Sketch of Faye Wong

I tried Faye a while back, but wasn't quite satisfied with the results. Here's another attempt, and I think it's a bit better. She's got such a unique face, it's pretty hard to capture a likeness. If I decide to colour this one I may have to play around with the features some more.


Caricature of Faye Wong

Gandhi's Fight Club

Here's a sketch I did of Mahatma Gandhi for a recent competition on the NCN forum. The competition was to draw an illustration for a made up magazine article entitled 'Secret History', which depicted a historical figure revealing a secret side of themselves. My idea was to show Gandhi participating in an underground fight club (much like the movie), in order to release some of the aggression he built up through a lifetime of non-violence. This sketch was just a facial likeness study. I intended to draw Gandhi in the ring, surrounded by spectators, with blood on his robes and an evil grin on his face, but unfortunately I don't have time to keep up with the competition deadlines, and to be honest, after watching the movie Gandhi, I'm going off the idea of drawing him in this way, it just seems wrong! Anyway, I may revisit it at a later date.

Another redesign

Well, so much for my caricature per week idea. I've been busily trying to finish a portrait commission for a friend, I'll definitely produce something new this weekend. As well as the portrait, I've been busy coming up with a new design for drawmyface . . . again! Yes, the site has seen several redesigns over the last couple of years, but this one is going to be better than before. Since getting into web design as a job, I've learned many things about what makes a good web site. I'm finally ditching the light on dark look, and going for a more readable white background with dark text. And more importantly, the site will finally be XHTML compliant, using CSS to style the page, rather than HTML tables (if you don't know what any of that means, you probably don't need or want to know). Suffice it to say, it will be nicer looking, cleaner, and easier to navigate than ever before. Here's a sneak preview of the initial concept, although it may take some time for me to actually implement the design.


New design for drawmyface.co.uk

In the meantime, check out Paul Moyse's great video of how to paint a caricature in Photoshop - amazing stuff. I hope to make some videos like this when I get a bit better at the digital stuff.

Tags: caricature, illustration, photoshop

Caricature of Fran Healy from Travis

My second attempt at digital caricature. I'm starting to get a feel for the Wacom tablet now, but I've still got a way to go. This is based on my previous Fran Healy drawing, but I wanted to move away from that small cartoony body thing I used to do, so I made his neck thicker, and his body bigger. Well, for my second try, I'm pretty happy with this, but I will continue to aim higher!


Fran Healy - Digital caricature

More caricatures of me!

Here are some more caricatures of me by some more of the lovely NCN members. It's recently come to my attention that I have a huge nose!

Oh well, it never gets boring seeing how other people see you, it's just hard finding the time to return the favour.


Dan by Parsnips


Dan by Jan Ibelings


Dan by Moyse

And here's one I did in return for Paul Moyse:

I've gone digital - Wacom has arrived!

After many months of marvelling at other artists' digital masterpieces, I've finally taken the plunge and bought myself a Wacom graphics tablet, so now I can draw directly onto my PC using the stylus. Well, it takes some getting used to, but it's great fun!

Here's my first digital effort, a colour version of the Tom Welling sketch I did a few weeks ago. I opened the sketch in Corel Painter, created a new layer, then painted over the top, using the sketch as a guide. As you can see, I need a lot of practice!



Anyway, I'm having great fun with the Wacom, hopefully I'll improve with a few more goes. I don't want this to put me off drawing and painting the traditional way, although it is a lot less hassle than setting up the easel, and washing all the paintbrushes afterwards!

In other news, I just noticed that I recently passed the 100 blog post mark. Congratulations to me!

Sketch of the day

Another NCN member, Kathryn Bailey:
I'm happy with the overall likeness and composition, but I thinnk I need to work on my shading, it can look a bit scribbly. Maybe I need to keep my pencil sharpened!

Tags: caricature

Caricatures of me

Here's a couple more caricatures of yours truly, done by fellow members of the NCN. The first is by George Malek, loving the huge nose and thick eyebrows. The second one is by Kathryn Bailey, with more of a pointy nose, but equally thick eyebrows, and looking rather sinister in fact. I can see myself in both of them, and it's really interesting to see what different people see in my face! I'll get them back soon!


Dan by George Malek


Dan by Kathy Bailey

Tags: caricature

A couple of drawings

Here's a recent commission for a birthday present, and below, a sketch of Mike Paglia, a fellow NCN member. One of the many advantages of joining online caricature forums, is that you can draw the other members, and they will draw you in return!


Caricature Commission



Mike Paglia by me

Here's one that Mike did of me previously. Not strictly a caricature, but I like the idea that I can fire laser beams from my eyes!


Dan by Pag

Tags: caricature