Sketch of Max Yawning

Here is a sketch of Max yawning. I always think of this picture when I think of him. I miss him.

Old Rabbit vs New Rabbit

So Rabbit #1 is painted by Arthur Frost (who also illustrated "Alice in Wonderland"). I love his rabbit and how casual he is. I thought I'd give him an updated wardrobe. His head might be a little bit big, but rabbits do have big heads. I think it's really that his eye is too big. He looks a little chipmunk like.

Mouse and the Berry series

The Dragonfly bringing the mouse a berry.




















Down goes the berry and off goes the dragonfly.




















Mouse eats his fill and takes a nap.

Dawn the Duck

So I've started using a new medium - colored pencils. Painting takes a lot of setup and cleanup to the point that it keeps me from painting more often.

I found this duck in a Dawn Dish Soap ad in a magazine. This is my first colored pencil foray and I really like it. I'll have to experiment with the different softness of pencils to get the right depth of shading.

Making something fuzzy is actually really hard. Too many lines and it can look harsh, not enough lines and there won't be any depth to it. I'm sure there is a technique to creating fuzz with pencils.

Curmudgeon the Squirrel and 1st Painting

So this is Curmudgeon the Squirrel. Why I choose the name Curmudgeon, I don't know, it popped into my head as I was drawing him. To me it's ironic, because he's not curmudgeous at all. Quite cute, actually.

Here is my progroess on my Apple painting. You can see how I'm making an apple look round with different shades of red, orange and blue. Blue? Yes, there is blue on the dark side of the apple. It's interesting to learn about color theory. You don't just add black to a color to make it darker. On the light side of the apple it goes from white, yellow-white, yellow-orange, orange, orange-red, red, pure red. On the dark side of the apple it's red - dark red, and then adding in an increasing amount of a purple-blue.

10 more Apples to go!

The Prodigal Son

This is from Rembrandt's "The Prodigal Son". The goal here was not to draw the whole picture but just the areas that you want the viewer to look at. When you look at Rembrandt's painting your eye immediately goes to the father's face first. This is done through contrast. There is the greatest amount of contrast around the father's face so your eye is lead there.  Then it goes to the son's feet, the father's hands and then to the older brother. Each area has to have less contrast then the next. So if you want to have the feet stand out second, you make it have less contrast than the father's face, but more than the father's hands. 

The reason behind creating focal points is so that you can tell a story. What message are you trying to get across? What feelings do you want the viewer to experience? Rembrandt wanted you to experience the father's love for his son that turned away from him. You see his face looking at his son. Then you see the son's feet and that his shoes are falling apart, he has nothing. Then you look at the hands of the father. One of the father's hands is gentle and the other is pulling the son toward him. The older brother has crossed arms and a stick as if standing back in judgement. 

After about 30 hours of drawing, I finished...

My teacher has officially signed off on it. No picture this time, because you wouldn't see any differences from the last picture. It looks pretty much the same with some "technical" changes.

I have ordered my paints and will probably start painting next February. Exciting!