Illustration for Krystal

My friend Krystal recently graduated college. When I asked her what I could get here for graduating she pointed to an old sketch stuck on the big foam board covering part of the wall in my studio. A drawing of a tree, like that. I've always liked this sketch. It came from a series of drawings that I did around ASU. This tree is outside the art building. There's actual another building behind these trees, but I removed because I wanted to. An I do what I want. I've redone it as a basic chalk pastel before. Now I'm trying it with pen, watercolor and chalk pastel. Here's a view of all three. The one on the right is the piece I'm currently working on, the one in the middle is the original sketch that I did so many years ago.

What do ya think? Finished? Unfinished?

This is a multi-media piece I did about a year or more ago. I kept fiddeling with it, trying to bring it to a finished state. I showed it to a friend recently who told me it was finished and to stop screwing with it. What do y'all think? Should I frame it or keep working with it?

And my latest flower...

And another flower. i think I'll do one or two more in this series before moving on. I'm starting a series of people, figures that have caught  my eye. I hope that these pieces will give the air of a piece of a story. I think these fun flowers have really been helpful in getting back into painting. And the few people that have seen them really seem to respond well to them.

Another flower painting....

Alright, here's a painting I did based off of the sketch I did on 1/23/11, day # 4. It's oils on a birch panel. I didn't primer the panel first. I like this technique, the wood sopped up the oils quite nicely, allowing for a quicker dry time and the golden color of the wood gave the piece a nice glow as well.  It's 41 x 24". I think I'm going to stick with oil painting on wood, I definitely enjoy the way the paint handels on this surface and its difficult ot over wet the surface. After I've used up the canvases I have, I don't think I'll ever go back.

I know this subject matter might be considered trite, but I don't care. I throughly enjoyed creating this painting. It's the first full scale painting I've done in about 3 years. And it really got me back in the creating mood.

Painting..loaded!

This painting is the 2-d work I did based off of the Day #2 sketches. Its 24" by 36" and is done in oil paints. the colors are a little bit more vibrant than the photo, it's got that shine to it so every photo is either washed out or has a big bright flash shine.

Those sketches...

remeber the sketches I did for about 30 days? Well, I have based a few paintings off of them. As well a the designs for some of my masks. This mask and this painting were done based off of the sketch for Day # 2 (1/21/2011).

This mask took forever to carve. The surface is done with washes and engobes, all of which I made myself. i decided to leave its surface matt, i felt that worked with the earthy feel of the piece the best.

okay..the painting wont load right now...no surprise there..I'll try again in a little bit.

Been awhile....

It's been quite awhile since I kept up with this page. however, I actually have been quite busy and I'm going to share some of that with y'all tonight. I also recently gave out business cards with this site on them and felt embarrassed that people might check it out and there be nothing much there. i used some of the sketches from last Jan. to inspire some new ceramics as well as paintings. Also, remember the girl in the bird cage? I showed that at Halloween at the Nth gallery in Boone. Also, I created new work for two craft festival on Dec. 10th. Actually made a little money at one of them. So, if this blog will cooperate I am going to post photos of my newest work. so far, it has not worked....so they may get posted on another night.

Yea!, one finally loaded. This mask is the result of heavy glaze application on one of my masks, I actually painted a flower on it! Whatever it is now, I don't know, but I like it. I'll post more soon.