Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Impossibility

"A Bird May Love a Fish..." Acrylic
Or vice-versa, of course.  I've found that I'm always drawn to images with an unusual perspective but I tend to go for the most obvious, so I'm trying to mix it up a little bit.  It is harder, of course, and I think I could have worked this one out a little better, but at least I think it's reasonably apparent what the perspective is, which makes it reasonable successful :D

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Fleeting

Color Study for "Fleeting"
This is a quickish color study I did for a painting I have in my head. It would be much bigger, about 12"x24" and the figure would be smaller. I've started to find that by working small, I'm unable to give the effect of an immense landscape. I can't help but make the figures big enough to go into some detail on them. I think I will make it more like what I had in my head, which was a sort of brownscale painting, with some bits of color in her clothing and on the ribbon leash.
Fleeting always makes me think of deer and gazelle (this is a gerenuk, an african gazelle...or it will be). They seem so still and peaceful, and then they're gone so quickly. It's also meant to incorporate some images of spring and youth, which are fleeting.

I'll be covering up the skyish and making it all tree if I can.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Atlanta Aquarium

Marine Life Sketches from Atlanta Aquarium

A couple of weeks ago I went to down to Atlanta with my sister in law. While she was looking at schools, I walked out to the aquarium and spent as much time there as seemed reasonable. G and I are big fans of zoos and aquariums, but I won't make him wait with me while I try to sketch a moving subject. These pages are further on when I stopped trying to get a good sketch of zooming sharks and rays in the big tanks and elbowed my way in to the smaller tanks where the fish were better at posing. So here we have a pirannah, a leafy sea dragon (so cool!) and a pretty river fish I'd never seen before, the discus. I take lots of notes when I sketch about movement, color, texture or ideas for larger pieces.

Just thought I'd post it for the fun of it. Also, I'm preparing a seperate blog for when I go to France. I have high hopes of sketching everyday at least, if not painting. I'll put a post up when I get that one running.

And if anyone's wondering, the Atlanta Aquarium is really pretty cool and definately worth a visit. They do a great job of making everything feel really interactive.

I Won, I Won!

Faked Image of my Paintingish with Award
Having a pat-myself-on-the-back moment, I've decided to share the fact that I won third place in the Woodinville Community Art Show. My friend Alyssa is babysitting this collage/painting for me, since it was a bit unwieldy to move but I didn't really want to store it. She heard about the contest, filled out all the paperwork, and dropped it off. So I hardly did anything. Thank you Alyssa!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Talisman

"Yet-to-be-Named" Acrylic
So, it was meant to be more obvious that she was gripping tightly to something at her neck, something like a talisman, but I got really carried away with the great triangular shape of her heavy-looking clothing. It was inspired by one of my clothing reference books, an 1863 fashion. It's not a period of costume history I particularly admire, but..it's so...triangular...I couldn't resist.
I'm wondering, though, if I shouldn't have made her coloring a little more subtle. I was going to have that be a scarlet cape-ish, but I pulled back. Maybe it's just that I got it done so quickly. I finished yesterday, but it felt so wrong to be done already Monday that I waited until today to take a picture of it.
Any title suggestions?
Also, the snowiness came out of the weird two days of winter we're having here, sandwiched between 80 degree weather...


Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Poise

"Ballerina" Watercolor, Acrylic, Digital touch-ups
So this is an oldie. I had a plan for, and started a new illo, but I'm driving down to Atlanta today, so I'm not going to end up having any time. I'll still finish it and we'll see if I can use it for a future IF post. The ballerina is another sort of Halloween costume concept.