Seasonal fruit

Lately I have been drawing anatomical studies and painting small portraits of fruit. These were completed a few weeks ago so the seasons changed. I kind of like that actually.

science is the art of life

Lately I have been creating more work in a decidedly scientific fashion. I always loved the drawings of the "Old Masters" with an espcial appreciation for anatomy. But straight up scientific rendering can get boring. So I figured it was time to start the (almost) scientific art I wanted to see. I am doing this not so much for learning or teaching, but because its (hopefully) accurate with a (hopfully) nice design. And since I love chiaroscuro, I incorporated that too.

Pencil on Drawing Paper



Oil on Panel

Something I'm working on. Not sure when to call it done.

I figured I would mix it up a little bit this post. I've been working digitally lately but I always think traditional skills are best.

First up, some sketches of Antarctic explorers. I was trying to get reference for the clothing worn by early 1900's explorers, and was surprized to see so many one-zies. I thought they would look funny with bear ears.

And then there were nudes. These were sketched from a book of old photography from Paris.

And then a digital sketch. A still life from DeviantArt I reenvisioned from a photo. Nothing serious, but a great way to practice. I think this took about an hour.

Past and Present II

Oil on Canvas 9x12

Akane got me new boots for Christmas and I had paint the old and the new again. I did this one other time and I think it's a great way to show the passage of time. Now I also think this could make a nice advertisement illustration. I wonder what "Doc Martens" would think.

After some good feedback from artists at NYCC I decided to paint this using some characters from the "Warhammer online" game. High Elf vs. Dark Elf during dusk/dawn (depends if you're an optimist).

Elven Dual - oil on canvas 15.5x12.5

For some reason I really like Dwarves. I also like Vikings and they go together well.

Graphite 8.5x11

A new Warhammer fan art sketch. I would like to work for these guys, so I should add something to the portfolio specifically for them.

Graphite on Tracing paper 11x14

Two in one week, both paintings and blog posts.

A green dragon to go with the red dragon, and to practice green. I think it shows that I understood the leaves more than the dragon. I guess that means I need to invest in a good dragon statue :)

I'm not sure if I like the beak design or not. The shape is something I do often, but usually with the idea of teeth and scales down the snout. I do like the "grape vine" horns. I need to explore that more.

"Vernal Dragon" 5x7 oil on paper on panel

After 4 months, I finally am able to do personal work. I came up with this dragon design out of frustration while sketching some red cloth. Red is a difficult color to master for me so I set out to paint a red dragon as practice (and I thought it would look good on a t-shirt). Since this is supposed to be practice (and a small t-shirt design) I painted this at 5x7", and brought it here at full size.

I also painted this to try out a more "Donato" painting style. It is similar to how I prefer to paint, but his medium is a little different than my typical. I also painted on gessoed panel when I prefer canvas. All in all, I enjoyed it a bunch.

"Autumnal Dragon" 5x7 oil on panel

For a while I've been drawing with a col-erase pencil and these are some sketches in graphite. It seems strange to think how different the similar media are. (does that make sense?) I also feel the need to state how much I appreciate the Deviant Art people who create stock images. I also decided to follow Steve Prescot and draw some African Tribal hair, but they ended up as just face sketches.

From the blog "Art Order", John Schindehette put up several illustration descriptions that were used for print in D+D rule books. This is a 1/4 page illustration showing a glowing tower on a bluff. I thought this was a great opportunity to add this to the "Muddy Colors" blog for their random critique cession. Even if I don't get picked I still wanted to do this, and I'm fairly happy with the way it turned out.

I tried a different approach for a fine art painting. I planned on this being just a sketch, but took it a little to far.

This is the first day



Day 2


Day 3


For some reason I didn't take any shots of the color, but here is a bad shot of the final painting.


This picture was found on DeviantArt, the photographer was Marcus Ranum
http://mjranum-stock.deviantart.com/art/Art-Nudes-C-12-79372186

Crazy assignment for real money.


On a sunday a few months back I recieved a call about painting the cover to a prop for a movie. The deadline was the next Sunday. So I had one week to create this paintings and send it off (digitally). That was the tightest deadline I have worked with and I created my best Illustration yet. BAM.

I have to say that it's success was solely based on the intentional areas of no detail to play off the form and composition. Now I just need to replicate this idea consistently well.

I usually like the old school, and yesterday I went to the MET to draw from the statues with graphite on tracing paper. Tracing paper. It's fun stuff and I like the durability of it and Vellum.

Here are the three sketches I did. They are in the Greek section and all are from stone.

A marble statue of, I'm not sure who.

A small statue of PAN.

And a column topper, or some other similar thing. It looks like it belongs on a column but it doesn't seem to hold anything... like a ceiling.

After many trials and great tribulations I have finally figured out Dreamweaver and Fireworks from Adobe. I knew Flash from when I was in school, but I never learned HTML or CSS. I can't say it's a great site, but it does what I need it to do. I painted the Dragon you see at the top of the Blog specifically for my site, but didn't like so much for the site.

On a side note, I am finally somewhat comfortable in my painting ability. I still have much work ahead of me, but I can now say with confidence that I have improved and am heading in the direction I've wanted to go. Here is the head of the Dragon at 100% scanned size. The actual size is an inch plus horn.

New Ideas

I recently went to Pearl Art Supply and found some "scrap" canvas that was larger than I've painted in years. It is Belgian cotton that's oil primed. The matte finish of the primer made me wonder what would happen if I used acrylics to wash in a color, then finish in oil. The acrylic adhered fantastically and now I have a miniature "master" copy of a Justin Sweet.

This was painted on the little piece that was meant for people to know what was wrapped in the plastic. It's only about 4.25"x2". I miss painting tiny. I now found out that I love this surface and have been looking for this for ever. Now I just need to find out how to get more. I also scanned it in with a quarter so you can get a good size comparison.

A new city, a new state, a new coast... so why not a new blog. This is where I plan on chronicalling my adventure in The Big Apple. Wish me luck... I need all I can get.