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.

Sorolla Sketches I Did At The San Diego Museum Of Art Exhibition

A few months back there was an exhibit of Joaquin Sorolla at the San Diego Museum of Art. I bought a membership to the museum just so that I could go there and sketch the paintings while the exhibit was going on. I ended up going once or twice a week to sketch. For many of the sketches, I was trying to emulate his brush work with pencil strokes. I am generally much tighter of an artist, so it was a good exercise to help depict forms with less detail and more simplicity. Hopefully the museum will continue to get artists of this caliber. Always fun to see masterful artworks in person and getting the chance to study them.

Some 5x7s - Godzilla Monsters and Lady

Here are some recent pieces I have done while working on larger paintings and drawings. I have been doing a bunch of Godzilla stuff. I saw the recent movie, which I liked, for the most part. I loved this stuff as a kid, and seen the movies who knows how many times. I wanted to do some smaller paintings for practice and fun. The dog sketch is my roommates dog, her name is Lady. She is a sweet dog and spends a lot of time in my room. She sheds a lot though, you could make a new small dog with the amount of hair that gets swept up.