Children's Portrait

This drawing is another piece that I did a couple of months ago.  It's always a challenge to do more than one face in a piece of art... especially when working in pencil or charcoal or another unforgiving medium.  I was able to work from one photo and with the wonderful benefits of the computer, reposition everyone in a favorable layout while keeping the relative proportions accurate.  From past experience I think I'm making it a requirement to be able to use one photo with all subjects in it if I am not taking the source photos myself, otherwise it's just too tricky to make it work.

I really enjoy pencil work and hope to find the time to do more of it someday... I may even want to try loosening up my hand with it a bit, although that is often easier said than done.  For me, so often a piece of artwork comes out completely different than what I envision.  Of course I guess that is part of the process!

I see beautiful, detailed - yet loose - pencil and charcoal drawings dripping with emotions that draw you in, with such depth - and light - on toned papers... and long to be able to do something like that.  I did buy a book of nice gray paper that I hope to be able to try out - but first I need some appropriate subject inspiration fitting for such to strike and lately I'm just not having any of that.  For now I'll just go in to the studio every so often and rub the paper between my fingers - it really has a nice weight.. and I guess I have a bit of a paper fetish as that is probably fed by my graphic design work as well.  Although these days I never get to use any of those wonderfully textured premium papers that fill all the swatch books for the printed projects as most jobs tend to go to short run digital printing - which of course doesn't justify buying a pallet of parent sheet designer paper!

First Painting of a Car in quite awhile!

So i went out of my comfort zone on the background on this one!  This is a good example of how I had what I thought was a crystal clear picture and plan of how I wanted the painting to turn out when I started.... and then it turned into something completely different!

 I originally planned to have the dark car on a background of lime greens/blacks - choppy palate knife style brushstrokes that I like to do.   But after getting the car mostly blocked in and detailed, I realized it just wasn't going to work that way.  So I was thinking what would work with some of the highlight colors I had already placed in the reflections of the car body and a sunset seemed to pop into my mind.  Landscapes aren't typically my cup of tea, so I was nervous to try it but after lots of work in the end, it turned out ok I think! 

I must say painting a black car is not very easy at all!  Well painting any car is quite a challenge.. but the black seems to be more difficult than other colors... especially when creating a completely different background than any of your reference photos as the reflections where photos are taken are such a major part of how the car appears.

I also was able to find a great deal on those extra thick canvases which I think are really cool.  They add more dimension to the painting giving extra impact when hanging on the wall... or even allowing for the finished work to be set on a shelf! 

A return to sharing some art... maybe!

Well despite my best intentions.. I haven't posted anything in almost a year!  Can't believe it - well yes I can, Life has been busy and that is a good thing.

I don't know where to start really so I will start with some portraits commissions I did.  I haven't had any time to be in the studio working on any personal things lately.  I have lots of ideas though and hopefully will have some new pieces - or at least one - done within a month. In fact just tonight - with another sleepless night I went in and started throwing around some paint.  Nothing serious just getting back in the groove.

These portraits are 8x10 pencil drawings.  I do always enjoy portraits even though they can be challenging and stressful but I was happy with the way these turned out.