Sketch To Finish: Monkeys & Military Men

Preliminary sketches of toy military men and vintage Barrel Of Monkeys figures...

On the finish board, drawn in pencil on collaged splatter paint pages...

Layers of colored pencil are added...

And here is the end result, seen here in full...

CHRISTIAN MONTONE

"Monkeys & Military Men" - April 2012

Colored pencil and watercolor on mounted collage.  (11" x 14")

Sketchbook Drawings From Moving Pictures

Two double-page spreads of Television Drawings - 20 January 2012

Getting ready to attack some new pieces with layers of color. Though this is not the subject matter I'm going to be exploring, this familiar exercise has proven once again to be a fine warm-up to get my head where it needs to be.

7 Inch Single Sleeve: 1950s Times Square

A sheath for a 1950s set of three 7-inch singles, beautifully illustrated.

Archive: "Rooftops NYC West Village" (2005)

CHRISTIAN MONTONE

"Rooftops NYC West Village" (2005)

Approx. size: 11 x 11 inches.  Water soluble crayon on board.

Based upon one of the early morning sketchbook drawings I frequently used to create 

before my Parsons Summer Intensive Studies Program students would arrive at Room 1202.

Archive: "NYC Street Scene People" Drawings (1998)

CHRISTIAN MONTONE

Drawings: "NYC Street Scene People" (1998)

Approximate size: 8 x 10 inches each.
Water soluble crayon, ink and white pencil on board.

Archive: Times Square Bus Drawings (2005)

CHRISTIAN MONTONE

Drawings: "Vintage Times Square Downtown Bus" #1 & #2. (2005)

Approx. size:  8 x 10 inches each.  Water soluble crayon and ink on board.

I rarely ever take NYC buses, so when I happen upon them in vintage photos, 

I'm much more bemused by them than I am, say, photos of the subway.  

I'm not sure why I didn't do more drawings involving buses in the '90s, 

but I may have to do some soon.  The varied shapes and colors of the buses

 (especially those of the 1940s and 1950s) always interested me for what seems like a 

lack of overall fleet uniformity and make for really solid subject matter.

Archive: "72nd & B'way" (1998)

 CHRISTIAN MONTONE

"72nd & B'way" (1998)

Diptych: 2 Panels, each approx. 11 x 17 inches.

Water soluble crayon on collaged paper on board.

DETAILS BELOW:

Created in the downstairs studio in Brooklyn shortly after spending a chilly Saturday doing reportage sketches alone, seated upon a bench at the triangle park which sits at the juncture of 72nd street and Broadway (near the Ansonia and the 1-2-3-9 Subway).  I recall being bundled in a coat with my sketchbook and backpack on my lap while my Sony Discman (remember those?) auto-repeated Mono's "Life In Mono" CD.  I can't look at this piece without hearing that particular album and feeling just a fraction of the chill brought in by the wind off the (not so far away) Hudson River.

Sketch To Finish: Blog Header

Sketch-to-finish process shots of my new blog header.  

Original concept (developed in early August) was based on a hybrid of two of my favorite 1960s package designs: Whitman and Wisk Off Brand Crayons.

June 2010: Twisted Chandelier

One more page of reportage from my workplace.

Sketchbook Elements: Ephemera 2010

Snippets of the last six months. Some things drawn, others sliced up and glued in. Collected in the front and back pages of another sketchbook.