Starting to GET it!!

These are the last two days of in class model paintings.  Amy gave us a demo the time before these, and I think it reeeally helped.  Look look!!  They look like people!  First one has jaundis.  Poor guy.  His name was Boris.  Today we painted Ryan!  He's looking much more healthy.  ;)

"Bugs"

Bugs

I like bugs.
Black bugs.
Green bugs.
Bad bugs,
Mean bugs,

Any kind of bug.

A bug in a rug,
A bug in the grass,
A bug on the sidewalk,
A bug in a glass - 
I like bugs.

Round bugs,
Shiny bugs,
Fat bugs,
Buggy bugs,
Big bugs,
Lady bugs,
I like bugs.

- Margaret Wise Brown

Still needs a lot of touching up.  Lady bug still has no spots.  But here it is!  First assignment for Will Terry's class.  One of the most AMAZING children's book illustrators I know.  How did I get so lucky to have him teach me this class!

Lee be my art friend (see her awesomeness here), among many other wonderful things, and she lets me come to her and her hub Tyler's house to do homework.  You know those days where you have to paint aaaallll day like until midnight even? ...You don't?  Oh.  Anyway, it's WAY easier to keep going when you wanna poke your eyeballs out... when someone is suffering next to you.  Thanks to lots of laughs, jokes, stories, movies, music, Tyler entertaining and encouraging, while we paint, it all helps me to just keep swimming... just keep swimming...

Painting the HUMAN HEAD

Fall Semester has begun!  Ah my lovely "Painting the Human Head" class.  That's what I love to do on a rainy day.  Paint human heads.  Lots of them.  Oh GOOD THING because looks like Amy, our teacher, wants us to paint 48 heads outside of class by the end of the semester.

Oh... sorry let me make sure you understand.  FOURTY EIGHT HEADS.  In ONE semester!  OUTSIDE of class.  Did I mention we are spending TWO HOURS on each of them?

If I can't paint an amazing portrait by the end of this semester, well... you just don't wanna know what's gonna happen.  ;)

This should be good!  Truly though, this is really good for me!  And... maybe by the end I really will love to paint heads.  ;)

So these are done IN CLASS from a live model:

And these are a few of my outside class 2 hours paintings:

(painted from PHOTO reference... not as good as you can tell... live models are much better)

Grapes!! Mmmmm

This was for my parents' "Mother's Day" and "Father's Day."  My high school drawing had been in the kitchen a LONG time and that was pretty cool but I finally decided they might like something other than a huge shark on their kitchen wall.  ;)  This is watercolor.

My Own Story Illustrations!

My friends and keep inspired artistically with a monthly themed "creative challenge."  It's been fun to try different categories of the arts.  Poetry, music, writing, etc.  This was part of my July submission.  The theme was "poppies."  As in the flower.  I wrote a story, and these are the quick illustrations I did for it.

 

Service and Humility

My friend commissioned me to do this painting for him since school was out for the summer, and I had some spare time.  He wanted this image within his home in order to remind and inspire him of the example of Ammon, an ancient missionary of Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ .  Ammon performed a mighty and heroic feat in an act to protect the people of King Lamoni, and directly after this display of bravery, he did not gloat or visit the King to declare his mighty work, but instead was found in the stables feeding the horses.  His humility and desire to serve touched my friend and so this painting was born.  Thanks Dave!

"You Are What You Eat" and "Music is Adventure"

These are the two and only assignments for our Illustration II (conceptual) class:

Assignment 1:  "You Are What You Eat"

Acrylic on Illustration Board, 16 x 20

Assignment 2:  "Something Out of Context to make a Statement"

Acrylic on Canvas, 16 x 20

Drawin that Figure

Hallway studies: I drew people in hallways pretty much weekly for a few months ha ha.  Fun homework!

The Great Owl

Acrylic painted inside paper sketchbook 8.5x11

Will wanted us to spend enough hours on our last assignment to make a FINISHED porfolio piece.  Very good for me--I tend to speed through my paintings and set it aside before it's really done.  Thanks for makin us stick it out, Will!

ACRYLIC PAINT I think I'm in love

We had to match colors the best we could with these two landscapes.

This was an in-class exercise.  We all painted from the same source, limited to using ONLY two secondary colors, and black and white.

In class: try something new.  I tried going geometric.

Homework: anything we want.

In class: try paint as realistic as possible.  Open to full color palette.

Homework: anything we want.

In class.

In class: try to match everything (color and subject matter) perfect.  Full color palette.

Homework: limited to black and white.

Homework: Anything we want.

In class: match everything pefectly, try to get smooth, black and white.

Homwork: Object, black and white.

In class: cross hatch using rigor brush.

Homework: try to make perfectly smooth.

In class: reversing warm and cool light.

Homework: reversing warm and cool light

Homework: using warm and cool lights.

We were allowed to make one stroke at a time.