Fold Study - John William Godward

John William Godward is a source of great inspiration for me. This is an unfinished study I did in about 45 minutes to understand the way he painted folds. I am currently working on a commission that has similar folds and color scheme and I found it extremely helpful to practice from a master before tackling it myself. This was done in Corel Painter with a Wacom Intuos 4.

Spectrum 18

Late last week I received a letter in the mail with congratulations on my inclusion in Spectrum 18. This is my first acceptance into Spectrum Annual and I am very excited. Above is the accepted full piece with details underneath. Thank you to the Fenners and the Spectrum judges!

Memory Portrait WIP

Detail

This is the Memory Portrait in progress. Still have a ton of work to do but it's moving in the right direction. This week I have to shoot reference of a model to get some interesting lighting. The image I have of the child is good but the lighting is somewhat flat. I need some more definition of value.

I have a student who I am mentoring during this project and she has volunteered to pose for the shoot. It's kind of ironic because she has the same shape face as this little lovely girl! Alright.....time to get to work!

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.

Now I Remember...

Pattern for WIP commission

Corel Painter and Photoshop

Copy. Paste. Rotate. Select. Group.

Copy. Paste. Rotate. Select. Group.

Copy. Paste. Rotate. Select. Group.

I am a big advocate of illustrating in oils but if I had to paint this traditionally I would have thrown myself out the window. Thank you computer.

Wine Label for Philabundance

"White Sangria"

Corel Painter and Photoshop

This is a label created for Sherry Berger who runs the "No-Name Art Group". Sherry sends out a call for entries for local painters, designers, illustrators, craftsman and many other disciplines every year or so for charity events. In the past she has traveled to VietNam, Africa and South America to help in orphanages and community projects. After her return to the states she then organizes charity events dedicating all proceeds to the groups she took precious time to help.

This year she's keeping it local and all the money is being donated to Philadelphia's own Philabundance. This year's theme was wine, one of my favorite things!

If you like art, wine and friendly faces I highly recommend attending the opening on Saturday November 6 at the B Square Gallery. Click here for all the info...

Thank you Sherry and Philabundance for all of your generosity and selflessness!

Flower 1

Fall classes are about to start and I thought it would be a good idea to post some in progress works before the flurry of faculty meetings and syllabi touch ups hit me. After the first week I usually have a little over a month before I go MIA. So in light of my slow building of yet another new portfolio.......I now unleash my flower. This guy will be part of a collection to pitch to the licensing industry. As for now...he's just a lonely gerber daisy. His girlfriend is red and is 75% done. This was done in Corel Painter.

In addition to these types of illustrations I am also in the process of painting a commission of a cat dressed as Queen Elizabeth I. That is the mental image I choose to leave you with today;)

IMC Progress

This is my progress at IMC. It's the end of the 4th day (2am) and I'm beat. Many things to do and lectures to hear. I changed quite a bit to benefit the piece thanks to the crits of Greg, Julie, Boris, Scott, Irene and Dan. I did not intentionally eliminate some of the elements from my sketch....I just didn't get to them yet. Ready to sleep!

Urania

Urania

This is the final for Urania. I made several changes from the original sketch for simplicity's sake. Next step is to start my sketches for IMC. It's almost here and I need to get moving so I probably won't be posting for a little while. I do have so much to talk about so stay tuned. Some things on the summer blog agenda are Surtex, Graduating Seniors, IMC, Art Order, DVS, Colorado plein aire, Etsy new arrivals and much much more!

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.

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.

Painting Demo

This is a demo I did for my class at the University of the Arts. The class is based on the techniques of Corel Painter...a digital program that mimics traditional medium. I used an image of one of my mom's irises and painted it using the the oil brushes. No matter if you choose to paint digitally or traditionally you have to understand drawing, composition, color and value. The computer will not magically make everything beautiful which is a common misconception when considering digital work.