52 Fridays - Nosferatu

 

Welcome to week eighteen of my "52 Fridays" drawing project. This week's drawing is "Nosferatu", which I drew from memory. It was inspired by an Instagram post by "instahorror" which is an image from the TV adaptation of Stephen King's "Salem's Lot" (1979). In that story he is referred to as "The Master" and scared the crap out of me when I saw it as a child; still creeps me out. There are of course many other versions of Nosferatu on the screen, the most famous being the first one from 1922, directed by F.W. Murnau's version. The German actor Max Schreck portrayed the creature in that film and his strange, expressionist style continues to be an influence to this day. I'll be doing some drawings of his version at some point for sure. Today's version is quite different than the "Salem's Lot" inspiration, which is fine as I purposefully chose to work from memory because I wanted to see how different my version would be and what I changed. The shape of the nose, addition of big eyebrows and larger eyes seem to be the biggest changes. Maybe next week I'll draw from the photo.

Have a good week!

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52 Fridays - Happy Earth Day

 

Happy Earth Day! It was a chilly, but sunny day in RVA yesterday. I got out for a five mile walk, then sat down and drew this lovely, little cabbage head. She was inspired by an image I found on the Instagram account of "fernandin_jones". There is no description, but it looks like a carved piece of jade, a bead from a necklace. I'm guessing it could be from Central America? I always prefer to credit the culture I am drawing from out of respect, but also to provide a node point to connect fellow seekers. I pushed the green color in my interpretation just because it is my favorite color. 

This is week seventeen of the 52 Fridays project. So what is your favorite drawing so far? Any requests?

See ya next week,

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52 Fridays - Revenge of the Nose

 

Yes, I did have acne as a teenager. Funny how that shit still comes out when I made this drawing. I didn't even realize it until I started writing. We are the sum of all the good and bad in our lives after all.

Happy Friday! This week I decided to riff on last week's subject, but this time only work from memory and give myself free rein to play. This profile is so captivating to me that I could just draw it again and again for the rest of the year...that's an idea! I made a lot of changes, primarily making the ear larger and adding the rings, covering the skin with strange tattoos or maybe lesions, and enhancing the lips. It is also rendered in black and white ballpoint pen in a more comic book style. I loved the magazine "Heavy Metal" when I was a teen and there are echoes of that here too.

See you next week.

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52 Fridays - The Nose Knows

 

I love this guy's nose, reminds my of Sammy Davis Junior's nose. Color again this week, this time no ballpoint ink under drawing, just some pencil to lay it out. I amped up the yellow and slate grey background for contrast. I wasn't able to play with the subtle textures like I normally like to do mostly because I am out of practice with drawing in color. 

This image came from the Instagram account of "lesboisquimurmurent" and is a "Bateba Lobi" or wooden carved figure made by the Lobi tribe of the Burkina Faso region of West Africa. 

When I see my drawing next to the original, I want to draw this again, but next time in black and white and focus on the form. I think I lost that with my the muddy use of color. Always better to try and fail than not try at all, or just watch TV, right?

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