What examples do you remember?
I am watching this season 3 episode and saw Nitroforce
https://www.sharktankblog.com/business/nitroforce-titan-1000/
Insane to put a $2.5 million valuation when they only had 26 sales.
Works from the past that you stopped working on for some reason. Have you left them in that state but still showcase them? Do you plan to finish them one day? Are there some that you never plan to finish?
There's several that I plan to finish at some point, but there's others that I'm not sure what to do with
-There was a person I was drawing who didn't like the work in progress because she unhappy with her real life body and wanted to slim down a lot (she did), so she lost interest in that drawing very quickly
-Similarly, there's another person I started drawing and the work is about 65% complete, but the model got a reduction, slimmed down a lot and stopped modeling. Perhaps she might not like if I finish it and post it online
-I was drawing two people and thought it was a decent start, but I think they had a falling out. I then lost contact with them, got in contact with one later on, but lost contact again right after that
-There's some where the lineart is pretty decent, but the shadows are very soft in the reference and it is thus hard to capture the anatomy that well. I may be able to play around with the contrast in the reference to have just enough visual information to continue
How were the experiences?
I liked several artists when I was younger, but never really thought of the ability to meet them until Comic Con started in the 2000s. Especially early on after it started, I was able to meet and take a picture with most of the comic book artists I liked at the time such as Jim Lee, Joe Mad, J. Scott Campbell, Adam Hughes, Leinil Yu.
When I got into realism, it's somewhat of a small community so you end up meeting a lot of those artists at ateliers or openings or demos, or having them as your instructor for a class or workshop. Artists like Jacob Collins, Colleen Barry, Will St. John, Jeremy Lipking, Max Ginsburg, Casey Baugh.
When drawing people from life/photo. Or, if you're making original characters, have you made any with tattoos?
A lot of the people I've drawn have had at least one tattoo. There's some people I've drawn who, when I worked with them again months or years later, now had a tattoo. There was a model I was working with every 3-5 weeks and she had a new tattoo every time. She had a rose and skull on her shoulder/arm the first time, and by the last time a year later, along her arm she also had a heart, a snake, a dagger, a spider, some text, some more text, an eye with tears, and a large tattoo with hand bones, roses, leaves and text on a scroll.
Some people have complex tattoos, huge tattoos of actual scenes like a forest with a river with elephants, tigers, monkeys, all in the appropriate colors.
Do you usually spend the time trying to capture the tattoos in accurate proportion, detail and color? Do you omit them? Do you do a rough version of them?
I've tried including them sometimes, such as here.
People think that the internet is forever, but it can be surprising how quickly things disappear. I was saving sporadically in the early 2000s, but it was a wake-up call when I saw my real life friend on DeviantArt suddenly take down all of her artworks in the mid 2000s and I never got to see those again. The page can be retrieved through wayback, but the works don't even show. As a result, I became more serious with trying to save artworks that I saw online.
There was then a Jim Lee video years later that I really liked and suddenly, the website started redirecting and I couldn't access the video anymore. I was able to access the video again years later through a cached version of the site in the Google results, but that stopped working after a while and then Google got rid of cached results. I never thought about saving videos. I took one screenshot at the time, and it might be the only image from the video online. The page can be accessed through wayback, so there is a record of its existence, but the video doesn't show.
On Instagram, I have noticed that artists post works then take them down, or Instagram takes down works, and it can sometimes happen within a few minutes or hours. One of my favorite artists actually deleted everything on his page from the past decade and started posting works in a new style. Websites with artworks can also suddenly change or disappear.
Nowadays, I try to save any artwork or video that I like as soon as I see it. Videos can be harder because some don't let you access the direct URL, but there are ways to do it.
I was working with a model the other day who said that a notable artist did a near-full body realist portrait drawing of her (and her partner) many years ago. She shared the drawing with me, and it was interesting that the artist never posted it online (the model never did either apparently). It's one of the best that I've seen by this artist and I wouldn't have known about it if she didn't randomly mention it. It made me think of all the artworks that artists do that almost no one sees.
Have you done any finished artworks that you haven't or won't post online?
-Early on, there were some plus size models I worked with who were self conscious and didn't want the drawings posted online
-I suddenly had to finish a drawing and deliver the next day after work, I hurried to finish it right before the meeting but couldn't get a good quality picture of it, so I wouldn't post it
-One person gave me permission to post the artwork of them, but then suddenly told to take it down, so it was only posted for a few days
-One model liked the drawing I posted, but then started acting weird so I took it down
A professional artist.
What was the experience like?
-My first time was when I was taking an evening class in Tribeca. The instructor (realist painter) suddenly was going to his studio (several blocks away) towards the end of class and several of us went with him. It was awe-inspiring seeing an artist's working environment. He had some huge figure paintings but told us that we couldn't photograph anything. In retrospect, I think he was trying to impress the female students and I found it interesting that all of the students taking his class were female except for me.
-I did a workshop at an artist's apartment, it was in his basement which had huge ceilings so I think it was his studio too. There were so many books and ephemera and cool small paintings which I hadn't seen him post anywhere online. I did take some photos of the studio. It felt modern compared to the first studio visit I had
-One of the models I work with is also an artist and invited me and others to her studio, but it was for a modeling workshop. I would've loved to ask her about the artworks I saw. It was frustrating getting in because she either wasn't getting our messages and/or wasn't able to buzz us in, so it was by luck that we were able to get into the building, and then to even open the door to her floor, we had get lucky and have someone else be opening the door at that time too for us to go in
-Last experience was when I was picking up a commissioned work from an artist. The studio was pretty narrow and small, but since he mainly does figure drawings with no backgrounds or themes, it seemed viable enough for that
Have any of you tried it?
I got the Ribeye Caldereta. One of the best sandwiches I've had in a long time.
This is probably the closest I've seen
Many people on this sub mention being unable to get the staff's attention. I experience it here too, but the food usually comes quickly or reasonably timely. This is a good idea to help though.
Do any of your locations have one?
Currently, I am doing a drawing of two models in chitons (ancient Greek clothing) next to each other, one of them seated, the other standing and holding a lyre. The sketch seemed to be developing well visually, but when I measured, the proportions seemed off and the alignment of the models seems a few centimeters off. The head of the standing model should be slightly bigger, but might go off the page. I keep measuring and making changes, but visually, some of the measurements aren't making sense. I am debating whether to keep trying to fix it or to just start over. The clothing also has so many folds and creases and intricate patterns that it will take a lot of careful drawing to get the details right, as well as shading it in a way that looks 3-dimensional. I'm in awe of artists like Jacques Louis David who were able to execute artworks with similar elements like Oath of the Horatii so well.
I've gone through probably a dozen different sharpeners over the past 20 years and have had frustration with them giving such a short point. I switched to the blade and sharpening pad, but it still takes time to get it to a sharp, even point again.
I recently bought the Apsara sharpener and was amazed that it actually does give a good quality long point. I can use it like that or use it as the basis to then use the blade on the wood without using the sharpening pad. I'm not using as much super long points these days, so the Apsara alone could also be sufficient in a lot of cases.
What's your source of inspiration for making original poses? Do they come to you from your imagination?
I was previously using a variety of poses that I saw when browsing IG as my references, I would then ask a model to replicate the pose. IG ruined hashtags the past year or so, so it has been harder to browse for poses.
As a result, I've been trying to come up with my own poses now. I have found incidental positions interesting, where you're walking outside or passing by on the bus and see someone in a position for half a second and it looks like it would make for a good pose. Sometimes, watching a video on youtube, like a dance video, I would freeze it and screencap a position that looks interesting. In person, there's times when the model is moving around or moving into pose, and they do something that is more interesting than what the pose was intended to be. Looking at nebulae has also become a source, the shapes can end up resembling poses.
There's drawings I've done like a decade ago that I just couldn't get right, but were passable enough and I had to move on. Erasing too many times to try fixing it had actually damaged the paper in some cases, so I had to leave it. The bodies would look pretty decent, but the faces were a struggle. The shadows on the bodies weren't the best either, but some of the rooms I shot reference in had poor lighting. Years later with more skill and knowledge now, it would be interesting to try to redo them from scratch.
This may be one of the few of the 100s of locations here where I can find it. Do any of your locations still have it? It was interesting to try the spicy mcmuffin.
This is the one I go to the most. They clean it frequently, so it often looks nearly spotless. The fries are perfect every time, it tastes like cardboard at most other locations. The rest of the food is well cooked too. Some kids go there, but they aren't too rowdy from what I've seen. It's rarely packed or noisy.
There were some instances of long wait times a few months ago, but for the most part, if I am walking on the same block and place an order on the app, it will be ready with 2-3 minutes of me walking in.
-Xi'an Famous Foods. At one point, I was traveling all the way to the location near 14th St and getting it once a week. I later found out there's a location near MetroTech, but the one near 14th St has much more seating and is more spacious and cleaner.
-Curry Corner. New Indian restaurant in Astoria.
-Bellucci's Pizza
-Hamburger America
-Harlem Shake
-Mama's Too
-Link Thai
-Kora Bakery
-Rob's of Brooklyn
Injury or illness that affected your ability to make art? How have you dealt with it?
I keep experiencing bad luck, my drawing arm has been hurt for most of the past 2 years. I end up spending months trying to rehab it, and then it ends up getting injured again. It was feeling a lot better the past week after months of rehabbing, and then yesterday, a model was telling me about her job doing caretaking and she suddenly pulled my arm upwards, which made my shoulder hurt again.
It is unavailable at a lot of locations here, but the Sunset Park location in Brooklyn still shows it. I don't live close to it but I can get there in about 30 minutes. Probably too late for today, but I can try next weekend if it is still available then. Is it worth getting?
