Adventures In Provo Canyon

Last week I went up Provo Canyon to do some plein air painting with Adam Dove. I had only painted with oil once or twice before and I definitely wasn't confident using it. But he gave me some excellent pointers he learned from Perry Stuart and helped me along the way. It was a really fun experience and I'm starting to understand oil painting a little bit more. Now I know why so many people like it.

Even though we had put on bug repellent there were so many flies all over the place, and they had no problem landing on us and biting us. There's nothing better than having flies land on your eye while you're trying to paint with a brush in one hand and holding your pallet in the other. This guy landed in my cadmium yellow and got stuck for a few hours. My my, how the pallet has turned.

After he finally escaped my glob of paint I thought "Wow, I can't believe he survived." Right up until he waltzed his way into my little puddle of turpentine and started washing his hands and face as flies so often do. So whether he died right where I left him on the picnic table, or if a bird swooped down to get him for an easy meal and died from fly poisoning, either way he got what was coming to him. Let that be a lesson to the rest of you flies.

Figure Drawing

      These are some drawings of the figure that are from both figure drawing and figure structure classes. I didn't have a scanner big enough to scan them in so I used a camera to take a quick picture. Between the terrible lighting in our apartments, the newsprint, and that fact that I don't draw dark enough sometimes, some of them look kinda funky. I messed with them in Photoshop enough that you can see most of the basic outline.

    These figure drawing classes have been a huge help. At first I was kind of reluctant to take figure drawing and I probably wouldn't have if it wasn't required. But I am always surprised to see how much my drawing skills improve by the end of a semester with a figure class. I'm actually starting to enjoy drawing the figure now (and not just thinking of it as medicine) but I still have a lot of improving to do. I guess the human figure is the ultimate drawing practice, maybe that's why the masters have been using it for hundreds of years. . .

Nixon

Last semester our assignment was caricatures and I got Richard Nixon. My professor suggested that instead of going with the cliche' Watergate scandal, I do something positive that Nixon is known for. So this is Nixon opening relations with China, shaking hands with Mao Zedong. So I guess it was a dual caricature. I felt like Nixon was pretty easy to do, he has very exaggerated features. It was a lot of fun working in all the different textures and fabrics.

Beartender

My friend wanted me to do some artwork for him to put in some cool frames he got at the DI. He really liked the Octopus I did in a suit and he really likes bears so I did this for him. I will probably do a few more of different animals as he gets more frames. He has kind eyes, a bow tie, and seems sincerely interested in your rambly drunk stories.

The Seven Geases

For my Concept Design II class last semester we were given the story The Seven Geases by Clark Ashton Smith and then we were supposed to come up with designs and develop some looks for the characters from the story. The first one is Tsathoggua the frog/bat God, he's the first one Ralibar encounters. There's been a few images that people have done of Tsathoggua but it was a lot of fun creating a character out of text and coming up with my own design. The second is the archaeopteryx type bird that belongs to the Wizard who curses Ralibar. The bird is sent to lead Ralibar to where he needs to go. I wish I would have had more time to work on these paintings but it was a lot of fun to develop these guys from start to finish. I have a ton of sketches for these guys and other characters throughout the story. Ill post them once I get them back from Don Seegmiller.

Robby D

I did this sketch last semester in my sketchbook for caricature assignments, but after seeing how awesome The Avengers was I think it's appropriate to post now. It would be fun to do some sketches of the other Avengers. I think the key to getting Robert Downey Jr.'s face right are those cute bottom eyelashes. . . Avengers assemble!

Triple Threat?

This is a quick sketch I did of a Triceratops riding a tricycle. I thought it was pretty neat. You can't tell but he is also chewing three pieces of gum.