Study No. 3 and Blatant Paternal Pride

 

Hopefully this is more of a hat trick than a third strike...  This little series of portraits has been good fun.  Had a blast drawing from Hubble images, got to create a bunch of space tech on the fly (which I think was a bit more successful when I only had to deal with a bust as opposed to a half figure) and I also got to do some more art of the family, which always seems to net me good results.   I do wish the lighting was more interesting on the face here, obviously flash lit, but the photo was too cute not to work from.

Also, I've included a shot of the latest collaborative piece that my wife and I have been working on.   This would also explain the delay between postings, as this little guy arrived a bit unexpectedly on the 15th.  Looks like I have another drawing to do...

Space Portraits

Two studies from the past week.  Both in chalk and charcoal on 6x9 toned paper.

The self-portrait actually started out twice as REALLY crummy 5x7 oil studies that will NEVER see the light of day.  I actually told some of my students to stop looking at them the other day as it might make them worse...

Anywho, third time proved to be the charm, and it might also have had something to do with switching over to chalk and charcoal, where I could solely focus on value and form and not get so caught up with the color.  Have had a lot of fun with these two drawings, I've been working in a real fantasy/medieval vibe for a while now and I was really Jonesing to break out of it.  Digging through references for outer space also allowed me to indulge in one of the more rewarding sides of art - actually learning about what you're drawing.  I loved outer space and the universe as a little kid, and it's been all kinds of fun diving back into that material and relearning a lot of the stuff that was taught about the solar system et al back in gradeschool.  And the images, HOLY COW, the images.  How can you not be completely blown away by some of the stuff out there.  Well that's a lot of rambling, at least one more of these little studies is one its way for sometime around Tuesday - probably on Facebook and Drawn Today before here though - so until then...

Of Giants and progression...

A short little post with some WIP shots of my latest painting.  I've been taking the opportunity to work back through some of my thumbnail sketches from right after I got back from the IMC last year.  And this frost giant has been lurking around in my sketchbook just waiting to find a piece of unsuspecting canvas.  There's obviously a long ways to go in the painting above, but I'm really digging the blues in the underpainting so far, I'll have to see how much of that stays, and in turn, see how much it forces me to change in the figures in the foreground. 

The sketches for our three adventurers were pretty straightforward, although I'm sure our neighbors think I'm now truly crazy - I shot everything behind our garage (hey, the light was right...).  And just for kicks - the dwarf up top started out as me snarling with a snow shovel, I'll let your imagination do the work on that one, as I don't think I'll let that reference see the light of day.

 And, here's the origin of our starring giant/titan.  I had been wanting to make a maquette for a while now, and this seemed the perfect opportunity.  They are absolutely fantastic tools for finding value reference, and damn fun to build as well.  I found that my sketches never quite got to what I was looking for in the giant's face, so I figured I would kind of "feel" everything out in the clay.  It worked quite well, but I found that the maquette ended up with a bit of a "slow" feeling in the face, the tight drawing turned out to be a bit of a blend of thumbnail sketch and model.  A good learning experience in all, and I'm really looking forward to getting this one finished up.

Firebrand

 

Firebrand, 28.5 x 22, oil on canvas.

Finished this one up about two weeks back, and have just been waiting to get a good photo of it.  I am now sold on the fact that the family point and shoot is no longer up to the task of shooting my paintings -I could not get the color right on this piece for the life of me.  Here's to Mother-in-laws with photography degrees and excellent equipment (Thanks Char!).  

I don't think I really intended to have the glows go quite so "fiery" but once I got the cads on my brush, I couldn't help myself.

The Guardian

 

 The Guardian, 30 x 24, oil on canvas.

About time this one was finished.  Believe it or not this guy has been lurking in the studio since about last April.  The water, Good Lord, the water.  How it taunted.  Quite a challenge getting all those waves in there, I think it turned out alright, but I'll definitely have to tackle another "maritime" piece for some much needed practice.  I'm sure that there's some dumb-easy trick to painting water that I just glossed over in the alla prima painter's handbook, but man - this was a challenge.  I also suppose this could be considered my first "dragon" painting.  Though I prefer to think of the beasty as an overgrown snapping turtle.  The finished drawing below for some comparison.

During the painting of all that water, I decided that the little silhouetted shaman/priest fellow on the cliff had to go.  I think it works a little better for the composition and storytelling (I like cliches as much as the next guy, but this was definitely a decision that I was more in love with 8 months ago than now), plus it was a complete pain to keep painting around him...

Oh, and I also managed to spell the file name incorrectly - yay, English.

A Delaware Christmas

A Delaware Christmas, 21x30, oil on canvas....And sketches.

This year's Christmas/Holiday Card for the high school.  I will forgo my usual hesitancies with my own artwork and come out and say that I'm really pleased with this painting.  It was some of the most fun and fulfilling work I've spent at the canvas in a while.

War Priest Finished Pencils

Piggy-backing off of the post below...at least I made use of the time between my "free time."  I think I mentioned this before, but I find it's a lot easier to drop in and out of a drawing while teaching than to drop in and out of a painting.  Fairly happy with the skulls in the background, but still need to tweak the values.  Hoping for paint around December.