Sketches and continuation

SKETCHES AND A WOOD BURNING

This past week I've have done a few art pieces (yup, I still do that - art) - to be more specific - two graphite sketches and a wood burning or pyrography (The art of burning on wood) piece.

Although it may be hard to see, believe me, it very well is a sketch of a grouse. Since this bird is classified as a game bird, I was on the verge of adding a hunter with a rifle aiming at the grouse's chest (yes I know, I should've added a gun) but I made the grouse to big and there was only room enough for a gun's barrel.

BUT WE CAN ALWAYS ADD A HUNTER (or two)

2nd Piece

Here is my second sketch - a line drawing of a woolly mammoth. And we can always add a hunter this one as well.

And my Pyrography Piece

There is no need to add a hunter to this one (hahahahahahahahahaha) I burned into the wood the scene of the Black Knight from Monty Python and finished it off with watercolors. If you ever have something bad happen to you or are feeling discouraged think of the Black Knight - Tis but a scratch - Never give up - Tis but a flesh wound.

And of course - What am I working On?

I am currently back working on the "Saints on 7.25 X 9.75" - Particularly Saint Agnes (I'm almost done with St. Agnes) and I will be continuing with St. Anthony. 

Following that I will create them in order of alphabet. The next letter B and then D and E and F and G and H and I and J and K and L and M and N and O and P and Q and R and S and T and U and V and W and X and Y and finishing with the letter Z. (Nope, I did not miss C, I have completed C. You thought I missed a letter!)

A sneak peak of St. Agnes - 

Thank You for reading and Viewing my Art.

"Drawing is putting a line around an idea." -Henri Matisse

3D

A NEW PERSPECTIVE

Last week I drew a couple of anamorphic drawings. 

Anamorphosis drawing:

'Featured snippet from the web'

"An anamorphic drawing is a way of drawing that creates a 3-D effect when the drawing is viewed through a camera at a certain angle. ... This will allow us to draw a picture exactly as it appears through the lens of a camera."

The first drawing is of a ladder leading down to a hole from a floating box, and in the background a house, road, cars, and trees rest in their dignified place.

The second drawing is of the same ladder, (or rather one similar) going into a similar whole leading up to a similar floating box. (The lines are more straight because of the use of a ruler.)

The next photos depicted are of the same drawing with the exception of a LEGO figure placed on top of the floating box.

The next drawing is of another ladder (yes, a different ladder!) and it is leaned up against to a what appears to be folded page, but is actually drawn on - I'm sure you'll be able to tell it is drawn!

And the last anamorphic drawing is of a door being opened. It was created first, (of coarse by drawing it), but then by folding it upright 90 degrees - (NOT Fahrenheit). 

At a certain angle it appears as if the door is actually protruding forth from the paper because of the illusion.

Thank You for viewing these anamorphic drawings!

So please ask me a foolish question so I can learn something. 

"A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer." 

-Bruce Lee

Comment or critique below. 

A DRAWING, SOME PAINTINGS, AND DISNEY CHARACTERS!

MY FIRST DRAWING

My latest drawing is of the sacred heart that I drew back in May of this year, only a month ago. 

AND PAINTINGS

My first painting I made for my sister's wedding. It is painted with oils. It features her sewing part of the heart while he welds on the heart, (yeah, that would just burn through on a real heart), but it could also be symbolism, like how everyone always says, "It's just a figure of speech."

The church in the background

The background is finished.

The finished piece. The picture got to much light bouncing off it.

SECOND PAINTING

My second painting is of St George and the Dragon. This is also done with oils on a 18 X 24 in canvas. I first did an under painting with acrylics, (I don't have that picture. I only took a picture of the final piece).

AND THE DISNEY CHARACTERS

The final piece for this post is the Disney character piece. I first sketched them, then traced over my sketch with a pen, and finally put some Prismacolor on the top. But before I did that I had the idea.

I will be sending this to my sister's new Nephews and Nieces because they love Disney. And they also seemed to like my drawings - they thought a simple sketch was amazing!

THANK YOU FOR VIEWING

AND THANK YOU INSPIRATION FOR YOUR IDEAS

Greetings! My guest Artist.

It's good to have you! Introduce yourself.

Hello! My name is ... actually I have a pencil name, it's kind of like Esteban's brush name, my pencil name is Alphonse Schwarz. I am excited to show off my artwork and my incredible talent. My first piece is of a horse rearing.

One day I was flipping through the pages of Esteban's step-by-step drawing book and stumbled upon a printout of a horse that he never got to, so I felt it was my destiny to draw it. 

My second piece is an acrylic painting of St. Dominic Savio. I painted it because I wanted to. Esteban thinks it is way better than his faces at ten years of age.

My third piece is a graphite drawing of the 16th president of Brazil ... No, I think it's the United States. If I'm not mistaken, his name is Abraham Lincoln. This one I was practicing my shading and portrait skills and Mr. Abe was the perfect subject. He turned out very good.

My fourth piece I am presenting is Chris Kratt, one of the Kratt brothers. They host an informative kids show about animals. This picture depicts Chris holding a Peregrine Falcon, the fastest bird on Earth - Who knows how fast birds are on Mars or Jupiter? Or for that matter any other planet?

My fifth piece is a sketch of St Anthony that I never finished - it's just a sketch. I used charcoal to draw it.

The sixth piece is an acrylic painting of the Kratt Brothers in their animated form. It is one of my best paintings, I'm way ahead of Esteban at my age! I love Wild Kratts, their show, so that is why I painted them. Oh, and it appears that Chris is missing his shoelaces.

My seventh piece is ... oh, I ran out of ideas. It's a piece of paper.

Esteban's Work

While away I've been doing a few sketches 

This first one here is of my brother - he will probably never send me a selfie again.

And after I got a birdie record of 119 volleys with my brother we each pulled out the lawn chairs - (no they were actually already out) and did a still life of the backyard.

Here is mine -

And here is Alphonse's - Not sure where his is.

I also got a request from my sister for her wedding. So I quickly sketched that out,

And here that is - 

And here are the rest of my sketches.

This is a scrapbook of a Lego guy's or Lego kid's summer adventures.

And here is my brother as a saxophone superhero.

Thank You for viewing this art!

Dogs, Sketches, and a Preliminary Idea ...

I Received Another Request 

And guess what it was ... Yes, more dogs. But first let me share a sketch I sketched. (ha ha)

COVID - 19

It's just a quick sketch, so not much detail or accuracy. It features a man (with a mask) by a cart load of toilet paper (hmm, why would you need that much) being sprayed with Lysol with someone in a hazmat suit. It just emphasizes the craziness that something so small that we can't even see (is it really there?) brings.

And while I was still in sketching mode these past weeks, I created a view of my living room ... well that came after the chair - I was only going to sketch the chair, but it kept expanding - I guess we can't only just sketch one thing, our ideas are always expanding.

After looking at this piece more, it reminds me of one of Picasso's drawings - "Stravinsky" The only reason is because we had to draw his piece in 9th grade art class.

Picasso's Stravinsky 

So I actually got two requests done!

And both of them were dogs ... I've practically drawn a whole pet shop or adoption center - dog place?

The first two dogs were at a cool angle looking down at them.

The second piece is of a dog who recently died.
The top is when it was young and the bottom is
a more recent picture of it.

So here is a gallery of all the dogs I've drawn for people

Yes, I know - I told you I've drawn a lot of dogs. 12 in all, plus the ones I've drawn for fun over the years, not that these weren't for fun though.

And Now The Preliminary Idea

Key word, "IDEA."  I don't have the sketch yet, but it is coming. It should be ready on the next post. And it will be an oil painting! I didn't say I would show you anything, it is a surprise. 

*Plus next post will feature a guest artist. He will showcase his work and tell his unique stories about them. He is very inspiring, like a balloon on a cactus - full of ideas.

Thank you for reading this post! Stay tuned for next post and the guest artist!

St Camillus and St. Cecilia

The C's are up for show...

St Camillus & St Cecilia - I shouldn't tell to much of their history because I have teamed up with my sister, Today With Miss K. She will tell all about them. The link to the Gallery of Saints is here - Saints Gallery along with the biographies underneath each picture.

I really like Prismacolor

It's been good to me, allowing me to shade it and create compositions with it - thank you Prisma.

This Saint Camillus picture started with the face and then proceeded to the most difficult piece - the black cassock. Yes, very difficult because many colors are used to make black, not just the black or it will look too flat. I tried my best to include all the colors without segregating too many. It didn't blend the best, but it still turned out okay. The hands were also a bit tricky.

After the black came my favorite, the browns and yellows, (really, I know what you're thinking), they really let me shade them in a continuous flow of value. That can be seen in the cloth covering Jesus. The background took many layers to get a nice smooth even coat.

Here are some progress pictures:

Starting a face!

There's Esteban hard at work.

Yes, look at that shading on the blanket!

The Finished Piece

St Cecilia - The Patron of Music

St Cecilia's piece brought along many different challenges compared to St Camillus. First of all the hands ... they were difficult, like all hands, especially as they were grabbing the bow and the violin in odd positions (how do those violinists hold their bows like that?) And then of course there was the shading of the hand.

But there was something I hadn't suspected that happened as I was finishing up with the details that suddenly happened ... I never thought it would occur ... keep reading to find out.

The blue towel shaded very nicely along with the face.

There are the browns that I love shading with.

This is a comparison of the backgrounds. On the left is how it looked without a background, just the white paper. And on the right is the shaded purple background.

The finished piece.

The problem I didn't see coming was the purple pencil. As I was shading the background the pencil kept breaking inside the sharpener and I had about 10 percent left to shade. I could not sharpen it ... the lead kept breaking in the sharpener, so I used a piece of lead that fell off, and with my finger was able to color the rest in. The picture above shows the pencil that would not sharpen.

Where are the Biographies?

As soon as Miss K finishes them she will post them to her page and I will post the links in the Saint's gallery page. 3 done, 49 to go! Which letter should I do next? - Maybe 't' to finish up the t's?

Comment which piece you like the best.

Thank You for viewing these pictures!

Egg Decorating Tradition ... Acrylic on Egg

It's a tradition I've been doing ever since

Yes, yes - most of us have colored eggs at Easter time, I know I have. I've always just dipped the egg in a bowl of dye and let the dye do the fun part - and your hands get all messy.

It was last year when it all started. About the time I was in art class my senior year and improving my painting skills. At Easter time I decided I wasn't going to dip my eggs in dye anymore ... I would brush on them some acrylic paint. Yes, I know ... a very bold move - like the next new art movement - Post-Egginism.

So I have been painting acrylic paint on eggs since I started, yes, it's a very long tradition - I almost remember starting it last year ... Yup, that's when I started, 2019.

I couldn't decide what to paint this year so I went with the tradition I started way back in two thousand and nineteen, now I'm aging myself. 2019 I replicated a famous painting, The Mona Lisa. (These are not hard boiled eggs - just the shell, I blew out the yoke so I could keep them for ever.)

Here is 2019's Egg Art

This depicts The Mona Lisa

2019's egg is more of a pastel or soft texture where as the 2020 egg has a glossy or shiny background and  more subtle with the subjects.

This year I was able to photograph some in progress pictures.

And yes, I painted American Gothic, (the famous painting of the two farmers you don't know the name of), by Grant Wood. If you were the subject of someone's painting, wouldn't you want to be recognized by your name? As you walk down your block people would shout out, "Hey look! There is that farmer and his wife that held up the pitchfork."

Believe it or not, that farmer was a dentist! And his wife (actually supposed to be the farmer's daughter is Grant Wood's sister. (She better have brushed her teeth 3 times per day.)

So here are some in progress pictures

I started with a base coat of blue and then layered in the background and finally added the farmer and his sister. The paint doesn't stick very well to the egg so I had to slowly layer in the paint to keep it from sliding off the eggshell.

Wait, I only have one! - the rest are from different angles, because eggs are not flat (unless you smash it), but it still wouldn't be flat.

Oh, I forgot, my sister, today with miss k, also took some fantastic in progress pictures.

The blue base coat. It turned out to be a very glossy color.

As you can see, the paint doesn't stick well so I had to
take it a little bit at a time.

There's the reference I used and myself working on that tiny
canvas of an egg. Acrylic on egg.

Look at those faceless characters!

So here are the angled shots

A straight on shot showcasing the curves of the egg. Amazing,
 Grant Would be proud (get it.)

There she is,  Nan Wood Graham. No wonder
she isn't showing her teeth - she's standing right by
her dentist.

And there is Dr. Byron McKeeby, the fine
old dentist. He looks a lot younger here.

Here is another shot of the front, I didn't take one of the back because it is just plain blue. (Just think if chickens laid eggs like this.) They sure seem happy - but they did have to stand there while he painted them. :(

What am I working on in the studio

I am still working on my series, Saints on 7.25 X 9.75 and have almost finished St Cecilia. I just have to wait for my sister to get her biographies done - yes, she procrastinates. Maybe even procrastinates about procrastinating.

I will continue with the Prismacolor series and in the middle of that I will be working on whatever jumps at me or gets sent to Inspiration. He's like my messenger.

Thank You For Viewing My eggs ... No, Some Chicken's Eggs That I Painted On.

• Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she laid an asteroid. -Mark Twain

• When you start with a portrait and search for a pure form, a clear volume, through successive eliminations, you arrive inevitably at the egg. Likewise, starting with the egg and following the same process in reverse, one finishes with the portrait. -Pablo Picasso

• I always like stories where the egg ends up on my face. -Rob Lowe