Diner Scene

I'm using only graphite for this piece, which I may or may not enter in a competition later on, but I haven't decided if I will use some ink in it or not.  Once I'm further along I'll make that decision.  It's really early on in the process, but I wanted to post it for you guys to comment.

Charcoal Lizard

Here's a little side project in its early stages. Eventually I WILL finish it (ha, as if). This is in charcoal, and I've barely started, as you can see, but I felt bad, seeing as I haven't posted in a while and thought I should put something up.  I've just been outrageously busy as of late, but hopefully I'll have some spare time to post some art this week:)

Candy Thief

Finally, I have finished it.  I didn't think it would take this long (and it wasn't supposed to) but I was busy with other projects and...well...gah, that's just how it is ;) I'm very pleased with how this painting came out, but there are still a few things I might work on a bit later.

Enjoy!:)

Skulls and Such

First off, I want to point out that I believe time is conspiring against me. Since starting this blog my life has become infinitely more busy, which, don't get me wrong, is a good thing because when I have very little to do I rarely have the urge to get anything done, but where have all the national holidays gone...(we could use a few more, thanx)

Anyway, this illustration is in ink and charcoal, and according to someone I know (you know who you are) could be my ticket to the high-life via bike week t-shirt sales.  It's not that I planned it out that way, and I typically avoid skulls like the plague, but recently started taking notice of a very popular gallery artist who makes his entire living off of skull paintings.  As if trying to find my own artistic calling, so to speak, wasn't difficult enough, I might change direction and start intentionally throwing massive globs of cliché at the canvas.

Now, for people who might take offense because they love skulls and studs and rhinestones...don't be silly, for I too love all of these things (minus the rhinestones).  I just find the idea of painting one thing a million times in different color schemes a bit redundant (a bit?...I mean VERY).  Would you choose to bake the same cake over and over again just with different types of sprinkles? At some point the practice gained wouldn't matter, and all growth as a baker would come to a screeching halt.  Well, anyway, you get my point...hehehe

So here's the illustration, which I do actually like.  The first few images are after I finished the basic outline, then they progress to the finished piece.  I suppose it's a skull in some type of space-age helmet. I want to avoid going too deep here with the meaning, though it does have one. Someone care to interpret it in their own way? Comment below:))

Weird Bat

This bat illustration is a work in progress, but mainly I wanted to try out something different.

Fantasy Girls, Guns and Bubbles

Me thinks I've been entertaining myself too much with doodles, just playing here and there with colors that really don't go together. This illustration with pen and ink is...well...I guess you'll just have to see for yourself. Not sure if there are that many words to describe it.  Like I said, it's possible that I've completely lost it or maybe need to go blow some bubbles or something.  On a side note...I do like blowing bubbles out of hotel windows just to make the people below look up in wonder :))) Warning: do not try that at home; people will think you are crazy.

Ibex Illustration

I guess I'm just really getting into this style....finally.  Sometimes I think that I have no idea what direction I want to go in, but with everything starting to move at least in some direction, I'll just be going with the flow for a while.  Soooo, being the animal-loving geek that I am, I saw a few of these guys on the tube, scaling the highest precipice and attempting to fling one another from the edge...I am talking about the ibexes (that's getting a bit wordy now).  They kind of, no directly, inspired me to do this painting, because for whatever reason I might have a slight obsession with horned beasts.  So here it is, in watercolor and ink.  Enjoy.

Illustration - Ibex in Watercolor and Ink

My newest illustration
;)

Sketch Book

So, I JUST NOW put up a new page that will have all of the work I do in between paintings and serious artwork called "Sketchbook."  The page has sketches, doodles and things that I fancy to draw.  I'll show you some of what's over there now.

I just added my link

Gallery Today is a great way for artists to promote their artwork.  I just added my link, so here is theirs.

http://www.gallerytoday.com

Go check it out!

Little Bird Painting

Ok, so I have a song bird painting in the works.  I started it way earlier this day, and will post the finished product tomorrow.  The bird is surely going to be yellow; very bright yellow, in hopes that it will jump off the canvas, visually speaking.  Below are the first few steps I took, before becoming too tired and irritated, simultaneously, and making the wise decision to stop; that is before something undesirable happened.  You will understand my frustrations later, when I show the world the mess I made with one of the branches in this painting. .....erg

Pretty creepy snake

So, this blog has turned into all things art.  This piece is actually in acrylic, not ink, but I might just put it in the ink section anyway. I know, that would be against the law of the universe, but -shrugs-

Anyway, here it is. Hope all of my little creeps like it:)

"Lady of Scales"

9"x12"

Original acrylic on acrylic paper

NEW BLOG?????

Ok, so I've been thinking about this for a while. I thought that I would have a secondary blog!!!..but maybe not. I did set up a new one, and if you checked it out, great, but I like the original blog I started, and I'm just going to transfer everything from the second blog to the new pages I'm creating over here:)

Practically everything will be for sell in this blog!!! Just check out the pages, and if it's not, well just send me a request.

Thanx!

So here is an pen and ink piece I did, that is up for sell now.  Only $9, woot!

"Ribbons and Blood"

Ink on watercolor paper

9"x12"

Acrylic on Hardboard

I went into Lowe's the other day and picked up one 4'x8' piece of hardboard, although that's not exactly what it was called (finberboard, pressed board??).  I had them cut it at the store into 4 pieces, and brought it home, only cost about $9.  I gessoed the one board, two coats, and it didn't take much because of how smooth the surface already is.  I then used my sanding block to smooth out the edges.  

Painting on this size board can be somewhat tricky until you get the hang of it.  I used a spray bottle to keep the surface wet where I was blending, and I also do a very solid underpainting first, with all of the colors, because I find the need to make the color blending perfect, and that, for me, requires two layers of paint.

So this painting came out really well, and I'll show you some of the process.

This is after I had finished up the basic part of the tentacles.  The little plate is what I use to mix my paint on.  The main jellyfish (the round white part) was painted white first, to ensure that the colors maintained their brightness.  Below is the final painting:)

"Compass Jellyfish"

Acrylic on Canvas

2'x4'

Landscape painting

I worked on a dog painting recently, but decided to wait a bit before working on it anymore, and will show you guys the process of it once I finish:) Today I both started and finished a new piece that I am actually very pleased with.  I hope to hear what anyone thinks, and would like some solid critiques.

This first picture was taken after I had completed a simple outline of what I was painting.  I wanted to make sure not to paint blue beneath the trees, because I wanted them to retain all of their color.

This is the painting order that I used, as you can see that most of the background was in place BEFORE painting the trees.  Unfortunately, I completely forgot to put in the darkest part of the background, and stopped mid-tree to finish it.  

Here is the final product, plus a closeup of the tree on the right.  The snow texture on the branches was made with a painting spatula.

"Fresh Snow"

Acrylic on Canvas

16"x20"

Now, for some exciting news.  I will be setting up a secondary blog for selling my art only.  Hopefully, it will be up before the new year.  You should be able to find all of my works that are for sell, and purchase them there.  

Acrylic cows....again and more please

So now that I have a found a more decent way to take photos of my work, I would like to share how I achieved the results I did (photographing).  Here are a few pointers: First off, I find that natural light is the best, and will achieve the truest colors possible.  I opened my blinds and have the paintings leaning against something, facing the window.  You definitely don't want it in direct sunlight!  Now, I also noticed that if you get the camera too close, and use the flash, you're going to get a terrible glare right in the middle.  The key thing is to get the photo as close to the original colors as possible which might mean changing the brightness, contrast, or saturation just a bit afterwards.

The following 2 paintings were completed within a few days of each other, and on both I used just one brush.  I had found a very interesting article that contained tips from professional painters that said it could be a good idea to use one brush in order to get to know exactly what can and can't be done with it.  It's also easy to start developing different styles when you're limited in the tools you're using.

"A Red Cow Gathering"

Acrylic on canvas

11"x14"

 "A Red Cow Gathering" was completed using a dabbing effect throughout.  I changed the ground about 5 times because I couldn't seem to get the perspective right; to make it look like it was one, continuing under the fence, or two, receding into the background.  Eventually I worked it out:)

"A Cool Sip"

Acrylic on canvas

11"x14"

Later today I'm going to talk about my experience with painting fur, and show you one of the first dogs I've ever painted!  I'll also show some of my painting processes, like the early stages of the painting:)

See you soon!

Cow and other things.

Hi, everyone.

As I make new discoveries in painting I will be showing them to you, but at the moment I have a month's worth of paintings to show you guys.  Sometimes I find it difficult to decide what to paint, and this requires me to spend a bit of time finding inspiration.  Last month (november) I got lured into painting a few cows.  I have to say I wasn't so keen on the idea at first, but then I found some brahma pics, and I ended up loving the elegant face shape and hanging ears they have.

So here is what came of this.

"Red field, White cow"

Acrylic on canvas board

9"x12"

On a side note, I found a very amazing art blog, that some of you may or may not be familiar with.
http://williamwray.blogspot.com/ << This guy's art is wonderfully colorful, and has a unique quality.  Go check it out, I'm sure you'll find it quite amazing:)

Tomorrow morning, err later this morning, I will be posting two MORE cow paintings.  Bye for now...

Acrylic Adventure

While I catch up on showing you my newest paintings, I've been trying to improve on my color mixing skills.  A painting can be completely abstract or even downright ugly, but if the colors work together, and they are captured correctly, it will catch your eye.  I used to be so focused on the technical aspect of painting, like brush strokes, and glazing, but I could never capture a scene or photo the way I wanted.  Turns out that I needed to learn how to truly understand color.  I had been missing the big picture, no pun intended, on how colors work together in a composition, from reflections, and lighting, to knowing that shadows are definitely not just black.

This acrylic painting is of a brightly colored little street, that seems to have seen quite a bit, completed about a month ago.

"Yellow City"

Acrylic on Canvas

11"x14"

Starting a few days ago?

I've decided to start this blog to show my progress as a painter, and also as an artist in general.  I hope to put up some new art every day, get better at this blogging business, and show some of my travels along the way.  I'd love to get some feedback and meet some like minded, or not so like, artists.


This is the first painting I completed upon deciding to paint full time.  It's painted directly from a photo, as are many of my initial paintings, for learning purposes.  I'm mostly a charcoal/ pencil, and ink artist, and somehow find painting, other than some easy stuff, to be quite alien.  This took me about an hour.

"Beached"

Acrylic on canvas

9"x12"