Here’s another page in my new sketchbook. This is supposed to be a picture of my blogger friend, Carl D’Agostino. (He’s a wonderful cartoonist. Check him out.) When I first started assembling Carl’s face on the page, I was looking at his photo on my laptop. I was sitting in McDonald’s, nursing a milkshake, watching the news, and cruising around on the internet all at the same time. It was a pleasant afternoon. A few hours later, I went back and did most of the shading, fine-tuning, and fiddling — but I didn’t have his photo in front of me at that point. So, unfortunately, the guy in my sketchbook evolved into someone slightly different from Carl. Oh well.
I still plan to draw a few more people I’ve met on WordPress. Drawing portraits and posting them isn’t really the “standard format” of my blog. I’ve just felt like doing it lately. On Monday, I think I’ll post one of the illustrations from my novel and tell you about the ridiculous way I kept myself entertained while I was drawing it. I think it will be an interesting (and somewhat embarrassing) story.
The Chia Pet Circus 
This will really help the FEDS. I won’t be in circulation long now……
Ha ha ha ha! Hello Carl! Sorry I haven’t responded sooner. My Wi-Fi has been finicky lately.
This is awesome! I can’t even draw a decent straight line without having to focus on it while you were able to draw a portrait with so much happening around you at the same time.
Thank you very much Pinay! And I wish I was half the photographer that you are. 🙂 I still believe that you are a seasoned master of food-blog-photography.
🙂 Thanks for liking my page.
I couldn’t help but like it! I wish I could take a bite out of it, lol.
Hahaha! I thought that you just relied on that one photo of urban bistro post when you gave me the compliment. I somehow believe you now that you’ve seen the other photos. Hehehe.
Your Disneyland Paris breakfast is also a delight. I confess, I’m not the best follower in the world. I probably miss some of the things you post because I’m so wrapped up in my own world … but I do love what I’ve seen. You really ARE good. I mean that. 🙂
Matt, you know I’m still your biggest fan. You are talented beyond what you realize..
Hey Jeff! Thanks! I really appreciate that. All the talent comes from God, not me. I just fumble around with what He blessed me with. 🙂 How have you been doing? What’s new?
Wow! I really love your lines. This is really incredible.
Thank you Ariana! 🙂 I’m loving this new Moleskine sketchbook!
Do you have any tips in terms of drawings?
Hmmm. The only thing I can really think of is this: start out with light, loose lines. Try to form the overall shape of whatever you’re drawing first. You can erase and re-draw it until you get everything the way you want it. If it’s a person’s face, for example, you would want to outline the face and the hair and the neck and so forth. Draw little ovals where the eyes will go and form a rough shape of the nose and mouth. At this point, you just want to put together a loose, vague, rough idea of everything. Once you get it the way you want it (after a lot of adjusting and erasing and re-drawing) then you can go over everything in greater detail … and add in the shading and the texture of the hair and so forth. It’s kind of like construction work. They don’t put the paint and the decorations on a building until the basic structure is complete. I hope this helps. (And I hope it makes some kind of sense. Does it?)
Thank you so much for all of this! I’ve been battling a lot with getting my drawings to look the way I want them to. This will help immensely! (And yes, it made the most sense.)
No problem, Ariana! 🙂 Glad to help. Once you’ve gotten everything established, you can go back over all the lines and make them darker … because, at that point, you’re basically just tracing lines that are already there. So you can be really bold and confident about it, then.
That’s always the best part! It’s like laying down the final layers of character.
Yes! 🙂
I hope that helped. I hope I didn’t insult your intelligence by telling you a bunch of stuff you already knew.
Not at all 🙂
Good, lol.
That is a great drawing Matthew, drawing people to look like them is so hard. Well done.
Thank you very much! I was just wondering about something. Do you know how I can put a copyright widget on my page?
You have to do it yourself, put a text widget on your side bar, then add what you want to say.
Cool, OK. Thanks!
Wow, you are very talented!
Thank you very much! I just stumbled across your blog today. It was very moving. I’m thinking about you and praying for you.
Thanks so much, that is so kind of you!
No problem at all. 🙂
You have quite a knack for drawing. I like this sketch as well. An excellent piece!
Thank you! I’m glad you like it! 🙂