Monday, August 1, 2011

Live Fashion Illustrations with Tommy Hottpants

Today the very very cool and effortlessly dreamy Tommy Hottpants modeled for a collection of fashion illustrations profiling his unique stylings....

Gutter Punk

Rock

Leading Man

Jesse James






and Papua New Guinea Tribal Grunge





Thank you Tommy for giving me so many looks in one afternoon! You are beyond awesome!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Live Fashion Illustrations with Darian Darling



Yesterday I went over to my good friend Darian Darling's house, dubbed "The Pussy Palace" for a little lunch, conversation, and some casual live fashion drawings! I LOVE Darian's style and I wanted to capture some of her signature looks....

Playboy Pin-up

Biba Glam

Rock n' Roll Blondie

Disco Dancing Dress with Nude Pumps!

and The Missing Nolan Sister


So much fun we had!!!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

New Work: Moonstruck

Moonstruck: 18"x24", various ink washes, graphite, and pastel on rough watercolor paper

sketch:

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Life in plastic, it's fantastic!

I did these three pieces of artwork a few months ago for a big doll company in California. The line that the drawings were intended for has been put on the back burner but I can still share the images with you!

The concept is a little more "bubble gum" than my normal style but it was still totally fun to do!

Early Concept Sketches:

(I think this one is so funny for some reason)

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