Grandmama

Here's a quick piece I did to get back into the swing of things. I was out of commission for a couple of weeks, (pneumonia), and now I'm trying to ease my way back up to speed. I'm questioning myself a lot about my work right now and trying to figure out which way to go.

Illustration Friday: Paisley

Now that Drawergeeks is on hiatus, I've been meaning to start contributing to Illustration Fridays. It took me a while, but here it is. The subject is Paisley. I did this one with very little planning, just a quick blue sketch on my illustration board and out came the paint tubes. It feels a bit like working without a net.

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

Well, I finally got my art desk cleaned and organized, and now I hope to get a lot more art work done. This was a piece I started a couple years ago, then set aside and lost track of...

Waitin' round the bend, my Hucklberry friend...

This is a commissioned piece I did for my good friend Jose. This one got interrupted by my month long trip to Massachusetts, but now its done!

"SNAP SNAP"

A quickie piece I did with Illustrator. I usually like to start with a hand drawn sketch, but I just started playing in Illustrator with this one. Easy to start, but much harder to finish...

Anyone Got An Atlas???

This is my first piece done in Illustrator in quite a while. It was fun to get back into it. You may remember the original sketch that this is based on from a couple years back.

sketchbook

This is from my sketchbook, done a couple months ago. Done at Victoria Gardens, where Patrick works. I especially like the "Dad" who is carefully "watching" his three kids.

Sketching Eve

This is a quick sketch of Eve I did based on the famous painting by Lucas Cranach, the elder, (and seen on Desperate Housewives). I was reminded of this piece yesterday when I went to the Norman Simon to see the Comtesse d'Haussonville by Ingres. I've always wanted to play with this subject.

Paul Bunyon Done!

I wasn't sure how I felt about the way this piece turned out, but seeing it on the computer I like it very much. I still feel like I have so much to learn about working with paint, but I guess the answer is to keep trying...

...testing...testing...

Just playing around with some new art supplies. This was done with neutral gray ink, (instead of black). I really like the way this feels to work with. I can be stiffer when I'm working with black ink, with the gray ink I feel looser, more natural. This is going to be fun!

sketches

For this weeks Drawergeeks, Paul Bunyon. I had hoped to get further along, but on the other hand I don't want to rush it, so...here's the sketch.

Mark

My brother Mark asked me to do a Facebook avatar for him a while back. Well, I finally finished it!

Redhead

This is something a little new for me. I've been wanting to loosen up a bit, so I did this without any pencil rough, just starting straight out with a brush and some paint.

Frankie's in Love

Well, this is a week late, but this was for Drawergeeks. I finally got my drawing desk cleaned off and can work again.

Betty and Veronica

At last I've done a new Drawergeeks. I really need to get back into the swing of things with this blog! I did this one pretty quick, Betty and Veronica in their late middle age.

Mom, I've been published!

This is so cool. Walt Stanchfield was the best, most inspiring life drawing teacher I ever had. He had been at Disney forever and was already a legend by the time I met him. He knew how to criticize your work without making you feel like you're a crappy artist and should never pick up a pencil again. His goal was to make your drawings feel alive, like real living characters instead of dead anatomy lessons. It makes sense since he was so full of life and joy himself.

One of the things that Walt did each week was to give us handouts with tips, examples, quotes, etc., to help inspire us. He would often include students' drawings as examples and this is one of mine that made it. Pretty exciting, huh? His handouts have just been collected and published in two volumes called Drawn To Life, and I would highly recommend these books to anyone who wants to learn or improve their drawing skills. These books are a goldmine of information and inspiration!

p.s. My drawings are on page 277 of volume 1!

Happy Birthday!

This is a portrait I did for an old friend's birthday. I had fun with one and did it rather quickly, which is unusual for me. Happy Birthday Anne!

Goth White

Another post so quick! This is a quickie I did for this week's Drawergeeks. The subject is Goth!

Under the Witching Tree

Well, it certainly has been a long time! I've been working lots of overtime out of town lately, so its taken me a couple of months to get this done, but here it is. I couldn't get the scanner at the apartment to scan the whole image, so the edges are a bit cut off, but I've been wanting to get something posted for a while, so here it is. I'll get a better scan up when I can.

Hellboy

Wow, I can hardly believe it, but I've managed to do two Drawergeeks in a row! Yay me! I did this with a new watercolor brush I just got, where the water is actually put inside the handle. I'm still getting used to it, but it's pretty darn convenient. Thanks to Alina for telling me about these brushes.