This is a new look I have been playing with. It is ink on clayboard, and then scratched back off again....white on black and black on white....very fun! gotta figure out some color in there too...
Recently in Figures Category
Book Number 4 in the Calvin Coconut Series. Graham Salisbury author, and pub'd by Wendy Lamb Books.
Here are three shots of the painting in progress. I started this while on vacation in Maine. It is watercolor on a pre-primed board. The trick is knowing when to stop...more stages coming...probably...maybe not...what do you think?
Here are three portraits of siblings I painted in oil. I just finsihed them last week.
This is an ink drawing from my (paper) sketchbook. It is actually a study for an oil painting I have not quite finished,(what a surprise!)
It is my mother's face. I did not try to do a likeness of my mother, nor was I even thinking about my mother when I drew this picture. My mother died five years ago. I miss her so much. I was shocked when I finished the drawing and saw her face, (well, it is not really finished!)
This has happened to me before. Many times. Not only drawing those who have departed this life, but those whom I need to forgive, or those I have unfinished business. It is a very curious phenomenon.
Another clayboard pencil drawing. I sure love that surface.
Here is another clayboard drawing. Notice it is unfinished. I do that a lot. I saw this as a woman, but, like many of these drawings and paintings I have been making lately, there is a bit of androgeny going on. I don't intentionally draw them like that, it just happens. I am probably trying to strike a balance between the masculine and feminine. But what I really enjoy, is watching my subconscious surface in these drawings. It is happening more and more lately. More on that later....
Finally! A February entry. I have been swamped with work, which is a good thing. So, while slaving away in the studio, I kept thinking about this sketchbook and how I haven't made any entries lately. Looking around me, I thought,"I'll just scan in some of the stuff on the walls..." So, here are two drawings. Both are are small pencil studies on clayboard. A great surface, but not much tooth, which means I can't build up layers of linework. I did the first drawing from photo reference, and then the beastman followed shortly after.
This is an unpublished sample I did a few years back, while working on "Little Scraggly Hair," written by Lynn Cullen, pub'd by Holiday House, 2003.
This was made at the point where I am trying to figure out what kind of style to use. Every picture book has a different flavor. I am always feeling out different styles in the beginning stages of working on a pic book, so I can best honor the story's personality. I like the dirty pencil line look of this piece, I think it goes well with the text. I especially like the relationship of the woman to the zebra. Unfortunately there is a nasty water stain traveling right through her face and across the top. I photoshopped most of it out....
Here are the original drawing and the played with drawing. I opened the original this time in Illustrator. I selected it and ordered the "Live Trace" command. It took forever. I really wanted to color it, but it was in a black and white mode(I haven't figured out why), and because everything took forever,(the file is HUGE), I gave up trying to change it to color and ended up with that gray tone. Then I thought, "OOOOO, nice! I'll throw it into photo shop and use white brush strokes on top of the gray! fun!
