Yakima River Caynon

Yakima River Caynon...basically where I grew up. This was done in black prismacolor and charcoal.

Accepted!!!!

I was just accepted into my first National Exhibition! My acceptance letter read:

"Congratulations! Your work has been accepted into the Lancaster County Art Association National Juried Exhibition. The juror reviewed all slides and CD images on April 25th and was impressed with the quality of the work you entered. "

I had submitted 2 works for this show. The work accepted was "My Other Easle" which depicts my desk scattered with papers and other items that I use when I'm posting online. Above is a picture of the piece.

The exhibit opens on Sunday June 14th and runs until July 23rd. If you'd like to go please let me know and I'll give you the gallery address.

Hooray!!!

I'm Back!

I'm back home and ready to get working! I came in first in the American Artist competition, so thanks to everyone who voted!

Vote!

http://watercolor.americanartistcompetitions.com/bin/Rate

Lucky Day

Finished?

Update

update

sorry for the poor picture quality. i've found that drawing money is TRICKY to say the least

More Progress

Progress

Next Project

Ok, so I have 11 days to get my final projects done for the CPSA annual exhibit. They will accept 2 pieces from each artist, which will be judged and may or may not be allowed in the show.

I'll be posting project progress photos as I can. This drawing is way to complex to video!

Ideally (and what I have sketched) will be as follows.

-Wooden tabletop
-Red Bull can
-crumpled dollar bill
-daisy
-pencil
-notebook paper

The above listed objects are laying on a tabletop. I'm going for photorealism, so I'm aiming at making it look as realistic as possible.

Willy Wonka

Video coming soon!

Almost finished

Next Piece

Final Submissions

These are the 4 completed pieces that are being submitted to Wild Things. The package is ready (took 14 hours) to be mailed. The decisions are supposed to be emailed to us by April 10th. I'm holding my breath.

Finished Wolf!!!

Although lots and lots of burnishing went into creating this guy I think it paid off in the end. Finally a decent wolf! Now to come up with a snazzy name for it....

Wolf Progress

Wolf

This is my next attempt at a wolf. I never can seem to get one the way I want it. I'm so particular about getting the hair right that I always end up scraping the drawing half way thru. Hopefully this one turns out better.

Basic face shape is done. I'm adding more darks here.

Adding variation by using some dark browns. I'm burnishing between every layer to give depth. This technique takes a long time, but it does pay off.

Using my eraser and my white colored pencil, I add in some highlights.

The wolf is finally taking shape here! The added lightness of the neck area helped calm down the darks in his face. This marks the 4 hour point of drawing.

Einstein

Fun Einstein drawing. Look at the links to the right to see the video of how he was made.

Postcards

I received the postcards today that I ordered last week from Zazzle. I have to say that I'm beyond impressed with the quality of them. Each was made on heavy cardstock, has a glossy front finish and accurately represents my artwork.

I like that you can design them however you like, both the front and the back. They turned out great!

Wild Thing?

I have a hard time finding this monkey wild. I think it's because I find him so cute! I've been trying to look at things "outside the box" when it comes to the exhibit that is fast approaching. When I think of wild things, I tend to think of things that scare me....reptiles mostly. Maybe that's why I've been more inclined to draw them.

Anyway, this guy is done. If he's destined to be in the show yet, i'm not entirely sure. I still have another few days to decide.

Gumballs

The challenge of this is making them all look seperate and shiny.

Sunset

Masking Fluid Gone!

Now comes the details!

Seadragon

I used masking fluid to fill in the dragon after I drew it. This has allowed me to color around it, and I'll remove it later. It will leave the blank paper underneath the part that was masked.

Finished Eye

14-15 hours. A few mistakes. Good enough for the "Wild Things" exhibit? Guess we'll see

Wild?!

So, I've decided to go a different direction with my reptile eye. Afterall, it needs to be wild right? I'm pleased with how this looks so far. I'll add more green to the rest of the head and then gradually add more purple back in on some of the larger scales. I also added some yellow and orange to the eye, to give it more depth.

Progress

First layer of scales drawn in

I marked the darkest scales so I wouldn't accidently fill them in wrong. Then began filling in the green scales with 4 different shades of green/blue.

Highlights with yellow

First layer complete

Finished Eye

I think I've gotten to a point where I can move on with the scales. I always start with the eyes of an animal and I won't move on until I've got them right. I might need to come back to this and fix a few things once I have the green in around it, but I won't know that until I start. Green here I come!