"Magic"

Magic is a little Pomeranian dog that is owned by Lisa Fox, who also was the owner of Nibblit which I painted yesterday. Magic is "special" in that she is the only hunchback doggie I've ever met. She also has another quirk in that she can only turn in one direction. Like Zoolander, she is not an ambi-turner. Magic was given a great loving home by Lisa and Vic and Magic is exactly what her name implies. This is acrylic on paper. The painting size is 6x6 inches. And the paper size is 8.5x11". It took about an hour to do.

"Nibblet"

Nibblet was a Pomeranian dog that belonged to a workmate who used to bring her to work with her. She was adorable and very popular with the other employees. Acrylic on paper. Painting area 6x6" This took about an hour.

Caricature of Vincent Price-003

Today I went digital and did my daily sketch with my little Wacom Bamboo tablet. This took about 30 minutes.

Caricature of Vincent Price-002a (final)

I wasn't really happy with how this turned out but its just a sketch and tomorrow I'll be working on a different one. I spent several hours on this piece. I almost got it done in one sitting....almost. I think I'll work on loosening up my brushwork and working with bigger brushes some more.

Caricature of Vincent Price-002 (WIP)

I really tried hard to do a completed full color sketch today but just couldn't do it. I ran out of time. This is a work in progress and tomorrow I'll finish it up. I plan on working with the mouth and chin more and dealing with some of the facial areas and making the colors go together more and blend better.

Caricature of Vincent Price-001

This year Vincent Price would be 100 yrs. old had he not died of lung cancer in 1993. Actually he died on this date, Oct 25th in 1993. CS3000 on Facebook has chosen him as their target for this week's caricature challenge. I'm warming up by doing Vincent Price sketches for the rest of the week each day. This is acrylic paint on paper the painted area is 5x7". It took me about 90 minutes to complete this.

Victorian Gentleman-002

Today I went back to my big brush exercises. I used a victorian photo as reference inspiration because those old pictures are weird and interesting. Notice this guy's little pixie like doo on top of his bean! This is acrylic paint on paper. It took 30 minutes.

Colors of Home

It has been awhile since I did a landscape. This was inspired by a recent trip to Yamhill County in Oregon's wine country with some Facebook friends. 8.5"x11" acrylic on paper.

Cocktails at the Benson

This simple acrylic paint sketch on paper was inspired by a photo taken a few days ago of a Facebook friend who came up to visit Portland, Oregon from Oceanside, California. 8.5"x11".

A Distinguished Gentleman from 1850

One of the things I use sometimes to get the creative juices flowing is doodling or sketching from really old victorian photos of people all dressed up. I know this isn't an exact copy of the photo but I'm including the photo just to let you see what I used as inspiration. Acrylic paint on toned paper. This took about 30 minutes to sketch.

Airport Stranded

Funny story behind this sketch: I usually never find myself in a position to paint plein air with a Wacom tablet. But today at about the time we were supposed to board our flight from San Jose to Portland, they announced that there were serious mechanical problems with our airplane and people were rushing to try to get onto other flights- my wife included. I chose to plunk my ass down on the floor and start sketching the crowd of people trying to find other flights out. After I got about 15 minutes into this sketch I heard my name being announced for final call on another flight and my wife and daughter were no where to be found, so I jumped up, threw all my electronics into my bags and went tearing off down the terminal to another gate. I barely made it. hehe. But somehow Myla got us on another direct flight to Portland. -Happy ending. I'm home now.

Mission Street Guardian

This is sketched from a photo I took yesterday in San Fransisco. I simply laid down strokes every which way until it started to look more and more like the photo. My 30 min. sketch exercise of the day.

Monkeying with a gun

I sketched this with a small Wacom Bamboo 4x6" drawing tablet and a laptop pc in my hotel room this morning. It took around 30 minutes.

Steve Jobs at 18 yrs.

Today's sketch of the day was a real quick one. It is more like a doodle with a brush. I was thinking about Steve Jobs. This isn't a caricature so I probably won't bother posting it at the Caricaturama Showdown 3000 page. This week they are targeting Steve Jobs and making it a tribute week and open to past work that had Steve as the subject.

Caricature of Steve Jobs-001

CS3000 group on Facebook is doing a tribute week with Steve Jobs as the target. There will be no vote nor winners and everyone is submitting caricatures of the late great Steve Jobs. This is my entry this week. It's a simple acrylic sketch on watercolor paper. It is 5.5x8.5 inches.

Caricature of Vincent Van Gogh (in his underwear)

Saturday Oct 8th through the morning of Monday Oct 10th 2011 I worked on a small 5x7" acrylic painting on Gessobord. I wanted to place Vincent in his iconic bedroom in his shorts painting. I chose to do a distorted fish eye like perspective to give the sense of .... insanity or something not quite right. Facebook friends suggested I put him in boxers with poka dots and I chose to make hearts because Vincent was someone who laid his heart out in the open to everyone he knew. Another suggestion I used that came from my facebook friends was to make the ceiling a "Starry Night". This took about 16 hrs to do.

Skull Doodles-001

Above is a very small segment of today's sketch or doodle. It it about 1 inch square. Even from a page of seemingly pointless doodles one can sometimes pull out a sketch that has promise.



Today wasn't one of the stellar art days when everything I draw is golden. I spent my usual 30 minutes today working on a page in my private notebook. I doodled and drew/painted skulls with a small brush and watercolor on paper. I like using the brush better than I like using a pencil or pen. I started out with the bigger figures and near the end I was doing the smaller heads and skulls around the edges. I'm slowly getting my brush mojo. It takes practice practice practice.

Caricature of Van Gogh-001

Today I decided to make some sketches that were a little more focused and serious than yesterday's sketches. Here is one of the small sketchbook studies I did of Van Gogh's mug. The deadline for this contest is in about 3 days, so I need to come up with some good ideas fast.

The Nose Picker

Today I simply couldn't come up with a good idea for my caricature of Vincent Van Gogh so I sketched this instead. Another brain phart. This is acrylic paint on watercolor paper. It is 5x7 inches in size.