LotW: Armed and Dangerous
Yo, you should have received this post before the end of June. But my scanner glitched and refused to recover for a while, and I couldn't come to finishing the work due to this. And then I myself captured a some kind of sickness, with symptoms similar to Covid but most likely being a heatstroke, I guess. It made me waste a few more days, as I spent those dying in my bed.
Anyway, I'm okay now, and here's another redraw of an old thing, this time starring Sergio ❤️
The original portrait was drawn in 2018 for Benedict Cumberbatch expressions meme. Must say that my first attempt to capture the needed expression hadn't been successful, nor did I manage to capture it recently, lol.
In fact, it’s difficult for me to compare the old and the new version, because they turned out to be completely different, as if based on different references.
The new piece does have some similarity to the original photo, in this regard it can be considered more successful than the older version, objectively. But, to be honest, after I tried to draw the needed facial expression, immediately I started to take it as my work on an independent portrait of Sergio rather than an attempt to redraw the old one. Considering it a mini-reference illustrating his current image seems to be more proper to me now.
What emotions do you have when looking at Sergio from 2018 and Sergio from 2024? What can you say about these two versions of the character? Do you think that they have something in common, or do they seem to be different persons?
I believe that there's nothing unclear about the current design of our pretty gypsy guy, as he's already appeared like this several times in my drawings and my audience seems to have taken it warmly. I don't think that focusing on it is very necessary. I'll just mention that we can finally see Sergio's new role thanks to this piece. Here he demonstrates to us his new weapon of choice, the Spanish guitar. I have drawn this guitar once before, in here, but now you can see it's proper size and design.
By the way, if you'd like to know how I see Sergio's playing style and the overall degree of his artistry, then I highly recommend you to watch a few performances of Lucas Imbiriba.
Like this one:
It also can give an idea of Sergio's repertoire, as what Imbiriba plays relates to the style of malagueña, something like a subgenre of flamenco, together with verdiales that Sergio also enjoys playing for public.
Or this one:
Its energy and mood nicely fit for Sergio, although, technically, Canción del Mariachi is a too modern piece and so it would've never been played by him.
