm still working my way through this, but here's a sneak preview of a painting I'm doing of Stan "The Man" Lee, creator of Spiderman, Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk and much of the rest of my childhood. I've been doing this jumping back and forth between Photoshop and Painter.

Maggie Q

2010-09-09T19:09:00.000-07:00

I just watched the new show Nikita on the WB and my review is it was totally meh, and doesn't come compare to the original French film. That being said, I was still supremely impressed with the uber-hot star Maggie Q. I painted this while I was watching the show.

Tilda Swinton

2010-08-24T19:53:00.000-07:00

Here's the final. I always thought Tilda Swinton has kind of an outdoorsy, natural look to her, so I decided to place her outside in a field. The lighting just kind of followed naturally.

Tilda Swinton WIP

2010-08-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

I started this one as a personal challenge. Tilda Swinton has quite unique features, but she's definitely proven to be one of the trickier caricatures I've done. After sketching her over and over again numerous, I finally like where this one is going thus far.

New Portfolio Website!

2010-08-22T17:06:00.000-07:00

For a while now I've been wanting to redesign my portfolio website. One of my primary goals was to remove the Flash image gallery I'd been using in order to make my site more accessible to mobile users and others who don't have access to Flash. I also wanted to make sure all my images were easily accessible right from the main page. I decided to go with a WordPress site, for its ability to easily update and customize. I used a really great free theme called "Gallery" by Chris Wallace. I'll probably be making some tweaks to it here and there over the coming weeks, but overall I'm really happy with how this looks and functions. Check it out at http://www.markdraws.com

Rihanna - Final

2010-08-21T05:45:00.000-07:00

I decided to take the sketch I did earlier all the way to a finished piece. If you compare to my earlier sketch, you can see a lot of the changes I made along the way. I widened the jaw, moved and resized the eyes and did all sorts of other things that improved the overall likeness. One of the best ways you can tell if your image looks right while you're painting is to flip it horizontally every once in a while. This will reveal all sorts of inconsistencies and places where things are just "off" that are practically impossible to see otherwise.

Rihanna Speed Paint

2010-08-19T20:08:00.000-07:00

Just practicing. This is about 1 hour of pushing pixels around in Photoshop.

Eminem Final

2010-08-15T19:32:00.000-07:00

Here's where all this has led to.

Eminem Progress

2010-08-10T20:05:00.000-07:00

I'm slowly tightening up the details. I decided to ditch my original background and am planning something entirely different.

Eminem WIP

2010-08-09T19:37:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd try painting my fellow Detroit native. Still working on it.