Finding a balance between imagination and realism. After the lay-in (getting a first layer to start setting up value and color relationships) this time I decided to tackle the flesh tones in the face first before developing other areas. I’m trying for a dusk or night time look so...
Jun12016
Owl Man Progress Shot
May252016
Quick Display Labels
This saved me some time so I thought I’d share. I needed display labels for my art for a show. Instead of printing them out on card stock and cutting them out by hand, or mounting the labels on foam board, a friend suggested I try something different. I...
May42016
Quick Tip for Mats
I like to have a clean presentation of my work. Sure that outer edge of the mat might be hidden under a frame eventually, but that’s not what a customer sees. They see the matted print. Sometimes when cutting a picture mat the outer edge gets fuzz or looks...
Apr202016
Creative Confidence
I’ve been curious about creativity lately: where it comes from, stumbling blocks, how to develop it, how to sustain it, how it works in different disciplines. First I heard about the concept of “creative confidence” through a TED Talk with David Kelly titled How to Build Your Creative Confidence....
Apr132016
Transfer a Drawing
Time to transfer the drawing to the canvas and then paint! Here’s a quick run through how I transfer to canvas. I hope you find it useful. I stretched oil primed, portrait grade linen over stretcher bars. To transfer the drawing I’m using: store bought graphite paper a book...
Apr62016
Tiling and Transferring a Drawing
You need to enlarge and transfer a drawing to your canvas but your usual printing service is currently unavailable. Not a problem. My solution: tiling. I scan my drawing and resize it to the desired painting size in Photoshop, keeping the resolution somewhere between 150 – 250 ppi. This...
Mar302016
Unicorn Show 2
Unicorn Art Show 2, Opening April 7, 2016 I’m pleased to announce that I will be participating in the second annual Unicorn Art Show. https://nemaa.org/events/unicorn-art-show-2 My piece, “Glimpse of the Unicorn” is inspired by a special place in northern Minnesota. It is a digital painting and I will be...
Mar232016
Real vs. Believable
While in art school I desperately wanted to learn how to make things look real. One of the instructors said to me on several occasions, and I’m paraphrasing here, “is it (the drawing) believable”? Lately this idea has come to the foreground for me and I’m questioning what “believable”...
Mar162016
Composition
I’m working on improving my composition skills. I’m taking a class and the instructor suggested Andrew Loomis’ book “Creative Illustration”. I read this years ago and am re-reading it. There’s so much useful information crammed in its pages! Anyway, I thought I’d share a few other resources I’ve found...
Mar92016
Oil Painting Experiment
I’ve been told not to paint with regular cooking oil. It’s isn’t a drying oil. Instead of just accepting this I got curious. Yesterday I made a little test. I used Raw Umber oil paint (it’s one of the faster drying oil colors on it’s own). The brand I...