Two Easels and a Hand Full of Brushes!

More sketches and a in-progress painting

above-Studies in facial expression and body language.

Study of the pose with the shoulders down.

Works in Progress - part II

This is my third sketch with this concept of two women embracing. In comparison to the other two sketches, I stiffened the pose of the woman on the right and lowered her head to add fear into her form.

Here is my color study, well it's more of a tonal study than a color study, but I did attempt to plan out what colors to use for atmospheric mood. This scan of this study is not very faithful to the actual study, but it doesn't matter, I will be altering the colors. More studies are needed.

A few hours were devoted to developing heavy textures with soft textures, as well as the lights and darks of the "landscape." This is a fun painting to do. I have a vision in my head of what it should be. When I close my eyes, it is as clear as a glass of spring water. When I open my eyes, I am not clear of what I need to do to achieve my vision.

A series of sketches for a concept not developing the way I want it to. I am just not thinking of or feeling a meaningful reason for the three dancers. Maybe I will return to original concept the center woman stood alone.

Works in Progress

I am feverishly sketching and beginning a group of oil paintings in preparation for a August show at the Philadelphia Sketch Club. I will be sharing the downstairs gallery space with my good friend Steve Iwanczuk.

(Above) The left sketch has freehand drawn (made up) hands and arms. The right sketch was completed after two models assisted me (thank you, Valerie and Deanne) in understanding what the human anatomy can't do. Before I transfer to my recently prepped linens, I think I will complete a third sketch combining certain details of the two sketches.

The first of possibly many layers of paint.

Homemade ink!

I received this jar of homemade ink from a great friend,
Chris "Patch".

He made it from the walnuts that fell off the walnut trees in his neighborhood, Chestnut Hill, PA.
Check out his blog posting on how he made the ink at:
http://artbypatch.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/dont-drink-the-ink/


You know it's good stuff, if it has mold growing in it!
(Footnote: I really don't know if mold makes for superior ink.)

My first attempt drawing with the ink. I attempted a loose drawing with bold washes. I achieved some unique effects, but I got too aggressive with the amount of ink I laid down and it got to be a little too unpredictable how dark the wash would dry. So I abandoned the drawing.

I had better luck with my second drawing. Worked much slower. Used a more controlled application and embraced the attempt to achieve realism. I pulled out my quill pen to achieve the fine lines in the fur.

Lots and Lots of Obama Portraits

I created this portrait of Barack Obama to help me teach

a lesson on Creating Vector Portraits.

(Vector- a computer generated graphic art that can be enlarged or reduced to any size

without losing clarity.)

As with any good illustration, especially when creating vector illustrations, a sketch is required to plan out the shapes of the dark and medium tone. I scan in the sketches and begin to trace the shapes in Illustrator. After a few refinements to the shapes, I can begin to experiment with color and textures. The greatest advantage to computer generated art is how easy it is to make color changes as well as the easy ability to save multiple variations of the same drawing. It gets to be addictive trying to come up with better and better color designs!

While I didn't intend to mimic Shepard Fairey's famous portrait of Barack Obama, it's hard not to see his influential style within my rendition of Obama. His designs, used with silkscreen and stencils with spray paint, works very well with using the vector illustration technique. I always advise students to look at as much good art as possible and try to replicate the look in order to build one's creative skills -- watching out of course for blatant plagiarism!

Clipped!