Life is Grand

snow bird

Jenna

melting rainbow

I had seen countless melted crayon pieces on Pinterest (not sure how many people actually did them and how many just save to never do them later), and really wanted to do one.  So I did!  Hot glued the crayons down (which I broke in half, so they wouldn't use so much space on the canvas), and used a regular blow dryer to melt them, and then painted the bunny afterwards.  It makes me happy.  I may have to try this on a painted canvas too.

Taera and Trevor

Keith and Tysen

Sophie

A gift for my friend Julia, of her little dog Sophie.
12x14 inches, done in only an hour and a half!

cover preview

A small (8 inch square) practice painting for a book cover I'm working on. I'm not sure I can share the cover here, until it's completely done, approved and published, but here's a hint at it. Aaron absolutely loves this and wants me to make more. Perhaps I will try my hand at some landscapes. (And I'm not sure I even need to mention this, but please be assured the original has a bit more color and texture. It's very hard to get accurate digital representation of original paintings!)

Ike and Jack

S is for Sherry

While at the zoo, I asked my friend Sherry what her favorite animal was. She said the flamingo, because she wants some plastic ones in her yard. And she loves how brightly colored they are. So I painted one for her 30th birthday next week. It was after I was done that I realized the neck makes a fantastic letter S, for Sherry.

Tysen

Tysen Cameron McDougall
5x5 inch colored pencil on paper

sunshine rose

My largest painting, thus far, approximately 2 x 2.5 feet. Didn't take nearly as long as I expected, but I did pace myself and break it up over a couple of days. Now to figure out where to put it.

a touch of Dutch

A gift for Aaron's grandmother, on her 80th birthday.
Acrylics on three 6x8 inch canvases.

for Elisabeth

I asked the new mom what she wanted for her nursery. She said that she didn't have anything in particular in mind, but then as we talked about ideas for someone else, she mentioned seeing a very cute pink penguin at the store. And so we have five penguins representing parents and older siblings, with the pink baby penguin for Elisabeth Hope.

for Gabriella

It works beautifully in her pink and brown bedroom.

Fabrice

deviant rant

I am part of the wonderful online community of deviantart, a fantastic place for artists to share their work with other artists. You can comment and have favorites, join groups, and participate in contests. There is plenty of interaction between artists and lots of inspiration to be found.

As a portrait artist, I have joined several groups relating to drawn portraits, and by doing so receive updates of the artwork uploaded to these groups. Lots of portraits. Lots of the SAME portraits. I cannot count the number of celebrity portraits that show up in my inbox each day. Johnny Depp is a current favorite, along with Angelina Jolie, Lady Gaga, and, surprisingly, Emma Watson. There are some highly talented artists in this group, and their pieces are incredibly realistic. But when the next person uses the SAME reference photo found on Google, and copies it to the SAME level of realism, you would be hard-pressed to find a difference between their completed pieces.

I have a question: why celebrities? Is it simply because their pictures are easy to find? Or because other people will recognize them and be more likely to look at your drawings? Do they catch your eye because they look interesting? Or are you inspired by the actual person? I do not understand the obsession with famous people.

Why not draw people you know? So you won't have as much recognition on deviantart, but I'm sure your family and friends will be thrilled to see themselves in your sketchbook. You know these people personally, and are actually touched and inspired by your interaction with them. And to make it even better, no one else will have the same piece!

Okay, so maybe you don't have family or friends, or they are all boring to draw. So you look online for a reference photo. Do you realize that someone had to take that picture? "But it's just a photograph. And it's on Google, so no one owns it." How many artists on deviantart are photographers? Give credit where credit is due. You may have drawn the picture, but you were looking at someone's art to do it.

And another point: hooray for realism! I love trying to copy every little detail to make my drawing look like the photo. And if everyone is working from the same photo, everyone is going to have the same drawing in the end. So why not makes yours different? I've come to appreciate pencil lines, unblended scribbles and water splotches. Let's make drawings that actually look like someone touched pencil to paper and put some thought into it, instead of simply copying what is in front of them. At least leave the edges rough, or make the composition unique. Make it yours. When all the drawings are lined up from that same Googled image, make yours the one that stands out. Use different materials, colors, or shading techniques. I recall seeing one person's drawing of Angelina Jolie, but they added a really neat fantasy element so the finished drawing was less about "This is Angelina Jolie" and more about "I looked at a picture of Angelina Jolie to draw the face in this more complicated piece." Make your pieces unique!

I love to take my own photographs to work from. Then there is no question that each piece of art I create is MINE. If I do need to use someone's photos for reference, I add my own artistic touch to the completed piece. Maybe someday, if I ever meet a celebrity, I'll take their picture and draw from that. But until then, I'll stick with people I know and love.

Layla

Tawnya's daughter, Layla, at two months old. Less worried about making this incredibly accurate, and more just wanting to throw color on the page. Watercolor pencils are fun because you almost get to create something twice: once by coloring with the pencils, and again when adding the water with the paintbrush. I'm still not entirely familiar with my pencils, so it's a little bit of a surprise to see exactly what colors appear when the water touches the marks on the paper.

Aaron's Dragon

This is not anything that I would typically do. Obviously I'm the type of artist that bases my art in reality, and does best with a reference. Aaron challenged me to paint a dragon, using a small fountain that he has as a visual reference, since it's hard to find a good picture of a dragon without copying another artist. Good to step out of my comfort zone, but probably not going to paint many more dragons. He's quite happy with it - loves how it comes out of the shadows.

12x16 canvas. Black, white, ultramarine and cerulean acrylics. 3-4 hours.

Cremona fawn

It had to have been nearly two years ago that I was riding with Barry between TLC and Cremona and we came across a herd of deer in a field. We stopped and I snapped a few photos with my camera from a distance, just to have the pictures on file. The time was finally right and I used one of those photos as reference for this piece. Very soft and sweet, I can imagine it in a child's room or nursery.

12x16 acrylics on canvas. Done in an afternoon.