Worth Magazine: Tom Marchant

Tom Marchant by Graham Smith

I love illustrating the straight up, pen and ink portrait for the Twenty Questions interview for the beautifully designed Worth magazine.

I ink each portrait quickly, trying to maintain energy in the line while being as accurate as possible. As a result, each drawing has a life of its' own and each turn out differently.

For the Oct/Nov issue of Worth, Art Director Valerie Sebring asked me to draw Tom Marchant - "a British tech innovator whose online travel agency customizes unique travel experiences".

I inked Tom Marchant's portrait three times for this assignment, using slightly different pen nibs and brushes, adding differing amounts of detail and facial expressions in each portrait.

Above, you can see the size of the drawings in relation to my hand. I draw them about twice as big as they will print on a textured paper.

Below, is a close up detail of the finished portrait.

I rely on the blue under drawing to provide shading information difficult to draw in ink. The blue under drawing is more than a guide, it is a softer counter-balance to the hard edged ink. I like when things balance.

Tom Marchant detail: Graham Smith

For the art geeks: Hunts 513ef nib, #99 nib and  #8 round brush. India ink and blue pencil on Aquabee Super Deluxe Paper.

G.

Dia dos los Muertos handmade masks

I made Dia dos los Muertos masks from cardboard, masking tape, acrylic paint and black India ink. Both of these designs contain tears and sacred hearts - to show that we miss those that have gone before us.

The red roses were made by twisting tissue paper into a rope, then rolling the rope into a cinnamon bun shape. The roses were stitched together with thread to hold them together and onto the black skirt. I taped a thin wire to the back of the roses to keep them suspended inside the eyes.

1/4 inch black elastic was stitched into loops and taped to the back of the bones, so they could be easily slipped over a black, long sleeved shirt and leggings.When I ran out of elastic, I taped jute string to the bones instead.

To make the hair, I cut open a paper bag, folded it to make it kinky looking, and cut it into 1/2 inch strips, leaving a 2 inch margin along one edge to keep the whole thing together. The hair "fringe" was taped around the inside of the mask.

Later, as a final detail, I hung little kneecaps from a wire off the femur bone. Forgot to take a photo.

See more Dia dos los Muretos masks >>>

G.

Life Drawing Workshop: Brianna

Short pose studies of Brianna Leigh, one of San Diego's tiniest life models, from the Life Drawing Wokshop at Sony. For this workshop, Brianna's poses ranged from two minutes to twenty and were drawn quickly with a Prismacolor stick. 18" x 24" on Canson 50lb Sketch paper.

>> Briana's Long Pose Drawings <<

 G.