Broken - Still Life (Finished)

Broken, 13"x9.25"

I finished this piece back in May. I started it back in November 2014 so it took a solid six months to finish. 

Travel Sketches - Part 1

I took a vacation to Western Massachusetts in November and got tons of sketching in. These two are from the train ride up--a quick portrait of my friend and a sketch of her hands as she passed the time with mobile gaming. More to come!

Portrait of a Boy, In Progress

Portrait of a Boy, 14"x13", watercolor

This is about 5 hours' worth of work. Starting to take shape! I'm working on adding light shadows and a few darks for contrast. I managed to figure out a good setup with my camera and tripod and shot some video while I painted, as well. If you're interested in watching me paint the eyes, check out the video below. It's a time lapse of 17 minutes of painting. I'm planning on making more videos like this as time allows.

Portrait of a Boy

Nothing much to see yet, since I've only been able to work for about an hour at a time in the evenings, but I expect to get a lot more work done tomorrow. At this point, I've done the first two washes of color and the first layer of pinks. For now, here's a detail of the painting.

Banjo!!

I brought my sketchbook along to a banjo performance Wednesday night. I was a little hesitant, wondering what kind of view I would have--would I even be able to see well enough to draw? 

But I am so glad I brought my supplies!

My friend snagged great seats in the third row and I had a fantastic view throughout the performance. It was so much fun to sketch the banjoists as they played. It was a real challenge to get the musicians in proportion with their banjos.

It was pretty easy to draw the male banjoist from the start. Which is why I didn't draw him very much--I was obsessed with trying to get the female banjoist down perfectly. 

And after four or five attempts, I finally cracked the code (whatever it was!) and got it down. She was much more animated than her counterpart, so she presented a greater challenge... and greater reward: more animated, exuberant drawings...

... including gesture drawings of her dancing.

I had a blast! Might need to try to make it to more musical/theater performances.

The music was beautiful, too. Very peaceful and fulfilling to do what I love while listening to beautiful music being played by someone who is doing what they love.

New Portrait Commission

I'm starting work on a new portrait commission--playing around with possible compositions right now. Here's a thumbnail I sketched up tonight.

Portrait from Life

This is one of several sketches I did a couple of weeks ago over pizza with one of my best friends, Michelle. The funny thing about drawing people is that some are easy to draw, and some are hard. I suppose it must have to do with their features--but I've never identified any one feature that makes one person harder to draw than another. Michelle has always been easy for me to draw, ever since the first day I drew her in art class eight years ago. 

Dusting Off the Ol' Graphite Pencils

My lovely parents bought me a full spread of solid graphite drawing pencils for Christmas and I finally packed them up and took them with me on an excursion. I've been neglecting my sketching lately--largely, I think, because I've been struggling to find a new place to do it. I used to sketch all the time in college classes, and take breaks at coffee houses for more sketching. Outside college, and in the working world, where do I go to draw?

I spent last Saturday afternoon at a brewery, sipping a beer and drawing anyone in my line of sight.

A cyclist who came in to cool down:

I'm planning on making this a regular thing--either drawing at a brewery, or a coffee house, or a park. The long, long hiatus I had from drawing people from life caused me to almost forget how much I enjoy it.

Broken - Still Life

In keeping with my New Year's Resolution, here's what I'm working on now. Not the best quality photos, given that there wasn't any natural light. I'll definitely take better pictures once it's finished.

 

A burnt-out lightbulb, a yellow flower, and a few pages torn out of an old, less-than-mint condition copy of The Simarillion. These are just a few things I had laying around my apartment. Put together a still life, sketched out a drawing, and started painting.

New Year's Resolution

Wow, it's been a while since I updated this blog! Well, I'm still alive. Just trying to juggle art with full-time, non-art related work. It's an adjustment that I'd like to think I'm finally starting to get better at.

My New Year's Resolution is to Make More Art and be more consistent about sharing it.

So here's a teaser picture of my studio with my current painting on the table. I'll post a better picture of the painting soon (I need to watermark it first, which means resurrecting my dying MacBook).

I've been trying to adjust to making art in a tiny little apartment where my drawing table doubles as my dining table, and my studio consists of 1 table and 1 overcrowded plastic taboret. My current struggle is figuring out the best light source for painting.

My current studio set-up, complete with laptop and iPhoto, because I went several months without a digital camera and had to resort to taking pictures with my phone (then viewing them on the computer, since I have no printer). Two lamps. Neither by itself is good enough--alone, each casts a huge shadow from my hand right onto whatever I'm working on. But the two-lamp solution is working for now. 

Side note--this is not the first time I've painted by referencing images on a computer. This painting was also done largely by glancing back and forth at pictures on a screen. A pain in the butt, compared to looking at prints. But doable.