February is Egg month!!

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Acrylic and Oil on Illustration board

They're incredible. They're edible. They're really great to teach smooth tone transitions and painting techniques with.

Every spring I teach a pictorial fundamental course which introduces oil paints to sophomore illustration majors. The main focuses are composition, lighting, mood, color, value and handling a paint brush. The egg offers a perfect matt finish that absorbs and bounces light while reflecting and collecting environmental colors.

This guy was sitting on a blue paper. I under-painted it in acrylic burnt umber and overpainted it in oils using scumbling and glazing.

In these small exercises I teach different gessoing techniques as well as acrylic and oil under and over painting. So this week will be dedicated to some of the egg studies and little tidbits on working with eggs.

Someday I'll do a Faberge egg. I just know it!!

U is for Underdog

Graphite on Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper

As a child one of my favorite cartoon characters was Underdog. He is a canine caped superhero who has a girlfriend named Polly Purebred. This is a drawing of my trusty sidekick Roscoe...attitude and all.

Q is for Q-bert

Graphite on Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper

He's tentacley. He's cute. He has duck feet. What else could you possibly want from a baby monster?

This was inspired by tor.com's month of Lovecraft which celebrated sci-fi/fantasy author H.P. Lovecraft's novels. Irene Gallo, art director from Tor, hosted a blog challenge for artists' renditions featuring some of Lovecrafts characters.

I wanted to name him Henry....but H was already used in my alphabet. So I named him Q-bert after one of my favorite Atari games. Ah, Atari. How I miss the simple one orange button.

The next alphabet entry will feature the infamous Roscoe P Coltrain as a model. Stay tuned.

Sketch #6 - P is for Parasite

Graphite on Hot Pressed Water Color Paper

This was created for an online group I participate in. One of the members recommended "parasite" for the theme. I researched online and found a close up of a hookworm that was pretty creepy. Teeth and indents as eyes. Jordu Schell mentioned that nothing looks more alien than insects and if your creatively stuck with ideas just look through at some scary insects. Although a parasite is not an insect it most definitely looked alien.

As I was drawing this it evolved into a story in my head. I pictured him as a poor guy who can't get dates. I kept thinking of what he would put in a personal ad if he posted one. Funny where the mind goes when drawing!

Sketch #5 - Dingbats

Graphite on Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper

Dingbats are decorative characters used as a typesetter's ornament. Above is a small drawing I created for a job that will be used as a divider between the text and title. In the past I have created all the dingbats in illustrator to maintain a crisp clear line. I'm trying a different approach by going back to traditional medium. It may not work when shrunk down but I can easily redraw it in Adobe Illustrator without a problem. The publication size is about 1/2" tall .... very tiny!

I am Such a Liar

Corel Painter Class Demo

So I said it would be 7 straight days of posts. But I've missed the last two days. There is an explanation....I promise!! Long story short....deadline & New York Society of Illustrators trip. But by the 7th day I will have 7 posts. Even if I have to double up posts on one day....which I plan to do now.

First I'm starting with a small Painter study I did for my Saturday class in December. It's a bit out of season and I met to get this posted before the holiday but didn't get a chance to. It was a quick demo on reflected surfaces. It's not as shiny as many glass ornaments due to the burnished finish. I also have some big beautiful Christmas lights that I want to paint to practice illumination and colored light. Baby steps.

Sketch #4

Pencil in Sketchbook

Reference and Studies. That is the basis of everything illustrative. This is a little fun study I drew of an Art Nouveau pattern I found. Jotting little thumbnails of decorative studies is something I should do more often. It opens my mind to new ways of linear involvement and compositions in vignette forms. You'll notice the noise in the background of the sketch...this was done on the back sheet of one of my sketchbook pages. Because it's a study I'm not really concerned about the presentation. I have sketched on lined paper, bills and sometimes even napkins. Sometimes a simple doodle can turn into a great idea. Just make sure to redraw it onto something more presentable before proposing it to a client or instructor!

Sketch #3

Graphite on Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper

This is an illustration for another poem. It's a four liner describing the people who make us happy as gardeners of our lives. I wanted to add humanistic elements into the flowers to give the feeling of external emotion. In addition I have added dancing shadows intermingled with the strands of her hair. The final will be finished in black and white for the publisher.

Sketch #2

Lilacs

Graphite on Hot Pressed Water color paper

This is a preliminary sketch for an article about a woman's memory of her early teenage years. I had to create an innocent exchange involving a lilac between a college age hippie and an early teenage girl. It takes place in the late 1960's. I had to make this pretty literal for the key illustration but I decided to add additional elements of garden life to layer the composition. The bird bath adds a bit more to the story. The foreground may be my favorite part to work on. I enjoyed drawing the azaleas and look forward to painting them. As many of my interiors this will be in black and white.

Sketch #1

"Irish Blessing"

Graphite on Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper

I haven't posted in a very long time so I am going to make up for it. I've got a couple projects underway plus some alphabet sketches that I'm looking forward to finishing. I promise this week will be an every day thing! This is the kick off to my 7 days of 7 sketches!

This is a sketch for an interior illustration for one of my magazine clients. It's based on an Irish Blessing about rain. As an art student I always wanted to illustrate poems but now I find it very challenging. There usually is very little amount of imagery to work with and it's tough to open up new and exciting possibilities and still remain true to the publication. I used a wordier poem called "I Died for Beauty" by Emily Dickinson to set a mood in my mind. It also happens to be one of the only poems I know by heart so it is something I have always wanted to play off of.

The final will be in black and white for the publication although I'm hoping to take it to color for myself. I'm looking forward to getting that misty atmosphere, mossy stone and old wrought iron. I'm still batting around a color theme....green or blue...warm or cool. Oh the decisions!

Ornaments!

Cindy Ann Ganaden started a community group last year for artists and craftsman to exchange ornaments via post. I was excited to get crafty and obtain some cool ornaments. It's a success and a lot of great work is exchanged. Groups consist of five so each artist doesn't get to overloaded with work during the holidays.

I chose to print out an illustration of mine and adhere them to stained wooden discs. I then sprayed it with Triple Thick Krylon Crystal Clear to obtain a glass like surface. I cut up a ribbon, looped it and superglued that to the back. I mail mine out tomorrow.

I'm excited for the holidays. Warm lights and crisp air. I'm looking forward to finishing up classes so I can concentrate on some fun illustrations I have rolling around my head! Sunday=Decorating!!!

Painting Demo #3

An ear. So exciting, I know. This was a demo I did for a Corel Painter class at PCAD. I had my students create an ear while I was demoing. I started with a white canvas, brown hard pastel. I created a monochromatic underpainting with the pastel. Then I used a real bristle brush to create the overpainting of color. I then moved onto more pastel to give some texture and blend. I finalized it with a little airbrush for a smooth transition in problem areas.

I recommend James Gurney's blog to everyone. This particular entry is worth checking out if your learning ear anatomy. But don't just stop there....check out the whole blog. It's fantastic.

Painting Demo #2

No alphabet sketches last week. Or this week. I'm teaching two weekend workshops and will be unable to complete extra sketches. But no need to worry. Here is a class demo I did for my Saturday morning Painter class. Inspired by Andrew Jones, it was a lesson on creating, saving and using selections and layer modes to create textural backgrounds and abstract images. I didn't really have a plan for this. It just evolved. I grabbed some images that were nature based and took it from there.

M is for Mummy

Graphite on Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper

Here is a sketch in honor of the Halloween season. I wanted to do something familiar but put a little bit of a twist on it. A screaming cat should do the trick. I used reference of a yawning hairless cat. Very frightening. I also put an eye on the left arm....a little homage to Mark Ryden. Happy Halloween!

Random Information #1

Glenn Zimmer was gracious enough to stop by and give a demo the other week in his colored pencil techniques. During his discussion he mentioned listening to talk shows while working. He associates certain areas of the artwork with what he was listening to at the time. Rich and I chimed in on some of our own experiences with this phenomenon. Below are some personal favorites of mine...left to right...

-Fat guy in a little coat...scene from "Tommy Boy" and The Preston & Steve Morning Show

-Tori Amos "From the Choirgirl Hotel" cd. (I was just out of college ... okay?!)

-Jack Johnson's "Better Together" and NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!"

Next entry will be M for ???? Oh...the anticipation.