October 08, 2008

painting again

It's been a long time. We moved a few months ago, and there was so much to do before I knew it a few months had gone by. During which I painted nothing. Hardly even any sketching. The more time passed without doing art, the harder it felt to get back into it. This week I finally resolved I had to do something. So I pulled out a very old painting, an acrylic I did as a teenager. It's rather pathetic, but it was one of my first ever "subconscious drawings" that I had attempted to paint. I set up both the original drawing and the acrylic "sketch" and set to work to create it anew:




Here's as far as I've gotten. I'm pretty pleased to find that after almost half a year of no work, my eyes and hands haven't quite forgotten how to work together.



This is soft pastels on french paper, 18 x 24". I'm all out of paper, so I've been recycling my worst paintings, rubbing them out and using the other side of the paper. This one was reworked over that deer. I really need to go out and buy some sandpaper soon.

December 12, 2007

Lion



Rembrandt soft pastels on Arches watercolor paper, 18 x 24" from this sketch I did last night (tv viewing again):

December 11, 2007

Badger



New pastel painting! 18 x 24", about 2 hours' work from this sketch:

December 05, 2007

Giant Anteater Anew



Gave him a bit of a workover; almost satisfied now.

December 04, 2007

Giant Anteater



Today's painting: giant anteater, soft pastels on canson paper. For this one I tried something new; instead of sketching first, I laid out a background tone, paused a film on a shot of the anteater's body (it doesn't even show the head or feet, so I didn't really copy it, just used as reference for the locations of color on the body) and dived into color! It was really fun, quick and I'm happy with the outcome. I ought to do this more often.

December 01, 2007

Hikers





Some illustrations I did a while back for a school textbook project; of hikers climbing a mountain who run into a bear. Gouache on illustration board, about 12 x 18".

November 28, 2007

Deer Colors


Revisions. Think I'm satisfied now.