My Last Post?

The Flower of Lucca

Another Saint Portrait for the Series

It's finally done. I started this portrait back in February 2022 and haven't gotten around to finishing until now. I originally started recording this one - I only have footage of the face, the rest I just photographed progress pictures.

If you didn't know, this one is of Saint Gemma of Galgani - she was born near Lucca, a city in Italy. She's known for suffering the passion - that is why she's referred to as "Daughter of the Passion," but my sister will tell you more about her life and the many sufferings she underwent on her blog, Today with Miss K. She might even tell you about St. Gemma's Diary that was stolen and burned. She's even got a handy dandy "Saints Biographies and Portraits" tab on the home page that will take you right there.

But, I'm not here to give a biography post, I'm more here to tell you about the drawing. This one's a little interesting because I decided to go with a graphite drawing unlike my other colored pencil drawings. It went well as I was recording the face and then I just never got around to finishing. I'm hoping to video the rest of the series.

Without further ado let me introduce the progress photos...and the video.

This is the first photo after I started drawing again in December.

Her clothes darken here on the right shoulder.

I'm sure you can see the progress here. I don't need to point it out!

Ohh, we're getting closer.

And the final!

The Video

Let me know your thoughts on this portrait of Saint Gemma!

For those of you concerned, this is not my last post, just the last post of the year!

Thank you for Viewing this Blog

Please visit the YouTube channel, Sketched Drawn & Painted - YouTube to see all of the "Saints on 7.25 x 9.75 Paper"

"If you really want to love Jesus, first learn to suffer, because suffering teaches you to love." 

-Saint Gemma of Galgani

October is here ... well it was

Pumpkin Carving

Welcome back to the blog. 2022 is already gone and I've barely drawn anything but I do have a nice pumpkin carving to share. We went to Barten's Pumpkin Patch and harvested a few hefty pumpkins and drug them home to carve for the fall season.

And there it is, my pumpkin is the one closest to the camera. I began after I chose a carving idea.

And that is the finished product, the Blessed Virgin Mary. The mailman even complimented it as he delivered our mail.

And this is how it looks with a candle in it at night!

Thank you for looking at my pumpkin!

Pyrography

What is it you may ask?

Just as it sounds - pyro- comes from Greek, where it has the meaning "fire, heat, high temperature and the English suffix -graphy means a "field of study" or related to "writing" a book, and is an anglicization of the French -graphie inherited from the Latin -graphia, which is a transliterated direct borrowing from Greek.

Enough with the English, let's get right into it! You may be thinking, "He's done something with fire, this could be interesting. Fire Art!" And if you thought that, you are correct - some call it pyrography, some call it wood burning, but many others call it Fire Art! I will create a new tab on the web page for all of my fire art.

I've done many wood burnings in the past, but have never posted one for all to see. (actually I may have posted the Vikings wood burning last year) After I type a few more sentences you will see how the project came together.

The Story

It was August; August 9th to be exact, the county fairs were on the rise. I could smell it - corndogs, mini donuts, barns that smelled of manure, but most importantly the Steele County Fair was amidst the excitement! And I had four days to get some projects done. Sign me up I said and that was how it began.

As I pondered on how I was to finish two paintings, one drawing, a wooden craft, and two wood burnings in four days I came to the conclusion that yes...yes, they were, I already had two paintings, one drawing, and a wooden craft done. All I had left were the two wood burnings. And of course, I set out to tackle the wood burnings, or the Fire Art.

I set out to wood burn the great Byron Buxton of the Minnesota Twins - my brother Dominic would also be doing Fire Art of him. But as I kept looking for the perfect photo to transform into Fire Art another idea hit me.

I took the tape measure and measured a piece of pine board that had all ready been cut - it measured 13.50 inches by 21.50 inches. I smacked my head with the palm of my hand (no not really) and then remembered that I still had a license for Revu Bluebeam - What? All of you say who? Revu who? It's just a PDF writer/reader that architects and engineers use. But with that I created a sheet the size of the wood and pulled in the picture I was to use and was able to print the whole document with multiple sheets of 8.50 by 11 paper.

And now for the progress pictures:

Day One:

Tracing the pattern on to wood. As you can see in the next pictures, the tracing was done in six different segments, I just don't have pictures of each segment so you'll have to use your imagination. The top, middle, and bottom each had two sides.

Day Two:

More tracing.

Day Three:

The Fire Art begins.

Day Four:

The finishing touches.

Thank you for viewing my Fire Art!

And now off to the fair! What would you like to see next?

Painting the wall!

 I Painted the Wall!

No not literally - artistically! No...I actually created, no came up with an idea of a painting - but made a painting without painting. You may wonder if that is possible.

Can one paint without painting? I never thought so - I always thought you had to paint to paint, but it turns out you don't have to paint to paint. Now you're confused!

No need to worry. The only way is … if someone did it before you and then you frame it!

But before I explain any further on my painting without painting, let me explain how it came to be.

How it came to be?

Fast behind a couple of years to this blog post - Blog Link - It was January 10th, 2021 - so a little over a year - actually on my blogirthday. I had created a picture of the Immaculate Heart of Mary with pastels and framed it on a big wooden frame and hung it on the north wall of the dining room.

Now fast forward many months to when my brother started throwing bouncy balls continuously, nonstop at the wall, specifically the north wall.

Now fast forward a few days, maybe a couple of months. Somehow a rubber object kinda shaped like a sphere was hurled through the air uncontrollably, some might say controlled, others might not, and then imagine glass being shattered. (pause here to imagine the glass being shattered. Or if you are super interested/bored/over achieving click here to see glass shattered.)

But it doesn't stop there. The picture hung there for a few more weeks or days until it was struck again and finally the back of the frame gave out and the picture fell out.

Now just for a moment imagine an empty frame hanging on a white popcorn textured wall. Yes? You have that in your mind, now look below at the photo - were you close?

Yes. That is how it came to be. I call it "Popcorn" others call it an empty frame hanging on the wall.