Merry Christmas 2012

There aren't any recent works of mine Christmasy enough for this post, so I dug deep into the past and pulled out a couple wintry scenes done in colored pencil from when I lived in Pennsylvania. My style is completely different now, but I thought it would be fun to share these with you.

 

Early one winter morning I was up to see the twilight. Looking out I saw the deep blue of sky and snow becoming split by warmer tones near the horizon. Also there was the waning crescent moon anticipating the coming sunrise. I made a sketch and later took photos of the scene. From those I made the drawing above.

On a winter's walk in woods just outside of town I saw the trees in the scene above. Struck by the intricate lacework of the spreading branches and twigs, I got out a sketchbook and recorded my impression of the scene. Although whitetail deer frequent the area, they weren't there when I was. Someone I knew had a few captive whitetails in a fenced area, so I went to visit him. There I sketched the deer and took photos. Later I also studied photo references in library books. From those sketches and photos came the drawing shown above.

 I found the initial tree sketch the finished work is based on:

 



These days I prefer painting plein air, and portraits drawn from life, but would like one day to do some more studio works from references.

Merry Christmas!

Pre- Apocolyptic Mayan

Guatemalan Man, 12" x 9" Charcoal on Paper

Two days and counting, roughly. Two more days and the Mayan calendar ends. What will happen then? Will the sky fall? Will it be too late to see that movie? Will the planet implode in a thunderous clatter of collapsing tectonic plates as molten lava oozes everywhere? Will strapping firebricks to the bottom of my shoes protect me from the fiery oozing lava? Of course, there might be an inevitable and simultaneous zombie apocalypse. Maybe even Mayan zombies. I'll need a good Ulfberht sword to defend myself against apocalypsing zombies. Since millions of years of geology will be broken up in the collapse of continents, there could be zombie dinosaurs! I'll need a bazooka! So with a bazooka balanced on my shoulder, a sword in hand, firebrick strapped to my shoes, and maybe a good hat, I'll be well prepared for the impending end of the Mayan Calendar. It's about time, too. I've never been ready all the other times the world ended.

Or it may be even worse. I found this on Facebook:

So, in honor of the Mayan Apocalypse, I bring you a charcoal sketch of a Guatemalan man, shown at the top of this post. It was drawn in the weekly drawing session a few years ago, back when neither he (the model) nor I, nor anyone else in that session seemed concerned about that calendar.

Then again, maybe I'll just go for a pleasant Winter Solstice walk. If I see a movie it will most likely be "The Hobbit", and probably not until it comes to the dollar theater. Check back with me in two or three days. I'll let you know if the world ended.

For more about drawing sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "sketching" or "drawing."

This Week's Charcoal Portrait

Charcoal on Paper 12" x 9"

This is my sketch of the woman who modeled for our drawing session last Thursday. Three-quarter or profile views with side or edge lighting are what I usually look for at these sessions. This time, though, I went for a nearly straight-on view with flat lighting. A change-up in the set-up is good every once in a while to make one think outside of any growing comfort zones.

For more about drawing sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "sketching" or "drawing."

Holiday Exhibits, 2012

Today, December 7, 2012, is "First Friday Gallery Stroll." Galleries stay open later than usual on the first Friday of every month so patrons can spend an evening going from one gallery to the next, enjoying the artwork on display. The gallery stroll is free, and while you're out you could have dinner at a local restaurant, or visit some of the other attractions in your town. You might even find some artwork that would make great gifts!

Here are galleries that have some of my paintings for sale:

• Evergreen Gallery, 3295 South 2000 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84109. Phone:  (801) 467-8770. Website: http://www.evergreengallery.com/
•  Window Box Gallery, 62 W Center St., Provo, UT 84601. Phone: (801) 377-4367. Website: http://www.windowboxgallery.com/
• Juniper Sky Gallery, 851 Coyote Gulch Court, Ivins, UT 84738. Phone: (435) 674-2306. Website: http://www.coyotegulchartvillage.com/junipersky.html

• Terra Nova Gallery, 41 West 300 North, Provo, Utah 84601. Phone: (801) 374-0016. Website: http://www.terranovagallery.com/
• Crowley Gallery, 115 25th St., Ogden, Utah 84410. Phone: (801) 391-8764. Website: http://utahfineart.com/
•  Logan Fine Art Gallery, 60 West 100 North, Logan, Utah 84321. Phone: (435) 753-0333. Website: http://www.loganfineart.com/

Taiwanese Woman

12" x 9" Charcoal Pencil on Paper

Our model for last night's drawing session was a cute Asian woman who's modeled for fashion photographers. Once again I wanted to keep things simple and focus on values. This sketch was made with charcoal pencils. A kneaded eraser was used to help bring out the light areas.

The charcoal pencils I use are various brands, lengths, and hardnesses, though I tend to favor the softer leads. They are "sharpened" with a pocket knife. I'm not too finesse about it. I'm also so stingy that sometimes I'll use a pencil for as long as I possibly can.

No sense in throwing away a perfectly good pencil!

For more about drawing sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "sketching" or "drawing."

Rainy Day Sketchbooks

This is part four in an on-going series about sketchbooks.

What do you do when it's too rainy outside to sketch outdoors? Or too cold or too dark? Actually, none of those conditions necessarily preclude sketching outdoors. But on those days you really can't get out, say, you're down with a cold, or waiting between appointments, or what-have-you, what can you sketch?

Outdoors is my preferred place to sketch, but - as has already been shown in an earlier post about sketchbooks - there's plenty indoors waiting to be put to work in a sketchbook. Anything and everything can do. The day pack shown at the top of this post was purchased in Northwestern Pennsylvania in 1982 and has seen a lot of outdoor time in one Eastern state and three Western states. I still use it to this day. But on this particular day, I just propped it along the base of the living room wall and made this sketch.

The knife shown above didn't look like that when it was given too me. It had a flimsy wooden handle and "sheath" which were soon broken. I made a new and better shaped handle for it out of durable mahogany. The sheath I made from an old worn out leather jacket. One day I set it on a tabletop and did this sketch.

The various shapes and facets in the brass candlestick shown below held my attention long enough for a sketch:

I was curious about how the shadows and reflections would play out if I took a plain white coffee cup, set it on white paper, and illuminated it from three directions. The next sketch shows the result:

The other sketches in this post were all drawn in graphite pencil, but this empty green pop bottle made a good subject for a study done in colored pencil:

Here's another soft-bodied subject, an old L. L. Bean carrying case for camera equipment:

This cast iron skillet served as a model for me one day:

This exotic wood turning was from Nepal, I think. It was in the home of someone I was visiting in Utah for a few days. During some quiet time in between other places to go and things to do, I sat down and made this sketch:

Reflected Light

Pastel on Gray Paper

Here's another portrait from the weekly drawing sessions. From this angle there isn't much direct light visible on the model's face. What interested me in the model's shadowed side was the way light bounced from her white clothing into darker areas of her face, illuminating her jaw, underside of her nose, and the area between eye and eyebrow. Note that the reflected light is not as bright as the directly illuminated areas of her face.

For more about drawing sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "sketching" or "drawing."