The Monthly Daily » JAN: Stuck In The Past

January Theme: Stuck In The Past

My theme for January, inspired by a lot of 80s movies, not to mention the new Sherlock Holmes flick (Victorian bromance? It’s like a movie just for me!) feels appropriate for ringing in a new year. Instead of looking forward, I’m going to go back into history and draw a bunch of people from past eras. (And, seeing as I was born in 1987, “past eras” pretty much encompasses anything prior to 1990.)

History isn’t quite my forte, but I do have a few things I’m a sucker for. Very old cars. Old hats. Victorian men’s clothing. Pretty much anything Kate Beaton will make a comic about.

January 1: A Gentleman

You know what was awesome? The new Sherlock Holmes movie. I’m just sayin’. Finding more authentic reference of the era is a little more difficult, but if you’re willing to wade through the crap and large swathes of dead links to former Geocities pages, costumes.org is a goldmine.
Trying to be more confident [...]

January 2: Hippie Dance

My brother’s been looking for a place to live in Toronto while on a co-op term. He had two major stipulations: no hipsters, and no hippies. “They smell,” he says. My mother – a young teenager in the hippie era – was not going to take that sort of crap.
Here, in tribute [...]

January 3: PI

Was up late last night working and listening to a Raymond Chandler audiobook. Some good old fashioned PI goodness.
GAME TIME. You get to guess how much of this is me trying to be cool and stylish and how much is “oh crap my pen is out of ink, where did I leave the [...]

January 4: Flapper

You know what my new pet peeve’s becoming? In my attempt to research this stuff, Google’s turning up far more knockoff Halloween costume versions than actual history. Nonetheless, I perservere. Here is a flapper. Probably.
If you’re into awesome 1920s era intrigue and don’t mind it being reenacted by talking cats, check [...]

January 5: Paladin

Been playing too much World of Warcraft. In order to get it out of my system, here’s a shot at a real-life Paladin, the crusader sort that hung out with Charlemagne rather than the holy magic wielding champions of the light you’re apt to find in games. As the armor was cobbled together [...]

January 6: Japanese Kids

My intention for today was actually to draw a geisha, as I was in a geisha kind of mood. But while looking for some more historical (rather than contemporary) reference, I came across this absolutely fascinating photo set on flickr, and my plans changed a little. All these photos of turn-of-the-century Japan, and [...]

January 7: Roman Boy

Continuing with the kids theme from yesterday, on account of wanting to do some ancient Rome stuff, but not feeling too much like drawing a toga. Inked with a dip pen, for funsies. Haven’t used one of those in ages and ages; it’s been all brushes ’round Studio Kim.
The similarity of the supposedly [...]

January 8: Poodle Skirt

A little spot colour fun today, and did this one a lot quicker than usual – been trying to speed these up. I’ve no idea what she’s so annoyed about. Perhaps Jimmy Smith didn’t ask her to the spring formal. Perhaps she burned her Home Ec homework. Perhaps she just wants [...]

January 9: Punk

This might be a good time to clarify the fact that I tend to consider the end of the day to be whenever I finally crash, rather than midnight. Just sayin’. This isn’t late yet.
Calling this historical might be a bit of a stretch, since I think I probably saw at least one [...]

January 10: Greek Woman

We return to the ancient world with an ancient Greek woman of questionable accuracy. Since these are meant to be quick dailies, it gets to a point where I just have to give up on looking for more reference and just go for the general feel, but it’s hard to let go. When [...]

January 11: WWI Soldier

A British soldier from WWI. Back to the heavy inks again, because frankly it’s what I need to practice. And some Photoshop tones, because why not?

January 12: Little Girl

Don’t trust little girls. They’re always plotting something.
This one’s based on two pictures off Shorpy – from 1915 and 1919. I’d forgotten how fabulous Shorpy is, just a wonderful archive of old photos. I could spend hours there. I have spent hours there.
Haven’t done a digital painting in so long, it [...]

January 13: Boxer

I’ve owed Rosemary an art trade involving an old-timey boxer for a while now. This is not that image. It is, however, culled from the pile of reference photos I downloaded a while back, because why research when the job’s been done already?
Dip pens and watercolour. Why not.

January 14: Viking Woman

More questionable history. I seem to like drawing annoyed people an awful lot.

January 15: Boy Scout

So apparently boy scout uniforms haven’t changed an awful lot over the past century, although I don’t remember my little brother having to wear a hat. Me, I was a girl guide. We had a lot less freedom than the boys, although we did eventually get swiss army knives. There was no [...]

January 16: Exercise Girl

Regardless of whatever major sartorial and cultural accomplishments the 1980s may have heralded, my mental impression of the entire decade is pretty much this.
Well, her hair could probably be bigger.

January 17: Medieval Man

If my French isn’t even worse than I think it is, this is an archer in the time of Henry II.
It’s been a while since I’ve inked anything in Illustrator instead of by hand. I can never decide which I like better – Illustrator creates such clean, accurate, consistent lines, complete with some rather [...]

January 18: Victorian Maid

For once in my life, I have absolutely nothing to say about this.

January 19: Factory Boy

More Shorpy inspiration.
This is terrible but I was sick today okay. When I started this whole draw-and-post-every-day thing I wasn’t taking sick days into account.

January 20: Schoolgirl

Yet more Shorpy, because I’ve not been in a researching sort of mood. Generally, I try not to draw a specific person and to work from a bunch of different references, but I just had to draw this little girl. I think it’s the glasses. Guessing at the colours, obviously; those could [...]

January 21: Young Man

This guy!
Fun with Illustrator.

January 22: Go-Go Girl

Apparently my mental conception of go-go boots was way higher than the reality. Who knew? After having little luck finding anything but Halloween costumes, the primary reference for this was my mother.
I mean I asked her, not that my mom’s a go-go dancer. As far as I know.

January 23: British Soldier

I am so tired I just want to sleep please let me sleep.
Self-imposed rules of self-imposed challenge, you are a harsh mistress.

January 24: Regency Woman

Month’s almost over! Which is good because, despite the fact my topic encompasses the entirety of human history, I’m starting to run out of ideas.

January 25: Astronaut

Circa the Mercury missions. If my cursory research is at all accurate, then the weightless pose is probably anachronistic, but whatever, I’m sick of drawing people just standing there.

January 26: Renaissance Woman

I’m sick again; this is not fair. As a result, here is a crazy experimental colouring job.
Reference! Paintings!

January 27: Cowboy

I am super sick. Here is a slapdash cowboy with questionable anatomy.

January 28: Stewardess

I spent a lot of the day looking at Jen Wang and Vera Brosgol stuff. Two of my favourite illustrators, always incredibly inspiring and humbling… and always leaving me wanting to draw curvy-limbed women with tiny feet.

January 29: Beachgoer

Edit: Now with actual scan!
Away from home (and thus my scanner) for a few days. Ahoy from Kingston! This crappy webcam “scan” will be replaced when I return.

January 30: Sorority Girl

Seriously.
Another webcam scan! I’m kind of sad that I’m finishing off the month on such a quiet note; didn’t even remember to bring my watercolours with me. It happens. I do have my tablet, though, so maybe I can do something special tomorrow for the final! We’ll see, we’ll see.
Edit: A [...]

January 31: 18th Century Man

While this is a pretty weak and super quick digital painting, I just wanted to finish off the first month of this little endeavor with something a little more special than a webcam photo. Some colour, at least. Thus, this guy! The outfit is probably all wrong because I couldn’t really find [...]