Saucer Magnolia Flowers

Magnolia flowers

 8.5"x 12"

 colored pencils on toned paper

 

 

A small drawing of a Saucer Magnolia tree. These beautiful and enormous flowers don't last very long but seeing one of these trees in full bloom is truly incredible.

Charcoal Portrait

 Jake

9"x 12"

black and white charcoal pencil on charcoal paper

Not too long ago I found out about a great portrait artist named David Jon Kassan. I was really inspired by his great charcoal portrait drawings and decided to try it myself. I hadn't worked with charcoal since college and something about the messy medium caused me to stay away from it all this time. After drawing this little portrait it turned out that there's something I really enjoyed about blocking in tones and being able to pick out the highlights. Click here to visit David's website and see some of his amazing work!

The Soul of a Tree

"There is no such thing as a great talent without great willpower."
~Honore de Balzac

I'm back after neglecting my blog for a while. Below is a little drawing of a tree that I always notice outside my window. It looks like such a character and I enjoy seeing its changes every season. Yesterday I noticed he looked extra grumpy as the snow piled up on top.

The Soul of a Tree
Colored Pencil on Toned Paper
2011


The phenomenon of seeing faces or shapes like this has been explained as
Apophenia, which "is the experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data."
If you'd like to see some wonderful examples visit this blog post by James Gurney.

Drawing pad in stores :)

It was a good feeling to walk into A.C. Moore today and see my artwork among all the art pads! I was told that they wouldn't be in stores until fall. After hearing from a friend that she had seen one in Massachusetts I wondered if they were in more stores. I'm not sure if they are in all art stores yet, but they are in A.C. Moore :)

Pet Portrait

A drawing that I recently finished for my Aunt's birthday, of her puppy Tiki. :)

colored pencil on toned paper
8.5" x 11"
March 2010

the drawing in its mat frame

Team Dawg Character

Below is a recent painting I finished for Team Dawg Inc. This is one of the main characters in their children's book series, Bobby Dawg. He is the Pawstown Police Officer who, "loves his family, career, and friends. He also dreams of being a major league ball player."
I sometimes forget how important it is to figure out a complete drawing before beginning to paint. But when I do remember it sure makes the painting a lot easier. I had worked on a few character designs before illustrating Trevor's Bully Problem and after the book was done I was asked to draw Bobby Dawg in a baseball uniform. I hope to share in some upcoming posts more character designs that I had drawn for Team Dawg.

"Paint as you see and be accurate in your drawing: the whole secret of your art is there."~William Bouguereau