What would a girl look like with Clarabelle the Cow eyelids and lashes? That’s what I was thinking doodling these two little faces.

Every now and then, when I see images in a patterned tile or fabric, I’ll sketch them out. I mean, you never know when you might get a good idea for a character or design from them. The tile in my shower is marbled, so I got all these from there. So totally random. I wonder if something is going on subconsciously…

No comment. Just big eyes.

Inspired by the style of Matisse and by some Rococo paintings, I did this little illustration of a girl with a rose in her hair. Everything about Rococo women was so cute and yet so pretty– the flowers and ribbons in their hair, the gowns, the playful, flirting expressions. And the men always look so pleased with themselves. I love them to bits. See Fragonard’s “The Swing” or his “Happy Lovers”.

These are some sketches I did back in New York while looking at the Egyptian exhibit over at the Met Museum. I’m not sure why I didn’t finish that headdress, but I think part of the sarcophagus was broken/missing, if I remember correctly. The eye drawn on top is from older Egyptian sarcophagi and murals, whereas the bottom one is later (I think after unification). The latter’s more stylish and I use it on faces in a lot of my drawings.

The little figures on the bottom are also from early Egyptian artifacts. I think they’re interesting because they don’t resemble the later Egyptian art and hieroglyphs so much as they remind me of Egyptian-ized Cycladic figures.

I’ve always been into ancient Egypt (and most ancient civilizations, for that matter) since before I even started kindergarten– can you tell?

I drew this during my freshman year of college. During my senior year of high school, I was starting to come out of my shell, if you will. Once I got to college, I forced myself not to be shy again. I used to go out a lot, did some student activities, but I still felt a bit of a wallflower on the inside. And no, I never read that I’m-too-indie-for-you book that everyone talks about. No thanks.

Anyway, looking at the legs, you can see that me and my beloved charcoal pencils didn’t always get along. I once took a drawing class at OTIS and the instructor taught us a trick for working with charcoal drawings: mix half powdered charcoal with half baby powder and brush the mixture onto your drawing pad paper. Then, when you’re drawing, it’s easier to blend with your little blender pencil thing or to erase. The problem is, powdered charcoal is so hard to find. I remember hitting up all the art supplies in the Village and never being able to find any. They either stopped carrying it or didn’t carry it at all. Anyway, if you do have access to some powdered charcoal, it makes life so much easier. It also makes your drawings smell like baby, but that’s okay.

Here’s me testing out some cartoon eyes a while back. I was getting ideas from Grafitti World.

That little couple is weird, but in a good way, right? That’s also me trying to draw a post-snapping hand. Note the girl’s tights and shoes– during my freshman year of college, I always wore this pair of brown-multi striped flats from BC Shoes, and I often wore crazy tights (I used to get some cool ones at the Anna Sui boutique in Soho– probably the most inexpensive things there– like sparkly purple tights or fishnets with lace butterflies on them).

I forgot where I learned this exercise, but it’s fun to do if you’re bored and helpful if you’re in a bit of a creative block. Basically, you pick a symbol or a shape, you take a certain amount of time (something as short as a minute or as long as five minutes– you want to think fast), and then you try to draw as many different things you can think of using that symbol.

So for this one, I used three overlapping circles like a venn diagram. I then used that to draw a woman’s hair in a bun, dress designs, a molecule-type thing (hey, I never claimed to be a scientist), a flower, and a flying insect. I think I did this one at work when I had nothing to do.

It’s a fun exercise. You should try it. I came across some more creative exercises on this TED talk with Tim Brown. Best thing to take away from his talk is that creativity should be fun and not to fear the judgment of your peers– a secure and non-conservative environment is the best place for new ideas and creativity “to play”.

Sketchbook Sunday is back! So I finally bought and set up my scanner– an Epson Perfection V300 Photo. Sketchbook Sundays shall resume.

Last time I was at the Norton Simon, I sat down to doodle like I used to do. I have a certain cartoon/caricature style when it comes to drawing people, which I can’t seem to overcome, but then again I never did take a life art class (someday, hopefully…). I’ve never taken my drawing very seriously, much like the rest of my family. Anyway, there are a couple of portraits that I absolutely love– one of a Frenchman and one of an Englishman. The doodles really look nothing like them, but I think I funned them up a bit.

We can be romantic, baby– hardcore!