Sir Paul

This is a quick 20 min. doodle of Paul McCartney. At first I didn't know what I wanted to draw and you can see my weird explorations and turns as I eventually settled on sir paul's face. hehe  This is a classic example of what happens when I draw sometimes....it looks terrible right up until the end or near the end and then even I ask, "How the heck did he do that?".. This is what I call a brain phart.  It's a drawing that I fearlessly start without any careful consideration of where I'm going. :-)

Pender Island, BC

This picture is of a beach on Pender , a small Island, up in area of British Columbia Canada around Vancouver Island. My family has gone there many times in the summer. It's very remote and about the only way you can get there is by sail boat or the ferry service. It has a large population of artists who are glass workers and painters. There are scores of artist studios that open their doors to visitors. It isn't as well known as other beautiful places but to my family, it is paradise...

Sneak Peek of a Commerical Job I'm Working On

Today I'm working on revisions of a commercial job I'm working on. Later if the client gives me permission to do so, I'll post the whole final image. This really isn't a drawing of the day but since I'm working on it today I'm going to cheat and show you a little piece of what I've been doing.

Kauai Memory-002

This is a hybrid between memories of Hawaii and memories of the coast of California & Oregon. It's mostly inspired by my experiences at tunnels beach in kauai, hawaii about four years ago. This is almost exactly how I remember it looking from a vantage point out on a rock in the surf as the sun went down. Since I was worried about dropping my digital camera I left it behind and now all I have are my impressions and memories.

Caricature of a Centenarian

Today I found a really cool picture of a hundred yr old man. I wanted to draw it but I didn't want to slavishly copy the photo. So I tried turning the head in my mind and caricaturing it a little and making this image my own and not someone else's. I included the reference photo so you could see what the heck I'm talking about.

Gulls-001

Today I was again playing with the smudge tool. I found that if you hit the alt key on the pc, it will paint or activate the fingerpaint function. So I drew this picture alternating between the fingerpainting function and the smudge tool function by simply holding down the alt key. Not a particularly good drawing but a cool new painting technique that I feel can be made to look like thick oil painting.

Morning Tree - 001

I drew this from a memory I have from an early morning walk I took in Oregon about a year ago. It was a very foggy morning with silver frost . This drawing doesn't really do the memory I have justice - there was so much intricate details on the branches. This took me about 20 min. I used a wacom bamboo tablet and photoshop 7.

Rembrandt

Just having some fun with the iconic Rembrandt self portrait.  This took about 15min. with a wacom bamboo graphics tablet and photoshop.

Tiger

I used a wacom bamboo digital tablet in photoshop CS4 for this.  It took about an hour to complete. I used a photo I found of Tiger Woods as reference.

Sunrise Study -001

This was a quick sketch I did this morning of a photo of a sunrise taken in Eastern Oregon. I spent about 30 minutes on this and used a wacom bamboo digital tablet and photoshop 7.

Roman Memory-001

This is a simple 20 min. sketch of a very old memory I have from Rome Italy, 1983. Pre- digital cameras and I had run out of film. My brain just said, "I want to remember this moment forever". It was about 4:30 in the afternoon and the sun was low and a lady dressed in black passed me on a small side street. Simply a moment in time that I remember for some strange reason.

Bucolic Landscape-001

This is a very quick (10 min. sketch that I started originally intending to spend longer on.  But I got too busy today and had to stop after just a few minutes. I may pick it up tomorrow and finish it. I did record a speed painting movie of it so I can later create a speed painting video of the final version if I finish this later.

Bali Hai Sunset

This is a place that is real. I've walked there, touched it, and experienced it. The tunnels beach area of kauai, Hawaii is one of the most beautiful places on earth. This sketch was done for my "One painting or drawing per day" album on facebook. It took about 30 min. to draw and I used a wacom bamboo tablet in photoshop 7.

Fantasy Shoreline

This was a 50 min. sketch inspired by places like Mont St. Michel in France and bits of the coastline of Italy. I sort of painted myself into a corner with this painting. I waited until the very end to finish off the castle/village area and I didn't have time to clean up or tighten the perspective up of the building mass. (I try to keep these drawings under one hour drawing time) This was done for my "One Painting or Drawing a Day" album on Facebook. I used Photoshop and a wacom bamboo digital tablet.

Symphony of Green

In honor of St. Patricks' Day, I painted a green image today. I was trying to get the look and feel of what it's like to walk near a creek bed under a thick canopy of green leaves on a bright day. This was done from my imagination or memory. It took about 40 min. I used a wacom bamboo digital tablet in Photoshop 7. This was done for my facebook album "One painting or drawing per day" on March 17, 2010

Jungle Sunrise

I was thinking about interesting shapes and colors for a landscape this morning and quickly drew or painted this out of my head. It took about 30 min. or less and was done with a wacom bamboo tablet and photoshop 7.

Funny Round-Shaped Creature-002

This is the same creature idea that bounced into my head yesterday.  I started this drawing out on the graphics tablet, using brushes that were sort of pencil like but later lapsed into a full tonal black and white painting with broader strokes.  It took me less than an hour to draw this.  Today marks the 8th month I've been posting a painting or drawing on Facebook every day.

Funny Ball-Shaped Creature

Some days I start these sketches with nothing much in mind. But today I had this image clearly in my head. It is a ball shaped creature with a sad old human like face that has muscular arms coming out of the sides of its head/body where ears normally would. Its feet fold under it when it is standing. The feet are like a rabbit's or maybe a feas' and they extend out away under it as it leaps up - like a frog's. The skin is bumpy or scaley - maybe like an orange or that sort of fruit. There is a bumpy dorsal ridge that runs all the way down its back like a lizard's. It has a short fat tail that can bend to a limited degree. (I had fun thinking this one up) This took about 40 min. to draw.

Fantasy Caveman

I was too busy today to make a speedpainting video of this drawing.  This was a very quick sketch - under 15 min.  It was done with a wacom tablet and photoshop.

Neanderthal Heads Sketched from Skull Photos

I've been fascinated with Neanderthals since I was a little boy. In today's drawing, I took three different photos of Neanderthal skulls taken from different angles and I pasted them onto my workspace in phtoshop. Then I tried to reconstruct what the Neanderpersons could have looked like from my imagination. I know I have facebook friends who are world class at head anatomy and some have even done illustrations of Neanderthals professionally. If anyone wants to make comments about mistakes I've made, please chime in. I'd love to hear your comments. (It's how I'll learn more about this sort of thing.)

Visitation

I only did a quick 30 min. doodle/ sketch today.  I used a wacom bamboo graphics tablet in photoshop 7.

Neighborhood Scenic -001

This morning it was cold and raining at 6:30 am when I braved the elements of my dining room and snapped a cell phone picture out the window.  This painting was inspired by those intrepid adventures.  The sun had only been up for about a half hour.  A small tree had exploded with white blossoms.  A beautiful moment in time.

Einstein Caricature (Mark Rydenesk)

Today I was looking at some Mark Ryden illustrations and also looking at some pictures of Albert Einstein and this happened. In the speed painting movie you can see some false starts and dead ends as I was just winging it. I'm having fun doodling. I'm still using that technique I mentioned earlier that is using the smudge tool set to about 97% and fingerpainting turned on instead of using the regular brush drawing mode.

Figures on a Japanese Garden Bridge

Someone once said that it takes acres of paper to make an artist.  They should revise that saying for the digital age.... maybe - "It takes gigabytes of storage to make an artist".  Hmmm. Just doesn't sound the same.

Last fall when I was at the Japanese Gardens in Portland, Oregon, I took a snapshot of the central bridge there and it was featured in the center of my photo.  This painting was inspired by a very small section on top the bridge in that photo.  The figures are very small and hard to make out so they are naturally simplified shapes. Looking at them today, I felt it would be fun to paint them with a larger than usual brush size.  I also played around with brush settings.  I'm still experiementing and learning how to paint with a digital tablet.

Mick-002

Today I tried another approach to a caricature of mick jagger.  Yesterday I worked from a photograph but today I worked from memory.  So, it's really different.  I think now as I watch the speed painting movie, that the painter in me was fighting the cartoonist in me.... not sure if there was a winner.

Mick

Caricature of Mick Jagger. Wacom tablet in photoshop. 1 hr.

Unhappy Chicken

I did this drawing on March 5, 2010. It took about 30 min. to draw.  It was done with a wacom bamboo digital tablet in photoshop 7. 

Lake Como Fantasy

I took on more than I could handle for a one hour speed painting and I had to force myself to stop after an hour had passed.  This isn't as finished as I would have liked.  Visiting Lake Como is a fantasy of mine. :-)

YouTube.com has blocked the speed painting video is some countries.  (I hope it's not blocked in my country)

Rainy Cityscape-001

This was done in photoshop 7 using a wacom bamboo digital tablet. It took about 25 min.  This is actually a frame grab from the speedpaint movie I made. Photoshop crashed just after I signed my name and I lost the photoshop file. I'm glad now I was making a movie of the process.

Gruesome Self Portrait (painted from life)

I very seldom have an opportunity to paint from life while using the tablet down at my computer desk. This particularly dark gruesome portrait is what I did today with a small hand held mirror pointed at me from the top of my desk top computer. I look positively evil. sorry. I think it's the intensity of concentration as I was trying to render this. lol

I wanted to do this in full color but once I was into it, I realized I was in a dark room wearing a black cap and grey shirt and pullover. I think my flesh was grey too but I computer enhansed that to make it look more human.

Young Ringo Starr-001

When I was a kid back in the 1960's, Ringo was my favorite Beatle.  This took less than an hour and was drawn on a wacom bamboo digital tablet in photoshop 7.