Drawn in Black » Tattoo

"Punks" by Mike Giant

Lee — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:01:30 +0000

Few artists are as appealing to me as Mike Giant. His clear, crips black and white drawings and illustrations coupled with his unmistakable tattoo-art influenced visual vocabulary make him one of my all-time favorite artists. As a matter of fact, one of his Rebel 8 T-Shirts is in the mail now for me.

How many people do you know that have a sharpie named after them?

"Love Sketch" by Matthew Woodson

Lee — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:24:28 +0000

Finding illustrations like those of Matthew Woodson is why I (admittedly intermittenly) do this website. His work seems fresh and relevant – small moments of beauty in a dreary world. Definitely bookmark this one, and check out his blog if you get a chance.

Drawings and Tutorials by Brian Ewing

Lee — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:17:54 +0000

"Ms. February" Line Art by Brian Ewing

Man am I glad that I checked out Brian Ewing’s Flickr page. While there are plenty of sick drawings on his website and blog, the real action is on Flickr. Ewing is an illustrator who pumps out amazing illustrations for band T-Shirts, posters, magazines, skateboards, etc. For those of you who like the skull and, more broadly, tattoo aesthetic, you’ll get your fill here.

The real treasure trove, beyond the pictures themselves, are the tutorials and how-to’s that Ewing has put together on his Flickr account. Detailing every step of the way (minus colors) of how he’s arrived at some of his most memorable work, including, for example, the cover of I Want Your Skull #5, you get a really intimate look at the whole end-to-end creative process. There are lots of little tips that simple invaluable to the new artist – for example, don’t tape down your drawing but move it to preserve the motion of your hand and wrist. If you want to know how a professional does what he does, you simple must check these out.

Of course you’d also be doing Ewing a favor by buying some of his stuff. Really, you should.

3 more images below the jump.

IWYS Cover Inks by Brian Ewing

"Suicide Girls" Line Art by Brian Ewing

"High On Fire" by Brian Ewing

How to Draw a Skull: 50 How-to's, Tutorials, Studies, Photo References, Videos, and Inspirational Skull Illustrations

Lee — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 02:02:56 +0000

Ah, the skull. Universal and visceral, fascinating and beautiful. Symbolic of those most basic themes: life and death. We find it in pop culture, occult ritual, on shoulders worldwide; most importantly, we find it in ourselves. No wonder we see it over and over in the world of art. It is mystical… perhaps we look for answers about the life after death in the bony visage of the skull.

Whatever the case, at the end of day, skulls are pretty cool! Which is exactly why I set out to put together of a haphazard list of drawings, photos, tutorials & how-tos, videos, and illustrations dealing with the human skull.

I hope it proves useful to you and inspires you as it has me. So without further ado, categorized by what seemed to make sense, skulls:

Anatomical Studies of Skulls
How-to’s and tutorials on drawing skulls
Stylized Skulls
Photo references of Skulls
Websites devoted to skulls

Enjoy!

Anatomical Studies of Skulls

Skull Left Lateral Index from Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body

Skull Plate by Dr. Bock

Human Skull Engraving by William Miller

Human Skull Side from David Darling’s Internet Encyclopedia of Science. Great resource for the anatomy of the human skull.

Skull Drawings by Paul Doeman

Skull Drawing by Ha Young Lee

Skull Sketches by Nadine Gorham

Idealized Proportion Human Figure, The Human Skull, Plate VII by Michael M. Hensley. You’ve got to check this guy’s website out, Human Anatomicae: he’s got fantastic reference drawings of the human bodies. Especially useful is the section on hands and feet – but that’s another post

Skull – Front and Side View by krisheding

Skull Drawing by Nicole Breedyk (via Flickr)

Skull Page by Steven Russell Black (via Flickr)

How-to’s and tutorials on how to draw skulls

How to Draw a Skull on 2d-Digital-Art-Guide

How To Draw A Skull And Crossbones on Drago-Art

Discover Easy Steps To Have Your Pencil Drawing Of A Skull on Pencil-Drawing-Idea.com

How to Draw a Skull on ExpertVillage.com

Drawing the Human Skull on draw23.com

Draw a Skull with a Wacom Tablet from Go Media on Vimeo.

Stylized Skulls

Skull Reference by Matthew Amey. The image above is one of 151 drawings of the human skull Matthew Amey did in 2003. Those along with skull drawings by 150 artists can be found on the website: this is definitely for all the skull lovers out there. Here’s another one from the book (which you can buy here):

Skull by Ron Domstead

La Coka Nostra by Brian Morris. This guy has some real dope drawings and illustrations. You can get the above image on a T-Shirt over at shopbenchmark.com. One of his tees is also featured on Threadless Select.

Pinstripe Skull by Rob Schwager. Above available as print Schwager’s online store.

Skull by hydro74 and another one by the same artist:

Skull Illustration by hydro74… siiick.

Machine Skull by Eliot Flores – When I first stumbled upon this picture I thought it’d be from hydro74, they look somewhat similar… can’t decided which one is sicker!

Scaphocephaly by R. E. Wolf (via Flickr)

Trophy Skull by Danny PiG (via Flickr)

Snake and Skull by Joe_13 (via Flickr)

Pumpkin Pattern – Skulls by Chris Rushing (via Flickr)

Skull by b.media (via Flickr)

Skull Head72 by ceroakb1 (via Flickr)

Metal Skull by Marcus Tegtmeier (via Flickr)

Skull & Lotus by Usugrow – this guy is incredible, and he loves skulls. You can also check out this bit on an Usugrow art opening on Fecal Face.

Alien Biker Skull by Von R. Glitschka

Grunge Skull Illustration by Chad Lonius. Chad’s got some sick illustrations and gives away free vector illustrations from time to time, including the one shown above!

Another Skull by Shane from ShanesArt.com – dude’s got some sick skills.

Tribal Skull by Ty Lombardi

Skull Tattoo by Bazaar

Photo references of skulls

Human Skull by David Liittschwager on California Academy of Sciences Skulls website – great resource for all kinds of funky skulls.

Human Skull by DeLoy Roberts – Granted this picture is kind of crappy, but his website has tons of animal skulls as well.

Azibaza has some crazy items for sale – unfortunately this Tibetan carved human skull is sold out. Definitely check out some of their other items, including their kapalas (skull caps).

More crazy skulls can be found over at tribalartasia.com, including this Naga Headhunting Human Trophy Skull.

Cradleboard Skull from bmezine.com. Although retired, you can still look at the pictures of skulls – this one in particular from the “Deformation and other Unique Defects” category.

You can find skull replicas of all kinds of hominids over Skulls Unlimited (in the Fossil Hominids section), including this Homo neanderthalensis skull.

More ostheological reproductions are available from Bone Clones, including this skull with brain… cool

Human Skull with Horns from subversiveelement.com. According to this most entertaining site, this skull was found in 1880’s in Pennsylvania, USA, but was subsequently stolen. Sitting on top of male skeletons 7 ft. tall, these would have made for some scary fellows.

For more bizarre skulls check out this skull of a supposed fishman; apparently quite a few of them have been found according to dominorus’ site.

Websites Devoted to Skulls

For those of you who haven’t gotten their fill, here are more websites devoted to skulls exclusively:

Skull-A-Day – the blog of artist Noah Scalin. Not too long ago he decided to make a one skull a day for a year, and so he did. Recently completed, the blog lives on with user contributed skulls and spawned a book that you can find through IndieBound.

I Want Your Skull – great site that also publishes its own little sweet zine. Great skull art and plenty of inspiration here.

Sweet Skulls.com – Examines the skull in pop culture. You’ll find a lot of old b-movie posters and other assorted trash art.

Stuff to buy

The End, almost

No post on skulls would be complete without a nod to Skullface himself, Ghost Rider:

Ghost Rider cover by Marc Silvestri

… but the last laugh goes to the ultimate bonehead:

Self Portrait Sketch and More by Shawn Barber

Lee — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:09:48 +0000

Los Angeles, Self Portrait Sketch by Shawn Barber

If you like tattoo art, you’ll love Shawn Barber. As his website states: “Shawn Barber’s body of work focuses primarily on painting, portraiture and documenting contemporary tattoo culture.” Barber’s many paintings focus on artists, specifically artists with tattoos. He goes around the world to meet and document them, an experience which he later turns into the painting. If you’re looking to get a tattoo, you might find some inspiration here! Also don’t forget to check out “Studio Visit: Shawn Barber and Henry Lewis” over at Fecal Face.

More below the jump.

Shawn Barber Studio Visit by Art Adventures.

Mister Cartoon’s Hands (Collaboration with Estevan Oriol) by Shawn Barber

Sketch of Henry Lewis as seen in Forever and Ever: New Works by Shawn Barber

Portrait of the Artist, Gregory Mocilnikar by Shawn Barber