"The Two of Us" no.35

 

"Take A Nap."

"The Two of Us" no.34

 

"I'll Stay To Guard The Food."

"The Two of Us" no.33

 

"How Do I Look?"

"The Two of Us" no.32

 

"You Need To Change Your Color Settings."

"The Two of Us" no.31

Kitties start their COLORful journey from no.31 and on!

"Black And White Universe? No Thank You."

"The Two of Us" no.26-30

No.30 is the last black-and-white drawing of this series, no.31 and on will be in COLOR!

No.30 "Trick Or Treat?"

No.29 "The Only Excercise We Do, Tongue Twisting To Eat More."

No.28 "Space Command Says No Chonks Allowed."

No.27 "Get Out Chicken! This Needs A Brave Space Cat!"

No.26 "I'm Too Cool For Space Missions."

"The Two of Us" no.21-25

 

No.25 "Wait! I Changed My Mind!"

No.24 "All You Can ASMR."

No.23 "My Favorite Roller Coaster Rides."

No.22 "Catwalk Tips: Don't Fall."

No.21 "Are You Hungry, too?"

"The Two of Us" no.16-20

 

No.20 "Your Inbox Is Full."

No.19 "Is This Perm Permanent?"

No.18 "I'm An Indoor Gardener For Hire."

No.17 "Oh Hell Paparazzi."

No.16 "Oh Hello Paparazzi!"

"The Two of Us" no.11-15

 

No.15 "Moew, Raraaahh! I Can Do Both Beauty and Beast."

No.14 "Sweet Dreams Till Someone Finds You."

No.13 "No More Mice On The Menu."

No.12 "Raraaahh Neighbor Lizards and Birds!"

No.11 "Greetings Neighbor Lizards and Birds!"

"The Two of Us" no.6-10

 

No.10 "I'll Be Back, Guard My Food."

No.9 "She Peed In The Tub."

No.8 "Hello Fabulous!"

No.7 "Technology For Relaxation."

No.6 "Acting Tips: Act Serious, Don't Blink, Intense Stare."

"The Two of Us" no.1-5

 

No.5 "I-I-I...Am Ready For Return."

No.4 "Keep The Toilet Seat Down!"

No.3 "I Accomplish A Lot In My Dreams."

No.2 "Modeling Tips: Act Aloof, Drop Your Jaw, Blank Stare."

No.1 "Mukbang For Motivation."

After I finished the comic strip for Copic Award as shown in the previous post, I felt more confident drawing animals. So I started this cat illustration series called "The Two of Us" on Sept. 1st and it's all about my two cats Lonie and Snuggle Puff, and them talking.

I'm very excited that I was able to to come up with daily illustration after a week, so I started an Instagram account to share them. And since here it seems too much to post just one per day, so here's the first 5. Tomorrow will post 6-10, and so on.

Illustrations are all done in Copic multiliner on A4 size cardstock. I re-use photos for Instagram here to make it easier to share since I haven't scanned anything.

Kit & Claw

I forgot to post this! I did this for Copic Award this year and submitted on August 28th. It took me a couple months to just think about what to draw, and I'm glad that I finished it all before deadline on Sept 15!

Because after my pencil sketch's done, I was afraid to ink directly on it for possible mistakes. So thank goodness my light pad's powerful light, it was able to project my very light pencil outline through such a thick 300series Bristol drawing paper! So I traced and inked on a new sheet. 

And then after successfully inking, I was afraid to make coloring mistakes directly on my ink sheet, too, so I pulled another new sheet again and color on top of the ink sheet through light pad. And of course I'm not experienced with coloring comic strips, so mistakes did come in and this whole process took...f o r e v e r.

Also this size is bigger than 11x16 inches, it wouldn't fit my scanner, so I can only take a picture.

Andrew Tweedy

This is the first time I drew someone I've never met in person, and I was shocked it came through without my usual process which is incubating the idea of drawing the person, looking through or asking for pictures to find what I like that'd work, and sleeping on the images working in my brain, and then looking at the picture and trying out on paper and pencil again and again. This process can take years even with someone I know, just like my previous post with Julia Parker.

 

And last night I humored myself by directly going to pencil and paper because I haven't drawn anybody in a year, but I want to draw Drew to give him as a thank-you gift for freely sharing tabs of ukulele for me to learn and always gotten back to me through email in a timely manner. So I paused one of Drew's youtube videos where I learned his rendition and I liked his funny expression, and there I started to sketch, and of course, the first try was funnily way off, so I erased until one eye left and restart. And voila, the face outline came through, I was ecstatic!

And continue on, I went to his most current (just the other week) instructional video of a song I was learning to draw his clothing because I liked the colors, and his current look with white beard and glasses. His funny expression's from a video 10 years ago. And then, went to another video of his which is the first video I learned from him last year, to draw the beer he had in the shot, as my memory of him. 

 

There, the outline's finished and I was eager to ink the outline to seal the look so I could sleep with happiness, and leaving the color for today. And just like my previous post with Julia, I wanted to do something new. So this morning I colored it with the unforgiving alcohol based COPIC ciao brush markers I bought last year. And since my paper is not marker paper, it's more deadly because you can't blend to smooth out mistakes. So I did few mistakes, but I started with fairly light colors and work my way in and the drawing's saved at the end.

Julia Parker

 

 

 

It was a miracle drawing Julia successfully on Jan. 14, 2021. I tried many times during past few years with referencing different photos of her and all failed, and I don't know why I bother again on Jan. 14, but I did. And I called it a miracle because I haven't drawn anybody for the entire 2020. Surprisingly from first pencil line down on her eyebrow, without erase or restart, I finished the outline easily as if I've practiced.

 

And also for some reason, I felt bold enough to experiment different way of coloring instead of my old way of following realistic direction when using color pencils. So I literally picked whatever color pencil that I saw through squinting my eyes slightly looking at her photo, which also meant that I didn't plan what color goes where. I was expecting ruining Julia's drawing, and I even warned her ahead of time and took a picture of the pencil outline as a memory, if I mess it up in the later process. Luckily it came together nicely, I can only think it's a miracle.

 

This drawing is done in pencil and color pencils.

Carol Scott 3 (digital)

This is the 3rd time I drew my White mom Carol but on phone. It still took some struggle just like when it's on the paper and many days sleeping on it. 

And one day I opened up the drawing app and saw the pencil outline with fresh eyes, I easily spotted what needed to be fixed, and it was one of her eyes. 

And like I said before, when the eyes are done right, the rest will follow. So quickly I tweaked that one eye and the next thing is I finished the drawing. In the car. And in the dark. :)

Dad (digital)

Drawing my own dad was so difficult that I just couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it. I literally non-stop drew and erased for hours on my phone and it took a few days to finally got it. 

I thought my dad's iconic triangle eye shape would be so easy to capture the essence but it was the opposite.

I was exhausted afterwards and I just decided to leave it like a pencil drawing. Sent it to my dad and he thought he looked handsome, so mission accomplished.

Grandma (digital)

Drawing grandma on phone using Autodesk Sketchbook app as well, and this time I used pen as if it's real pen on real paper, so no erase/undo.

Therefore, all lines from the process shown, and I kinda like the style, I guess because it reminds me of the old days of sketching on sketchbook with a cheap ballpoint pen.

Wanna give grandma a softer feel, so added second layer for watercolor. Based on her floral blouse's pastel colors.

Jay (digital)

As a sloth, I slowly move to digital era. Still not really used to it, but I started sketching on mobile device, this is done on Samsung Note10+.

Using Autodesk Sketchbook app, and with HB and 6B pencils. Drawing one of my cousins.

Julia Parker - digital

Yesterday it was my first time sketching faces with my Apple pencil. I felt like a little cheating because it was too easy to hit that "undo" arrow, and it expedited the whole process. It was a little unreal for me.

Whereas drawing on paper, it's a lot serious, almost like a ritual, I have to have the feeling for drawing for hours, and then clear my table and take out all drawing tools and drawing board, then I have to plan how and what carefully so that there's no sorry when inking.

Ross Lacy

OMG, it's so hard to draw Ross. I tried it last year before drawing Jeff Gould in October (the previous post), and I just couldn't nail it, so I gave up and went to draw Jeff first. 

And these two days I felt like trying it again with a different picture of him, and it still wouldn't give. Luckily I felt like sitting there yesterday all day (raining hard outside), and finally I got to where I'm pleased, where I felt it conveyed my impression of him.

And this time I also tried something I've never done before, I used the water brush pen filled with ink to outline the drawing. I filled one brush with black ink and one blue. Just felt like playing with the ink, but I had too much fun playing with the ink and didn't stop when I should, so I over-inked it and made a boo-boo  dark shadow on his neck. And you can't erase ink, so I had to lighten it by white charcoal pencil. Not a lovable mistake because it didn't change for a better result.

I combined his hand holding his Heller Awards from another picture of him into this picture of him just chilled wearing a t-shirt like he usually does.

Jeff Gould

Wow...not drawing for awhile did show on the first try yesterday. It was so bad that I shredded it as soon as I finished this one today that I'm happy with. But even this one took many many erases and start-overs. 

I've known Jeff for 8 years, and I thought it'll be easier. But no, I sat for double the time and it felt like I lost the drawing ability and I just could not get it right. After countless tries, I guess my hands finally warmed up, and it started getting closer in baby steps. 

I did this one slowly and left all the pencil lines there without erasing anything, and just emphasized features/shadows with black Prismacolor pencil. To make it go with his dress-all-black style. The only color is his eyes, very subtle blueish green. 

Lydia Ma

Knowing Lydia a bit before Ting Lin and John Author, but I had a harder time drawing her. Because I rarely see her at the voice-over recording sessions unlike John and Ting who were always there. Also she likes to hide behind her huge pitch black or reflective sunglasses or looked away if there's a photo of her at all.

Luckily with Ting's help, finally I got a close-up picture of her face facing the camera and her eyes also looking into the camera. I based her facial features on that photo, but her holding a wine glass pose was based from another photo but looking away at the wine bottle. I took cues from her instagram photos that this Lydia lady is a wine addict so I had to draw that in added with her sassy attitude and her sassy hair.

After the pencil outline, the style formed and I felt this one should be left with simple black outline to fit the sassy attitude, so I did. And I added the hair coloring afterwards for balance so it's more dynamic on the top area and focus on her face and not bottom heavy with elbow and her left hand touching the bottom and side edges.

Ting Lin

Knowing Ting and John Arthur at the same time, but drawing Ting was not a complete smooth because I had one complete erase after the whole face's pencil line's almost done. I blamed coffee. I had one right before I sat down and it just carried me all the way to the end, my hand literally couldn't even stop and look from afar to see if it looks right. And I thought I was on fire and just gotten so good at it now. Um no. 

I didn't know Ting has her Ting's Test Kitchen business until I checked her Facebook for this drawing, and that's just perfect theme for her. And it was awesome there's another photo of her holding a cupcake at her work desk, so I combined her Test Kitchen biz headshot with her cupcake holding picture. And since there's no photo of her with her legs, I thought just to give her an apron and make it more focus on her and her business presented on her hands.

For Ting's drawing, I tried to do it different from John's, so I took cues from her biz headshot and used strong block colors with Sharpies, but I made a mistake of testing the color with just little doodling, so her face and body's orange color is just a bit too strong when finished, she literally looked like an orange. So to rescue it, I used white color pencil to shade it lighter, and I ended up cutting her off of the white cardstock and pasted it on a roll of brown wrapping paper that happened to make all her colors pop compared to other color cardstocks I have, and pasted it again on white cardboard for thickness support. This mistake I love.

John Miyagi Author

John's drawing also came smoothly on the first time I tried without erase, I guess since I've known John for quite some years now, so his character's been working in my head.

Going through John's Facebook photos and saw a close up selfie of him with a bit of neck and shoulder showing with no clothes on in the middle of nowhere kind of calm water with a far far away island, that reminded me of the TV show 'The Last Man On Earth' that I liked, it gave me the spark and the drawing began. 

And the boat's from another photo of his from other travel destination, so it was perfect for me to combine since the selfie photo didn't capture anything below his shoulder, and the very tanned orange is also from another photo of his probably taken in his office, either he drew himself on it or his colleague drew it, also another perfect fit for this The Last Man On Earth theme that I wanted.

John also has two different photos holding white coffee mug with different hands, so I was sure that's what he would want to do in this "Last Author On Earth" situation. 

Joe Ciccarone

I thought it'd be hellish again to start a new drawing after another 6 months of creative hibernation, but it came out easier than other natural birth of my drawings because there was no hard pushing. Finished from the very first rough pencil line without erase, and only referenced from two clear photos that I could find on KMR's Facebook.

I think it's because I've known Joe for a few years now, so his being has been working in my head. I wanted to do a drawing of him awhile back to thank him for being super supportive of me, but I'm glad I waited. 

His face's from his formal wear with a tie picture at a KMR's holiday dinner a couple years back, and his body's from his KMR's halloween costume competition picture as Randy Savage this year. I changed MACHO MAN to 'TIS MACHO JOE. on his shirt.

Valerie Chiovetti

Val's drawing came from 3 photos combined. One is this open face with a smile/smirk plus a slight attitude with her mischievous flying blonde hair which I thought is very cute and fun. Another one is her sexy shoulder from another picture, and pointing hand with the sign's from another picture.

I changed the sign from "keep Calm and Carry On" to what's now in the drawing because Val's a diehard member of her University of Arizona Wildcat For Life (I almost wanted to draw that logo on her forehead). And she has a photo of herself with a cap with High Maintenance spelled with diamond, so I gotta put them all together. I felt like adding sexy because of her blonde hair, black eyeliner, red lips, and fair skin kind of reminded me of Marilyn Monroe look in the 50's.

The only thing I felt not completely satisfied with this drawing is that I was trying to go about a different style of drawing so I didn't do as much detail on the face as I used to. But then I didn't fully make it the way I felt this 50's look should go.

I forgot to scan the drawing before I gave it to Val, so it's a picture taken with blue-ish day light.