Me as Everything (pt.1)

Spiral



Lion


The Machine Spirit

A while back, I figured I'd try something different from regular self-portraits and start incorporating other elements into them. So the result is these weird amalgamations of me and various other things. They're kind of creepy.

The Machine Spirit & Lion are both 9x12" ink and watercolor paintings on Arches cold-pressed watercolor paper. The nautilus one is an 8x10" on an Arches hot-pressed board. Can't remember what all colors I used, usually it's a mix of Maimeri and Winsor & Newton. Mostly burnt sienna, cobalt blue, sepia, and thio violet.

I can't say enough good things about the Arches boards, they're the same great paper but mounted on an archival board that doesn't warp when wet, so it's more convenient than plain paper albeit more expensive per sheet.

Another one for 2012

This one was a request from a buddy's sister. The actual color of the drawing is more like the sepia one but I put it in grayscale when I scanned it also, since it looks nice that way too.

8x10", strathmore 400 drawing paper. Same HB and 3B pencil as well as a B pencil for VARIETY.

Hey, I finally figured out how to draw blonde people! Now there's a milestone.

2012 productivity!

Super detailed realism takes too long. I wanted to finish out the family series of some of my relatives, so I adopted an old-school style of pencil drawing akin to what you'd see artists in the 40s and 50s and I'm pretty happy with it. I still gravitate more towards the detailed rather than the sketchy style, I guess it's just personal habit.

Here's a couple. They only took 2-3 hours apiece and are 8x10" on Strathmore 400 drawing paper. Done almost entirely with an HB leadholder pencil and a 3B regular pencil for the dark parts.

These two kids are siblings. There is one more in the family I need to draw, then the set will be finished.

Eric

This was a project I did as a surprise for one of my buddies while he was off at basic training this summer for the National Guard. I hadn't finished a detailed graphite drawing in over a year and I wanted to see if I still had what it took.



Yep.

11x14", Stonehenge paper, graphite. I have no idea how long I worked on this, other than it was longer than strictly necessary. There is some sheen present in the photo.


Here he is replicating the pose in my cap.
(You can see one of my old self-portraits in the mirror!)

Squirrel Demonstration

Did this one a while back, figured it would be good to post it here.

I stuck my camera on a microphone stand and recorded myself painting a squirrel in watercolor and condensed it down from about 3 or 4 hours to 11 minutes, which is still a good bit. About half a dozen colors were used: Payne's grey, sepia, Vandyke brown, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, and cobalt blue. Probably a few others.

This is 8x10" on Arches HP watercolor board.


Watch the video on YouTube

Nature journal

Ah, it's been almost a year since I updated this poor blog. Let's make this one a good one! I've done a lot of things in the past few months, mostly watercolor paintings since I can do those a bit quicker than drawings.

A while back, I found a cool watercolor sketchbook at Hobby Lobby for around $8... quite a deal, considering it claims to be handmade in India, 100% cotton, and archival. I can dig that.

Naturally, it sat around the house months until I actually picked it up and decided to do something with it.

I figured that the landscape orientation would work well for nature subjects, so I've been painting local birds that I see around the house. Usually I can snap a few shots of them with my camera while they're at the bird feeder but some of the common ones I could probably paint from memory.
All of these are probably a bit more work than simple sketches... more like small paintings, depending on how much time I spend on them.

This fellow is a tufted titmouse. It's painted with Payne's grey, burnt sienna, cobalt blue, and cadmium yellow, as well as black ink.

This is a nice female cardinal at the feeder. She's not quite as vibrant red as the male, but has a wider range of colors overall. I don't remember what colors I used for her, exactly, but a good bit of mixing was involved.

This is a proud, male cardinal! He was perched on top of the feeder and I've snapped many photos of him and his lady over the past few weeks. He's painted with cadmium red, burnt sienna, viridian, cobalt blue, and some black ink.

This is a juvenile brown-headed cowbird. This was the first one I did. I drew in the outline of the bird with an inkpen and painted over it... this one has more of an illustrative look to it.

Summer/Spring Stuff pt. 1

Haven't posted much in a while.

I moved all the writing, recipes, and music related stuff to another blog. This one is now designated purely as an art blog. This makes it easier to keep both things organized and is easier to read.

The Beta Position

So, without further ado, here is some art!

German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. He came out rather well, I think.

The clothes and hat are done with General's Primo Euro-Blend charcoal sticks and pencils, and the skin is drawn with Wolff's carbon pencils. I use them similar to how I would a graphite pencil - gentle, slow circles to make the skin texture and tone. It's pretty easy; easier than I expected considering that I've never really used them much before.

He's the first in a multi-part series consisting of Rommel, Patton, Montgomery, Omar Bradley, and others (to be determined).

Self portraits rock. I love doing self portraits.

This is 8x8" in graphite and took between 16-22 hours... which makes me lightning fast compared to many artists! (Albeit not as reliable as far as actually FINISHING things!)

I like Tombow pencils. They're fantastic as far as pencils go, really smooth. Not as black as General's, but SMOOTH. Another example of great Japanese quality! Staedler's another good brand I wish I had more pencils of. Along with super nice knives, Germany produces some of the finest art implements I've ever had the pleasure of using.

Ah. As of this posting, I have 3 day left to do an 11x14" drawing for a wedding... better get at it!