Player Portrait by Sombrero Guy
February 18th, 2010 3:11 AMI used fineliner pen and coloured pencils to draw several player portraits. They have all been sent through the post to the players they belong to, although they may not have all arrived yet. These are all players I admire and respect. Players who have inspired me. Players with nice player photos. Also, due to budgetary constraints, they are mainly players in the UK. I have collected a rather big collection of addresses through this task, which may be used in the future. You have been warned.
I've never considered myself particularly good at the kind of art which involves copying existing works. I have also never been too good at drawing people, which is the main focus of most player pictures. I have left out much of the background detail in these, to avoid the portraits getting too confusing or muddled. I have ended up with mixed results. Apologies if yours is one of the bad ones.
I may be doing more of these, and I'm happy to do commissions if anyone particularly wants one. As long as I don't send a lot at a time, I won't really notice the cost of sending things abroad. I just didn't have much money when I bought stamps for the first batch.
I'll add any more I do to the praxis when they're done.
Charlie Fish
This is a really good player photo which I've quite possibly ruined. It's very dark, which doesn't really work with coloured pencils if you try to put a little of the colour over the black.
GY0 Tom
This was a rather bad one, because shadows are difficult to do with coloured pencils. In my message inside, I'm trying to encourage a GYZero comeback.
Time for a bit of vanity...
My own player photo is another dark one, which I've already explained is awkward with colour pencils.
GY0 Ben
This one wasn't too good. Sorry Ben. It's not absolutely terrible, but I was copying the work of another artist, who is a lot better than me.
Rin Brooker
This one went well at first. Surprisingly, the hands weren't too bad, but when I came to drawing the headphones she's wearing, I just ended up with a random black blob up one side of the face.
misschradd0n
Who remembers this guy? He came along and did some really good tasks for a couple of months, then disappeared. One of the things he initiated was mass random postcards for his mother's birthday. I sent this to the address he gave then with a note inside asking about the possibility of a comeback. I hope it gets passed on. Also, this is one of the better portraits.
Harry Lee
Thank goodness, one that doesn't have a full person in it. The colours are a bit off, but the hands pattern wasn't too bad to draw. This is the furthest travelling portrait, going all the way to Australia.
susy derkins
At first I thought a cartoon character would be easier to draw than real people, but then I got confused trying to keep the white outlines, so I ended up with ink lines all over the place around the legs and feet. Even so, it didn't turn out too badly.
UX0 Adam
This didn't come out nearly as bad as I thought it would. I thought I'd completely mess up the fingers. It took a couple of attempts, but it turned out fine.
Optical Dave
I couldn't get the hair colour right, but other than that I was pleasantly surprised by how this one turned out. Notice the flag. I need to make myself one of them...
GY0 Vicki
The player photo this is a copy of is my personal favourite on this site. It's just such an epic shot. This is also the portrait I'm most pleased with. Hopefully I timed the postage so it arrived on Vicki's birthday.
Waldo Cheerio
It's a question many have asked over the years: Where's Waldo (or Wally, as he is known where I come from)? I think I may just have the answer...
artmouse
The player who convinced me that actually, my artwork is better than I first thought.
30 vote(s)
- GYØ Vicki
- El Neil
- Minch
- Wolf
- artmouse
- Not Here No More
- Spidere
- Shazbot [TKC]
- Optical Dave
- Ben Yamiin
- Waldo Cheerio
- Rin Brooker
- Electra Fairford
- Harry Lee
- Poisøn Lake
- Secret Agent
- teucer
- Lincøln
- susy derkins
- anna one
- GYØ Ben
- done
- rongo rongo
- Brock Dubbels
- Charlie Fish
- Michael Bend
- Picø ҉ ØwO
- gh◌st ᵰⱥ₥ing
- APR dreamlands
- Kattapa
Favorite of:
Terms
mailart, mail, multicompletion22 comment(s)
VIcki and Fish's are my favorites.
And huzzah to encouraging a GYØ comeback.
...my only displeasure with this task is your incessant insistence that you cannot draw.
that's definitely a pet peeve of mine when someone says they "cannot draw" in an incredibly visually 'accurate' sense, because it does not in any way mean they cannot draw.
there are so many really genuine and honestly quite pleasing moments of color you've created in your drawings, and even if they aren't strictly representational by your standards Sombrero Guy, i ask you to respect these drawings and the beauty they do contain.
plus, i'm sure you had plenty fun completing this task, sure looks like a damn fun project!
Twitter told me to read this. I do concur
of COURSE he can draw, that's perfectly clear from this loveliness. he's just being english, they're genetically inhibited from saying nice things about themselves
Sorry, people. I am obviously too much of a self critic.
It was indeed a fun project, and if they were someone else's pictures I'd probably see how good they are instantly.
If you want, send me your addresses and I'll do some for you, minus the self-criticism.
Oh boy oh boy oh boy YAY I'm going to receive a masterpiece in the mail! :D Thanks so much, Sombrero Guy!
Updated with a couple of commissioned pieces. I posted them this morning, but I have no idea when they'll arrive at their destinations.
My notoriety is confirmed by the adulation of and inclusion by my peers!
that was fast! ! !
faster even than sending something from the east bay to san francisco! incredible!
today i am full of smiles.
Wow, that was quick! Since one of the overseas letters took 10 days to arrive, I wasn't expecting the most recent ones to be at their destinations yet. This gives me even more faith in postal services.
Mine just arrived:
I've decided to frame it:
And display it on my bookshelf of favorite stories:
You can also see my partially solved 5x5x5 rubik's cube, my dating game consolation prize girls&corpses calendar, a death-of-boba-fett statuette, a bottle of arrogant bastard ale, someone else's The Club, and a device which flips passersby the birdie and tells them to go fuck themselves several different ways.
I have to say I really adore your portrait of GY0 Vicki! Expert job there; I wish I had the manual dexterity and talent to draw like that.
I got my picture in the mail today! Thank you! I love it
Yes yes yes, a yellow envelope with Royal Mail seals on it and the cutest susy on real British paper and real coloUred pencils! I need a cork board now.
Oh, Sombrero Guy, sir, such an honour to be on the list!
Also, we need a LØVE badge or something, this is not the first time you've tasked beyond the call of duty with regard to try to shake people off their praxis-slumber
Glad you like it! You'll always be on the list, as you put it, so expect to receive random items again in the future!
Ah, but is it LØVE, or is it just a selfish desire of my sentimentality to see a return to the way things were in the past? I sometimes wonder if I'm actually pestering people who have got all they want from SFØ and have moved on to other things...
This is the sort of thing which turns us from an internet community into a real one. These are bonds I hope will last. There is no other kind of relationship quite like player admiration.
Thanks for the player portrait!
I miss SF0. My current hiatus must have been a long one already - I've somehow amassed 532 vote points. Have 5 of them.
I will return sometime and distribute the rest of those vote points. And earn 532 more.
Only got mine yesterday due to being on holiday, but thank you Mr Sombrero Guy! =)