Waiting for Winter

I live in Salt Lake City, Utah, and I find it absolutely incredible how many resources are available to artists here...  My friends had a pass to the zoo and they were able to get me in as a free tag-a-long guest and I was able to fill my camera memory card with lots of original pictures of a bald eagle.  Back in the day, it would have been very challenging to find reference material for a painting like this.  10" x 8" acrylic. 4.5 hours.

Alex

This is my nephew.  8 hours.  11" x 17" charcoal.

Steve

This is one of my good friends Steve Tanner.  He grew his beard out for a New Testament movie.  I just HAD to get some shots of him before he shaved it off.  I hope to do inspirational pieces with the references some day.  75 minutes 11 x 17 charcoal.

Dracula As a Young Single Adult

For those of you not from Utah, I thought I might need to give a couple definitions to explain part of this comic... Definition:  Stake- a group of congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Personal Definition:  Multi-Stake Dance-  a social event which strikes absolute horror into the hearts of young single nerds trying to find a date. The timid young men may, on occasion, work up enough guts to ask a girl to dance, but more often than not, they are found in a corner sipping a cup of punch wishing they stayed home to play video games.  10.5 hours Photoshop

Dave

This is another warm-up for a portrait I'm about to do.

I'm finally feeling ready to attack the piece:)  

8" x 10" charcoal. 65 minutes.

The Butlers

3 hours. Photoshop.

Hannah Montana

I was excited to get Painter 12 last week.  Up until now, I've done almost all my digital painting in Photoshop.  This was my first stab at the new software.  3 hours.

Rayelle

Man, it's been a long time since I used charcoal.  I've got a commissioned portrait coming up, so here is one of my warm-ups to get me back into the medium.  It's fun to use, but I can benefit from more practice:) 8.5" x 11" charcoal. 165 min.

My Ashley

There is beauty all around, when my wife's at home.  

It was her birthday today and I love her to pieces.  

108 min Photoshop

Josh and Buffy

Two good friends of ours.  87 min Photoshop

Field of Fond Memories

Every year, we Watts head up to Idaho to play games, sing songs, visit loved ones and have a celebration to rival Christmas.  This is the landmark that finally puts a stop to the sweet little 'Are we there yet?' questions coming from the back of the car.  10"x 8" acrylic. 4 hours.

Quick Little Ninja

5 character designers I pay a lot of attention to are Nicolas Marlett, Kevin Keele, Stephen Silver, Jasen Strong, and Nikolas Ilic.  Their designs are very shape-based.  Here's a quick one from me!  65 min Photoshop.

Father's Day Card

My dad is the king of self-control.  It was fun to cartoon him.

2.5 hours in Photoshop.

Scattering Sunshine

My Aunt Miriam always has a smile on her face and it was her birthday today. 

83 minutes in Photoshop

Vince

This is one of my art buddies from the class of 2000!  We felt so cool to graduate that year. 

1 hour in Photoshop. 

Larry

Larry, a friend of the family, passed away last week.

He was a very nice old dog. 

8" x 10" pencil. 2.5 hours.

Louisiana Marsh

We just got back from a trip to Louisiana.  I took my new portable easel on the plane as my 'personal item'- I was really happy they let me take it.  I got up early on a nice cloudy day and went out to paint from life.  10"x 8" acrylic. 3 hours.

This is My Life

Here is my final painting for my Foundation II class!  I absolutely love to paint digitally, but over the course of this class I have developed an appreciation for traditional paint.  One of the things I used to detest most about acrylics was running out of a certain color and then trying to remix it.  The solution I discovered was to mix a whole lot of the colors I knew I would need. Then I used a pallette knife to slop them into a lidded butter tub.  The container kept the paint usable for more than 2 weeks!  11" x 14" acrylic.  15 hours.

A Lantern of Value

The point of this assignment was to show the importance of how bright the values of different colors are.  Art pieces are stronger when lights, darks and contrasts are used appropriately to direct the attention of the viewer.  The often taught rule is: when working through a piece of art, take a grayscale look at it every once in a while to make sure the values and brightness of the image are still communicating effectively.  11"x17" acrylic on illustration board.  9 hours.

Plein Air Cougar Park Painting 03-Digital

Alright!  Here is my final from-life drawing I'm going to do in cold weather!!!  Despite the chill in the air, I was excited that my teacher let me try working from life digitally.  This is the first life painting I have done on the laptop.  Anyone else have tips on working from life this way?  I put an umbrella behind me and everything to keep the sun from glaring, but man, the screen looked so dim it was tough to tell what colors I was using.  2.5 hours in Photoshop

Plein Air Cougar Park Painting 02

A return to the park and this time I was armed!  Or at least, properly gloved!  My wife was sweet enough to sacrifice some gloves she didn't want any more and they really helped cuz it's still not spring time weather out there yet.  I am much happier with this piece than I was with my first.  I felt much more comfortable this time.  10"x 8" acrylic.  2.5 hours.  I also felt pretty cool (literally and figuratively) because I figured out a fun easel setup.  Last time, I sat in a camping chair and tried leaning my painting against another camp chair.  THIS time I stacked one chair on top of the other, put a dinky little $3.00 easel on top of that, and it was the perfect height for me as I painted.  I'm sure that standing helped me stay a bit warmer too:) Here's the rig:

Plein Air Cougar Park Painting 01

This was my first ever painting from life. I was mostly focusing on getting the right colors and values.  I did this a couple days ago and it was FREEZING outside.  My fingers felt ready to fall off by the end of class.  I was blessed that my nice teacher Rob let me borrow and mess up his new painting gloves.  7"x 5" acrylic.  1.5 hours.

A Moment in Moab

Arches National Park in Moab, Utah is gorgeous.  My wife and I went on our honeymoon there.  I've always wanted to do some art project related to it and here you go!  A few things I learned from my brilliant professor Rob Mckay are:

A really really wonderful day

A couple good friends of mine got married today.  Photoshop fun for 3.5 hours

Primrose

I wanted to give my wife some flowers that would last for a while, so here they are. 8"x6" acrylic.  4 hours.

Fruit

8"x6" acrylic study.  3 hours

Candle

8"x6" acrylic study.  In this painting, I tried a technique from a painter named Larry Seiler.  The technique involves making confident brush strokes and not going more than 3 strokes without reloading the brush with additional paint.  It takes up a lot of paint, but it was kind of fun.  3 hours.

Makeup

This was an 8"x6" acrylic study I did this evening in class.  It is destined to be my first bathroom painting.  
3 hours

Michaelangelo

Here is my first piece from my painting class at the community college.  I picked a Ninja Turtle action figure because Ninja Turtles were really one of the first things that lit my fire to be an artist. 11" x 14" acrylic on illustration board.  9 hours.