Secret Project - pt. 4

I've been working on some of the details of the G.G. Project.

Her tech is slowly taking shape, one piece at a time.

Emma Frost - Pt. 2

Here she is- Older, but lovelier for it.

I also straightened her hair a bit, because I noticed that all of my reference of Emma was pin-straight and yet, I'd been drawing her with full-bodied waviness for some reason.

Emma Frost

I've been working on an Emma Frost pinup for my next set of DF sketch covers. The image I came up with is laid out nicely, ascetically pleasing, and completely wrong.

The character of Emma Frost is a self-serving, cold-hearted bitch, but the girl I've drawn here is too young and soft looking. She's pretty enough to be Emma, but she's too generic and bland for my taste.

My initial attempts to fix the problem went a bit too far in the other direction and made her look more like a witch with a headache than a telepath with sex appeal, but on the third try...

Here's our Emma: a little older, a little more angular

...I ended up with that comes much closer to capturing the spirit of the character than before. I'm still not entirely satisfied with her, but she's getting there little by little. Once I iron out the last of the kinks, I'll post an another update.

Rita Hayworth, pt. 2

Very quickly, here's the finished version of that Rita Hayworth image I'd alluded to earlier. A special thanks to my sister-in-law, Stacia, and my father for being wonderfully cooperative models.

Tom Waits

Mister Scott Derby is an extremely talented artist and all-around awesome guy who I've had the pleasure of knowing for a few years now. He's provided me with really wonderful encouragement and advice on many occasions. He recently helped me through a couple tricky bits of freelance negotiation, so I wanted to create something just for him as a thank you for taking the time to help out of his busy schedule to an emerging professional.

I found out that he really likes the singer Tom Waits, so I set out to create a portrait, based on the reference photo below.

I'd love to give credit to the photographer, but I've no idea who it was.

If anyone does know, please email me: LauraGuzzoArt@Gmail.com

Steve gave me some of his old scratchboard paper the last time I was over at Rough Sketch Studios and I've been looking for a good excuse to use it ever since then. It wasn't until I was about halfway through the Tom Waits project that I realized that celebrity scratchboard portraits are a major staple of most high school art curriculums... If I wasn't careful, this image would come out looking REALLY amateurish and the last thing I wanted was for Scott's art present to look like something I'd pulled out of the back of a closet at the last minute.

The scratchboard version, from start to finish.

The other bit of trouble I ran into is deciding how much of his face to show. I like how it looks when you can't see anything except the tip of his nose, but I wanted to make sure that the viewer would be able to clearly identify the singer, and for that, he'd need a face.

The version Scott'll get in the mail is the one on the lower right (his eyes are hidden, but his mouth is visible), but I haven't yet decided on the version that'll make it into my online portfolio.

Update: Scott totally flipped out when he saw the finished project, so I think I can safely assume that is doesn't look like it came from a highschooler. He says he's going to frame it and hang it up in his bar, which is exactly where this piece belongs. It's so cool when an artist whose work you respect and admire gets excited about your work. That alone is a reminder of why I shouldn't give up and go work at Target.

Rita Hayworth

I'm currently in the middle of a freelance assignment that involves a celebrity likeness, so you know what that means... Lots and lots of floating heads.