Women's Work Show on Drawger

I just got a piece (Autumn Garden) accepted into Drawger's Women's Work Show hosted by Nancy Stahl. It's a great show with some beautiful conceptual pieces. Anyone can submit an entry. Well not anyone....girls only.

Distelfink Girl

This is a sketch for a current project involving personalities from Lancaster county. It will be featured in a local magazine and gallery show at PCAD along with several other artists interpretations. I've had the itch to create something with hex sign elements and snagged the opportunity to incorporate these symbols into a profile portrait. Distelfink is Pennsylvania Dutch (German) for Golden Finch. Depending on the number of them and how they are interacting the meaning behind them can vary. The basic idea is good luck and harmony. I'll be sure to post the final when finished.

Graphite on Vellum

Phillustration '09!

So in all the awesome creative chaos that was IMC09 I want to take a second to step back to a previous event that took place here in Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Sketch Club held their bi-annual illustration show featuring such local talent as Joe Devito, Charles Santore, Bob Byrd, Megan Halsey, Stephen Heigh and many others. I was fortunate enough to have my "Autumn Garden" piece chosen for the front of the promotional post card. Dominick's piece "Swashbuckle Dom" graced the back as well as the flyers and awards! He also won 1st prize with a piece from his pirate series. While we were away our good friends visited the exhibit and sent us a picture of the gathering. Thanks guys!!!

A special thanks to our good friend Rich Harrington for putting together yet again another awesome show! I can't wait until the next one.

IMC '09

And we are back from Massachusetts and the 2009 Illustration Master Class. Wow!! I can't begin to tell you how awesome it was. I have pictures, sketches, information and oh yeah, a new painting! But I admit...being in the studio until 3AM with the smell of turp and oils gave me the bug to go back to traditional. I think I may print this puppy out and work over it....Oh, the possibilities! I am about 93% finished (digitally) with it but still need to go through a few more additions.

Illustration Master Class

On Sunday we will be going to Amherst Massachusetts to participate in a week long illustration intensive featuring industry celebrities such as Rebecca Guay, Greg Manchess, Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, Dan DosSantos, Donato Giancola, Scott Fischer and Irene Gallo, art director from Tor Books. Jon Foster and Michael Wheelan will also be attending as special guests. This is a great opportunity to work in a studio environment with leaders in the industry critiquing and helping you with your work. About two months ago assignments were sent out for us to pick. We completed the sketches beforehand and will start off Monday with a crit. I chose a rendition of King Arthur's "Lady of the Lake". Above you will see my value sketch out of graphite. I scanned it in and worked the glows in photoshop and painter. I'll be sure to post my final when finished! I'm very excited!

Check it out! Illustrator Master Class

Illustration vs. Design

What becomes interesting when your in the process of learning illustration is the crossover between fine art and design. This is a sample piece I did for two of my classes. The flower portion was done in Adobe Illustrator to demonstrate repeats and transparencies. I then used the rounded image (which you can find on my site) by cropping it and adding text in InDesign for a Graphic Tech class I was teaching. One of the benefits of working like this is the easy ability to change the colors in order to fit the clients preference. Not being a usual aesthetic approach to how I work I still found this refreshing and fun to do.

Baby and Mom Memories

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This was another double up for the Yow! Experiment. The theme word was "Memory". I doubled up the project to fit a sample project I wanted to complete for a possible job based on babies. I decided to create a dreamy type of feel with another patchwork theme concentrating on the warmth and safety of a quilt. I wanted to keep the palette pastel and soft. I was concerned that I would run too gender specific so I tried to keep away from too many pinks and blues. I think this palette also breaks up my portfolio color wise as well.

Patchwork Girl

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This illustration was created for two purposes. Kind of like shooting two birds with one stone. First, Amy Smith, an old friend of mine, became involved with a charity drive for Domestic Violence Services of Lancaster County dvslanc.org. There was a call for entries for donations which I gladly submitted a few pieces for. This one I created specifically with the event in mind. In addition to the event I had another "paint off" deadline with the "Yow Experiment" on facebook. This is a group of University of the Arts illustration graduates dedicated to creating a piece within a bi-monthly deadline. I used collage elements of natural items as well as fabrics and tapestries in addition to the painting of the face.

Shoo-Fly Pie

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This is a little ode to home. Growing up in Lancaster County I stuffed myself with whoopie pies, shoo fly pies and chicken pot pie. Here I cut a piece out (the rest went to my students) set it on a white background with a strong light. It's tough trying to give each brown a character of it's own but I think I managed all right for an hour painting. Next time I think I'm going to have to paint some wilbur buds.....now that's directly from my hometown of Lititz. Mmmmmm.

Whoopie Pies in Thought

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This was a quick little demo I did on Alla Prima painting with my students. I wanted to play with some vibrant colors so I found a bright green envelope in the office and set up the pies. The pies took on a reddish glow which complements nicely on canvas. I didn't spend too much time on this so it's pretty rough.

Valentine's Cookies

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These little guys were painted for an in class demo on oil painting. I set up several different combinations with different cookies and chose the one on the top and another one for the bottom. It was slowly turning into a disaster so I wiped the bottom cookie and replaced it with the jelly filled. And I did eat them after.

Some Line Work

These two drawings were started out as an in class demo on line weight.  I guess I was feeling very gourdy that day.

In Class Studies

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These are two oil demos I did for my pictorial fundamental classes. The first one was on masonite with a thick layer of gesso. I toned the surface with acrylic burnt umber. The second was toned the same but on gessoed illustration board. I didn't get a chance to take the tape off so it still looks like it's in progress. Both took about an hour each to complete.

Orange Flower

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Here's a small oil painting I did a while ago. There are some parts I enjoy and others not so much. The palette is warm and inviting but the actual structure of the flower became too contrived and over worked. It reminds me of a feathery lollipop.

Watercolor attempt

My sister in law got me a great travel watercolor kit for Christmas (last year) and I've been playing around with it.  I always enjoyed the opaque mediums much more than the translucents but I wanted to give it another shot.  I've got a few more that I'll post in a little bit.  This is based off of a display at the Philadelphia Flower show.  It was very Parrish-ish.