Playing with Henna

Henna experiments on my beautiful model, Lisa.

Sidewalk Chalk

Tattoos

A few pieces to buffer my journey as a tattooer.

Meloncholy Man

Today I was driving through Carlsbad, keeping tabs on the sun because I wanted to catch the sunset, which happens around 7:00 these days. I wasn't being especially pathetic and mopey by harolding what would be a romantic setting of the sun, as instead, I was looking out for the "green flash." Have you ever seen it? I'm not talking about the one in Pirates of the Caribbean, but the actual, natural phenomenon. Anyway, I missed the display, but I got to feeling the love sickness, and here's a drawing to accompany that.

Tiger Drawing

While taking a Flash animation class, I took advantage of the times when a classmate had a really difficult question to ask of the professor, in which he delved into a really tedious explanation. I seized these moments to continue drawing a tiger.

Haystack Head

There are too many people out there who make their head look like a haystack. I was in danger of accidentally making my head look as such, but one night I got rid of my blond highlights and Herbal Essence-d it to a nice dark brown, my true Sicilian color. I'll have to carefully plan it out next time I feel the need to try blond again, which won't be too soon.

Girl at the Beach

Goose and Crow

Today I was feeling really sad, so I took a visit to the lake near my house. I really haven't stopped to realize how incredibly blessed I am to have a lake such as this one nearby. Anyway, I had some spicy black tea with me and my sketchpad, and I thought I might sketch anything that comes to mind. Eventually, I was forced to draw a goose because, in response to my presence at this particular region of the shore, three very loud geese acknowledged me with squawks and honks and approached me with their necks poised in attack positions. I sat atop a lunch table and simply stared at the three. And, stopping at the base of the table, the birds stared back, instantly silencing themselves. It seemed that, after maybe two minutes, I won the staring game and the birds left me. So, I picked the most docile one to draw. After that, I drew a crow.

Man with a Crow

The Escape Artist

Golfer

This guy was difficult to draw because the model I used for him was a rotund lady wearing tight khakis and a really dorky sweater. Also, the shadows were very minimal in the reference photo, so I had to make up many of the shadows you see. And, I might add, drawing men is not my specialty, because they're anatomically tedious for my pencil.

Anyway, I did this a couple nights ago when I really should have been sleeping; I had work in the morning, and plus, I felt like I was coming down with the flu. But it's rare that I find myself drawing a dude, so I kept going. When it came to drawing the face, I realized it began to look like Brad Pitt, which somehow always happens when I draw guys! That's so annoying, because Brad's face seems to pop up enough as it is.

For the hair (hair on dudes is simply unfathomably difficult to get the hang of) I used a picture of Robert Pattinson. The clothes were completely conjured from my mind, which might explain some of the awkward drapery around the collar area.

Bully of the Savannah II

So here's a little somethin'-somethin.' I think it's so silly how I often wind up drawing animals more than I do people or other objects, and even more, I end up drawing lions. This one is actually the same "bully of the savannah" that I drew below in ink, and he is the main character of my upcoming children's book, The Lion Who Lost His Mane. The problem with this depiction, though, is I don't think he is tough-looking enough. He looks too nice. Well, oh well.

This was actually drawn in the car on my way up to see some family in Santa Cruz. It's in plain graphite. I'd say I've caught a few sand crabs, finally. :)

SORRY!

Oh my Lordy this is simply ridiculous. I mentioned to you, though, that I go through times of complete inspirational discord; this is one of those times where motivation and inspiration are like those little sand crabs you try to catch at the beach. No matter how much sand you scoop up and get all over yourself, the stupid things just evade. They elude.

Scratch the scooping sand part - I'm to the point where I'm just perched in the sand, staring blankly forward with my hand stretched outward. I've given up all proactive agendas. The bad thing is, sand crabs will not just come tangoing up to me, sit in my hand and say, "have me!"

Serious change is in order, and it will be harder before it gets easier. So, again, I apologize for the languidity on my part. Hopefully this vacation to Santa Cruz will be one giant sand crab that decides to give me a hug.

A Collection of Sketches

I've been getting a tad languid when it comes to writing about my art; sorry. But anyway, here's a sketch that has the caliber of illustrations I would do for a children's book.

Still Life

This was a school project which I didn't especially enjoy, simply because still-lifes are not my beat. I call it the Bowl of Fruit Conundrum; bowls of apples, bowls of oranges, bowls with both apples and oranges in it get under my skin. I like stuff that moves and talks.

Anyway, a school project is what it is. So, this here is a stack of books with a piece of paper towel and a sculpture of a griffin I found at Ross. I still have this griffin, but it really is ugly, so the one you see here has a more attractive body and face, and the wings are longer. I also added the marble it's holding. (My griffin at home has both paws on the base.) Just wanted some magical pizazz.

This is done in graphite on newsprint.

Some More Sketches

The Lion & the Three Stooges

Wendy Moira Angela Darling/Red-Handed Jane

Casey

These are some sketches that explore a few different styles. The first, the lion with the three vultures, is an example of chalk on gray, cold pressed paper. It's 18" by 24." There's no particular story to the illustration, really.

The second drawing is my rendering of Wendy Darling's ideal pirate alter ego from the book Peter Pan.

And so the third is my Siberian Husky named Casey. She was two years old when we adopted her in Iowa (We had been visiting my grandma in Waterloo.) She was full of energy, as huskies especially are, and totally untrained. We kept her at my grandmothers house until we were to return to Hendersonville, TN, where we lived at the time. We kept her inside as much as possible, down in the basement. (It was a nice basement, by the way, so we weren't shoving her into the dungeon, you know.) Several times she had fled past the legs of anyone coming in or out of the house. She was an escape artist. Beautiful yet deadly-clever.

Bush Baby

This is a bush baby. The resolution is completely aweful, so sorry. I shall come up with a better image soon.

Snail Fellow

This is the product of a random snail-fascination-phase. I don't know what about snails intrigued me as much as it did, but it took one rainy day and the experience of trying not to step on any of the cute mullosks that had congregated on the porch, and I was iterested. I guess minding my step brought me to thinking that a snail's life was at stake, and then I wondered about its family, if it had one. The life of a snail became the subject of my scope of thought for a day.

Musical Bears

I found a lot of entertainment in drawing these funny bears.

Humphrey Bogart

Here I'm showing you the process in which I paintedHumphrey DeForest Bogart, both a great American actor and cultural icon. Bogie appeared in 75 feature motion pictures, including Casablanca, which finally brought him to the peak of his profession. His trademark film persona can be described as a hard-boiled cynic who ultimately shows his noble side.
This is done in gouache on mat board.

Sphinx

You probably have a weird look on your face right this second. I admit that, what ever it is, it really does have an unusual air of freakiness about it. I want to call this a Sphinx.

Also, you can see another example of how I like to work with trees in my illustrations. You can make them into almost anything! For some people, actually SHAPING physical trees over time becomes an attractive hobby, and they can make all kind of patterns, from ladders to twists to the shape of a square. For me, I prefer to do this in a matter of minutes rather than manipulate the shape of how a tree grows over the time it takes for me to complete my college education.

A Couple of Sketches

Okay, so, here are a couple of random sketches. I mean, they're random! As you can see I have Jack Sparrow - pardon me - Captain Jack Sparrow, with an interesting expression on his face as if to be saying, "What happened to all the rum?" Also, I have a pilot. Yeah, just a cool-looking pilot that kind of reminds me of the head from the cover of FEAR & LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS.

These are simply pencil drawings from my sketchbook, drawn at a time of a random thought process of mine. What do you think?

Skippy Peanut Butter

This rather brightly colored kid holding a jar of Skippy peanut butter was a quick little study after this really great guy named Norman Rockwell. Heard of him? He's one of my all-time favorite artists in the world because he captures the emotions and all the different expressions of the human being like no one else can.

The medium is gouache, a paint that could be described as a mix of acrylic and watercolor. You can apply the paint thinly on the paper so that it is a transparent color. Also, applied thickly, the paint can be opaque. It is such a user-friendly paint that I recommend anyone try it for themselves, just for fun.

This was done on a mat board, about 10" by 10".

Wombat

Another animal drawing, done in just plain graphite. It was composed on a regular piece of 8 by 11 printer paper and a Bic mechanical pencil. Why I chose to draw an Australian Wombat, I don't quite know, but it could be just because they are just simply the cutest little creatures down under.

They're marsupials; short legged, muscular quadrupeds, approximately 40 inches in length with a very short tail. Aw, cute. They're found in forested, mountainous, and heathland areas of south-eastern Australia and Tasmania. The name wombat comes from the Eora Aboriginal community who were the original inhabitants of the Sydney area. Want one, now?

I actually sold this guy for 50 dollars to a pastor and his wife who had happened to be serious wombat fans (I never knew such fans existed).

Self Portrait

So here is something that I was forced to do. Yes, forced. It was a school project, so, among the different color wheels and perspective assignments, a self portrait also was part of the grade. I turned this in LATE. As I look back, I do realize there was some fun in this! I added a little cheetah to further add some enjoyment in my homework.

Anyway, this was done in colored pencil on gray mat board. It's really fun to do art on a tinted/dark surface, because white pencil really shows up. Highlights are one of my favorite steps in making a piece of art.

This is an example of realistic art. In this blog you'll see both my realistic renderings and the stylistic ink illustrations. I can't help exploring all the different mediums, so you'll also see scratchboard and acrylic, etc. The possibilities are endless!

As much as I wish I were beside a real cheetah, it never happened :(

Someday, though!

Nern of the Woods

These were really fun to draw. Here, like many of my drawings, these took hardly any planning and were done with minimal materials such as college-ruled notebook paper and Crayons! As you will notice in my art, I love to include trees. Branches and the texture of bark intrigues me! Also, there are many pictures and stories you can create by using trees, by shaping their branches or their trunks. I love trees because they pose the perfect example o f life, progress, and propagation. In this instance, I made a tree into the the shape of a h and, and in this story, it crowns a little boy and makes him the ruler of the woods. It's got a "Bridge to Terebithia" feel to it. As you may guess, the little boy in this series is Nern.

Here are some interesting facts about trees:

- The tallest tree in the country is a Coast Redwood growing in northern California's Redwood National Park. It's 369 feet tall and over 2,000 years old. That is some tree, my friends.

- The shade and wind buffering provided by trees reduces annual heating and cooling costs by 2.1 billion dollars!

- Over the course of its life, a single tree can absorb one ton of carbon dioxide.

- One tree can absorb as much carbon in a year as a car produces while driving 26,000 miles.

- About one third of the United States is covered by forests. For now, that is.

- The average tree in an urban/city area has a life expectancy of only 8 years.

- Each average-sized tree provides an estimated $7 savings in annual environmental benefits, including energy conservation and reduced pollution.

Gotta love trees, y'all.

Bald Eagle

Here's an American bald eagle, done in chalk. This was a challenging one because of the feathers, though I definitely had a blast. Getting started on something like this takes a lot of patience because I tend to want to rush to the details before the shape of the bird is complete. I would love to make a series of drawings like this and include all kinds of birds, like hawks, swans, and flamingoes.

This sketch is 18 by 24.

Just so you know...

The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), our national bird, is the only eagle unique to North America. The bald eagle's scientific name signifies a "sea eagle with a white head," as halo means "sea," aeetos means "eagle," and lekos means "white." Gooooo figure. Originally, the word "bald" meant "white," not hairless. Bald eagles are found over most of North America, from Alaska and Canada to northern Mexico. Wingspan ranges from 72 to 90 inches. In the wild, these awesome feathered friends can live as long as 30 years. Like all other birds, this eagle is light in weight because its bones are hollow. Cool, eh? Yeah.

Girl and the Giant Apple

Here's a piece of art that was done on scratchboard. This is one of my absolute favorite mediums to work with because I'm a very detail oriented artist, and with scratch-board and a knife, you can create loads of detail. In this example I've captured grass, hair, fur, branches and the detailed skin of a giant apple. A challenge with this medium, though, is the rendering of smooth objects. There are not many smooth objects in this picture, though I believe I could have made the apple smoother in appearance. But whatever. That's what practice is for.

There really was no inspiration before I did this, except for my liking for apples, and that's it. Later I decided it was to be a story of one of my best friends because she had told me that it looked like her. Oooookay.

Many of my drawings are impulsive with little planning to do with them. That might explain some of the weirdness.

This piece is about 6" by 10".