Art Update: "Mushrooms, Skyscrapers and word sketching"

Not lots to say. "Found" a lot of my old writing (I had it stored away after I blew away my Myspace blog) and decided to reread through it. There's a lot of stuff you learn myself from those, so I've kinda taken some of that energy into consideration lately with my work... particularly with the Baltimore skyline sketch, I am rather cosmopolitan.

There's also some drawings from my yard. We had a random swarm of mushrooms growing in our yard so decided to take my sketchbook out on a nice day and sit in front of them and sketch. I'm getting better at dealing with the grain of the pencils... I do very overly like my smooth smudgy pencils.

This is a personal work, obviously not from real life. The stuff on the sides are incense-esk (not incense) sticks with smoke coming up. This may be a sketch idea for a future painting or an environment I may paint someday




Mushroom sketches from my Super Mario Yard


More gestures of lovely Sam


My frank as always. The glass is made up so not perspectively correct, he said he needed a shot of something in the picture :P


And finally, did this in Baltimore from the 2nd/3rd floor balcony at Barnes N Noble in Baltimore. If you've been to Baltimore Inner Harbor, you know which one. The picture looks a little more sideways in the scan for some reason.

Art Update: "Extreme sketching to the extreme"

Can't come up with a better title, sorry! :(

Some of these sketches are while we were in the MVA (Maryland's version of DMV/ID place) bc well... what else are you gonna do while you're waiting for your number to be called? Well, that and people stay still for longer periods of time... :( I didn't get to sit down long enough actually, would've liked to have gotten more sketches

Art Update: "Deck Party sketches; Painting for the pennies"

Not much to say here for this update except that I am very happy with a lot of the results in my latest sketches. I feel like as time goes on, I am beginning to make pieces that more or less speak for themselves (because not all art speaks for itself unless you can help it) and doesn't really need much context. A lot of the people sketches however were from a party we recently attended. So some people may recognize their faces in this, others may not...

A lot of my work I do explicitly with the purpose to pick out things and faces in my environment which have the most impact on me. I don't think I can literally draw what I feel and think, as that would lose meaning in the translation somehow. I try to let subconscious decide the composition and although that sometimes lead to some very awkward or incomplete results, I trust my mind a lot and I've just let myself paint and work this way long enough to get the results I want. In other words, not only is it very fulfilling, but it takes me other directions otherwise I would've probably missed...

I don't really believe in forcing a method or way of working or choosing one way over another based on what you think the results will be. I think that the hand and mind have so much to decide for themselves and that if you put yourself in too much control you're either going to inevitably be copying something or somebody, or you'll be drawing on energy that may or may not be 'you'. I'm not focused on the drawing 'you' part as much as it's more fulfilling to draw something you genuinely connect or it just leads to something different and creative...rather than trying to make a literal interpretation. So I'm letting it be what it is and I'm satisfied with this... the technical stuff is just as important, but I'm actually trying to use the rules to get the piece I want, instead of letting the rules limit me so I am more comfortable working this way for that reason as well.

Anyway, on to the sketches. I did develop the nude/romantic picture a little more, but it's at such an incomplete stage that the thumbnail I'll leave here is not where the painting currently is at. I'd like to soften it up a bit more, but it may just end up being a painting that I only somewhat finish and don't end up posting here...


Frank on the floor in front of the TV watching Beavis and Butthead. Whether his eyes are closed or not, can't really tell in the picture or when I was drawing him either


Frank's father Frank Sr., some beer, and Lisa


Left: Sean; Right (Top to Bottom): Might be Sean, Jenny, Belinda, Lisa


Right: Sr. (Frank's father); Left: Belinda, Unfinished Frank Sr.


Lots of minis of Frank's parent's dog Piper; Top Right: Frank Sr, Frank's mother Sharon


Top: Frank Jr (Frank); Bottom: Frank jr... almost looks like a videogame villain tho


The painting I am working on. The arrows with circles are scattering of light and direction, but you can see how good I am at following them... poop


Some parts of the current painting I really like:


Weird brief idea I had about clothing, jotted down for later

Art Update: "Some drawings while I get the website ready..."

I'm sad I haven't moved to the new blog yet, but as soon as it's available, I will pots here and make sure that everyone knows about it. I'll probably add Google friend connection as a widget, so subscribing to that should be exactly the same as how you've subscribed now.

Anyway, here are some finished paintings, some studies, and drawings I've been working on. I finished a sketchbook so some of them are in a new one :) I have several, but I have two that I consistently carry with me. One has smoother paper and I use more for writing and design work but also sketching with a different type of pencil because the lead fits that paper better. I use water soluable pencils on the sketchbook that I usually draw in, but ironically I've never used water... but they take very well to the toothy/texture-ness of the paper. So anyway... Maybe later I will post what I use.

This is a painting I finished for Frank, but I guess also for me. I wish I had gone a little thicker on the paint because I notice the canvas is ever so slightly still visible. But still experimenting so... didn't want to mess anything up. It will go on his wall and it's a still life of his FNP 45 handgun.





I've taken and edited a picture of it in the past if you want to compare the detail:



I might go further with this one, but I like the suggested look. So I kinda feel inclined to leave it alone. From imagination.





Sketches


Frank washing dishes


Random items around the kitchen


Some figure drawings following loosely with references. The references were nude


Oh yeah I did a suggestive drawing... I forgot about that LOL. Besides the subject matter, they were followed loosely from another reference about figure drawing... just thought I'd have a little fun with it


A perspective study of the front of my house


My bathtub. The fish I caught just to draw in this picture.


Frank lying on the couch. How often do I draw him...?


Random study from a photo of myself

Art Update: "It's been a while..."

I have had the opportunity to update recently, but decided to accumulate a little more before I posted this one. I just got the Wacom Art Pen for my Intuos4. It's a little bit of an investment ($99...). It adds barrel rotation (ability for brush tools to pick up rotation of hand) so adds more natural characteristics and of course allows me to turn brush tips so I can get into tiny corners (my biggest gripe)

I don't like using round brushes, so I generally like to stick with ovals, flats, or a "chipped" tip of some kind. I have to get used to the rotating, because Photoshop doesn't show how much, when you're rotating (not in the cursor anyway...), so it'll take some getting used to....

Anyway, I am having a conundrum with Amanda's painting. I am trying to decide whether to crop it or if I should paint before the borders and go back to the letter size. My intention is to frame it. I can drop it, but it will leave white borders on the side, and I'm not sure if I will be successful finding a frame for it. Of course, if I matted it, it wouldn't be a problem. I don't have $ for matte...

So trying to decide if I should continue with a previous background, but I like the cropped version a lot. I just think it fits better, is airy, simplistic... I can try to continue the background, but the problem with it is it feels a bit busy. There are some concepts I want to try, but I don't know if I have room for. Decisions... I might post in an art forum somewhere to get some creative suggestions.




A cartoon version of my own face. Got funny towards the end and technically that was not finished, so not really a complete idea (yet)





From a previous composition. I have been trying to see if I can replicate the same face. Also trying the new pen












Stuff I used to do. Was just to relax



Now for latest from my sketchbook:




























Waiting area of a restaurant outside. It's fine except we had to get up before I could sketch the background (it was a boring parking lot anyway...)



Amanda painting
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