An Exotic Bird

My best intentions have gone by the wayside. The first block of Summer term swallowed me whole and is about ready to spit me out.

Here is a sketch I actually had the time to do last weekend. It started as a scribble and ended up as an exotic bird of some kind. Maybe a toucan/hornbill hybrid.....

A Happy Dog

Just one of those nonsense sketches.

Dogs and Their Owners

It is said that dogs resemble some of the physical characteristics of their owners. I don't know if that is true or not.

Alien Dog

OK, maybe it is stretching things a bit but there must be alien dogs out there somewhere with all those little green men.

Couple of Paintings

Here are a couple of paintings that were done for Imagine FX this issue. One, Gregory, was in the magazine. The second was not used because of space issues. I do have a bit of recorded material for the second character in the stocks. Possibly I will get that posted at some time.

Hope you enjoy these.

Awh.... a puppy!

Everyone loves puppies.... especially when cooked just right. :)

Tonight's Dog

Last couple days of school. Too tired to write anything. :)
Black and white prismacolor pencils.

Three Dog Day

Didn't have a chance to post any dogs over the weekend so I am making up for it today and posting three. Hope you like them.

This first sketch is a real quick one of my son's dog. Done from life in about five minutes. He kept having dreams and moving.

Second sketch is just a grouchy dog.

Third sketch is another dog from life. This dog was my son's fifth birthday present. He was a mix of Malamute and St. Bernard. At his prime he weighed 205 pounds, shoulders were just shy of 30 inches, and he could run or swim all day long. He was a gentle giant in every sense of the word. I loved this dog.

His name was Butch and he lived 14 years at which time I had to make the decision to put him down. How do you know when it is the right time to do such a thing? My son and I buried him in the middle of an aspen grove on the backside of a nearby mountain. I miss him terribly.

This drawing was done sometime the last year of his life.

Poodles

Sometimes I feel sorry for poodles......

Forgot to mention that most of these doodles are drawn with black Prismacolor pencils. In this particular case, black and white Prismacolor pencil.

I like these pencils because they do not smear. You can not erase them easily either.

I avoid erasing almost always when drawing in my sketchbooks. Erasing is not about drawing and is a distraction. Erasing is about making something look pretty. Drawing is about something else completely.

Before anyone might want to tell me that I don't have a clue about what I am talking about; that erasing is indeed about drawing. I want to assure you that I have and do use erasers occasionally depending on what I am working on. However, drawing is about making marks and erasing is about correcting and eliminating  things you might think are mistakes with your marks. Why waste precious drawing time doing that in a sketchbook?

One last admission .... yes there are drawing techniques that use erasers to make the mark and I have occasionally used those methods.

No more ranting....this is about the dog. :)

The Family Mutt

Statistically speaking, most human remains discovered in the great outdoors, are found by the family pooch. Out on his daily field trip Spot finds a small and tasty treat which he brings home to enjoy on the front lawn. While Spot may relish his discovery, most dog owners are not so enthusiastic.

Imagine FX Article

I had the honor and pleasure of appearing in the Imagine FX magazine this month. I have not seen the actual article yet but here is a link to the online tutorial that was posted.

http://beta.imaginefx.com/create-elaborate-picture-frame-66419

Here is an image that was originally done for the tutorial but did not make it in the final. Hope you enjoy this. I will post another in a couple days.

Here is a close up of the full size image so you can see the texture in the painting. I think that the subtle use of textures can take an average piece of art to a higher level of quality.

Another one of those days.

The Cat had one of those days.
Dog sketch number three.

Today's Dog

You ever have one of those days.

Dawg-a-Day

One of my students is engaged in a very worthy project. Here is the link and one of her paintings.
http://dawgart.blogspot.com/

I encourage you to go have a look at her work.
I am very proud to say that I had the honor and pleasure or working with her while she was in school.

She has inspired me. I am going to post a Dawg-a-Day. Mine will be no where as good as hers and are culled from my sketchbooks. Here is the first dawg. Hope you enjoy the variety and kinds that inhabit my world. Cheers!

Something I have been working on

Been absent for awhile. Had a bunch of projects with fast approaching deadlines. A blessing and a curse. Good to stay busy but does take away from a lot of other things .... like actively posting.

Well, here is a crop from one of the projects as well as a piece of the original sketch. Really can't post the whole image or say much more about it. Hope you enjoy looking.

High Res Cute Puppy Movie

Finally got around to posting a higher res version of the cute puppy movie. Here is the link.

Cute Puppy Movie

Hope you enjoy it. :)

Finished Cave Critter

Well, now it is a new year and I will post more regularly. Kind of just melted down into the sofa with my sketchbook and watched lots of football. Well, took a few naps too.

School starts tomorrow so life ramps up again.

Here is the final version of the cave critter I started a few weeks ago. I should say that it is final for the moment. After a month or so I will look at it again and no doubt make additional adjustments.

Cave Critter

I am not really forgetting to post something. I just was sidetracked a bit with the last week of school and finals. I was also working on this painting the last week or so. Here is the link on youtube if you are interested. http://youtu.be/uqFyJVVmA1U

I don't really ever know what sketch will strike my fancy and eventually become a painting. This particular painting started with the sketch posted in my Halloween countdown. It might still be at the bottom of the page. If not, then here is the original sketch.

I am painting this using Corel Painter 12.2. I have about 15 hours work into the painting at the moment. Painter is still my main painting program though I often jump around between different programs depending on my mood and what I am trying to accomplish.

The original image dimensions are 5400 x 4100 pixels.

I will post an update of the final image when finished.

Bang! Bang!

Ever want to just shoot something up? Can't help you there. If however you have ever wanted to paint a bunch of bullet holes in an image, then this is just for you.

While cleaning out a bunch of files, I found an old Painter nozzle of some bullet holes. I made this back in 2007 for a project I was working on and had forgotten about it since then.

To use the file you will need one of the Image Hose brushes in Painter. Just load it as a nozzle and paint away. You will probably need to adjust the size settings ...... maybe some other settings too.

If you are not familiar with the image hose and need some instructions let me know and I can post some.

Download the file here. Bullet holes nozzle file

Brush and Ink Doodle

Occasionally I will break the routine and doodle with something beside Prismacolor pencils. This drawing is done with ink and a brush. There was no initial idea. I started with the eyes and it grew from that point. The original size is 5 x 8 inches.