Winter Treat

I always hear about deer eating peoples' gardens, but stealing the nose from frosty? C'mon, that is just plain wrong.

This marks the first time that I used Schmincke pastels. Can you say, "like buddah?"

Winter Treat
9x12, pastel on paper 

After the Dance
12x16, pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes
 

Caught in the Moment

More an experiment than anything else, and, unfortunately, an experiment with more failures than successes. I am told that most people find the girl to be rather ugly. And some have mistaken the identity of the subject (she is from the cover of a catalogue). What I do like is the details in her hair and eyes achieved by layering with workable fix.

Caught in the Moment
12x16, pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes 

And now, back to paintings

The original reason for this blog was to post my pastel paintings, but then I realized that I had a lot of other pictures that I wanted a place for as well. It has been fun going through my personal archives and finding some older and sometimes forgotten work (I have a pencil sketch from when I was 13 that I absolutely must post). But now it is time to go back to some of my pastels.

"Cowboy Take Me Away" resulted from my desire to play with softer pastels, like Sennlier. So, I broke down and spent the money (they ain't cheap like me) and bought a set.

Wow!

To think I missed out on using these for so many years. What a difference. I have since bought several sets of really expensive Unison and Schmicke. And they have been worth every penny. What a joy to use these soft as butter pastels over my trusty Rembrant.

Cowboy Take me Away
9x12, pastel on paper 

Body Builder (Unfinished)

Continuing with a trend, here is another sketch of a body builder (I think it may be Dorian Yates). Looking at this and all the cross-hatching, I can cleary see the influence of Frank Miller's Ronin on my earlier work. I have many old sketch books and pads filled with drawings of figures. Some detailed and some rough. I think that it was my interest in figure drawing, my interest in figuring out how all the muscle worked and were shaped that lead to my interest in physiology. Even as a small child I was thinking about Structure and Function.

Body Builder (unfinished)
11x14, pencil on paper 

More Markers

More fun with markers, this time Prismacolors. A triptych of bodybuilders was supposed to be the theme, but I never really finished "The Pose". Just another case of indecision as to what I wanted for the background, or probably more accurately, a case of me not wanting to draw a background.

The Thought
9x12, Prismacolor markers on bristol 

Contemplations of Power
9x12, Prismacolor markers on bristol 

The Pose
9x12, Prismacolor markers on bristol