A Time For Reflection

Here is another w.i.p of the painting of my daughter Thea. This marks my 50th post! A year ago I started this blog as a way to share my art and to motivate me to get better. I really didn't think that that there would be many people interested in what I had to share. But to my surprise there were. I am grateful for all the comments and those who have shown interest in my blog. I want take the opportunity to thank Charley Parker for taking interest in my art and for helping me reach a larger audience than I could have on my own. I also want to thank my mom for for encouraging me and supporting me in becoming an artist. I want to give a special thanks to my wife and children for their love, support, and encouragement. Without them I wouldn't be half the man I am today. And lastly, I want to thank my Heavenly Father for giving me the talent, and for the beauty of his creations that provide a constant source of inspiration to me.

Why Not Me?

I have to apologize for the lack of posts. I've been busy with my oil paintings at home. If I ever learn how to photograph them without making them look like garbage I might post a few of them. As always I seem to lose interest with what I am working on and shift my attention else were. I still need to finish the painting of Riley and a few others. So bare with me will I start a new one. This is my oldest daughter Thea. When she noticed that I've painted (or started painting) her brother and sister, she felt excluded. So this ones for her.

Here is the work in progress. For those interested, this is the process: 3 drawings with the values getting darker with each drawing and the brush getting smaller. I also start with painting the shadows, proceed to the halftones and next add the lights, reserving my darkest darks and lightest lights for accents.

Divide Light from Dark

Here is an example of a simple drawing exercise that I learned from Perry Stewart while I was in college. He referred to it as "shadow massing". The idea is that you are to draw the shadow shapes only. The idea behind this exercise is to train your mind to see the shapes of values. In this case the shapes of the shadows. The same exercise can be done for the lights, except you draw with a white pencil on toned paper.

Collaboration Part Deux

Here is my second collaboration ever. Drawing by my 3 yr old daughter and color by me. I love coloring in crayon, for some reason I feel more freedom to explore. This pieces owes some credit to Van Gogh, his pen and ink drawings are amazing.

Revisited, Revisioned,and Reworked

I posted this work in progress awhile back. It has taken some time, but I decided to revisited it and change the color scheme. I think there was something wrong that I could quite put my finger on it and I lost interest. I decided to come back to it and see what I could to improve it. After making some changes to the color I found my excitement renewed. I'll post the progress as I go.

Whimsical Meets Beauty

I've been thinking about designing a whimsical character lately and wondered how I could combine whimsical with beauty. So, I conjured up this mental image, and this is what came out.

Sheriff

This was suppose to be a character design for a white rapper. I was going to take grandpa and put him in a suede jumpsuit with tons of gold accessories. But there was something wrong with the design and I was struggling with conceptualizing it. I thought about it for a while and the more I thought about it the more he looked like he needed cowboy boots and then he needed a gold belt buckle to go with it. After adding those elements I said to myself he looks like a sheriff. And as soon as I made that connection painting the character was smooth sailing. When it came to putting him in an environment, I thought he should be in the desert. I'm not sure why, but nevertheless, he is in the desert. I guess I'll leave that up to you guys to figure out. If anyone would like to comment on why you think he is in the desert I would love to hear from you.

As a side note, I want to thank those of you who visit my blog, as well as those of you who leave comments. You guys inspired me to keep doing what I'm doing.

First Mate

What good is a captain without a first mate?

Arrrrrrr!

I've been wanting to design a pirate character for a week or two and I finally put something on paper. The plan is to do a digital painting of him, then to do an illustration with him in it. Should be done in time for national Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Post-it Note Sketch

Just a quick ten minute doodle. Post-it notes are great for this.

Pirate Doodles

I'm trying to draw more from my imagination. Here are a few doodles I did. I've been reading about Howard Pyle lately and pirates seemed to be on my mind, so here is what came out.

Awesome Video

Power Mustache

This is a power mustache if I ever saw one. These types of mustache are the envy of every man. There are only a hand full that can produce ear wax strong enough to sculpt the whiskers and make them curl. Hats off to any man that call sport one of these and look studly doing it.

Daily Lunch Special

Here is another drawing that I did during my lunch hour. Aside from being a great man, Fredrick Douglas had great hair. It was definitely something to be admired. I think I'm envious.

Old Photos

Finding old photos to draw from are like finding buried treasure. They are like gold because they poses so much character. This makes it a lot easier for me to exaggerate the drawing. This drawing was an attempt to push the features of a female and still try to maintain their feminine. Easier said than done.

When I'm Old

I'm not sure who this is, but I loved the lighting and the blank expression on the man's face. I also find drawing older people more interesting, the topography on their face make for great shapes. I hope I look this cool when I'm old.

Gotta Love The Chops

I would have to say that the mid to late 1800's were the best time in this nation's history for male hairdos. Men wore sideburns, had neck beards and their hair had character. If I ever get bold enough I might just grow a set of chops like these.

I thought I should dust off the cob webs, I haven't done a character study like this in awhile. Maybe, I might even add some color one of these days. 8"x6" in Pencil, total time -45 mins.

Rembrandt Copy Update

Here is an update of the Rembrandt painting that I am copying.

Museum Copies

Spent some time copying paintings at BYU Museum of Art. This is a great exercise in studying tonal patterns, design and composition. Here are the results. Ball point pen.

Etching

Etching is a skill that I have been wanting to learn for a while, but having found time for it. This is an attempt to copy a etching that Anders Zorn did. I did mine in ball point pen. I took liberties with the copy and tried to make it my own given the limitations of ball point pen. Size: about 3"x4", time: 30 mins.