Merry Christmas

Here's a picture of my new painting for my Christmas post. I started this last Thursday:


I finished my last painting, but the paper's so warped that I can't get a decent photograph of it yet. I'll post a picture once the painting's flattened.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Studio Time

I'll be working in studio 9 in the Torpedo Factory Art Center this holiday season, from December 17 to January 17.
Come and say hi! :-)

Torpedo Factory Art Center
105 N. Union St.
Alexandria, VA 22314

New Painting

I just started this one yesterday:


It's 12.25" x 10". Probably about a third of the way done... I need to finish the hair, do the shirt and background, and then finish the face and neck.

Something Fishy

I thought it would be fun to post pictures of a couple of my Color Theory projects. These are both color progression studies, gouache on bristol board.




I got the idea for this one when... uh... I don't know how I got this idea. I was just in a fishy mood, I guess. :-P

Doodles!

Haven't had the time to start a new painting yet, so here are some doodles.


I doodled this during a group presentation in Sociology last week. Lotta people.


And this was from this morning, again in Sociology. The teacher comes in fifteen minutes late every day, and for some reason, there's a piano in the classroom. So this morning before the teacher came in, a couple of guys were playing the piano. They were pretty good. So we had some nice entertainment for a while before class; we got to hear bits of Für Elise, chopsticks, and some other classical songs, as well as some notes from a Beastie Boys song... I've had that stuck in my head all day. And it's still stuck in my head.

Oh, and here's a picture of my cat, helping me photograph my sketchbook.

Portrait of a Girl

I just realized I haven't posted in two weeks. Oops. Sorry about that. I've been incredibly busy lately. Anyway, here's what I've been working on in between the busyness:


Finished it Sunday. It's about 10"x10".

Thanksgiving Weekend

I will be subletting in the Torpedo Factory next weekend. My work will be in Studio 9 from the 24th to the 26th, and I'll be there Friday and Sunday. Hope to see you there! :-)

Torpedo Factory Art Center
105 N Union Street
Alexandria VA 22314

Untitled

No title yet, but done nonetheless:


Finished it last Saturday.

Doodles

Doodles from Geology last night:



And doodles of a group presentation in Sociology this morning:

Red and Green...

Started this one last week. I'm about 3/4 the way done on it... Just need to finish the hand and jewelry and then do some touchups. The paper's getting really warped, so it's a pretty distorted photo, but once the painting's done I'll post a better pic.

You Can Tell It's Monday...

... because my car broke down. It's deader than a doorknob. Oh, and one of the door handles just broke, too.
Better to be stranded at home than by the road, though.

Anyway, because I was stranded at home with nothing to do, I broke out my oil paints and did this:


I've been meaning to do an oil painting, but every time I thought of doing it, I didn't have the time. Today, though, I had so much time on my hands I hardly knew what to do with it.

Katie in Shades

Katie in Shades, 26" x 15.5"


Katie in Shades (detail)

Shades (In Progress)

About 3/4 the way done... I just need to finish the hair and the shirt.

Portrait of Katie (Finished)

Shades (In Progress)

Shades

Started this one today -


26.25 x 15.5

Also finished the Portrait of Katie, but I don't have a photo of it yet. I'll post a picture of it soon.

Mini Update

Updated with a better photograph of Katelynn.

Another Sketch

Here's a sketch I did a couple nights ago in Geology... Just a bunch of doodles of the professor's hands. He gestures a lot while he talks, so it's really fun to try to draw his hands as he makes a point.

Portrait of Katie (In Progress)

17" x 16"

Portrait of Conner

17" x 15"

Finished it Sunday.

Update

Updated with a better photo of Carson. There's also a final photo of the Portrait of Carson. I just finished another commission, so I'll be posting a picture of that in the next few days.

Katelynn

26"x15.5"

Just finished it this afternoon! I'm VERY happy with it. I think it might just be my new favorite.

Surprise!

More sketches.

My sociology teacher was late (again), so that gave me lots of time to draw...


This was before the teacher arrived...




And these bottom two are from during the lecture. I was stuck on hands in the last one... I count at least 10 sets of hands and arms in there, not counting the random disembodied hands floating around.



I also finally had time to paint today, so I got a lot of work done on Katelynn. I'll post pictures sometime in the next few days.

Yet More Sketches

So I said I wouldn't have any sketches from Color Theory - I lied. These are actually from before class. For some reason, everybody's always in the room at least 30 minutes ahead of time. All the more reason for me to get there super early. Means I get plenty of people to draw while I wait for class to start.

The Second First Day

Sketches from the second First Day of school...
Sociology today. The teacher was thirty minutes late, so I had a fun time sketching while the class waited...

Sketches...!

I should have been doing this last year. But, better late than never. Classroom sketches... These ones are from Geology tonight.


(The teacher, the guy that sits right in front of me, and... somebody's ear.)


(Hands of the woman sitting in front of me, holding her textbook.)

These'll probably get boring after a while, though. (Same people over and over again...) I don't really have a great view of the classroom from my seat. (I probably should've sat in the back... Oh well. I still have a good view of this guy's ear...) Geology will be more boring just because the seats are arranged in traditional rows. In my Foreign Policy class last spring, the desks were arranged in a U shape, so from where I sat, I could see every single occupant of the room.

I almost definitely won't have any sketches from Color Theory, since that'll be a lot more work (compared to note-taking). But I still have Sociology and Film, so maybe there will be plenty of doodle time in those classes.

Needless to say, progress on my current painting has stalled. But I'll probably have a new photo of it to post come Sunday.

Katelynn

26" x 15.5"
Started this one this morning, and only just quit for the day. I got a lot of work done on it today, but I probably won't be able to keep up the pace over the next few days - college starts again Monday. So that'll cut into my painting time, but it also means I'll (hopefully) be doing a lot more sketches.

Portrait of Carson

Finished it today.

Art League International Landscape Show

Just started this one today:


Portrait of Carson, 17" x 15".


Also, my painting of Schrollbach, Germany was accepted into the Art League's August International Landscape Membership Show. The show will be up through September 4 at the Art League Gallery, located in the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Old Town Alexandria.

Photograph and a Sketch

Fireworks on the beach...


... and my brother sleeping in a chair. (9"x12", graphite)

Mentioned in the Post

The Washington Post today featured a photograph of my Katie Looking Down. In the Style section, author Lavanya Ramanathan writes about two area shows (Decompositions, by Pamela Zilly, and the Fraser Gallery's International Art Competition) to close next week.

Sketches

Just a couple of sketches I doodled last week.

Carson (Finished)

Just added the finishing touches this afternoon.

Carson

Almost done. Just gotta finish the shirt, mouth, and hairline, then do a few general touch-ups.

Carson

About 3/4 the way done.

Carson Again

A Day Later

Carson

I just started this one of my newest model, and got to work on it all day. I was having so much fun with it that I didn't even take a lunch break, just had some cookies while I worked. (Healthy, huh?)

It's 17"x16.5", so it's the perfect size, not too big, not too small. Best size to get all the tiny little details that I love.

Miranda

16" x 10.5"

Finished this one last week.

The July Art League All Media Show

My portrait of Megan has received in Equal Award in this month's Art League Show, where it will be hanging until August 7. The show was juried by Hank Harmon and is located inside the Torpedo Factory Art Center.

105 North Union Street
Alexandria VA 22314

Another Ink Drawing and an Update

I also posted a better photograph of this painting

Lions and Tigers and Bears...

Well, no lions or tigers. But I have a bear!


Got up early (painfully early) for a trip to the zoo to sketch the animals. I had my heart all set on drawing lions and tigers, but none of them would oblige me. There was one lion lounging way too far away to draw, and the tigers were not to be found. But I found the cheetahs.


Interestingly enough, right next door to the cheetahs were... zebras.


Why they would put prey right next door to predator, I don't know.
Fortunately, they keep the free-ranging monkeys far away from the carnivores...
I didn't get to draw any of the free-ranging monkeys, since they were all hiding in the trees, but I got a nice view of some gibbons that were chilling (literally) next to a fan in their pen.



But the most fun I had all day was sketching the flamingos and cranes.










So now that my hands are stained black from doing ink drawings all day, I've decided that I definitely prefer the brush to the pen. (That could be why I only did two drawings in pen during the whole day...) The brush is lighter, easier to use, and its strokes are smoother and more nuanced. Being a painter to begin with might also have something to do with my preference.

I used two sketchbooks today - a medium-sized Strathmore and a medium-sized, hard-bound Canson. I like the Canson better than the Strathmore, since the paper is slightly heavier, the pages are easier to turn, and it generally lasts longer. But it's also more expensive, so I tend to go with Strathmore sketchbooks. I used a #1 round Princeton watercolor brush and Higgins Black India Ink.