So this fellow on Twitter asked if I do any work for hire; he wanted a cartoon avatar for his online persona. I offered to do it for free, not just because I’m a swell guy, but also because I’d prefer to practice without the obligation to get it “right” that comes with getting paid. Hopefully he likes it, but regardless, it was a fun exercise.

I think what was especially tricky about this for me was that I don’t know him personally, and the two photos he provided offer very little insight to his personality. He did tell me he works in IT, and suggested the smoking soldering iron.

If you have 30 minutes, you should watch this cool documentary on the insane amount of effort pro caricaturist John Kascht puts into researching his subjects–in this case, Conan O’Brien:

Hey look, the comic strip contest has begun! Click here to browse through the entries and vote. I suggest you vote for the one with the bear jumping out of a box, because that’s just hilarious. (If you get bored browsing the other strips, search for “Kerkel”.)

This week’s homework assignment was to do a portrait utilizing the composition from a painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. So, Friday morning I ducked into the museum for about 15 minutes and settled on Anthony Van Dyck’s portrait of Lucas Van Uffel.

Instead of working in charcoal, this week I decided to dive into the risky world of permanent ink, using Copic multiliners and sketch markers. I only had to use white-out a couple of times.

Couldn’t leave that one unfinished! Not that this is “finished,” but now it’s on to art class homework. I’ll put that up tomorrow.

Just a little very rough sketch of Tata’s successful trip to the suburbs of Sacramento.