Finally!!! Something new!!!

This is a digital painting I did for the Spaceman topic on the Avalanche art blog.  I've never really done a charicature like this before, so it was definitely a learning experience for me.  I think I still have a lot to learn.

A few more drawings from last year...

Time to clean out the fridge again....

These were starting to get moldy. I've got another large stack of drawings waiting to get photographed and posted. I've also got a few digital paintings in the works. Hopefully, I can get them done before the next century.

Friday Figure Drawing

There are some things going on in this one that I kind of like. Again, this is a 1.5 hour drawing done from life using charcoal on paper.

More of the same....

I was really tempted to go into photoshop (well, painter actually) and clean up some of the line work on this one, especially on her arm. I mean, what's up with the heavy black lines. I really need to ease up a bit sometimes.... ok... most of the time.

Another one from the archive...

This is a 1.5 hour life-drawing using charcoal on paper.

Yes, I'm still alive...

Here's another figure drawing from a few months ago. I actually have several drawings that are all photographed and ready to post, but I figured that this time I would hang on to them and post one every few weeks rather than all at once. This way I can post on a more regular basis even if I'm being a slacker and not producing anything new for my blog.

Once again this drawing is from the weekly drawing session at Avalanche. It's a 1.5 hour drawing using charcoal on paper and, as always, I could have used more time.

A Small Taste...

Here's a portion of a painting that I started several months ago for the Avalanche Art Blog that I haven't had a chance to finish yet. The theme was 1920's Gangster. Maybe when crunch time here at work is over I'll get around to finishing it. In the meantime, as I sit here waiting for the latest build of our game to download onto my machine, I thought I'd post this little teaser.

By the way... I don't advocate smoking in any form. Smoking is bad for your health, so don't do it kids.

Surprise!!! Another Figure Drawing

I had been putting off posting any new figure drawings because I've been working on a painting that I wanted to post first, but alas, work is really busy right now and I still don't have the painting finished. Maybe at the end of the summer when "crunch time" is over I'll be able to finish the painting. Until then, you'll just have to make due with another figure drawing.

Figure Drawing... Again

I said it would never happen again, yet here we are, another drawing posted on the day it was made. There's some weirdness going on in a few places in this drawing, but on the whole, I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. I really would have liked another hour to spend on this drawing... heck, another half-hour probably would have been enough.

Happy Leap Year Everyone!

Today's Drawing...

Check it out... I actually did a drawing and posted it on the same day! It'll probably never happen again.

Another Friday Life Drawing...

I tried to post a second drawing along with this one but for some reason I kept getting an error. Oh well, this was the better of the two anyway. Maybe I'll try again with the other drawing some other time.

Life Drawing Dump 4

Well, here's another batch of drawings from the friday morning life drawing sessions at Avalanche. The last drawing is one of my co-workers, Bryan Lefler. The model didn't show up that day so Bryan stepped in like a champ and sat for us. Unfortunately my poor drawing doesn't capture his amazing beauty. ;) I'd have to say that the second drawing from the top is the only one in the bunch that I'm really pleased with. Maybe the new color I used (on accident) has secret powers that enhance the abilities of it's user... or maybe I just got lucky.

The Happiest Place On Earth

It's funny how much screaming and crying and fits of utter despair take place at Disneyland, the so-called "happiest place on earth". I'd hate to see what the saddest place on earth is like. As I'm sure you've guessed, I took my family to Disneyland a few weeks ago. November turned out to be a great time of the year to go. The lines were short and the weather was beautiful! The top picture is a picture of me, my daughter, my screaming son, and my nephew in front of the Haunted Mansion. My son is screaming because he REALLY doesn't want to have his picture taken. I'm not sure why, but sometimes on this trip he would act shy and throw a fit if we tried to take his picture. At other times he would be really cute and ham it up for the camera. I guess it's a three-year-old thing. We spent three days at Disneyland and at about six o'clock on the first and second days, my son would stop, look up at me and announce, "I'm done walking, dad". So I'd carry him arround the park until it closed at 8:30 or so, and then carry him back to our hotel room. As soon as we got outside the park, he would fall asleep in my arms, or, as is the case in the above picture, while sitting on my shoulders. On the third day I decided my back, and arms, and neck, and pretty much the rest of my body, couldn't handle lugging my 45 pound son back to the hotel again, so we brought the stroller along. Anyway, it ended up being a great trip. We all had fun and the kids are already looking forward to next year.

As for an art update?... Well, for the past couple of months I've been in the process of finishing my basement. I've contracted most of the work out, but some of it my wife and I have been doing ourselves, and unfortunately, the parts that I've been doing have taken F O R E V E R. I've been spending every spare minute for the last few months hanging doors and putting up baseboard and crown moulding, so I haven't had a lot of time left over for working on any art for my blog. The good news is that I'm almost done with the basement. The really good news is that I'm putting an art studio in my basement where I'll be able to draw and paint to my hearts delight! The bad news is that I'm lazy and probably still won't update my blog very often. Ah well, at the very least I'll post some more life drawings soon.... if I ever remember to bring my camera to work.

More Drawrings...

I even threw in a gesture this time... just for kicks.

More Friday Life Drawings

The top drawing was done this morning and the bottom drawing was from last Friday. The drawing I did last week was turning out OK, but then I ran out of time. I always spend too much time trying to get the face right which never leaves me with enough time to get the rest of the figure to a more finished state. I really debated weather or not I should even post the one from today as it's a pretty terrible drawing, but I figure I might as well post my failures as well as my successes. Not that I consider everything else on here a success... far from it. But usually there is at least one part of my drawing that I'm pleased with; there's nothing in the drawing I did today that I'm really happy with. Oh well... better luck next time, I guess.

Life Drawing Dump 3

Well, I guess I had enough life drawings piled up already for this to qualify as a dump. Again, these are all from the Avalanche friday morning drawing sessions and they all took about an hour and a half to complete -- except for the very bottom one which is a two and a half hour drawing that I did today. I'm not sure if it actually looks any better than the one and a half hour drawings though. I've been trying something new lately, using black and brown and sometimes white nupastel and charcoal on toned paper. I think it looks kinda nice; the brown keeps the drawing warm but I can still get some deep blacks and cool shadows. It's a bit more work though. It's almost like I have to do the whole drawing twice. I haven't decide yet if it's worth the trouble... we'll see.

Life Drawing Dump 2

Here's another shload of drawings from the art sessions we have at work. These all took about an hour and a half, which these days, isn't enough time for me to do a decent finished drawing... gotta keep working on it. Hopefully, this will be my last big life drawing dump as in the future I'll post one or two drawings on a more regular basis.