Pet Portraits!

Here are a few pet portraits that I have done in the last few months. The cat is my first oil painted pet portrait. Very happy with how it turned out and had a lot of fun painting him. I hope I get to do more pet oil paintings down the road. The little poodle mix, Ariel, was a dog I wish I could have adopted. I am not typically a poodle person, but she looked like a little teddy bear and was a really sweet dog, just so happy!

Recent Portrait Drawings

Here are several portrait drawings that I have done over the last few weeks at Watts Atelier. Two of the drawings are from last semester. I have been trying different charcoals out other than the regular conte, as well as some different surfaces, besides just newsprint. I have been enjoying using different materials and will keep experimenting with them, along with other trying other materials as well. I picked up some heavy ply board the other day, one side was quite smooth, I am looking forward to trying it out.

Recent Pet Portraits

Here are some pet portraits that I have done recently. The large cat piece I finished the other day. I am quite happy with how it turned out. I would say that it is my best pet portrait so far. The reclined pose and white fur in the light was biggest challenge of the drawing. I don't do a lot of reclined poses and much of the white fur was blown out in the photo. The 5x7 drawings were all done from a contest on my Facebook page, where I had people submit photos of their pets and I would pick my favorite one and did a drawing. I offered the drawings to the owners at a discounted price if they chose to buy it. So check out my Facebook page, I will probably be doing the contest again sometime soon. 

 

Gigan!

This is an 18x24 oil painting I did of one of my favorite Godzilla monsters, Gigan! As a kid, he was pretty freaky, even today he is still bizarre looking. I still like the design of this monster. One of the difficulties of this painting was how big the monster ended up being. I knew I wanted to paint it 18x24, but just looking at my sketch, I did not realize how big that really was. Then I blew up my sketch and transferred the drawing to board, and saw how big this painting was. A lot of time went into the painting, I probably repainted the head 3 or 4 times along with other parts of the painting. I just was not used to painting this large and tight. Overall I am quite happy with the results!

Long Figure Study - Back Pose

Last semester I taught a long portrait and figure class at Watts Atelier. This is the demo that I did for my class. I finished the rest of it at home from a photo. I thought that doing a back pose, that this drawing would go by faster. Generally back poses tend to be faster drawings in my experience, you don't have to worry about a face. I was wrong though, I still ended up spending 40 + hours on this drawing! I am quite happy with the result. I was also trying to push  the 3 dimensionality of the figure without the use of a background, I think it worked out well.

Recent Animal Drawings

Here are some recent animal drawings I have done over the last few months or so. The large parrot drawing I did as a class demo awhile back at Watts Atelier in my animal portrait class. I recently finished it on my own time. These other portraits have been donation pieces for various events. I also did a contest on my Facebook page, where I had people post photos of their pets. I then selected my favorite photo to do a drawing from. If that person decided they wanted to buy the drawing, offered it at a discounted price and free shipping. I plan on doing this regularly, so please check out my page.

Long Figure Drawing To Start Off The New Years!

I haven't posted much lately and I plan on doing it more this year, at least that's how it always starts off. This is a 40+ hour drawing done in graphite on 18x24 smooth Strathmore Bristol, 400 series. I did this for my class demo for my long figure drawing class at Watts Atelier earlier in the year. I probably did about 6 hours from life and had to do the rest from a photo. I am real proud of this drawing, especially with all the work that went into the chair. It was a challenge and a struggle, felt like it was never going to end. I am quite happy with the result. Don't get me wrong though, the figure is the best part, but whenever certain challenges arise in a drawing or a painting, I like to meet these challenges. No matter how difficult they might end up being, at the end of the day, it will make you a better artist, whether that challenge was a success or a failure.