Compiling the Scrapbook

When I redesigned drawmyface, I decided to update the gallery, and only included the most recent pictures, or ones that I particularly like, because I felt that some of the older ones just weren't up to the standard of my recent efforts.

But I didn't want to just throw away the results of all those hours of drawing, so I decided I would throw them all onto a webpage, separate from the gallery, so as to chronicle the evolution of my drawings, from "bighead" pencil caricatures, to (almost) photorealistic paintings, and to show some of the different styles I have experimented with over the years.

But as I was going through my old drawings today, resizing and cropping and all that, to get them ready for the site, I found that some of the ones I've removed from the gallery were actually quite good. I suppose I had a reason for removing them, but I'm not sure . . . some of them may even make it back into the gallery.

Anyway, here's a selection of old pics as a preview, before the scrapbook is officially uploaded (sometime next week I hope). Let me know if you think any of these belong back in the gallery:

Bruce Lee caricature - some time around 1998

One of many "bighead" caricatures that I drew around this time. Some worked, some didn't. This one is ok, but much too simple, and the body is simply drawn directly beneath the centre of the chin as an afterthought. You can tell it's Bruce, which is good, and always encourages me, but this one just isn't good enough for the gallery.

Bruce Lee portrait - 1999

In between bighead caricatures, I also occasionally toyed with straight portraits, this one was drawn on a whim, from the cover of a Bruce Lee book. I love the hand in this drawing, but unfortunately, the face didn't quite come out right, it's a little too long, and actually I think it looks more like Jackie Chan than Bruce Lee! But I do like that hand!

Check out the newer portrait of Bruce in the gallery.




Zoolander and Hansel - 2002ish

I love Owen Wilson, and from the first time I saw him in a movie (The Royal Tenenbaums, I think) I knew he needed to be caricatured, his nose is a caricaturist's dream!!! Anyway, the layout of this one was difficult, I had to take different photos of each actor's face and arrange them together with photos of their bodies, that's why Ben Stiller's headband doesn't match his coat. I was satisfied with this at the time, but now it's not gallery material (although it has inspired me to paint a caricature of Owen Wilson at some point)



Nick Cage - 2001

At some point I realised that "caricature" was not synonymous with "big head, little body", or at least, the body shouldn't be added as an afterthought as with many of my earlier caricatures. Only a couple of this kind of caricature made it into the new gallery - Fran Healy - because I think the likeness is excellent, and Kelly Jones. This one of Nicholas Cage still has a small body, but it fits in nicely with the head. I actually like this drawing, and was considering putting it back in the gallery, but I'll probably paint a new one instead.



Well, that's a little taster of what's to come in the scrapbook, there's plenty more, from Britney to Eminem, so check back some time next week and see if it's up yet. I'll probably sent out a newsletter at that time, as it will coincide with the completion of my new painting!!! If you want to receive the newsletter, join the mailing list.

Random Quote

I just read this somewhere, and thought I'd share it with the world:

"One thing that has always amazed me is that people are
seldom nasty to strangers. You really have to know and love
someone before you can treat her like dirt and really make her
feel bad about small things. Few people will yell at a stranger
about important things like crumbs on the breakfast table, but if
you love her, it's OK."

Think about it! Be nicer to the people you love (or be nastier to strangers!)

Almost done

My new painting is almost complete, and should be on the site before the year ends. Don't get too excited though, I guess most of my non-Chinese viewers won't have a clue who this person is! He's very famous in China however, so tell your Chinese friends to check it out in a few days!

I've also posted an RSS feed on my homepage, which displays the titles of, and links to, the 5 latest blog entries. This way you only need to visit the homepage to see if there are any new entries. If you can't see the list, try refreshing your browser. The feed is displayed using the very useful Feedsweep service.

Great advice for new bloggers!

I'm quite new to this blogging thing, so when researching ways to promote my blog, where else could I start, but by clicking the Help button on blogger.com? I came across this excellent article by Biz Stone called (appropriately enough): Promoting your Blog.

There's some basic stuff about tweaking your blog settings for maximum traffic potential, and some more involved advice for the serious blogger. Let's see if it works!

Update: New painting well on it's way and looking good (if I do say so myself). I think I'll easily make the new year deadline!

Chinese blogging

I've just posted my first entry onto the newly constructed Chinese drawmyface blog. Yes, drawmyface is well on it's way to becoming a bilingual website. There's still a bit of work to be done on the Chinese side, but I thought I'd get the blog up and running first so people can read along (and help me) as I translate the site. So if you can read Chinese, take a look. Or if you know someone who can read Chinese, please send them the link - www.drawmyface.co.uk/chinese/blog.htm

Oh yeah, I've started a new painting (well, I've done some preliminary sketches, but it's looking quite good.) Hopefully I can stick to the new year deadline (I've got three days off after Christmas, so should have plenty of time.) Watch this space . . .

He read my mind!

Wow! I've just discovered that Derren Brown (one of my painting inspirations, and T.V psychological magician) has stolen my idea for the drawing board section on my site. Guess he must have used his wizardry to read my mind!

Derren's page - Artwork... The Making of- is exactly what I had in mind for my drawing board. He's used his painting of Cate Blanchett for example, and shown exactly how the painting was created, step by step, with a detailed description of the techniques used. The only difference is in the quality of his artwork! I hope I can paint such amazing portraits one day!

Well, I'll try to get this section online asap, for now you can see a sample of the stages of painting Chris Martin . . .

Merry Christmas

Seasons greetings and all that . . . I thought I'd add a festive touch to drawmyface with the Christmas logo!

I drew a picture today but I'm not very pleased with it, so I don't think I'll put it in the gallery, probably stick it in the scrapbook when I get around to sorting that out. I think it's because I haven't actually drawn anything for a while, the last 6 pictures I've done were all paintings, and apart from sketching on the canvas, I didn't draw anything in between, so I've gone a bit rusty. Oh well, I'll give it another try tomorrow and see how that turns out.

Solved

I've removed the offending drop-down menu, and replaced it with a pop-up window containing a list of all the pictures on the site. When you choose a picture, the pop-up closes, and the picture is displayed in the original window - fantastic!

You can also access this list from any page using the 'all pictures' link in the left hand menu.

Still not sure if I like the pop-up window, but we'll see how it goes. When there are more names in the list, the window will be scrollable. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Dan

Menu problems

A problem has been brought to my attention regarding the drop-down menus in the gallery, which allow you to choose a picture by name, rather than from a thumbnail (as you may have no idea who it is!) The problem is that when you click on a thumbnail and the large image is displayed in a pop-up window, the select-box is still visible on top of the image.

I didn't notice this, because it only occurs in Internet Explorer, and I've been using Firefox since I started redesigning the site (must remember to preview in both browsers!)

So I'm going to remove the selection-box for the time being (I had only got round to putting 4 names in it anyway!) and look for a new, dynamic menu, which I can hide neatly away behind the pop-up image window. If anyone knows of a good one I can use, please let me know.

Also if you happen upon any more little glitches like this one, I'd really appreciate a heads up, there's nothing worse than realizing there was a huge great error on your website for all the world to see.

Thanks!