INFLUENCES My art career began with the gaming industry years ago in San Rafael, California. Back then, there was no 3D and a very disappointing and limited color palette. I found these images on Yahoo from a game called Dishonored (I think). It's strong art direction is just striking; whoever did the concept art in this game really knew what they were doing. It's a colored film noire, gorgeous dramatic, moody lighting, the stills look like they were painted. Just lovely to look at. I did not work on these altho I wish I had...

More from Prague: a shot of my Dad at the Hardrock Cafe. He looked so regal, I thought it would make a good shot. Ok~I love my Dad. He is the only soul in this world who I can hang out with and hardly say a word, and feel completely at peace. I guess it's just his familiar energy. He has taught me to love what I chose to do, know who I am and to keep on aspiring. Also in this set is a religious figure on a tour to the underground cities of Prague. There are a set of cities on top of each other under the clock tower; fascinating history of the residents; and all I can tell you is that: I am glad I was not born in that era. Lots of torture and drudgery and when you look at the holes in the ground where people were thrown for 7-8 days with no food and water..it's inconceivable...And can you guess why they were thrown down there in the dark? It was not for violent crimes or stealing...it was for not paying their taxes.

Some of the light and colors of Old Town Prague at dusk. Some of the images are blurred and I apologize. When traveling I am not in control of when I eat sometimes and the crash in blood sugar makes my hand shake and head spin. These are mostly shot for color and when I do look, I squint anyway just to see the form and color and value simplified. But the colors and light are just a dream here. Towards the end of the day, it was so pleasant and peaceful that I felt so far away from earthly troubles that I felt I was floating. I imagine this is what my heaven will be like...

A few photos outside the Belvedere and one of a white and black statue; that's from the Parliament building. Notice there is hardly any light to make the forms come out...It did rain that day..

The Sphinxes at the Belvedere that I really liked. Yeah, that's my brother in between the boobs. As I hung out and drew the sculptures, I noticed that tourists from all over the world did the same thing, giggle, hold them and you notice that they are getting black from the oils of everyone's hands? Check out the photo from behind the Sphinx~such graceful s curves, one wing higher than the other on the shoulder. A symmetric pose with assymmetry..

At the Belvedere, Austria. I have an old crappy camera which took crappy pictures..these are the only ones of paintings which came out. The long face sculpture is really as it is; no Photoshop magic.

In Budapest. Introducing my Dad and my brother. Light only came out for a few minutes on the lion; otherwise it would have been reflected in the drawings.

Prague is home to Art Nouveau. I did manage to see the Alfons Mucha Museum. Mucha was an amazing prolific soul. People know his graphic works but many are not aware that he was a great painter as well. When I was younger, I loved his line work and now that I've matured I enjoy the epic work he did when he painted the history of the slavs; enormous canvases done with such love and empathy. He lead a full life, working almost until he died. One of the reasons why I respect him did so much is that he was an outstanding draftsman in almost everything he did. Even the reference photos he took for his posters and paintings were works of art themselves. His pencil drawings were outstanding too. Here are some decorative building motifs on some buildings.

Onto our last city; Prague! This was done in "Old Town" Prague. Losing the light fast. One of the hardest because I plunked myself down in the busiest of areas, people milling around me as I sat on the cobblestones, pretty paranoid about the pick pocketers here. Saw several homeless people in the plaza. Had the opposite problem in Prague: in Budapest, the paint would nearly dry before the brush touched the paper, in Prague, it would not dry! It was a little chilly and cold in Prague.

Some of the sculptures from the Parliament Building in Vienna. Tired by this time, losing light. This is unfinished; just ran out of gas that day..Really wanted to do more of these (include more environments). I was delighted by the contrast of the dark bronze sculpture in front of the white marbled one. The obvious challenge here was to simplify the complicated shapes before me. I wanted to just dab to indicate the movement of the forms, not really describing them as they were, but in more calligraphic description~however it's going to take more practice to achieve that confidence of a more casual brushstroke. Will take many more paintings...

A decoration seen from the window of our continental breakfast room.

Gorgeous Baroque lions on the steps in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Drawing in public is hard. A lot of great views happen to be right in the flow of traffic and there are lots of distractions. People constantly moving around you, asking you questions, curious onlookers, hot or cold weather. While drawing the sphinxes, it started to rain. People standing right infront of you obstructing the view, I was wary of pick pocketers and beggars. To draw in public is a test in focus and concentration and patience.

Then there were these bare breasted sphinx women outside the Belvedere Museum in the enormous courtyard. I took several photos of them. They are seen in Claire Wendling's sketchbooks, so I always thought she created them, but they are sculptural motifs thru-out Vienna. If anyone can tell me what they symbolize, that would be great! The sculptural forms really have a wonderful flow.

Onto Vienna, inside the Belvedere Museum. Vienna is a stunning, easy to navigate city. It has beautiful examples of Baroque art movement. Just take the "D" tram and follow that road to a string of stunning buildings and museums. Or you can simply walk the street and investigate on foot. The Belvedere's most jaw dropping painting, in my humble opinion is Vemeer's Artist in His Studio; truly a remarkable gem of a painting. While most of the paintings there had crisp edges, Vermeer realized that not all edges need to be sharp; and softened his edges, helping to create a more realistic dreamy painting. It stands out in this museum among the others.

Budapest Lions: These were stunning and beautiful; very much like the lions I had sketched in Spain around 2005. I did like the lions in Spain at the end of the Ramblas better; they were a bit more "raw" and more emotive. It was a very hot and windy day to paint, very hard to keep the paint moist and I was very tired. It became very humid and overcast; killing the form and making it difficult to show how stunning the form was. My brother estimates that we had walked about 14 miles the day before! So I was a little off my game.

ions:

Budapest National Gallery: outside the museum in the courtyard. I found that Budapest artists kinda followed the style of whatever was the art trend. There was not really anything outstanding or original in the works. The outside bronze sculptures did, however, hold my attention and admiration. Then again, no one flies out to Budapest, excited to see the art. But please, don't mean to insult anyone who is Hungarian.

One final post before I begin my journey: an update on the bee label:

Okay~ I'm taking off to Eastern Europe this weekend! Here is another one of my favorite drawings from the card game Andale! Andale!

Actually started this one a week ago.

Been cleaning up and organizing my work space. Found the original sketches for a card game I had done for MGA Entertainment some years ago. I was new in the character art dept and everyone was busy and they handed me this unscheduled project; I did the whole thing from finding the look, to the concepts to the finished art in 2 weeks! It was simply bliss and one of the most fun jobs I ever did for MGA. I worked under Joel Andrews, one of the best in the industry.

For a friend. This one was deceptively simple. I tend to like strong light sources and an opportunity to paint the planes of the face. But this one has grown on me.

I was at Aaron Bros. the other day and the sales lady, "Kat" was so helpful about helping me select a big canvas, I was impressed. Usually the help is like the walking dead, and no one could care less about the quality of canvas. So I painted this for her...thanks Kat!

Taking the new paper, Bristol Vellum for a spin..love this surface. This is how I have been starting the painting, blocking in the figure, then using warm or cool shadow shapes, prepping to turn the form with the warms and cools. If I can set it up, the rest is cake.

My dog sits outside of the glass door when I work on my computer. Sometimes I sketch her. She is a small Chihuahua mix with the markings of a German Shepherd. I've been watching Cesar Milan obsessively on Youtube to learn about dog behavior and it has helped me teach Sheba how to be polite on a walk. Oh, the full bodied drawings of a dog are not drawings of my dog. If I see something interesting on the internet, I will draw it. Sometimes while waiting for the computer to load or save, I will have an image ready to go for drawing. Drawing animals is a comfort zone for me. Whenever I get stuck on a problem in Illustrator and get frustrated, drawing animals calms me down.

Finished this yesterday~right before our big annual block party. Again, I am shocked at how bad this one scanned. It's a nice one. I'm learning to handle complicated compositions with several figures. But as I've said in the past if you want to kill a traditional piece of work~just scan it. Also: You all know that I like painting these exercises on Bristol Vellum but all I can find in this proportion of sketchbook are ones that are made of watercolor paper. I find that the Bristol Vellum has a slight tooth which the brush loves and yet is still smooth enough to give me clean colors on the surface. It's also plenty strong so that it won't buckle with a loaded brush. Watercolor paper is too pulpy for my tastes and because of that will not give me the clarity of color I want. Since the newer generations of commercial artists use digital media now, people are steering away from drawing on paper, so it's getting harder to find the kind of sketchbooks that I want. I just found out that if I precut the paper I like, Staples will spiral bound a sketchbook for me for only $5.00! I wanted a landscape proportioned sketchbook, 2 types of Vellum papers and only 25 pages in it~because it's lighter to carry. Spiral bound is a plus, since you can open it and paint with it without harming the spine. I had 2 sketchbooks made, (which might have cost me $20.00 per book at an art store) and I love them!! I think I'm on to something!!

Gorgeousness on a Sunday afternoon. Roughly 8 1/4 by 4 1/2" on Bristol board paper, acrylic, 'bout 3 1/2 hours. Love these color harmonies. Working back on a limited diverse color pallette. My excursion to a black and white, warm and cool pallette study for almost a year really paid off. Comment on FB "This one's one of the best I've done. Color harmonies are working. I've always admired John Singer Sargent's painting arrangement where a saturated figure comes out of a neutral dark background. Figure tends to be staged beautifully and your eye is directed where it should go..."

Shakey start...this one's gorgeous. I could leave it like it is...very difficult to paint right now. It's about 108 today and I can't control the consistency of the paints...

Some studies. I discovered these weird Japanese dolls on the internet called "Dollfies". They are either really innocent or creepy and wrong..I like their mood, great expressive, soulful eyes, in fact, these are the kind of eyes LePardine will have. Grey; almost transparent on film...

I actually did this about 3 weeks ago, just now getting around to posting. It's on that lovely Strathmore Bristol (500?) Series, a paper not quite a board but heavy enough to take the acrylics. I just found out that if I precut the paper and bring it to Staples, they will "bind" it for about $4 to $5 dollars! We're talking a wire binder; one that I can open and paint with easily. Lately it has been hard to find a good landscape sketchbook in a size I prefer (I want it light, about 25 pages) and the type of paper that can take acrylic~I'm not a fan of the thick water color paper which tends to have too much texture. And since everyone these days draws, sketches on a hand held computer, the diversity of sketchbooks are getting harder to find. So I am stoked (stoked!) that I can assemble a book of my own material chooses! Yeah! The last screen shot sketchbook I completed had some of the best paintings ever, and I gave it to my Dad as a gift. The next one will be spectacular!

Just for fun. At the Disney Consumer Products office this week, done during lunch break. Don't know if I'll even finish this one. I'm on a Cintique here and just playing with the stylus; taking this baby for a drive. Painting digitally is so easy compared to traditional. I love both but digital is so easy, I actually feel guilty! About 25-30 mins.

...So ding dang busy these days with work, life. Sometimes I feel I'm wearing power bracelets, deflecting one time consuming creature after the next. I'm wiped. So to help relieve the stress, I draw concepts next to my computer and that keeps me going, keeps me fresh. This drawing is for my neighbor who is a local beekeeper and who needs some sort of image to help give his company an identity. Since I've been illustrating a lot of princesses, I told him "you need a princess on your label" And since this is Cowboy Country, I have decided to create a Bohemian Princess for his label~the way I would like to do it. This will be digital since I have not done a personal digital piece in a while. I make sure that the character has a great silohuette~great negative shapes that will read well. Paul Wee always asks in figure drawing class: "What's the story? Every drawing has a story." And because of the animation background, I ask myself: "What's the attitude?" There will be bees flying in ellipses above her head. I want a sunny, wholesome happy character, kinda funky with henna tattoos.

Back from Tahoe trip...not the best plein aire from me. I tend to like figure and do the best when the subject is really complicated...when it's simpler, I get confused! And on this vacation, I am always wanting to either: paint or climb or jump off a boulder into icey cold water. Tahoe is so cold it's like jumping into a bowl of ice cubes. Also I have children constantly talking to me. Small, roughly 4"x4" on Bristol tablet.