Monday 31 January 2011

Drawing Jessie J

Hey everyone,

Meep meep! Well I just put my video of Jessie J! I really enjoy doing drawings of people in awesome poses, and I try to find good poses for my drawings to be based upon. To capture Jessie's character too I knew it had to be a cool expression. My friend Mark gave me the idea for drawing her so thanks Mark :)

I actually think she is a really good singer and I do like to draw people I feel a connection with or that I enjoy their work. Music is a massive part of my artwork, and never is a drawing done without music. It's all art feeding into another type of art. I'm going to see Kylie Minogue in April and I was listening to a song by her and it puts me in such a great mood!

I did a darker background to the the drawing but then rubbed it away because it was too dark, but left it as a smokey sort of background as it wouldn't all go. Sometimes it is hard to decide on what works, and you don't know till you try!

I've actually had a really great day, I had the biggest surprise and then lovely comments on this video and yes, a lovely day!



I hope you enjoyed it and I have an exciting project coming..... top secret though! Shhhhhhh :D

Wednesday 26 January 2011

The Ruins of Detroit

Hi Everyone :)

Quite a while ago I asked for this book for my birthday, and it finally got published in December! As some of you may know I do love my photography as well as my art, though I do not share it on YouTube.

This book really captures something I find really interesting, decaying buildings. It is full of gorgeous, and sad photos of building that are falling down, or before they were about to be restored, or demolished.

A few times when looking at this book, my mouth actually dropped, one picture in particular was of a the Michigan Theatre which was converted into a multi storey car park! Seeing cars parked under such a beautiful ceiling is quite something to behold.

I had to share it with you so here are some photos and also a link to where you can see some of the pictures properly. There is something surreal about the fact that as a race we built such buildings and let them decay and fall back to nature.... and in such a big city as Detroit and the world's superpower the USA, I find it rather intriguing that a city exists in this way. Having studied geography it is also of interest in how cities change with the times and how planning failed in parts of Detroit, as well as it's dependence on the automotive manufacturing which has now disappeared leaving the shells of factories left.

Times change, that is for certain, I hope some of these buildings will be left as reminders of what once was :)


The ruins of Detroit pictures


Tuesday 25 January 2011

Michelle McCool drawing

Hello everyone, as you may have seen my latest drawing was of Michelle McCool, a WWE star. I was commissioned by her website to draw her as a surprise for her birthday :) I really enjoyed doing the drawing, and with the help of Mark I chose a picture a bit more outside of my comfort zone. Instead of my usual head shots I went for a full body shot.

This meant I had to get the proportions spot on, and someone had commented on a video recently saying my proportions are not always right. True, but hey I am not a printer :D Anyway I used the calculator and my big metal ruler to measure out where body parts would roughly be placed as I had to scale up. It worked out well, and even at the end I had to tailor it in a bit, making her legs thinner.



It was certainly a good lesson in getting proportions right and it is something I will focus more on in the next drawings :)

Here is a behind the scenes shot of me doing the art attack video :D Haha Look at Ollie staring at me thinking what is he doing!


I just ordered some postage tubes too for commission work and if I sell anything from my website, I shopped around to find the best price, amazing what hey charge for them sometimes! Meep meep!

Take care everyone.

Sunday 23 January 2011

January is my YouTube month!

I have had quite a lot of success with my channel this month (famous last words) haha. The Britney vid shot through the roof as she released her new single and I rebranded the video, and I have had some very interesting commissions recently and some exciting contacts I hope I will get some good things from :)

I am just uploading one video which will air on the 25th which was a departure form my normal portraiture in the sense that it is a full figure so stay tuned for that! I felt I had to do a full figure for this portrait because it suited it better.

The Britney and Justine Bieber drawing videos have made it over the 150,000 views mark and Britney is even over 160,000 now so that was quite an achievment alone this month. Especially as Britney only had about 35,000 views the day before the sinlge was released!

I hope you enjoy what's coming next and that you're all well.

Saturday 15 January 2011

Rolling in the deep mass of pencils!

ADELE
If you didn't know Adele is coming out with her single 'Rolling in the deep' this weekend in the UK and I have been wanting to draw her for about a month now but commissions have got in the way or I have not been in the mood. She is a one of those singers I could listen to for ages and hearing her live is pure heaven! Move over Katy Perry, this girl can sing!

Anyhu yes I drew her tonight, the video is currently saving (98 mins to go) and then I have to edit more. Here is a sneak peek of her while in progress!


I have an absolute mess on my table, pencils everywhere, and paints too, I am not sure if I am going to add paint or not, but wait and see :)

WINNING A PICTURE
I'm also thinking of letting you guys win one of my paintings, possibly the Taylor Swift one as I am going to draw her again sometime.... your thoughts?

TUTORIAL
I talked while I filmed parts of this so a seperate tutorial video will go up soon on which pencils to use for which areas of the face and shading. A few of you asked for it so hopefully you'll gain some tips :)

OLLIE
Stay tuned for some new videos with Ollie Pie in them :) He's a big cutey!

Tuesday 4 January 2011

The Edinburgh Snow Ball fights :D

Well we had lots of fun at the wizard rock show "The Snow Ball" in Edinburgh and here are the GIF files I made from some of the pictures, Enjoy a good LAUGH :D

We went to find Tom Riddell's grave, which we did, it is behind the Elephant Cafe where JK Rowling began writing some of the books :D











Monday 3 January 2011

Music

I'm always listening to music when drawing, and I'm just starting a new commission. For me music and art go together like squirrels and acorns. Soooo I thought I would let you in on my top 25 most played songs. It doesn't mean they are my all time favs, but hehe some guilty pleasures in there too. I have quite a wide range of taste in music, so you'll find Paloma Faith, Robyn, Oasis, Lauryn Hill and Tina Turner in my music amongst lots of different things. Top 25 most played songs

Currently I'm listening to this amazing tune by Two Door cinema club who I have just discovered.... TUNE!




I thought their video was brilliant for this one too..


Saturday 1 January 2011

Ollie Pie

First of all, a very happy new Year to everyone :) I hope this year brings you lots of fun and good times!

I've been drawing a Christmas present for my parents, having been rather ill before Christmas and having to work, I did not get time to do it, and it's always good to draw when you are in the mood and not forced to do it. It comes out better then for me :)



Some of you may recognise Ollie, he appears in some videos with me. The video will be up soon once I edit it, I enjoyed doing it, this is only the third animal I have drawn, I have drawn one dog before and a pony. However, I actually really enjoyed drawing the castle folly in the background.

Before Christmas I got to go to Edinburgh which was gorgeous and the castle there is beautiful, but my it was coldies!

I also completed an oil painting I have been working on for 6 months. (Well it was left for 6 months till I came back to it) I'm no amazing painter, but its something I am experimenting with and trying to get better at, my work is all quite abstract and its nice because its a balance to the detailed pencil sketches.

Anyway stay tuned for the vids coming up and take care :)

Jonny