Saturday, February 19, 2005

Mountains of Fall

Now this took much longer to post than I had intended (or more precisely, I really have not worked on this in like forever). The progressing is coming along nicely, I just need to set some time aside to paint. I tried something a bit different and went right to work with the Unison pastels instead of the Rembrants. It turned out okay, but it just mearns that I will be using more workable-fix on the backend (which this piece desperately needs, if it ever is not raining and below freezing on the same day).

I really like how the deep purples folding into shadows, just the way I was hoping. I think with more details, this could turn out to be a very strong piece. Let's just keep our fingers crossed.

Mountains of Fall
16x20, charcoal on Canson Mi-Teintes board Posted by Hello

Mountains of Fall (detail)
16x20, charcoal on Canson Mi-Teintes board Posted by Hello

Saturday, February 05, 2005

Painitings of Snow

It would seem that paintings about snow are one of my favorite subjects. Just one of those funny observations that you make when you finally begin to catelogue the work you have done over the years.

I probably should have posted these a few weeks ago, it would have been more appropriate after the foot and half of snow that we received. And as should be evident from their style, these are older paintings done in the mid-nineties before I really knew anything about pastels and how to work them. I had no idea aobut uses workable fix to add depth. Nor did I know about the more expensive pastels. I was in grad school at the time and the $35 purchase for a set of landscape pastels was a luxury expense
($35 = 7 meals at Taco Bell). Glad I bought them. It is sometimes good to go back and look at the older stuff, it certainly gives me perspective.

Wintry Twilight
9x12, pastel on paper Posted by Hello

Ice Mountain
9x12, pastel on paper Posted by Hello

Friday, January 14, 2005

Goddess

Been posting mostly grey and black and white pictures of late, so I wanted to show something with more color. This is one of those paintings that I like a lot, but am not so pleased with the name. Really had no idea what else to call it. I should track the original down and take a digital picture so that I can show the beach that she is standing on (why is all art pads 9x12 and all scanners 8.5x11?).

Goddess of Rebirth
9x12, pastel on paper Posted by Hello

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

More Fun with Markers

For those of you who liked the horses in the markers (that simulated wash), here are some more. A much different subject matter and one closer to what I wish I could do when I grow up. Hrrrumph, I want to be a comic book artist!!!

The Battle
9x12, markers on Bristol paper Posted by Hello

The Killing Blow
9x12, markers on Bristol paper Posted by Hello

The Leap
9x12, markers on Bristol paper Posted by Hello

Thursday, January 06, 2005

More Japanese Style Art

I love Japanese Art and although I have done some work inspired by Japan (and some out right swipes), I do not think that it has really influenced my style all that much. In college, I had a friend, Johnie C, who could create manga-esque illustrations that would make Shirow Masamune proud but I never really wanted to draw like that. Sure I thought it was cool as hell, but for what ever reason, it was not a style that I tried to imitate.

This picture was originally supposed to done completely in colored-pencisl and have a pagoda in the background. Several failed attempts to draw a realistic looking pagoda (that was in perspective) convinced me to try something. . .simpler. After much deliberation, I went with the pastel background you see now. Part of me wishes that I stuck with original design and part of me likes this result.

Geisha 2
9x12, colored pencil with pen and ink and pastel on bristol Posted by Hello

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

New Year. . .Old Art

I had hoped to post some new art work this week, but alas, the holiday break was not as productive as would have hoped. I blame it on the good books that I received and all those college Bowl Games. Don't fret, I have not forgotten about my latest pastel painting and I actually did do quite a bit of work on it. Just not enough to post. But soon.

This finishes up the rest of my commercial art work (unless I find another vault of forgotten art, which is always possible). This is my first and only foray into furniture illustration, pretty satisfying, but not my cup of tea. But it does demonstrate to some (and you know who you are) that I can draw more than landscapes and women who can kick my ass. So there :P

The illustration started with a light pencil sketch followed up by wash (I used a sumi stick and not dilute ink). When it dried, then the pen and ink details were added. I really really like this combination of techniques and this just goes to show how much more versatile I was back when I was a teen-ager. The technique for the add is exactly the same as the fashion figure (I have the original lettering, but I am sure everyone is bored with those large sans serif letters). This one was never wrapped in ascetate and got pretty beat up, sorry about the glue showing through.

About ten years ago I had the opportunity to have this illustration shot on film by a rather large and expensive machine. I love the negative plate, it is so cool.

Hopefully, I get back to painting. So look for more paintings of landscapes. . .and. . .uh, pictures of. . .well, you get the idea.




Furniture Illustration
1ox15, wash with pen and ink on board Posted by Hello

The negative plate for the funiture illustration. Posted by Hello

Furniture Ad Posted by Hello

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

More Commercial Art Projects

This holiday season has not been the super productive time that I had hoped. But then again, this is my vacation and other things need to get done.

I thought that I would post some more commercial art projects. This was the final project of the year and would actually be put together at the beginning of the second year class (which I did not take). Therefore I never finished this project which is a shame. I had seen what the final project looked liked from other students, and it is much cooler than these pieces would indicate.

So, the concept: make an abstract cover that was suggestive of sea shells by using free-hand line work to form the illusion of peaks and valleys. This was actually much tougher than it looks. It took me a long time to get the hang of giving these lines depth and if it was not for the help of another student in class, I might never have finished (I heard through the grapevine that the student who helped me has gone on to a very productive career in art, and even worked on the first Shrek movie).

Sea Shell Pamphlet cover 18x24 Posted by Hello