Monday, June 20, 2011

J. David McKenney's Zodiac Girls are now available on T-Shirts!


Born between March 21 - April 19
Born between April 20 - May 20
Born between May 21 - June 20
Born between June 21 - July 22
Born between July 23 - August 22
Born between August 23 - September 22
Born between September 23 - October 22
Born between October 23 - November 21
Born between November 22 - December 21
Born between December 22 - January 19
Born between January 20 - February 18
Born between February 19 - March 20

Friday, June 17, 2011

Portrait of Darian Darling

Finished portrait of the glamorous Darling Darling:

india ink wash, red lacquer, white ink, pastel, and graphite on rough watercolor paper, 18" x 24"

photo of Darian during the photoshoot.

So if you have been following me on facebook and/or twitter you will know that I have a new friend/muse in Miss Darian Darling. I first read about Darian in Fashion Doll Quarterly in and article called "The Real Life Barbie Dream House of Darian Darling." After reading the article I immediately looked her up on facebook and wrote her a letter demanding that we be best friends right away....lucky for me she agreed!

In addition to being a New York nightlife celebrity Darian also runs a lifestyle blog all about....being blond and fabulous! Check it out Darian Darling: A Guide to Life For Modern Blondes.

We have become fast friends and Darian agreed to model for a portrait. We had a lovely time (and about 2-3 bottles of champagne between the two of us) taking the photos I used as reference.

Below is my process:

rough sketch:

building up the image:

pencil sketch

pencil sketch with photo reference

I always like to pop in a little red first

then put back in some white

and finally I built up the vignette with some many layers of ink washes