At the request of someone, I took this challenge because I thought it actually sounded like fun — and would be a challenge. And indeed it was! I laid this drawing of Iron Man out in light pencil first and then went through with various Prismacolor Premiere colored pencils to […]
Nathan Fillion in “Firefly” Freehand Graphite Commissioned Pencil Portrait Drawing
I’m pretty behind here on posting the latest projects, so it’s catch-up time. Here goes! As a Christmas gift for a dear friend I worked up a sketch of Nathan Fillion as Captain Mal from the popular, cancelled-after-1-season-show, Firefly. It was completed at the end of November in time for […]
Hawkeye and Black Widow Freehand Graphite and Colored Pencil Drawings
To answer the call of many a beloved fellow superhero nerd on Instagram and Facebook, I added the colored pencil / graphite treatments of Hawkeye and Black Widow to the mix to complete my Avengers series (sorry Fury…). Purchase link for Black Widow Prints: https://johndibiaseart.com/drawing-of-black-widow-scarlett-johansson-from-avengers Purchase link for Hawkeye Prints: […]
Full Color Captain America Freehand Colored Pencil Drawing
Graphite pencil is my comfort zone. I started out there, I feel most comfortable there. But it’s pictures like this one that inspire me to go color. It’s a vibrant source photo (a promo for The Avengers movie) and it just aches to be drawn in color. So I decided […]
Bob Hope Freehand Graphite Pencil Portrait Drawing
After finishing the Luke sketch, I again wasn’t sure where to go next, and loved this pose when I stumbled upon it, so I found this to be the fun next entry into my collection of portraits. This drawing of Bob Hope was done entirely in pencil during September, 2012. […]
Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker Freehand Graphite Pencil Portrait Drawing
After I finished the Mac drawing, I wasn’t sure what to work on next. I came to decide that I’ve never drawn Luke Skywalker and that needed to be remedied. This is a drawing of a promo shot of Luke / Mark Hamill for Empire Strikes Back. All of it […]
Mac Powell of Third Day Freehand Graphite Pencil Portrait
What’s interesting about this drawing of Third Day’s Mac Powell is that it’s the first pencil portrait I’ve done from a photo I’ve taken. I took this at Winter Jam 2010 in January and worked on it on and off for a couple months that year. Then my “studio” of […]
Christian Bale as Batman Freehand Graphite Pencil Portrait Drawing
In July, 2012, I felt inspired by the new film The Dark Knight Rises to work on a Batman portrait. I’d actually worked on this before seeing it, and revisited the previous two films in the process. While working on it, I knew I’d wanted to have Batman and Bruce […]
Leigh Nash Drawing Portrait
In July, 2012, I felt inspired by listening to the latest Sixpence None The Richer album, Lost In Translation, to work on a new portrait of Leigh Nash. I’d drawn Leigh years ago in college for my sister-in-law Mim (who’s a huge fan) and then did another one just for […]
Tom Hiddleston “Loki” Freehand Colored Pencil and Graphite Drawing
As part of my Avengers series, I answered a few requests by working on this drawing of Tom Hiddleston as Loki over the summer. Like the other Avengers sketches, it was created using mostly regular graphite pencils with some colored pencil for his cape. Purchase link for prints: https://johndibiaseart.com/drawing-of-loki-tom-hiddleston-from-marvels-avengers
Process of a Portrait: Hulk (Mark Ruffalo)
My latest project is Mark Ruffalo and Hulk which takes my personal experimentation of mixed media to the next level. Here, I decided to do Ruffalo/Bruce Banner entirely in pencil and then fill in Hulk completely in color. The other challenge was merging two different pictures for the first time […]
Chris Hemsworth “Thor” Freehand Graphite and Colored Pencil Drawing
The third in this series was Thor, which came together relatively quickly. However, as you can probably gather by looking at the drawing, the details in his suit were a bit more time consuming. Again, I used pencil as well prismacolor pencils for the red cape. (This scan doesn’t quite […]
Robert Downey, Jr. as “Iron Man” Freehand Graphite and Colored Pencil Drawing
After Cap, I decided to tackle another Avenger. This time, I decided to aim for filling in Tony Stark’s “arc reactor” tech with blue colored pencil. The portrait of Tony… didn’t come easy. I worked and reworked and reworked this drawing and almost gave up on it at one point, […]
Chris Evans “Captain America” Freehand Graphite and Colored Pencil Drawing
Inspired by seeing “The Avengers” film, I got the sudden urge to try a pencil / colored pencil hybrid drawing. I was pretty pleased with the results, actually, so it encouraged me to keep this personal experiment going with further drawings…and continuing the Avengers theme! I used a varying degree […]
Stana Katic as Kate Beckett from “Castle” Freehand Graphite Pencil Drawing
After finishing up Rick Castle, I felt inspired to draw his muse, Kate Beckett. This was the next drawing in a rapid series of drawings that came around April 2012. Purchase link for prints: https://johndibiaseart.com/drawing-print-of-stana-katic-as-kate-beckett-on-tvs-castle Purchase link for the original – with Castle: https://johndibiaseart.com/original-drawings-of-nathan-fillion-and-stana-katic-from-tvs-castle-not-a-print
New Etsy Shop!
After the gentle suggestion of some family and friends, I’ve decided to open an Etsy shop for those interested in purchasing prints of some of my art. For now only some of the drawings are available (six, at the time of this post), but I hope to add more. If […]
Nathan Fillion as Rick Castle Freehand Graphite Pencil Drawing
While I don’t watch much current TV, one show I do faithfully watch is Castle. As I was trying to think of new subjects–and after watching one of the last shows of this fourth season–I naturally thought of Nathan Fillion as Rick Castle. Lately, I’ve been trying more and more […]
Myrna Loy Freehand Graphite Pencil Portrait Drawing
This drawing of classic actress Myrna Loy, was completed at the end of April/early May 2012 and presented a different challenge. The soft look in the photo was a different texture than I usually work with, and simply using an ordinary paper napkin as a blending tool ended up serving […]
Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly Freehand Graphite Pencil Portrait Drawing
After doing a marker drawing of Marty McFly, I had wanted to do a pencil portrait of one of my favorite film characters. After one attempt of a different source photo failed, I was pretty happy with this one’s outcome. And it’s another example of, what I feel is, drawing […]
Bill Murray “Peter Venkman” Ghostbusters Freehand Graphite Pencil Portrait Drawing
I believe this drawing was done last fall sometime, but it was a fun project. Aside from this film remaining at the top of my list of favorites, it was fun to experiment with a different size source photo… and then to decide whether or not I should add in […]
Harpo Marx Freehand Graphite Pencil Portrait Drawing
It’s no secret that Harpo Marx is one of my favorite classic actors. When I was unsure of what to choose as my next project, I opted for this gem of a photo as my next source. So here’s my second Harpo drawing… Purchase link for prints: https://johndibiaseart.com/harpo-marx-drawing-print-85-x-11
Steve Carell “Michael Scott” The Office Freehand Pencil Portrait Drawing
As a fan of Steve Carell and The Office, I’ve tried to do some drawings of Steve several times over the years (the closest “good” one I’ve done was from his Evan Almighty promo photos, but I don’t like it enough to share it 
). This sketch was completed […]
Han Solo Freehand Graphite Pencil Portrait Drawing
I’d started a drawing of Han Solo about eight or nine years ago, but never finished it. So last fall, while I couldn’t find the first drawing, I started a new one during a new season of drawings. This one is from Empire, I believe, and I used an array […]
Mr. Monk Gets a Pencil Portrait
Here is the latest pencil drawing. As usual, it was created on bristol board with various grades of pencil to provide various shades. I tried to keep layering it despite the temptation to just render it “finished” too early. However, I think I tend to over-do some drawings while under-doing […]
Daniel Craig as James Bond Pencil Drawing
With the release Cowboys & Aliens approaching, I felt it appropriate to take a stab at drawing Daniel Craig as James Bond. I’m in a mode where I’m really enjoying working on portraits again and in looking for new projects to start, I decided Craig would make a fine victim. […]
Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow Freehand Graphite Pencil Drawing
After Amy’s June, 2011 birthday, I used one of the plates from our little family birthday party for her (yup! We decorated our dining room in Pirates 4 stuff) as a reference for a new pencil portrait. I had purchased a brand new pencil set earlier this year (6H to […]
Indiana Jones – via Marker
My second attempt to make a caricature of a person went pretty horribly wrong. This was originally supposed to be one of those… however, once I laid down the pencil groundwork and started to color it in, I loved the way it was looking as a more realistic color portrait. […]
Marty McFly Freehand Marker Drawing
Early 2011, I started getting into trying new art projects. I invested in some Prismacolor markers and tried working on some comic-book style artwork (using references) to stretch my abilities and venture outside my comfort zone. After completing my first ever marker-based portrait (I had sketched the person’s face in […]
Whoa Doc! That’s Heavy!
I was paging through a comic book recently and saw this really excellent drawing of a person that bordered on portrait quality while still being comic book art. In the drawing there was great detail where a lot of the features were defined with lines — like where little shadows […]
Eject! Operation: Soundwave
Here’s the latest… Continuing with marker drawings after finishing the last pencil portrait. This is a version of Soundwave from Transformers. The source I drew it from was a page out of a comic book (from 2006 I believe) Purchase link for prints: https://johndibiaseart.com/soundwave-transformers-full-color-drawing-print Purchase link for the original drawing: […]