80 Dlist Boys: Clavicle & Reed. THE END

Here's the last two. It feels great to be finished with this project, as it's been a year and a half in the works. Some times it was like a weight on my shoulder, calling me to finish it and others it was a great way to express some creativity on the fly... I started it for a couple reasons:

1. I wanted to practice mark making and become more confident in my marks.
2. An opportunity to play with portraiture and test the limits of distortion against recognition. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but because this was a sketchbook project it was easy for me to not get hung up on the guffaws.
3. Playing with beauty... how is it that these 80 men can all be beautiful but all be so very different looking? As my friend Maggie said about the difference between faces, "it's all about the spacing."
4. A productive time waster: when I started this I had a hole in my schedule everyday that I needed to fill.

80 Dlist Boys: riverwestchi, trippppp, ibader, mmaraaron

The end is near...

80 Dlist Boys: glowstars, pw417, ikuku, slopehead

More more more. This is an interesting group because I've met all four of the gentlemen in question. Here are some notes:

1. Glowstars is a dear friend of mine from Milwaukee. He is also an artist/designer and has a blog.
   
2. pw417 is a cool guy from Chicago that I met several months ago and humorously bumped into recently.
3. ikuku is far more handsome and masculine in reality. Somehow the drawing got a little squirelly. He's from Poland and I had the pleasure of sharing a few drinks with him while he was in the US back in April.
4. Slopehead was possibly the first dlister that I met - he gave me free lodging (and an amazing welcome to Brooklyn with a homemade steak & asparagus dinner) a few years ago the first time I went to NYC.

80 Dlist Boys: awesleyc, johnny_bebop, jperkins, sloc0898

4 more. Kind of wish I could have gotten johnny_bebop & sloc0898 on adjoining pages because of their tall hair!

80 Dlist Boys: xelamonster, BenPhilBeck, OshKosh, ralowe

4 more as promised. A few comments:

1. I've been looking forward to drawing BenPhilBeck for about a year now, carrying around a little picture of him in my sketchbook and really muffed up the likeness. In his photos he's got a really fantastic Don Draper chin and an optimistic look to him. Somehow I ended up drawing him really devious. Rats!
2. The reason ralowe is upside down is because his DList photo is upside down. I actually drew him upside down, as well, for an extra challenge.

80 Dlist Boys: heartbeat_city, javad, socialwhore, dizeek

I've been lagging behind online, but not in reality. I've got 10 more dlist boys ready for action after this post. Keep looking for more.

80 Dlist Boys: yeehaw83, bluelines

The latest two drawings. I wasn't ever planning on drawing myself into this project, but then I did. Doing a self portrait proved to be very difficult within the context of the rest of the drawings because I have been attempting to capture the beauty in each Dlist boy from a single photograph by carefully focusing on proportion and scale of features. For no. 53, it was hard to draw what I saw as opposed to what I know.

80 Dlist Boys: bw12343, zaceman, brahm, berkhippy

A few more in the sketchbook. I'm pleased with these 4... I think the combine the confidence and expressive mark-making that I started doing in nos. 37-40 with the exactness and refined qualities from the first quarter of the book. Berkhippy's hair was a nice challenge after drawing so many wavy wonderful haircuts.

80 Dlist Boys: hashlover, spanishguy, parklife, perquin

Some more... Tried to do a chubby pen/minimalist thing with parklife and was disappointed with the results. To add insult to injury I wrote the wrong name on his page... sad. I'm so close to finishing this project, I can taste it.

Dlist Boys: newbie123, taxthetime, dinodave, thevero

Bette Davis

Here's a little drawing I did - not thrilled with the likeness but had fun with a more energetic / quick style.

80 Dlist Boys: GetInnocuous, XOffender, penknife, xyzach

These four represent a really exciting moment in my sketchbook project - I started "sketching" instead of "drawing" and I feel like I hit a real high with number 39. It has just the right amount of confidence, energy, and uniqueness. XYZach is #40, the halfway point of the project.

80 Dlist Boys: HandHearts, Studly-E, dannydiaz, chicagobrian

The next four... Starting to feel a little too tight and not suiting the needs of a sketchbook. The entire point of this project was for me to explore and I've definitely stumbled upon a formula. I did attempt to do something different with chicagobrian -- there was this wonderful wild quality in his photograph that I tried to capture by drawing a little bit looser and by skewing his face but the result doesn't appear intentional or as refined as the earlier pieces. It did however provide great inspiration for the next set that I'll post...

80: ignite, pardonme, larkboy85

The first two from this set were the end of my journey in Berlin. I did Larkboy85 back in Milwaukee. A good set... had a lot of fun with the moodiness of Pardonme. I've got a bunch more to share. I finished my 40th drawing today so hold on to your hat! I'm halfway done.

80 Dlist Boys: janlo, popstitute, jimmy-z

I've still got a few more up my sleeve. This is an interesting bunch. I started "Janlo" in my car while I was getting an oil change in October 2009 and didn't finish it until December.

The next few were done during relaxing moments in my trip to Europe for the new year. I drew "Popstitute" at an apartment in Prague while I was waiting for my travel buddy to get out of bed. Stylistically this is probably the most distant from the bunch because I chose reference photography that wasn't straight-on. I think it helps show his attitude and was definitely a nice break from the formula.

"Jimmy-Z" was done in a cafe in Berlin called "Circus" that I returned to a couple more times to draw. They had tasty sandwiches there and hot cocoa that was really deep in flavor.