Sketchpaints!

Watercolor heads

2011-12-16T07:00:00.000-08:00

I've been messing around with little watercolor head again recently. These are all pretty small, like 1-3 inches tall on different types of paper, trying to figger out what works best. I use magazine photos and old Hollywood pics for reference on these.

So, I hear you want to draw!

2011-10-21T17:00:00.001-07:00

I get asked often how to draw or more accurately how to draw better. The short answer may sound kind of smart ass-y but the old saying is 100 percent true...'You learn to draw by drawing". I suppose that there are artists that are born with a gift of drawing prowess, but that certainly was not my experience. I have gotten to whatever place I'm at with drawing (still far from where I'd like to be) by pure stubborn manual labor. I draw, I read art books, I practice, I draw, I watch tutorials online, I take classes and oh yeah did I mention that I draw???
Even with the explosion of information available online I for one still feel that there is no better help for artists than some really good books. I collect folders full of content from the web myself, but a lot of it never gets looked at again, but books can be open right next to you at the drawing board or breakfast table to give you some insight into what you are doing.
In my opinion, there is no better guide to good solid drawing than the Andrew Loomis books, period. Figure Drawing for all it's Worth and Drawing the Head and Hands are back in print after many years and every artist should have them on their shelves. I was happy to see a couple of Loomis' books on the shelves of Norman Rockwell's studio when I visited a while back, that should tell you something about the level of insight an artist of any level may glean from these volumes.
Another book that I pass along to beginning artist is Drawing the Head and Figure, but Jack Hamm. This book is so good that it has been kept in print in an affordable paperback edition for decades. I am always happy to see it at Barnes and Noble and major book stores holding it's own against the sea of terrible 'how to draw whatever" books that jam the shelves.
So while there may be no short cut to better drawing, there is in fact a lot of helpful info out there to keep you on track.

Thanks Steve

2011-10-06T08:53:00.000-07:00

While the focus of this blog is decidedly 'non-digital' I couldn't let the passing of Steve Jobs go by without send out a heartfelt Thank You to him and the universe.
I am no techie, but his creativity and vision have made my life a better place. I use a Mac for most of my professional work, I love Pixar movies and I seldom draw out in the world without my ipod keeping me company.
Imagining a life as big as his that has touched so many lives for the better is really humbling.
Thanks man.

I've got a lot of these

2011-04-04T17:40:00.000-07:00

Here's some more....

Charcoal is my new thing

2011-04-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

Not much in the way of painting going on here lately, but I have been doing a lot of drawing in charcoal. I like it because it's new to me, messy and fun.

greenish profile

2010-11-18T10:36:00.000-08:00

Another Golden's Open acrylics piece, 6"x8" canvas mounted onto 1/8" masonite. Since I only bought a handful of tubes to try out these paints, I am working with a limited palette. White,black,red,yellow ochre,blue.

Pixie hair girl

2010-10-25T12:05:00.000-07:00

While I am a big fan of long hair on women, even I have to admit that sometimes shorter is better...it's rare, but that chick from Northern Exposure and Haley Berry immediately come to mind ;)
6x8" quick painting done with Golden's Open Acrylic paints.

Beauty is enough

2010-10-13T07:54:00.000-07:00

Scott Burdick is a fantastic painter and he recently gave a talk about Beauty vs. Modern Art that is well worth you time to watch. I only intended to take a peek but ended up watching the whole thing. Tilting at windmills maybe, but watching this made me feel good.

Headhunting sketchbook for sale

2010-08-23T11:09:00.000-07:00

It's been ages since I posted any paintings here, but I have been drawing in my pocket Moleskine sketchbook. In fact, I've printed up a small facsimile style book of some of my on the spot cafe sketches called "Headhunting". I wanted the book to look as much like my pocket sketchbook as possible so it's got the rounded corners, the cream color paper and I even managed to capture some of the ghosting/bleed through I get from drawing in ink on both sides of the paper. Book measures 3.75"x5.25" with 32 pages, black card stock cover with white belly band title strip.
Price is $5 plus $2 shipping within the US, if you are overseas, drop me a line first and I will get you a shipping rate.
Thanks

Golden Girl

2010-03-14T06:35:00.000-07:00

Here's another girl done with the Golden's Open Acrylics. I did these on canvas board. I had a big piece that I knew I would never use so I cut it into smaller pieces to use for these little heads.

Golden's Open Acrylics

2010-03-12T08:24:00.000-08:00

I've always been an acrylic painter. Oh, I've used everything else, but I always come back to acrylics. But I also can't resist trying out new products so I bought several tubes of the new "Open" acrylics by Goldens. "OPEN" refers to how long chemicals will remain workable before they set up, in this case the paint. A lot of people gripe about the fact that acrylics dry too fast so these are the paints to shut those people up!
These handle much more like oils than they do like acrylics, in fact they handle more like oils than the water based oil paints I've tried in the past.
I paint pretty thin, so this was dry to the touch the following morning, but since I seldom spend more than a couple of hours on these types of quick paintings I was working on wet paint the whole time.I suppose if you were an oil painter that worked really thickly , these would be a godsend since they'd try in days rather than weeks!
Often when I try out new supplies I'm like meh! But I like these and I'm going to play with them for a while.

Return of the Flapper

2010-03-03T07:05:00.000-08:00

This post from back in 2006 was getting a lot of spam for some reason, so I deleted it and since I still like her, I thought I'd repost her;)

Charcoal is your friend

2010-02-02T12:26:00.000-08:00

I've been playing around with charcoal lately, I'd never really used it much before. I'm using fat sticks so I can't get too tight with the details. I actually made the sticks in the fireplace after seeing a demo online...I'm always up for making stuff! Drawing with charcoal on cheap newsprint paper is fun and fast and messy and it's also closer to painting that drawing with a pencil point. These are all under 5 minute sketches.

Superhero watercolor girls

2010-01-26T12:31:00.000-08:00

I know that I haven't been posting regularly, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been churning things out....just not much time for acrylic paintings recently. Here are a bunch of watercolor pieces I did recently though. I wanted to keep the colors as simple flat tones and avoid getting into rendering things too much. All 9x12 ink and watercolor on watercolor pad paper.

watercolor head

2009-11-21T12:48:00.000-08:00

Still playing around with watercolor heads...

Moleskine sketches are better than nothing!

2009-11-04T16:23:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I posted here so I thought I should throw up something. The truth is that I am making some kind of art all day, everyday, I just don't do personal paintings on a regular basis. I do however carry my moleskine pocket sketchbook and do quickie sketches like these often enough to fill up a couple of books a year. Here's a random bunch in no particular order or reason;)

Eskimo kiss

2009-08-03T08:32:00.000-07:00

I like polar bears and I like girls so that's really all there is to this one. While Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass is possibly my all time favorite fantasy series this has nothing to do with that. Yeah,I've done a bunch of sketches in my sketchbook over the years for Lyra and Yorick paintings but have yet to actually take the time to do one...someday!
I guess this is the second in my series of "nose touching" paintings...the first being that duck/horse one ;)

Big hair girl!

2009-05-22T08:31:00.000-07:00

Lot's of hair this time. Since most of my favorite painters are very bold and brushy, I'm trying to be a bit braver with brushstrokes etc. I have a tendency to srub and try to blend things out rather than just putting down a stroke and leaving it alone. I was definitely keeping that in my head on this one.
This was done on a sheet of canvas stock that I was told was made for color copiers, it's an actual sheet of canvas not just some paper with an embossed weave pattern stamped into it....I like it!

Tiger hat girl!

2009-04-27T07:04:00.000-07:00

It's been a while but here's a new girl. I've been working on a lot of very technical drawing stuff lately so the other night when I got home I was definitely in need of some "real art" therapy. Yeah, I needed that ;)

Cafe haunting and sketching

2009-04-17T07:23:00.000-07:00

Whenever I don't have paintings to show, I like to fall back on the good ol' Moleskine sketchbook drawings. I do a lot of these while I'm grabbing a snack at cafes/airports etc. I used to go to a local figure drawing session but kind of fell out of the habit and so these 'people' drawings fill that need of drawing folks from life. Drawn directly in ink with a Japanese brush pen marker in the small Moleskine plain paper book (not the moleskine "sketchbook").

Watercolor pen

2009-04-09T05:45:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted but I just haven't had the time to devote to my quickie paintings lately. Since I do art all day long and often do commission stuff after that, there are just so many hours in the day!
But I did do these little watercolors recently. I know that there is definitely no shortage of cool drawing and painting supplies out there, but I had the idea to rig up a foam tipped watercolor brush-thingie using a plastic tube and some foam rubber. I wanted something that you could just draw with like a fat watercolor marker and what do you know...it actually works! These were done in a few minutes each...super fast, super fun!

Flapper girl on canvas paper

2009-01-20T07:10:00.000-08:00

I haven't been doing any acrylic pieces lately, but I just glanced across the studio and realized that this one has been sitting on the easel for about a month now and I never posted it, so here you go. I did this one using just a few colors, on a piece of "canvas paper" from a Canson pad. I mounted it onto a piece of board so it would be solid while I was working on it. Canvas pads and canvas board get a bad rap but I think that they are a nice texture to paint on with acrylics.

More gray girls...

2009-01-12T16:16:00.002-08:00

Even when I'm not posting I've usually got some stuff in the works. Here are some more of the gray gouache studies I've been playing around with lately.

more gray girsl

2009-01-12T16:16:00.001-08:00

Gouache time lapse

2008-12-14T18:22:00.000-08:00

I took some in progress pics of one of the little heads. I'm using gouache but in a very watercolory way, no white, just diluted shades of black paint. I work from light to dark in typical watercolor style. Alex Ross works the opposite way, establishing the blacks first then adding shades of grey. Maybe I'll give that a try once I get a better feel for things.
With acrylics and oils I jump in with much less of a drawing at the beginning and work from dark to light so this technique uses a whole 'nother side of my brain ;)

Girlie gouache heads

2008-12-04T14:15:00.000-08:00

Here's my latest preoccupation, playing around with black and white gouache (opaque watercolor). These are all done on 8.5x11 Strathmore bristol board.

A girl

2008-11-13T08:44:00.001-08:00

These days rather than painting in my sketchbook, I use small pieces of masonite or canvas board. One of the perks is that I can put them around the room and see them rather than just flipping past them in my sketchbook. This is probably one of the reasons why I like painting contented faces too, the last thing I need is a bunch of unhappy folks staring at me in the studio!
I primed a bunch of these masonite boards a while back using a roller which makes a slight texture on the surface which can be good and bad.

BUY THIS BOOK!

2008-10-27T06:47:00.001-07:00

Just got my copy of the new book on J.C. Leyendecker. I have to say that it almost made me cry, it's that good. I admire people who can do things well but his ability was just staggering. Every painting was beautifully crafted...no duds ever.
This is the kind of book that I dream about...in depth, beautifully designed, and FULL COLOR on one of my all time favorite artists. With the exception of several pages of thumbnail magazine covers, almost all of the art is reproduced full page from the actual paintings, NOT the printed magazine covers. If you ever thought his work was impressive before, to see the paintings in vibrant color is awe inspiring. Go order it now, I'll wait.

Floppy hat girl

2008-10-06T12:22:00.000-07:00

Now that's a big hat! This is another small (4x6) oil attempt. To simplify things I went back to my four color palette (yellow ochre,red,white and black) for this one. I figger that since I don't know what I'm doing with oils, the last thing I need to worry about is juggling a lot of colors. Since Batz Maru is my role model, I added him on the shirt for luck.

Fish!

2008-09-29T06:52:00.000-07:00

Yeah I know, before you even ask...I have no idea ;)
I was painting the figure and he just looked very serious and I thought I'd change up the mood, so when all else fails, I add fish.
This one is acrylic on masonite about 4"x6".
It's interesting switching between oils and acrylics since the painting process is different for each. I like the way you can work the oil paint even after it's been down for a while , but I also like the way the acrylics hold the brush strokes.

Another furry hat girl

2008-09-23T15:55:00.000-07:00

Girls in hats are one of the few things to look forward to as we creep into the cooler weather. Okay, so I don't usually see girls dressed like this on line at Starbucks but a fella can dream.
I'll have to work on how to scan or photograph these canvas ones better.

Sketchpaints book for sale now!

2008-09-18T16:35:00.000-07:00

I get the exhibit catalogs from Trees Place gallery all the time and along with the artwork always being really nice, I love the small formats that they use. The books are small, rectangular or square and printed in full color on slick paper. Just for fun, I thought it would be cool to see my stuff in that format so I put together a small collection of some of the sketchbook paintings that I've done.
I decided to sell some of the books here for $6.50 each, postage included within the USA. If you'd like one, you can contact me directly by clicking on the EMAIL ME! link in my link section. Just pass along your email address and I'll send you a request for payment via pay pal. Book measures 4.25" x 5.5", 16 glossy pages with cardstock cover.

Girl in oil

2008-09-11T13:53:00.001-07:00

While I've always worked in acrylics, most of my favorite painters use oil paint so every once in a while I feel like I should as well. I dunno, there are things about oils that I like but I'm not convinced that it's for me. I know that I'd feel more like a "REAL ARTIST" if I could just figure out how to use them properly though.
The quest goes on....

I got schooled!

2008-08-18T05:57:00.000-07:00

In keeping with my idea that you've got to remain a student if you want to improve, I recently took an oil painting workshop at the Norman Rockwell Museum. The workshop was taught by a super-brushy illustrator named Greg Manchess whose work I've always really liked. Since I've got very little experience in painting with oils and painting from the live model, it was a struggle but I learned a lot and am itching to continue. Greg is a great teacher and a fun guy so the time flew by.
If you're ever near Stockbridge, Mass you really owe it to yourself to check out the Rockwell museum. Even if you don't dig the subject matter, I guarantee that you will leave with a whole new appreciation of just how good a painter he was.

Loomis and Leyendecker are coming in September!

2008-07-31T16:16:00.001-07:00

I sure don't want the Summer to end, but there are some great reasons to look forward to September, two of my favorite artists have new books coming out....a brand spankin' new book about J.C. Leyendecker and a looooooong overdue reprinting of Andrew Loomis' Creative Illustration.
Along with a lot of other comic fans in the eighties, I discovered the great Andrew Loomis drawing books through Steve Rude's Nexus series. From the moment I got my hands on one of his books, I knew that I had found gold. While my tastes in lots of things come and go as time goes by, I still want to be Andrew Loomis when I grow up ;)
I have all of his books and every time I pour through them I make some kind of connection that I hadn't before.
While "Figure Drawing for all it's worth" seems like a better choice to test the waters with, "Creative Illustration" is a great book too, it covers everything from composition, to drawing and painting techniques to making a career in art.
I''ve heard that the new publisher may do other Loomis books if this one is well received, so go preorder it now!
Heck, I'm ordering it even though I've already got a copy of the original!

More Moleskine girls

2008-07-30T06:19:00.000-07:00

No time for painting, but I thought that I could bury you in more moleskine sketches ;)

Moleskine day...

2008-07-16T08:09:00.000-07:00

While I haven't been turning out too many paintings lately, I do continue to fill up my faithful little moleskine book with spontaneous little ink sketches in cafes and airports!

Eye Candy for me!

2008-07-11T10:06:00.000-07:00

Just heard that I got some of my paintings accepted into the next Eye Candy for Strangers book, woo hoo! Each Eye Candy book features the girl art of a bunch of artists. I sent in a batch of jpgs of my sketchpaintings for consideration, but I have no idea if they will be using one or all of them, so we'll all find out together I guess ;)
I think that the book is scheduled to be out towards the end of the year. Brandstudios publishes a great line of art books, check them out. The books always make me wonder,"Who the hell is this guy?" and ,"Wow, this is great stuff, why haven't I seen this before!"

A happy profile

2008-05-10T16:22:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while, but here you go.
I keep a folder on my computer of photos that for one reason or another I think would be good starting points for these loose paintings. Case in point, here's one that I snagged from Molly Crabapple's Dr. Sketchy site.
You would think that with all of the crazy sh#t going on there ;) that something else would jump out at me, but I really liked this profile shot of Molly.
This is also a good example of how far I stray from my reference material too. I just focus on the aspects that draw me in and ignore the rest.

Another gothy girl

2008-02-20T07:20:00.000-08:00

In paintings, I like it when the hair and clothes kind of merge into one shape I think that it makes the skin pop even more. I wanted to keep the emphasis on the pale skin here so I didn't put much detail anywhere else. This one was painted on a piece of cardboard from the back of a drawing pad which is a really nice surface to work on.

The furry black hat

2008-02-05T07:19:00.000-08:00

This time of year in New England we are all bundled up so I guess that was the motivation for this one, plus I like girls in hats! I was drawn to the way the hat covered her eyes in particular, you don't see that very often in portraits.

Victorian beauty

2008-01-31T15:40:00.000-08:00

While I may be comfortable living in the "modern" world, I can't deny that there is something very appealing about the slower pace of the 19th century that tugs at my soul...especially the girls in fancy dresses and the art!

goth girl

2008-01-17T06:24:00.000-08:00

I admit it, I like to see people dressed up, whether it's in nice clothes or some kind of crazy outfit. I've always admired punks and goths for the pure dedication to their lifestyle...man, no one else in the world shouts out,"THIS IS WHO I AM!" better than they do.

Pink girl's progress

2008-01-14T11:08:00.001-08:00

Here are some progress pics I took while I was working on the pink girl. I told you that you would be horrified! One thing about acrylic paints is that you can paint on just about anything, and I guess I proved it this time. This one was painted on an old book cover. The cover was falling off and I was going to chuck the book when it struck me that hardcover book covers are basically canvas boards but with a finer weave than most commercially made canvas boards. The finer weave worked out well at this small scale and it was actually a nice surface to work on...crazy I know.

Pink girl

2008-01-08T14:29:00.000-08:00

Well this was a change of pace. First of all because I don't usually paint kids and secondly because I painted it on a piece of canvas board (well kind of). I took some in prog photos that I'll post soon and you'll be horrified to find out what I painted this one on ;)

Heart shaped tattoo

2008-01-02T07:16:00.000-08:00

This one kicked my butt...repeatedly! I started and abandoned it a couple of months ago. I've found that if things are not working it's best to just move on. But since it's in my sketchbook, it just kept staring back at me whenever I flipped past! Every once in a while when I had my paints out I'd take another whack at it. I've long since come to grips with the hard fact that I'm not the kind of artist that can just 'do it', most things are still hard, which is probably the challenge of it all.

Hoodie snowstorm

2008-01-02T07:11:00.000-08:00

I didn't get to it in time, but I was toying with the idea of making a quickie Christmas card out of the Hoodie girl. I adjusted the colors and added an instant snow storm in Photoshop.

Hoodie girl

2007-12-02T17:04:00.000-08:00

I did this one on a small (4x6 inches) piece of masonite for a change of pace. It's always fun to paint on different surfaces. I noticed right away that I had gotten used to the feel of working on paper in my sketchbook because this surface didn't "give" at all to the pressure of my brush, but hey, at least I didn't have to worry about the paper buckling!

Down to two!

2007-11-13T10:13:00.000-08:00

As I've mentioned before, I use a limited set palette for these quickie paintings that consists of white, black, yellow ochre and red. I recently read about a REALLY limited palette of just two colors so I thought that I'd give it a try...just white, burnt sienna, and ultramarine blue. With this small range to choose from, you can still get some nice warm and cool color relationships and an interesting variety of colors (a lot more than I'm showing in this one). This makes me want to play around with some other color combos!

Violin practice

2007-11-09T11:32:00.000-08:00

I don't do too many horizontal format paintings but some subjects just work better that way.
One of the liberating aspects of these small paintings for me and one that really separates them from my professional work is just being able to leave things alone....like here, the bow and the fingers are described just enough so you know what's going on but they aren't rendered out precisely.

Red Top

2007-10-03T10:56:00.000-07:00

Usually for these quick paintings I stick to headshots. Once I get into arms and legs and hands etc it becomes a lot more complicated and time consuming and let's face it....more like work. But , I have been thinking that I should start to do more than just heads...so here's a torso! Eventually at this rate, slowly but surely I'll get to full figures :)

white shirt

2007-08-02T06:27:00.000-07:00

I've noticed that the recent painting have been pretty dark which is odd since it's Summer and the world is so colorful! It may have something to do with the fact that I usually do these at night in a dimly lit studio ;) Whatever the reason, I needed a brighter girl, so here she is!

Cloaked

2007-07-24T05:58:00.000-07:00

I've got a folder on my computer of "cool photos" where I put pics that I think are interesting and some that might make good painting subjects. Case in point, this painting was done from a photo of the daughter of a friend of mine (Hi Rachel!) at a science fiction con where she was trying on a cloak. Costumes at cons seldom look too good especially in the flourescent glare of a crowded convention floor, but in this case she made it look just right. In fact, I'm thinking she should wear cloaks all the time;)

Another happy girl!

2007-06-25T08:48:00.000-07:00

There is a reason why a lot of artists paint expressionless dead pan type faces....painting smiling happy people is hard! I suppose that I like the challenge of it and it's also nice to have someone smiling up at me while I'm working ;)
I'm constantly inspired (and humbled) by great artists like Sundblom who seemed to do it with such ease.

New profile

2007-06-04T07:36:00.000-07:00

Here's a quickie. I really like to paint profiles, there is so much variety in peoples faces and profiles break that down to the basic form. I suppose that a lot of artists avoid them because they can sometimes seem static but there's something very iconic about them to me.

Girl in a different format

2007-05-19T06:23:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I like to use unusual layouts to give the art a different feel.

more sketches

2007-05-11T17:31:00.000-07:00

Back by popular demand...er, well one person asked ;)
Here are some more quickie brush drawings from my local Barnes and Noble cafe!

Witch Hat!

2007-05-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I start my just squishing some paint around and following where it goes instead of working directly from a photo. Once this one started to make the turn towards looking like "a girl with a witch hat on" I used a photo from a catalog to get some face details down.

White hat

2007-04-10T07:52:00.000-07:00

I love the way artists like Frank Benson and Sorolla paint white objects, full of color!

Thinking about fishies

2007-03-30T12:52:00.000-07:00

Fish, yeah, I have no idea.

Iron man!

2007-03-09T13:38:00.000-08:00

Being a long time comic fan I couldn't resist a quickie Iron Man. Gotta admit that I prefer his old armor though, but then again I'm old ;)

Moleskine sketches

2007-03-08T06:22:00.000-08:00

I carry a small pocket sized moleskine sketchbook when I'm out people watching in the world. These days I draw directly in ink with a Japanese brush marker which works well for these fast and loose sketches. Drawing in ink rather than penciling things out carefully keeps the drawings much more spontaneous and since people are constantly moving anyway I can get things down very quickly and move on to the next one!

Molly Crabapple

2007-03-04T16:13:00.000-08:00

I'm always on the prowl for cool photos that might be good subjects for my quickie paintings. This one is from a photo of illustrator Molly Crabapple that I found on her site. The photo had that modern/retro feel that I love and I thought she had a real Elvgren-ish expression on her face!

Animal pals

2007-02-05T07:08:00.000-08:00

I set out to paint a horse since I hadn't done one yet and the duck just kind of snuck in. I had a photo of a duck on my desk and I thought it would be a funny juxtaposition to add him to the scene. It's wacky, but I can't help smiling when I look at this one. Maybe it's because I am a sucker for those nature shows where the animals all get along!

Banana clipped!

2007-01-15T14:13:00.000-08:00

I guess you'd say that this is a painting of a girl, but to me, it was that white shirt...oh yeah and the banana clip in her hair that got me.
Oops, looks like I forgot to sign this one...

Smokey tones

2007-01-05T15:03:00.000-08:00

Sometimes a painting with a lot of brown tones just looks like mud, but I like the somber feeling in this one.

Happy Holiday Hound!

2006-12-18T08:41:00.000-08:00

I almost never get my act together in time to actually send out cards, but this year I did! I did this one in an old Canson sketchbook I had that has thick brown paper pages, the same paper as grocery store bags!

Wonder Woman!

2006-12-13T11:11:00.000-08:00

For those of us children of the '70's Linda Carter will always be Wonder Woman. I did this one from a screen capture from the DVD set of the first season of the show.

Good Dog!

2006-10-31T12:42:00.000-08:00

This was my first dog "portrait". Long hair and fur are perfectly suited to this simplified brush style of painting.

Steph

2006-10-18T08:09:00.000-07:00

I use some kind of reference for all of these paintings, whether it's from magazines or my own photos. This is from a picture I took of a friend of mine, and while I'm not usually trying for likenesses, this one definitely looks her!

Braid

2006-10-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorites...it's simple and nothing was overworked.

Gentle giant

2006-10-06T14:18:00.000-07:00

It wasn't until I recently started painting dogs that it occurred to me that I could be painting more than girl pics...so I'm trying different things.

Jockey hat

2006-10-04T06:45:00.000-07:00

This one was all about the jockey hat.

Painting set up....

2006-09-25T12:55:00.000-07:00

Here's my simple painting gear for these sketchbook paintings. One well worn #6 bristle filbert brush, and a small plastic tackle box with my limited palette of colors...Titanium White, Yellow Ochre,Primary Magenta, and Ivory black. This is my version of the color palette used by the great 19th century artist Anders Zorn. It is amazing how much color variety you can squeeze out of these few colors!

gone to the dogs!

2006-09-20T06:48:00.000-07:00

I've done some quickie dog paintings recently. Simplifying the fur is a good challenge. Keeping the brushstokes broad rather than rendering out every single hair gives it a much nicer, painterly look, working with a big brush helps too!

7 minutes to go....

2006-08-22T07:47:00.000-07:00

I always enjoy painting in black and white. I did this one in 7 minutes...I was killing time till,"Lost" came on!

Joan Chen?

2006-08-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

I am always grabbing pictures I like out of magazines. I think that this was actress Joan Chen. I'm not usually trying for a likeness, it's usually something else that I'm after, in this case it was the translucent leaf shaped detail of her dress. It's surprising even to me, that sometimes an effect like that can be achieved with just a few brushstrokes.

Hairpins

2006-08-18T08:26:00.000-07:00

Most of my sketchbook paintings are about 3-4 inches wide, this one is slightly bigger and I spent a little more time on it...I loved the way the hair was weaving in and out of the hair pins.

Brushy and brown

2006-08-18T08:24:00.000-07:00

Using fewer colors is an easy way to achieve color harmony in a painting. This one was done with a really limited palette, so it's more of an exercise in simple brush work and values, but the color works too!

Mr. Hat

2006-08-18T08:21:00.000-07:00

Painting girls is the most fun, but who can resist painting a big hat?

Hair cut

2006-08-18T08:18:00.000-07:00

Every subject has something that draws you in, in this case it was the cool wedge shaped hair cut.

Happy profile!

2006-08-18T08:15:00.000-07:00

I know that a lot of artists tend to steer clear of painting profiles, but I really like them. Lots of good shapes and every one is different.

Sketch painting?

2006-08-18T08:10:00.000-07:00

What the heck is "sketch painting"??? Well, in my case it refers to small, quick, loose paintings that I do in my sketchbook, usually in less than an hour. I'm a full time freelance artist and sometimes after drawing all day for work, I just want to,"push some paint around" as a teacher once called it. I purposely use acrylic paint, a limited palette and a big bristle brush so I can't get hung up on the details!