Winter

Finally, an oil painting. And a landscape at that. This is a horrible digital image that I will fix eventually, but for now this is what I have.

figure #17

A figure drawing, offered without comment.

The ONE

I did this one special for my sister.
Visit her blog, she is an extremely talented artist but isn't sure she wants to pursue it. At only 17 she's great and will only get better, I like the cupid drawing. I am sure she would love to hear your comments.
I tried to think of some symbol for the scarf thing but couldn't think of anything, what would represent the state? Any other ideas?

Obligatory Thom York drawing

One right of passage of every young artist is a crazy drawing/painting/installation of Thom York the singer of Radiohead. His music is just too inspiring, and his face to interesting to pass up. Here's a nice one by Jason Seiler.

If you want a challenge with your drawings, try human faces that are upside down or at an odd angle. It forces you to measure and makes it hard to use some of the crutches that you may have unknowingly developed. There are also subtle distortions that I notice consistently reappearing in my drawings. I've always wondered if that had some relation to the dimensions of my face. Maybe you've heard the Leonardo/Mona Lisa speculation. I've learned a periodic return to more precise measuring helps me recognize these flaws and adjust accordingly.

Just a study

Haven't done much digital painting lately, here is a simple study of a great picture I found in a fascinating documentary about Kurt Gerron.

Little girl

I posted this painting mostly finished a little while back. Well, I've finished it Heres a decent upclose look at the face, thought I've never really had a good digital image thate show the brush strokes very well. At least you can see some of the strong reds that were pushed in the face and I like the ear.

poser

Heres a recent portrait, this model had an interesting face with slightly extreme features as per Sam Nielson's nice painting.

figure drawing 10

I did this figure drawing a couple of weeks ago, it was a bit of an awkward pose and I made the neck too long (luckily it was rescued thanks to Photoshop).
I would love to spend more time on figure drawings, it's like a great constant challenge. The paradox is that the better you get at it, the better your eye for detail will get thus revealing more problems. Just like chasing a carrot on a stick.

Happy July 4th

To celebrate Independence day, here is a portrait of our greatest(and most attractive) president.

This was done for the "Meet the Robinsons" video game. It had a nice half second cameo. One difficulty was the long horizontal format that I needed to fit the tall vertical Lincoln into, I ended up shrinking the hat.

House

My wife is addicted to House(get it?)

sketchbook #24

Finally, a little bit of quality alone time with the sketchbook.

I enjoy just drawing the face maybe slightly caricatured but mostly realistic then push the shape of the head for a more graphic look, sometimes it works.

figure drawing 8?

A new offering from Friday figure drawing. I think this one turned out well. The anatomy is accurate and linework works well (though it really doesn't show up well here). One of my big struggles is keeping a loose natural feeling to the pose, I think this one works. I only wish I had more time to work on it.

Hillary in full HD color

When Hillary posed for this painting, I was somehow unconvinced by her smile. I'm not sure she was actually happy.

She didn't really pose but this is the full color version. I think I got a lot closer to the likeness. I wasn't happy with the original, she isn't easy because she doesn't have really distinguishing features. I like the painting style it is more sculpted, and I picked the flat coloring on the face purposely to look like a flash photo.

Study

I've started into a pretty ambitious new oil painting it is large with a lot of background (both aren't my usual cup of tea). This is a study for the work, I'm not sure if he is creepy enough though.

It will be a very large painting but it has an appealing composition so hopefully I will have the willpower to see me through to completion.

archives

I did this figure drawing a couple of years back but have always liked it. Those were the blissful days of figure drawing 4 times a week. Now I am just trying to keep my head above water when it comes to figure drawings, though I've been a little more optimistic lately.

Old timer

I digital painting based on an 19th century photograph I came across. It was a sepia photo so I had to make up the colors which is difficult for skin tones.

Ugolino and his sons

I was in the great city New York recently and had time to sit and draw at the MET. Of course I went directly to my favorite statue: "Ugolino and his sons" by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. So for about 2 hours I sat in a conspicuous corner and tried to best my last try at this subject.

In this drawing you can get a good idea of my process, moving up from the bottom you can see I block in the most general shapes and then get more and more detailed shapes, next I begin to work in the shading and finally tighten edges.

Also, if you have any way to get to NY in the next 2 months, there is an absolutely brilliant J.C. Leyendecker show up at the Society of Illustrators with some of the most jaw-dropping work I have ever seen.

Conte drawing

A charcoal drawing out of my sketchbook. Even though I use the same type of hard charcoal as my figure drawings I have a lot more control in my sketchbook (it seems). It is Conte which is hard difficult to use because it doesn't erase easily. But I have been able to get good tight flowing lines by using the side of the stick, see the hair.

the Poet

This is my take on a poet.
Sorry for the break, took a little trip and saw the beautiful city of Prague and the Bavarian region of Germany. So now I am back and inspired, especially by the Alphonse Mucha work I saw. Mucha is in my opinion the greatest artist of all time, his posters are great but you must see his oil paintings and especially his Slav epic (be sure to visit this link though the images are mediocre) to know what I mean.

in other news, check out the updated clean edges on my previous Sweeney Todd post, thanks Shawn.

River

My latest, oil on board 18"x24". Based on a previous painting, this one has much a stronger drawing(I only realized right now as I look back at the post). I like the nontraditional composition, slightly graphic. It sits against the wall in my studio for a month or two now and I still like it, whenever I don't hate it after a couple of hours that is a good thing. My wife still has issues with it and I plan on some light changes but it's basically there.

after Fechin

This is a Nicolai Fechin (1881-1951) copy done in charcoal about a year ago. There are some proportion problems but I am pleased with the linework and the drawing as a whole, especially when looked at independent of it's source.

Royalty

A painting I found in a dark hallway of a rich Bavarian castle. Actually I just painted it and added the frame digitally. I want to print out one of these digital paintings on canvas and frame it nicely some day, some day.

Profile

Green

I am going green!(but only in the background of certain paintings)
I painted this a couple years ago and really kind of like it. It's my wife again but this one had a more quickly painted, in a more simple style. The background turned out well because of it's contrasting color and the looseness, in my opinion. I really liked the background behind her but it got a little mushy looking in the front. Truth is, loose painting is very much harder then tight. Oil on board 11"x14"

figure drawing 7?

So only Ken was kind enough to feign interest in my previous post so here is a figure drawing that may or may not draw more attention.
I am always curious to know whether people come primarily for the traditional style or the caricatures and whether the caricature posts drives traditional people away and vice a versa. Maybe I need to create a pseudonym and post art under that name to gauge the popularity then I will organize a street fight pitting the traditionalists against the cartoonists, to the death.

Norman Rockwell

I just returned from the east coast, seeing a lot of great art that is much more accessible then out here in the west. I found a couple beautiful Norman Rockwell paintings, it's sad that its still rare to find these treasures done by the golden age illustrators. I visited a couple of modern art galleries where collectively the work didn't equal a single good Rockwell in my eyes.
I found this fantastic photo of Rockwell painting the hard part was stopping. I like the graphic shape/composition of the unfinished piece. I am also trying to push my values and shading, I used to do fully shaded drawings always but have lost the patience for it more recently.

Sweeney Todd

A new digital painting I really like. I painted it with the dull green background and kept all of his values very muted then thought of the blood in the background idea, which I think works extremely well to punch it with the contrast. Sometimes my digital paintings are done on the fly, on a whim, this one was a little more planned out and I think that helped. Also, initially I wanted a solid graphic shape for the hair similar to Sebastian's Tim Burton painting that was so effective. But once I got into it I couldn't stop, I really enjoy painting hair.
I'm having this agrivating problem with the blood and the red name turning fuzzy when I publish it. The jpg is sharp, sorry. Anyway, hope you like it.

Brandywine

This is a newer painting. A lot of glare is showing up in this picture but you get the idea. I wanted a warm face to contrast with a very cool background. I also was trying to get a loose style in the background to compliment the more finished face.
This is oil on board 12"x24".

Figure drawing

A newer figure drawing done at work.

Birthday surprise

A new painting done from an old concept that I could never get the colors that I wanted. I did the drawing a few months back and tried 2-3 times to paint it up but kept getting stuck with bad colors. I've decided it may have come subconsciously from the Godfather part II, doesn't it look like Hyman Roth? Remember that whole scene cutting the cake in Cuba?