Tom Waits: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

With all the free, uncompensated time I have these days, I've actually been using it somewhat productively. I have wanted to try something new for awhile, so I decided to tackle the first assignment discussed here at the Summer Studio: the portrait. I even returned to my original subject, lovably weird-looking Tom Waits.

pictured: the sound of gargling with whiskey and broken glass every night.

The art of capturing likenesses is a frustrating one, to be sure, but it's also a big part of drawing for a living. John once told us a story about how, with approximatey eight likenesses to do for a job, he churned out the final sketches for all but one in a day: Gwenyth Paltrow, however, took forever. Looking at Gwenyth, she has no unique or offensive features, is thin and blonde, and has no props with which she is frequently associated. She is, in short, a nightmare to draw. Tom Waits does not present this problem. Not at any level.


I went through a few sketches that missed the mark before I got close. My inclination to make his craggy face more angular was steering me wrong.

...and the "finished" product. I wanted leave tons of white on his face, and keep everything else in the drawing very simple and stark. The value of the purplish tone is a little too dark, but scooting around too much photoshop negatively affected the rest of it. All in all, I'm pretty happy with it. Thoughts?

In approximately two weeks, you'll all start scattering far and wide, so let's rev this thing up again. Come late August, when surely you'll all be desperate to return to studio for another year, this is closest you'll have. I may be a year late, but I'm still working through these assignments. What about you all?

Editorial Portrait clarifications

Rachel asked a few questions about choosing a likeness, namely:

• Is any likeness okay?
• Should it be someone who is popularly known?

Yes, any likeness is okay, but it will help you to choose someone with either an established persona or someone who has done something newsworthy recently. Since it is an "Editorial" portrait, as the illustrator you are depicting BOTH the person and information relevant to the person. If it helps, Lee and I discussed this project this morning when he should've been doing real work. My initial thoughts on people, and why I would think they presented an interesting subject:

• Eli Manning (NY Giants quarterback) - NFL preseason started recently and there's been a lot of talk about the pressure on him now that he led the G-men to the SuperBowl. This choice should shock exactly none of you.
  
• Tom Waits - Touring this summer.
• Mike Tyson - 'Writing' a new book to try and distance himself from his completely insane past. Plus, I'd get to draw boxing.

Lee's thoughts:

• David West/Chris Paul - Just ended a fantastic season revitalizing professional basketball in New Orleans (my condolences, Harold).
• Elvis Costello - Just released a new album to critical acclaim and headlined New Orleans Jazzfest. Plus, Lee loves him.
• Mos Def - Actually, Lee had no rational reason for this one.

Really, you can choose anyone. The thinking part comes in how to present them to communicate something additional about them. Take Tom Waits: he's a piano player, an experimental musician, a B-level actor, and I think he might be clinically insane, but how I want to portray him is up to me. Hence, editorial portrait.

m

Good morning, Angels.

(Good morning, Charlie!)

After you all scattered far and wide, I began kicking around the idea of setting up a blog for the summer. The reasoning behind it is threefold:

1. Hopefully it will encourage all of you to draw or design your brains out over the summer. You can make your life so much easier for your senior year, especially when it comes to execution.
2. It might allow me to keep in touch with you over the summer, and might facilitate design-based communication between you over the break, which is arguably most important: these skills certainly fall under the category of "use-it-or-lose-it."
3. Because it could be a heck of a lot of fun, though the amount of fun will be directly proportional to the level of group participation.

So, as you can see, I've decided to give it a shot: welcome to the Summer Studio. Since I have conceived this as a salon or open forum, I will give posting ability to anyone who wants to participate. I've also included Lee Domingue down in New Orleans and Mary Rosamond here in Saint Louis for a few different perspectives. Post whatever you like, links, articles, but most importantly, your summer work. Which brings us to this:

The Editorial Portrait
As obnoxious as it may be, the ability to create likenesses is important. This doesn't mean you have to be able to paint like C.F. Payne or Anita Kunz. The real challenge is finding a way that you feel comfortable making pictures of recognizable people. People you might find interesting for portraiture include Thomas Fuchs and Mark Ulriksen. This means trying it multiple times and failing until it works. What better to do with failures than post them for your friends to see? Besides, you will do something similar to this early next semester with John, and you'll appreciate the practice then.

A representation that communicates both the physical and psychological aspects of the subject is ideal. Format size is 8" x 10" (standard full-page magazine). Let's say, two weeks and if you people don't blow me off, we'll try something else.

'Deadline': June 3rd.

I hope you all can get into this in some regard. It could really be an enjoyable and productive aspect of your summer. Let me know if you have a blogger account so I can add you to the admin list, and if you don't and you'd like to, make one. If it's any encouragement, if I get some response I'll post my own on June 3rd.

enjoy yourselves,
m