Composer

just another painting of another face with some crazy hair and costume. I didn't really want to put in the time for the finish work so here it is.

Pilgrimage

I made my first pilgrimage to Walt Disney World last week, that place is unbelievably cool. The Animal Kingdom was so impressive artistically, they do such a great job making cool environments. I was happy to see new visitors when I returned, thanks for all the comments. I haven't had time to work, but here are some newer drawings. I like lost lines. The second is easily identifiable (see The Godfather II, the best movie ever).

Brompton oratory

This is a recent oil painting. It's about 18"x24". I was excited by the idea but once I started into all that architectural detail I changed my mind. But all the work turned out well. I don't think the face is really that red, but I like the composition. The setting is this really great hidden cathedral in London called the Brompton oratory, which is just filled to the brim with gaudy details, I dig gaudy details(unless I am painting them).

Putin

Here is the Russian president Putin painted as practice. A little too red in my opinion. One thing I hate is canvas. It always drives me crazy because I cant control the paint like I would like with all that cloth texture. If it is really a tight weave I can handle it but I always prefer masonite board with a touch of texture from the gesso. I thought it was about time to post an oil painting.

Then a couple drawings the one is not Karr, the Ramsey nutcase. It's actually the guy from "Good night and good luck"(a really lame movie with a lame premise.

Rocket man

I did this a couple of months ago. I think it was my first good color painting. I liked how the colors in the face turned out. I did the light burst just now, I thought it might be fun. He had the hard light on his face so I thought it was probably missing a little light on that side of the picture.

Frustrated

This is one of the drawings from below all painted up a little looser than I would normally. Hopefully it works. Judging by the purple tie I think he may be in the asian mafia, I think they wear purple ties?
Actually I used no color reference for this so I am pleasantly surprised with the outcome. I think sometimes my color is a weakness.

Sketchbook #2

A few more from my sketchbook, my bread and butter. You might notice one drawing is the hobbit on "Lost"(no, I don't watch "Lost", sorry).

My favorite artists

I wanted to get out a list of the great painters of all time along with my previous list of living greats.

Alphonse Mucha, probably my favorite artist ever. He is famous for his graphic work but I think the brilliant stuff is his oil painting which are more difficult to find. See The apotheosis of the Slavs

William Bouguereau, unbelievable figures with perfect realistic skin. If you haven't seen one of these in real life you need to.

Nikolai Fechin, genius drawings you won't believe, probably the best I have ever seen. I don't feel it with his paintings though.

Emile Frient, really beautiful, I love his style and feeling.

Jean Leon Gerome, why is it so hard to find one of the greatest painters ever? See Pollice Verso.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema.

John William Waterhouse.

John William Godward, stunning paintings. Nice figures, cloth, marble, etc.

Ingres, so great.

Sir George Clausen, he must be my favorite style. I am just paralyzed when I see his paintings in a museum(see Day Dreams in Philadelphia).

Logsdale, you must be kidding me. Some of the most complicated intricate work I have ever seen.

Daniel Ridgeway Knight, I love beautiful people in beautiful landscapes. A few look a little too much like a Kinkaid painting(that's a bad thing) but a couple are absolutely brilliant. See one here.

Thomas Dewing, there is a whole building of Dewing in D.C. and a great painting in the national gallery(The painting above).

Lepage.

La Thangue, hard to find.

Frederick Lord Leighton,

Charles Sprague Pearce,hard to find.

Almost missed John Singer Sargent. Brilliant portrait artist. Painted with such simple strokes.

Illustrators:

Maxfield Parrish, no one can paint colors like Parrish, need to be seen in real life. I like his characters but the landscapes are crazy good.

Norman Rockwell.

Don't forget J.C. Leyendecker (or here and here). Stunning complicated whimsical work. Rockwell's favorite(I think) and my own.

Robert McGuiness, good illustrations, great cowboy paintings. Make sure to see the western work especially his landscapes. Oops, I think he's still alive.

N.C. Wyeth.

Dean Cornwell. Another early great illustrator.

no comment

Sketchbook #1

I attribute any art talent I have to my sketchbook. I've spent most of my freetime in my sketchbook for the last 12 years of my life. I look through any magazine I get my hands on, looking for interesting faces and anything I can draw. Mostly I focus on the faces, I think thats the hardest thing to get because everyone has seen so many faces they can identify any problems. Here's a few pages from my current sketchbook.

Great Living Artists

Here is my short list of great living realism artists that I have been able to discover in my extensive searches for beautiful art:

Burton Silverman, Maybe the best living artist oil painter today. Really beautiful spontaneous loose oil painting work and gorgeous charcoal drawings. My wife interned for him, he's very friendly and talkative.

Daniel Adel, Maybe the greatest Illustrator around. Great work including great illustrative whimsical work along with really wonderful photography, oil painting portraits and watercolors. I would consider his work similar to my future goals. Just so proficient in all areas.

Jeremy Lipking, really great oil painter, beautiful moods. Very loose with nice colors, though he is young I like his older work. He actually has a lot of people copying his style these days.

Joe Sorren, I guess he is out of the realism area, but I love his work and original colors. I bought his little red book and love it. I wish I was an originality genius like Joe.

Doug Fryer(and here), Doug was one of my best teachers at BYU, he has moved from illustration to more of an loosely painted landscape specialist but he still does great figures. His landscapes are absolutely brilliant with incredible colors and atmosphere.
His style is close to a similarly impressive Michael Workman.

Lucong, great portraits that are handled with interesting colors and a nice sense of atmosphere. He has done what I've been trying to acomplish with paintings of people that are more then just a portrait because of the way they are handled and their composition.

Donald Jurney, beautiful landscapes and fantastic compositions and colors. Great realistic landscape artist.

Jacob Collins, More nice oil paintings. Maybe a little too technical for me but great figure paintings. I like the colors too, nice skin tones.

Jeffrey Jones, some wild original stuff. I am not usually into fantasy but this is just great work.

Igor Malnikov, I found this guys art in Santa Fe, and thought it was cool. It's got the Russian feeling going for it, very moody but well painted faces.

Michael Grimaldi, I like this guys style. Really interesting paintings with great drawing. It's a little dark, but very talented.

Richard Schmid, an unbelievable painter, up with Silverman's caliber. He has a really simple style that works if you can put every stroke in the perfect spot the first time, I can't. Not a useful website though, but it'll give you the idea. I do highly recommend his book.

Tony Ryder, really bright colors and a precise style that I like. Check out his demos.

William Whitaker, great figure paintings and painting technique, and he's my mentor.

Morgan Wiestling, Not necessarily my style but a good painter. Some are a little sappy, but others are really wonderful, the Christmas Mary and child painting is very nice.

Digital:

Oren Haskins, A new artist I just came across, but absolutely genius with his lines and shapes. I am in love with his loose drawing style. He has represents all of the best parts of another great, Claire Wendling.

Cali Rezo, I think that's the name? I just came across this one recently, she is French and has some cool digital paintings.

Neil Campbell Ross, this guy is really one of the best. Fantastic digital painting work, really loose but it works so well. Make sure to see his environments. I love the change from tight digital work. His blog is a little easier to navigate.

Craig Mullins, I almost hate to admit it because he is a fantasy artists god, but Mullins is a great artist. Beautiful environments and some great figures. The website is a little clumsy in my opinion which makes it hard to skim through.

This isn't comprehensive, but these are the people who have a folder on my computer. A couple of other good references are the Art Renewal Center, the webs best collection of classical realism art. Finally, the Arcadia Gallery in NY, always has nice realism art.
If there are others I haven't found, that you think might fit into this list, please tell me.

Cowboy colored

Here the cowboy is all painted up. I think I went a little overboard on the details it took a long time, but I like the colors

Goat Wrangler

My Radiohead video isn't getting much love, so here is a new post for those faint of heart. I saw some great cartoony stuff and had to prove to myself I could do "cartoony". I liked how this is going. I want to try something new with the painting.
Unfortunately, there may be some sketch lines in my work. I hope that doesn't ruin the magic. I have notice a lot of crazy artists with absolutely no sketchy lines in their work. I don't understand this, I tried my best to hide my original faults, but couldn't get them all. Maybe I need to buy some tracing paper and a pen. I haven't the time for that.

the joys of Cast painting

Despite how a lot of my posts portray me, at heart I am still a traditionalist. I like realism. This is a cast painting under way at home right now. Actually I have grown bored and it's been waiting for a couple of months to be finished. I only have patience for faces ussually. but I think the colors are turning out nice. So there you go.

House in the Woods

One more for the weekend. Here's my first attempt at a enviroment. I am all about the portraits. Faces, hands, bodies. but this was kind of fun. Probably a much needed change.

link

Old

This is the old one. Again my wife, posing as a pirate, since that seems to be the theme this month. I kind of still like it, but not especially. It was the best thing I had done up to that time.

Old Woman

Here is the color version of the old woman painting started below. I think it turned out pretty well. I am really a fan of Painter these days, it's such an easy way to work. Unfortunately, I have no tangible painting to hold when I'm done.
it is a woman though she I contemplated making her a man.
Another painting I like the colors but it never really got finished. Alan Greenspan has about the coolest face in the world.

From the Vault

This blog is a great place to put the artwork that I do that isn't good enough to make it to my webpage. I have a lot of it. This first one is my wife in Texas(thus the lack of anything in the background). I tried it on some old canvas board I had and it was hellish, I usually hate the texture of canvas. I need flat masonite so that I can be in control of everything at all times.
And this is a copy of a Norman Rockwell. He was one of the best artists of the 20th century and a genius, though this painting stole a little from the J.C. Leyendecker style, another genius. It had nice spots of color. I just wanted to get a little practice but it turned out pretty good.

Grandma(Values)

Online Swamp Wading

So I have probably by now logged about 2 billion hours surfing the net in search of good art. I have learned its like finding a diamond in a wheat field. I've found a few and I know there are more out there, but I get so frustrated trying to find them. It takes hours and hours of wading through bad art, worthless galleries and mind-numbing flash animations to look for it. Most days I find nothing but the sickening feeling I get from senseless modern art. Actually I have the same problem in libraries, bookstores, art museums and in art galleries, its not a lack of art, its a lack of good art.
I like the blog setup. Here is a really convenient way to visit a lot of artists quickly, all linked together. I have noticed there is still a lack of traditional skills and an over-abundance of flat design illustration, but we're definitely getting closer.
I plan on posting my comprehensive list of good artists I've found to date soon.

Brand New

Here we go with a little test run. A recent painter painting of a slightly stylized guy for a little portrait painting project. I like the tight illustration from a photo so I don't have to make up too much. This is a first shot in the dark. But there it is.