The Verdugos

This is a quick little painting I did tonight.  It's based on a photo I took on a hike a little while back.

Feeling Kind of Sketchy

I got up early this morning and went to the hills to do a little sketching.  It was good to see the morning light and smell the earth and sage and sumac.  I really need to do this sort of thing more often.

Playing With Some Acrylics

The other day I decided it would be good for me to just play around with some paint.  I've been so focused on doing really intentional work for my portfolio that I thought I might be good to experiment some.  Truth be told I would like to see more movement and expressiveness in my work, so these sketches were an attempt to loosen up a bit.  They started out really free-form and kind of developed from there.  They're done in acrylic in a 7X10 sketchbook.  I may revisit them someday as more fully realized paintings or maybe not.

Boats Revised

A little while ago I posted some illustrations I did inspired by Robert Luis Stevenson's "Where Go the Boats".  Having never really been satisfied with the way they came out, I decided to go back and rework some things.  These are the updated versions.  Hope you like them.

Illustration Friday- Space

"I'm stepping through the door, and I'm floating in the most peculiar way."
-Space Oddity, David Bowie

When I saw Illustration Friday's topic this week was "space" this was the first thing that came to mind.  I love the song and I thought it would be fun to do something music related.  Hope you guys like it.

Illustration Friday- Faded

I have been super busy lately and haven't been able to post anything on Illustration Friday in quite a while!  It's fun to be back at it again!

Head, Hands and Feet

I just finished up a great class this week.  The class focused on the drawing of heads, hands, and feet, and was taught by the very talented draftsman and instructor Karl Gnass.  It was a great class and I learned a lot!  These are some of my drawings from class.  They are all mostly 5 to 8 minute poses except for the last one which was a homework assignment (self portrait). 

More Studies

Well here are a couple more sketches.  There's this great little park close to home that I go to a lot.  It's really quiet and there are some interesting things to paint.  These are both done there a couple days apart.

Landscape Sketches

These are some quick sketches that I did today on my lunch break and after work.  I just put together a little painting kit to help me keep it simple and get outside more.  The idea is to do these small paintings quickly and often, and hopefully get better at working with color and composition.  I was inspired by two artists I really admire: Nathan Fowkes and Andrew Hem who both do little paintings like these in their sketchbooks.  The medium is opaque watercolor and white guache and they took about 30 minutes each.

New Portfolio Page

Hey everyone,  these are a couple of paintings I did a few years ago.  I just put them and a collection of other images on my new portfolio page.  Check it out if you haven't already!