Note to self: Draw more Stephen Jackson! After going through my database, I just realized I only have 1 drawing of him! That needs to change. It's only fitting to set off a drawing session with the Dubz man of the hour Stephen Jackson. Since his return, The W's have gone 4-1 on the road and just about everyone in the Bay Area is stoked about his contributions.

A big congrats to Mickael Pietrus for recently becoming a father too! And for putting up some decent numbers on the boards! It's been a good week for the Warriors, which has given me some added inspiration in illustrating these 2 pieces I recently drew.

The new drawings were inspired by the past 2 wins on the road the W's had in Washington and Philly. Usually during a game I try and put together a drawing and have it ready (or at least almost completed) by the end of a game. With these 2 games coming down as nail biters, it took a little longer simply because a lot of my attention was on the TV screen. I wanted to draw these 2 guys because they were comin' off 2 really good game (if not the whole road series, minus the Boston game and before Pietrus kept bricking last night). Check out a few examples and brief descriptions on how I finished these pieces after the jump.

Just like the portait pics we took in Elementary School!

I went Portrait style with Jackson this time around because I'm using the Illustration for a sign design during the Phoenix game. I want to get it up as a big sign of his face to make it more visible both up top in Club 200 and down low during the shot around. The bigger the face, the more attention I hope Jackson will see. The last time I did a sign for Jackson he thanked my wife and I and seemed to really appreciate the gesture. The signs are simply going to say "Welcome Back" since his return started on the road.

Another reason for the portrait session (the action shots comin' on my next session) is the challenge of getting the same amount of detail on his face as if I was drawing his whole body. As far as color detail, I think I ran with only 3-4 types of brown and ran transparency shadows using different opacity's to get different shades of shadow. I have to say, Jackson's gotta good set of teeth. My Dad who almost became a dentist would have been proud! The bridgework on his teeth and gums are pretty accurate to the original! The beard is a little more thick than it is today though as I believe the photo was taken last year during the playoffs.

I found this picture of Pietrus while I was surfing the Warriors website and thought it was all hype! Look at his expression! It was during the playoffs and the guy was just ready to come off the bench and put some points on the board. I wanted to take a shot at drawing this simply because it showed the energy of the playoffs and a pumped up and ready to work Pietrus off the bench!

I believe I was drawing this during the beginning Washington game. If you look at the outlines to the far right, you'll see how much extra detail was added onto the drawing. It amazes me how the number of shapes and its colors overlapping one another create solid replications of the original photo. The home jersey has always been a tricky one to work with since it's a white and it all depends on how you set up the shadows. Again, I use transparency's  with a light opacity shift to capture the wrinkles on the J. The Warriors jersey has always been a pain to redraw simply because there's so many letters. Luckily, I've drawn it a number of times in different angles to just pull one off from a past design to save time. That's the plus about Adobe Illustrator. I have palettes and libraries that save color tones and little things like basketballs and Warriors logos.

I hope you've enjoyed this session. We're still early into the season and so far its been very exciting! For all you Illustrator heads... keep practicing, get extra creative and make it happen! Until next week...