The end. We were caravanning back thru the windy Kern river gulley and finally stopped to clamber down the ravine to the cold river, already hazing over, a little bit of fog creeping in and getting really cold and dark. It was speed painting 101 as we hurriedly slapped paint on canvases. This is supposed to be black water surrounding rock but dammit, we just lost the light. A plein aire artist's dismay--gorgeous scenery, but landscape turning into no contrast, no light picture. Oh well-- we tried.

I am trying to get a feeling of perspective here, and even tho not done, you can still get a sense of inspiration, a freshness, and if we had had more light, this one had lots of promise.

Laura Wambgans was on fire searching for her sycamores to paint along the river. Laura, I will chase light with you any day. (see her entry on her blog on the right)

Sunday morning: better rested and centered. We went to a small iced over lake to paint the surrounding mountains. No real memorable piece was painted by me, but the experience was invaluable and thoroughly inspiring and enjoyable. It was the process that is going to catapult me into a better painter. At least, for now these paintings do not have enough brushstroke variation or design...at least not yet...!

The bottom one was the "I ran out of time" painting.

WEEKEND PAINT OUT: Four of us artists went to R ranch this last weekend. This is past Bakersfield, past the Kern river to a southern Sequoia forest. This is the first painting done in a creek bed. It is the warm up for the weekend.

During the last 2 years at Disney, I did a lot of watercolor figure in Bob Kato's class, and you can see the watercolor influence with this washed out acrylic on canvas paper.

Finished!

Another quick 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" ACEO card. The redlandscape and these redwoods will be available to purchase on ebay starting this weekend.

This was painted this morning near McBean and Magic Mountain Parkway on the trail above the wash. I had not picked up the paints in a while, so it was pure fun. This was done with the Santa Clarita Artists Association paint outs.

SOLD!
These all sold off ebay in 7 days. I eventually painted a bright red background for the crow and the front portrait of Frankenstein with purplish hues (not the profile) was a small ACEO card, 3 1/2" by 2 1/2" small. I never posted this one because if was so similar to the larger front portrait done in blue-ish hues.

Finished! Happy Thanksgiving!

3 1/2" by 2 1/2" ACEO card, acrylic on canvas. I glazed it so that the finishing paint would randomly skitter across the surface, since some of it lost it's spontaneous appearance. Painting on canvas makes the paint seem even, sometimes too even, and when I glaze, it ads unpredictibility to the canvas, changing the texture forever. I always hold my breath during this stage because getting an even texture will be lost forever.

UPDATE:
Almost finished. Gorgeous.

Taking a break from freelance: Starting a quick ACEO card for ebay. After working on tight drawings for a commercial toy company, I needed to get "rough" on a small quick sketch painting. I've put this one on a more textured canvas and am dabbing earth colors on. I will get back to the animae ACEO cards when I have more time, just needed to loosen up. I am actually working on this one right now!

More ACEO cards: These next pieces are acrylic on a finer weave of canvas paper and will let me achieve better detail than the larger weave I have been using. I usually work on several pieces at the same time. It does tend to cut down time and I get a flow. Unfortunately and fortunately, I am signed up for several freelance jobs this upcoming month with several clients. I will continue to work on these when I can.

The two sketches are based on the book: "The Last Unicorn" by Peter S. Beagle. I thought since I have been drawing unicorns lately, it was a natural progression to remember the only really good unicorn story I read when I was a kid. I loved the animated cartoon by Rankin and Bass which was drawn by Japanese artists and back then the "Animae" look was exotic. The sketch of the girl, of course, is the semi-tragic Lady Amalthea, who was once a unicorn, and as a human, feels pangs of love and complex emotions of a human girl, then becomes a unicorn again, changed forever.

Working on a small ACEO card for ebay...I took one of the unicorn drawings from below and stretched it in photoshop to fit the 2.5x3.5 inch frame. This is not done yet. I have also put an irredescent gold on it.

I did a real quick concept page for a t-shirt designer who asked for a pink carousel unicorn.

Laura Wambsgans

This is the latest plein aire painting from Laura Wambsgans blog. She uses oils and she has been very patient and kind while encouraging me as an artist. Thanks Laura! Can't wait to paint again next month! If anyone wants to join us, please check out the Santa Clarita Artists Association paint outs.

Lombardi's Ranch 48 hours ago

I painted this on Saturday with the Santa Clarita Artists Association. We meet once a month and paint plein aire. This was a real challenge, since very quickly it became as busy as Disneyland, hot, lots of wind, and hundreds of people pushing into my space, nearly knocking me over to show their kids that "the artist is painting a picture." The hardest part? It was like painting in the middle of a buffalo stampede, so I really had to focus and ignore the public. I did this in about a hour and a half to 2 hours.

Correction: We just saw on the news that Lombardi's did not burn in the fires!

Quick Crow: Acrylic on canvas paper.

More cool and warm colors...

Gearing up for Halloween: Normally I paint in warm earthtones, so this time, for the fall I am painting in cool tones. This painting will be available at Ebay soon.

An update:

In the Works: Surfing Fairie

In contrast, I went to a sunny happy pic. One is a quick value, color study, the other an underpainting.

Here it is: Sulee and LeoPardine. I am overall disappointed in the way it turned out. It appears to be painted with mud. I think it shows my weaknesses--I really need to work with color better, lighting, and atmospheric effects. That is supposed to be fog in the background, not grey cotton. I may do another color study in photoshop--then take another crack at this one but not in the near future.

This painting is now available at ebay: http://cgi5.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll

Sulee and LeoPardine:

I have been working on some paintings so the posts will be slower in coming. Here are some details of one that is almost finished.

I am working on some fairies and dragons for the next posts!

In the Works:

Value and light source study for LeoPardine painting.

Prehistoric Arboreal Cat

Been working on this for a while now. Special thanks for fantasy artist, Christopher Moeller, who helped me establish a light source for the painting and for all his encouragement and patience. I met Christopher at the Comic Con this year and peppered him with questions for almost an hour.

This is about 12x7.5, acrylic on canvas paper and lots and lots of glazes.

And here is a drawing study I forgot to post.

Head "Centaurion"

I have been drawing centaurs lately and this one is actually a caricature of Greg. He is very fun and easy to draw.

Done. Finally. Little Brandon came out better than expected; expressive, buttery, fresh. And if Amy looks labored over--she was! I had to paint her over and over and Greg kept looking over my shoulder, thinking I was insane. Brandon was painted in a tonal values first, then flesh tones were applied. This was very successful, but for some reason, when I tried it with Amy, (I think I got too opaque with the washes) it did not work.

A free logo for Sienna's school. This will be printed on t-shirts. Greg helped me with the props and picking and placing type.

Creatures

Someone at Greg's work asked if I could draw creatures. I dashed these out this morning--got other jobs I need to get a handle on. These were fun, fun, fun. I love drawing animals and people and these are a strange mix of both. These go hand in hand with John Quinn's and Danbob Thompson's "Big Foot" drawings (see John Quinn, right).

Portrait exercise, a combination of layered transparent washes and opaque applied paints. All acrylic. Started turning out kinda Bouguereau-esque, which was not my intentions, but learned a lot anyway...

Lately I have been messing around with opaque paints. Yesterday, at Steve and Becky's 4rth of July bbq, I irritated Greg, Becky and Steve by staring at them and sketching them in acrylic. I am concerned about different skin tones.

I still have a G-4 and it is slow. One of these days, I will update to a faster computer. This means that in between actions, I sketch characters to make the most of my time. Here are some pro bono sketches for a character I am creating for my daughter's school.

Here are some of the other cowgirl concepts I did for a designer. Each one could be worked up into something really nice...I just don't have the time. I am getting better at doing the cute girl art tho.

My client flew to China for a few days, so I picked up the paints again. The first is a quick value study, which is going into color. The second is a quick portrait exercise, with more of the same subject to follow.

Animals are a blast to illustrate, but it is people who are the most challenging and rewarding.

I did a quick cowgirl job for another client this week. Here is a rough drawing of the cowgirl, done without picture reference. I like the rough the best because it really has a nice flow. The final drawing was done after some picture reference and the concept pose was provided to me by the client. It will be placed on a young child's t-shirt.

I digitally inked about 42 characters for Cartoon Network this spring. That and being a stay at home Mom prevents me from really getting serious about painting. I am currently back on the religious toy figurines again.

Ellie the Elephant

I was helping Greg design some plush and started drawing this character. Once I started, i could not stop. I don't usually draw this style and thought I never could. A lot of the concepts are from our 6 year old daughter.

"Wrecks" is based on our neighbor's dog, whom we walk almost every night. The "real" Rex is somewhat a terror, a Jack russell "terror", who, in the same day, picked a fight with another dog who was on a walk, pooped all over the field where he was running, and bit our daughter and gave her a big bruise on her fore-arm. He loves Greg and wants to live at our house.