reworked beanstalk

It's kind of hard to draw things that don't exist... especially from a really dramatic perspective. Perspective is rough. Fun, but rough. It makes things so much more interesting...

the frog and the dragonfly

I thought I'd show what happens when you put a little more time into a piece-- it doesn't suck quite as much. :)

lately

Some stuff I've been working on lately....
Jack and the Beanstalk concept work: these are a couple incomplete versions of environments for my take on the story. Hopefully the set will turn out well enough I can post it. It's been hard... but a lot of fun.evil biology teacher's classroom

the beanstalk

Illustrations using things I've learned from plein air painting: this one's focus was on replicating water.

Well. Hopefully I can beautify these and my other works in progress in the two short weeks remaining in the semester...

photoshop

Photoshop is amazing. It is also difficult to learn to paint well in, especially when your traditional skills are still being developed. It's a lot of fun, though, and there are so many possibilities!

book cover for Stay Out of the Basement (one of the old Goosebumps books)

the finished painting representing the style my dummy of Alice in Wonderland would be carried out in (were it ever to be turned into a real book)

a portrait of my sister, Tiffani

a portrait of my friend Amy (a composite of oil and digital)

I've got quite a bit of other digital work. I might upload some someday.

acrylics... a new obsession

After the fiasco that was oil painting I was delighted to find that I very much enjoy working with acrylics. Particularly heavy body, and especially with palette knives. I love the textured effect I get when I work only with straight paint (applied with palette knives) and washes. My teacher, Richard Hull, was very encouraging. So much so that my BFA show, which goes up in April, will feature this style of painting.

first attempt at acrylics (applauded for its "naïve" feel... oops?)

second attempt

another attempt... this time with a taser

a piece I did this semester (revisiting the technique after six months of neglect)

They look even more awesome in person. I have others that I'll probably put up once they've been scanned.

drawing

I miss drawing. That was the one thing I actually did in junior high and high school... besides photo-editing in Photoshop. I mostly drew portraits-- I even got paid for several of them. Impressive for a seventeen year old. These days I draw, of course, but mostly only for underpaintings. Sketches, thumbnails, drawings that get painted over. Maybe if I ever find some spare time I'll do a finished pencil drawing. If I still have the patience for it...

portrait from high school

drawing from my sophomore year of college... done for my portfolio to get into the art program

award-winning eggs drawn my first semester in the program

oils... and the absurd obsession??

"Oils are so easy to work with and change" they said. "They have such a better quality to them." "I love working with oils!" Lies from the mouths of fools. At least, that's what I thought in last year's oil painting class. A class that I, in kind terms, hated. I couldn't for the life of me understand why people spoke so highly of oils. As far as I was concerned they were hard to lay down and when they did finally get put down they had a hard time staying put. Bristle brushes were my worst nightmare and turpenoid destroyed everything it touched. It also smelled bad. Still does. Hm.
This semester I'm in a plein air class being taught by Dave McClellan. He converted me to the oil side. Working in oils was the only part of the class I had been dreading, but to my delight, it turns out oils are everything they're hyped up to be... and so much more. Maybe I'll put some of my plein airs up eventually. For now, here are some strugglesome pieces from that oil painting class of death.

still-life portrait (inspired by one of my roommates at the time)

reflection (I have a relationship with my Zune that borders on unhealthy)

texture (This isn't a particularly pretty painting, but creating the texture for the canvas was a lot of fun. Let's just say it involved gesso, paper towels, wood shavings and... cake mix?? After an entire year the painting still has a sweet smell to it.)

my first-ever paintings

I thought I'd start at the beginning... with gouache. Who's even heard of gouache?? I certainly hadn't. It was the first type of paint I was exposed to at school. I have to admit-- it was frustrating, but I kind of liked it.

child abuse

jack-be-nimble

unhealthy diet

getting men to attend church

I haven't touched gouache since.

starting over

If you start a painting and it's really crappy, you have two options. 1: try to save the painting, or 2: start over. My blog was like a crappy painting. I opted to start over. So here I am, with a blank canvas before me. Let's see what'll happen this time...