Finished Sam Painting

Finally here is the completed painting.

Painting Sam Continued...

Here I begin to add color to the lighter colored fur of Sam. I believe I used a mix of Titanium White, Blue and Yellow Ochre. I add color to the white of Sam's eye and to the highlight on his nose. These are the lightest areas in the photo and will help me establish my brightest color on the canvas.







Here I begin to add more dark color, A mix of Burnt Sienne, to the contour of Sam's face. I am slowly beginning to build up some detail on Sam's ear.








Continuing to build up color and detail in the face, while bouncing back and forth from the ear.










More detail to the face and ear. There is a touch of blue in the darker body color. For some reason my camera picked it up off the wet oil paint when I snapped this shot. Probably because at this point I am really starting to build up some paint on the canvas(compared to the thin layers of the underpainting).







Now that I am happy with the detail of the face and feel that Sam is complete, I start to paint in the background color.

Here is the inked version of the etching sample I needed to create. My brush/ink skills are not very strong. I feel it is a little sloppy. I was hoping that the sloppiness of the ink lines would mimic the "bleed" and line break-up that occurs when prints are pulled from an original wood etching. I am not entirerly convinced that this will work. But it is up to the boss's at work to decide if they like the look. Besides I am usually my worst critic.

Painting sam...

My brother was checking my blog the other day and was asking about my process for the "Sam" painting I did(posted 8/19). It so happens that I photographed the process as I went along. It has been several years since I painted this so I will do my best relate my thought process as the painting progresses.


First I sketched out Sam on the canvas board. Its a pretty detailed contour sketch with some marks to indicate highlights and other notable features. (sorry about the photos) looking back on it now, I should have paid better attention to the composition of sketch.









At this point I lay down an oil wash of Yellow Ochre and Burnt Sienna. This will be my body color. I am guessing at the actual tube colors I used being that I did this some time ago. I then took a Q-tip and a rag and began to "pull-out" the highlights to reveal the canvas below. I then took a darker mix and layed in the shadow and darker areas of the body.







Here I begin to build up my dark areas while defining some detail and highlights. I tend to build up to my dark/light tones, sneeking up on a balance that I like. I do this more out of fear than anything.










I continue to build up my color and detail. Working the larger areas first.

If anyone is actually following along out there, you may remember I mentioned creating some illustrations as woodcuts(posted on 8/24/06). The following images are samples of the woodcuts they would like me to recreate.




The following image is from a cover of JOM. The monthly magazine that the organization publishes. This image of a electron microscope may not be one of the final acheivements voted on, but this is just for a sample piece to see if the exacution will work well or not.



This is my sketch so far. Not only do I need to make it look like a woodcut, but I replaced the person sitting there with a more sixteenth century looking figure. I think it looks good so far. I hope that when I ink it, it will have the look I am aiming for.



I posted this at wetcanvas to get some input from some fellow artists. you can check that out here

Sketchin...





Finally got a change to squeeze a fews of sketching in. This is another challange from the weekly drawing thread at wetcanvas(WDT@WC). I thought this would be a fun one to approach a little differently. I used black and white charcoal on a grey watercolor paper. I think it worked well. The trexture of the paper made it difficult to blend, but it lends to the "feel" of the sketch.

Rambling...

It has been a busy week and I haven't had a chance to do any drawing. I was approached last week at work about an illustration project. The organization I work for is celebrating it's 50th anniversary (in its current inception). To honor the occasion they will be rolling out a top ten list of the greatest engineering achievements of all time. The idea came about to illustrate these acheivements as woodcut prints, simular to ones created in the sixteenth century. Should be a fun and challenging project to work on. I did some experimenting with different ways of executing a rendering that would mimick this look. I think I will use a #2 fine brush and black ink on Bristol board to acheive the effect. Will post the progress

I am getting ready to start doing some painting. I have been looking at different artists and techniques. I think I am really going to love plein aire painting. I love the loose style and painterly brushwork of this style of painting. Soon I will begin my color theory training, I could get away with just jumping in and painting, I have done well in the past simple using my instincts to guide me through a painting when it comes to color. I feel, however, that it is time to start learning the ins and outs of color so that I can better acheive the look and feel of a subject that I may be looking for.

I found this great instructional link on wetcanvas for preparing your own panels using masonite(hardboard). I am going to do that this weekend. I figured I could get 36 10x12 panels and 4 6x12 panels from a 4'x8' sheet. Cant wait to get this done so I can start working through my color theory book and begin putting some paint to canvas (or board as the case may be).

Old Painting...

Sam, Oil on canvas board, 12" x 18"




This was a commision I did for a former co-worker. Sam was her true friend and when he passed she wanted something to remember him by. This was only the third time I painted in oil. This painting is when I really started to like oil's and saw the potential for me to work in this medium. In, fact I took the money from this commision, went out and bought a bunch of oil paints, new brushes, mediums and the like. Unfortunatly, I not yet painting anything in oil and in fact this was the last painting I have done. That was over four or five years ago. That will change soon though.

Sketchin'...




Finished my eye sketch. Ended up filling a whole page in my sketch book with this. It was hard to know when to stop working on this. I could just keep layering and layering the graphite on this but figured it was best to leave it be. Truth is the eye kept staring back at me while I was working on it and it is giving me the creeps. I swear I saw it blink once or twice. :-)

I forgot to keep track of the time I spent. I guess about three hours.

Sketchin'...




Got another challenge from the weekly drawing thread at wetcanvas. This time it's an eye. This is my progress so far. I spent about an hour, of and on, working in this last night. When I am drawing or painting, I get completely lost in time. I need to make a point of keeping an eye on the time when I am doing any drawing. It will make it easier for me to set aside time in the day to work on some art projects.

Being that I don't have anything new to post and haven't done any sketching, I figured I would present another painting from the past...

Old Paintings...

Untitled (Leopard), Watercolor, 1997



I painted this leopard for a fundraising auction to help local women's shelters.
It is probably one of my favorite pieces that I have done. Which always seems to be the way with the ones you let go.
This is a watercolor on colored paper. I just love the mood of this painting. I wish I still had it. But it was for a good cause.

Rambling...

I was reading an article in "Artist's Magazine" about Mark Makers, or artists from the renaissance era and their drawing and sketching skills. Referring to sketching or drawing as making marks on paper (or other substrates) is interesting. When you draw you are so focused on the creation of detail or tone that you sometimes forget what is simply going on. You are making marks.
It truly is a miraculous thing. Creating something from nothing. A blank piece of paper becomes a deep forest or a crowded city street. Art seems to be truth. Its consciousness. I think of the first primitive man who picked up a piece of burned wood and scraped it across a stone. His eyes wide with wonder at the mark it left behind. He had made a discovery, he had created something. That primitive creature could have used that stone for possesive purposes. He may have placed it on a pile of fruits and piece of meat to make it known to others that it is his alone. He may have fought to defend his possesion of food which was now marked. He could have become greedy. Or he could have taken the rock which he marked and used it as a gift. Giving it to another to show compassion or love.
Primitive art could have been the catalyst towards evolution and modern man. It could have been the trigger that invoked consciousness. It could have been the apple Eve gave to Adam. The tree of knowledge gave Adam the ability to see as an artist. To see the world apart from himself through color and contrast. Art gives us the ability to see ourselves.
In almost all ancient cultures the "Shaman" or holy man was also an artist. You have to wonder what came first the artist or the shaman. He had the ability to create images that represented the world around him. That ability gave him power and magical traits. The ability to make representative marks in clay tablets gave the scholars of Egypt power and the pharaoh supreme rule.
Marks where the beginning of alphabets and written language, of architecture and organized society.

Of course, non of the above could be true at all. Just the rambling of an artist's mind.

Old Paintings...


"Bear Totem", Acrylic and Sand, 1997

Even though I painted this over ten years, which is hard to believe, I wanted to start showing some of the work I've done in the past. I haven't done a painting in at least 4 or 5 years. Which is what this blog is actually all about. I have been itchin to paint again but feel like I've lost a lot of the foundation required to paint. So I decided to go back to basics and build my skills from the ground up. As a self taught artist this is something I have never done in the first place. So I am going to keep sketching and sketching and soon will start to put down some color on canvas. Until then I will pull out some older stuff to show every now and again.

The idea behind this painting is to acknowledge native lore and spirituality. It is not only about the bear, which is a sacred animal representing the "dream lodge" or a place of introspection (most artists spend a lot of time in the dream lodge). It also is a nod to the totem pole. The core of the painting represents the totem.

Sketchin'...


Here is this weeks sketch from the weekly drawing thread at wetcanvas.
First ime working with the Derwent Sketch pencils. Not bad to work with, but you really have to
work inlayers to build up texture and dark tones.

Here is part of a weekly scavenger hunt at Wetcanvas.
In this forum you get a list of items you have to sketch from life.
Good practice. The following is a list of the item sI have so far:

1 Feather
3 Rocks (healing stones form a leather pouch, next to my foot)
4 Foot
5 Spoon
6 Landscape (on the computer screen, a view from my back deck)
7 Cup of tea
9 Underwear (boxers folded in the lower right corner)
11 Ear ( my baby boys ear drawn on a post it, on computer monitor)
12 Shell ( two small shells by the rocks)
13 Sunglasses (behind boxers)
15 My Computer
16 Art supplies ( a Bailey's tin that holds my brushes and a Tin of Derwent pencils)
20 Landmark (local hospital, in the distance of my landscape)
21 Shoe ( tennis shoe on the left)
23 Something with a "T" ( a Toe counts right?)
24 A bottle (bottle of linseed oil on shelf)

Just finished this sketch for a weekly drawing forum over a wetcanvas. Lot of fun to draw. It was good fun participating in the forum. I hope to find the time to do this every week.

This was done with a .5 Pentel mechanical pencil (the kind you'd get at Office Depot or something).
Paper is 90# Canson in a field drawing book.

Another fun photo manipulation with Photoshop. Is it a tomatoeball?

7/26/07

This is aquick color sketch I did in watercolor on watercolor paper. It was an experiment with placing a random wash of color on the paper. After it dried I came back and used it to sketch on. I then went in and placed some dark color in and some light wash on top. For the most part it is the background color that is coming through.

Shawnee State Park 7/29/06

Another camping trip. Didn't get a lot of time to sit and sketch. But I did get some time to capture Pap-pap's truck with some gear in the back.

7/26/06

This is an African Nyala I sketched from "Southern Africa, Spectacular World of Wildlife". A great reference book.

6/21-23/06

To keep myself sketchin' I did these drawings from a brochure for the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre that arrived in the mail.
The costuming is for Swan Lake.

6/21/06

This is a lion I sketched from a photo. He ended up with some attitude by the time I was done sketching him.

I know this is a "sketchbook" blog, but its mine and I can do whatever I want with it. So being that I am a Graphic Designer and enjoy messing around with Photoshop, I thought I would post some photo manipulations I have done. Such as making an apple melt. It is hot after all.

Pymatuming Lake 6/15/06

Another sketch from this trip. Sitting around the campfire as the sun begins to set. Most of the state parks here in Pennsylvania have these fire rings with the cooking grate on the back. I started this sketch when it was light and finished it in the dark. The scan doesn't show it well but I thought I captured the smoke nicely. After completing this sketch I am now completly convinced that this machanical pencil is the tool for me.

Pymatuming Lake 6/15/06

Another lazy day camping. I was so comfortable lying in the hammock that I figured i would just sketch myself lying there. I like the way the compostion turned out in this one. The swooping movement of the ground gives it a sense of action even though it is a scene of complete inaction.
I noticed my sketchs this weekend have tightened up a great deal. the difference is in the pencil. Instead of packing my set of Derwent pencils, I opted to take a mechanical pencil instead. I love this thing! I have a lot more control and the light line makes it easy for me to keep the sketch loose at the same time. Definitly my new sketching pencil.

Pymatuming Lake 6/14/06

Our first camping trip with Chaise, our five month old baby boy. We intended to camp on the beach at Presque Isle in Erie, but the conditions of the beach camp weren't up to our standards (smelled like rotten fish). So we ended up driving back down and staying at Jamestown Camp at Lake Pymatuming. A beautiful fishing lake and hatchery.

It was a nice lazy weekend which afforded me time to sketch. I spent the mornings walking along the waters edge near our camp. The Canadian Geese were everywhere and gave me a good oppurtunity to sketch them up close. I also took the time to sketch what was around me which includes acorns, feathers, leaves, etc. Even some fishing tackle caught up on a tree branch made it onto my page. Even caught a sketch of a Blue Herring Crane across the narrow wetland.

A quick sketch of my boy Chaise. The human face is definitly one of my weakest subjects.

Ohiopyle State Park, PA 5/29/06

I sketch these on a little day trip we took our then four month old son on.
I first is a shadow being cast from a Maple tree that we are sitting under.
The other is of a couple of older men that where conversing on a bench.

One of the fun things about sketching outdoors is unexpected guests.

Such as the bug that landed on my page as I closed my sketchbook. Poor guy.

Front Porch 5/29/06

I am finishing up some remodel work on our upstairs bathroom. Figured I would do afew sketch's while the joint compound dries on the drywall. Sitting on the front porch I whipped these sketchs. I am using Derwent Drawing Pencils. They are aset of about ten pencils in a flat tin. They are good sketching pencils, but frustrating for me because they dont stay sharp.

Blackwater Falls 4/21/06

This the first sketch I did in my travel log. I took my family down to Blackwater Falls, in West Virginia, to stay in a cabin for the weekend. It rained most of time though we did get to get out and hike down to the falls. The local deer are pretty tame. They are used to people and will come within yards of you. Sitting on the front porch of th ecabin I did these quick studies of a group of deer that was grazing on seeds among some rocky terrian and evergreens.

I have been recently looking for a way to get back to my artistic roots and rediscover the joy of art. One day I was perusing the magazine rack at a book store and came across a version of "Artist's Magazine" titled "Artist's Sketchbook". A now cancelled magazine.
I was inspired to start sketching again and found that getting back to the fundamentals of art was a good place to start anew. One particular article was about keeping a travel sketchbook. What a great idea. I went out and bought a new sketchbook (not that I needed to, being that I probably have half a dozen, half used sketchbooks at home), and started my own travel sketchbook.
Soon after I came across this blog site through a link in the WetCanvas.com community. So figured what a great way to share my sketchs with other people and keep me inspired to continue sketching.

Welcome to my blog.
My sketchin' blog is aplace where I can post my doodles of the places I visit and things I do.
My hope is that by having this blog it wil keep me motivated to keep sketching and improve my skills as an artist. Plus it is a great way to share my experiences.

Thanks for visiting

Dave