Thursday, November 12, 2009

Bite Me




















Well, this one took a long while to complete, and was much more challenging than I anticipated. I approached it by doing a quick sketch with charcoal, then taped off the background entirely. I have only done this a few times in the past, but I find the colors of the background in this piece almost as interesting as the foreground, and I wanted to remain focused on the details of the image. It also adds an element of surprise for me when I peel off the tape, and see how the image relates to its surroundings. Although I thought the cupcake paper would present more of a challenge than the cupcake itself, in the end it was the opposite. The pink portion was done in many layers with drying time in between, and then subsequent sanding. I purposely left some of the scuffing from the sand paper to add texture and dimension. Thanks to my friend Lori Workizer for the fantastic reference photo, which she took one afternoon while we visited a local cupcake shop, where they bake mini cupcakes daily. We sampled a few and took a few more home. 12" x 12" Oil on artist's wood panel $300


Monday, November 9, 2009

Nepali Boy














I have collected some photos of children, cropped them to be profile compositions, and removed the color. I hope to make this a series of charcoal drawings. Special thanks to Cristiano Bonassera for the great reference photo, which was originally a full color portrait! You can see his work on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/crileto/. Charcoal pencil on paper 5.5" x 8.5" $40 unframed


Sunday, November 1, 2009

S'nta Claus




















This is the second piece in the Winter Holiday Series. The first was S'no Man, which I donated last year to a silent auction to benefit M.S. I had planned to create it on three separate canvases of varying size, but after completing the sketch on one sheet of paper, it was clear that it was finished. This piece follows that same pattern; with three separated boxes of varying sizes on one sheet of 14" x 17" Strathmore Medium paper using Rembrandt soft pastels. SOLD