It's egg month 2011!

Under-paintings

Every spring semester I teach an oil painting class for sophomore illustration majors and I introduce several techniques using an egg as the subject. The egg offers a simple breakdown of value offering a clear and concise mapping of the different lights and shadows.

They poke one hole in the top and bottom of the egg and blow out the contents (gross) and then they have an egg to work with for several weeks. They use different lighting effects as well as oil painting techniques. Underpainting in acrylics and over painting in oils, wipe outs, mounted drawings with overpainted color, glazing and scumbling and much more.

It's a challenge but it's a great build up to the trompe l'oeil project. It's gotten fun for me to do and now I have a serious collection of eggs!

L is for Luna Bird

Graphite on hot pressed watercolor paper. If I take this to final color I would make the orb glow and look all misty. But for now it's just a sketch.

Last of the Dingbats

These are some more dingbats I did in Illustrator. They lie beneath the title separating it from the body text. These are derived from portions of the stories.

Dingbat 2

Here are some past dingbats I did for GreenPrints. They were done in Adobe Illustrator. I chose to use Illustrator because I can work really fast in that program (I've been teaching it for 10 years) and it has super crisp output. These guys were printed about the size of my thumbnail so clarity was really important.

I have done pencils and Painter for dingbats in the past but they usually didn't work out. It's easy too caught up in gradations and values and more time was spent rendering something that didn't show up or show up poorly.

Sketches and Dingbats

This is a page from my sketch book that shows a small study of decorative patterns. I found that some of these worked for my dingbat assignments. Dingbats are small decorative symbols used in publishing. Most of the time you will see dingbats accompanying type. They are used to fill up dead space and liven up the article or story by giving a interesting visual for the reader's eye to land on for a split second.

I also have found that these studies help me add decorative additions to some of my final illustrations.

Drop Caps Drawings

These are some drop caps I drew up for an interior article. Just pencil. I wanted to feature the texture of tweed within the letters. Tweed is a big part of the story.

Last Summer

Oil on Panel

I kept meaning to post these but they ended up on the back burner. In August Dominick and I were very fortunate to visit our friends Will and Shelly in Colorado. They took us sight seeing in the rocky's and we drove north to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park. It was a wonderful trip hiking and being engulfed in nature.

We wanted to fit as much sight seeing in as possible so Dom and I didn't paint that much. This is the only one I didn't wipe off my board. It is a view of the Tetons which was painted in a small alcove off a hiking trail. The sketch was a little flower we saw in Colorado right before encountering a moose.....which was my biggest find!

Cat Queen

Cat Queen

And so it is put to rest. I finished the never ending project in time for the new year. Open deadlines are a pure nightmare for me to work with. I work much better under pressure. I will say that I did take advantage of the time and explored a lot of techniques I wanted to work with before but couldn't find time to do.

This became a pivotal piece for me. I'm happy. The client is happy. And now it's time to move on to a follow up piece. Decisions, decisions.

End of the Year Clean Up

Watercolor on Bristol

It's amazing how teaching at three different colleges can put me in a tail spin during the span of one semester. Once I finish with a lesson I dump the bag filled with whatever material I was using in my studio until I can find time to clean it out. Well, I just did one of five totes tonight and found this watercolor study. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to finish it. I would like to say that I'll work on the chipmunk and spider but in all honesty that probably won't happen. Watercolors are fun but by no means are they my forte.

This will end up in my file of misfits. Unloved and unfinished. But I at least grabbed one swatch to use in a pattern repeat for your viewing pleasure.

Happy new year to all and may you find organization and cleanliness in your studio.

Watercolor Letters

Watercolor on Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper

I rarely work in watercolor but I decided to play around a little bit with some old letter drawings. They measure a whopping 2.5 inches.

The Holidays

The end of fall semester wrapped up this past Friday and my list of duties for Christmas break has grown enormously in the last month. I must say that some of the projects I will be working on are very exciting and I am looking forward to the process as well as the results.

In addition to GreenPrints interiors, a memory portrait, self promotion and learning a new program (yikes) I will be designing a small book on last year's "Krampus Challenge" for Jon Schindehette's ArtOrder blog.

For those illustrators who are not aware of ArtOrder I highly suggest you check it out. It's an insight into the world of an art director. Jon offers great advice for illustrators and introduces illustration challenges. It has become a great community to be part of.

The image above is the holiday card I designed for Dominick and I. We only had a few prints to send out and just dropped them in the mail today. I wish everyone a wonderful holiday and a whole lot of snow to play in!

5 Days on Ebay

Click here for store

I'm cleaning out my studio and am putting up an ebay store for 5 days of bidding. All small oils going for under $100. Go ahead....get a present for your mom.

Cat Queen WIP

Detail of commission for a cat in Queen Elizabeth dress. Working on it. Almost finished.

Black Friday Sale

Set of four pendants with silver chain for $25.00

Set of two Gerber Daisy pendants with silver chain for $15.00

I just updated my etsy shop to include some pendants and chains featuring my artwork. In addition to some glass jewelry I also have some new prints and small oils for sale including a framed print of "White Sangria".

For a SUPER discount you can plug in HESSBLOG1 for 25% off of any and all orders. This will only last until 11:59PM Cyber Monday. A special discount for my special readers!

Happy Shopping!

Patterns and Stuff

I'm slowly branching out my portfolio to include pattern and ornamental illustrations/designs to target the licensing industry. This is only a very small beginning. These patterns were based off of my previous post on the "White Sangria" wine label. I created the blue bird afterwards but thought it fit the theme.