"Pope Julius II"-after Santo, pen

This is a drawing from my sketchbook done from a renaissance painting by the Italian artist Santo. Some thing about Sunday worship draws me to the work of the Italian renaissance masters.

"New Native Patterns" Pen drawing reworked digitally

This is a reworking of some of the pictures I uploaded yesterday. It is fun every once and awhile to play around with drawings and photoshop. This reminds me of the fun commercial work I have done.

"Poly mask 1,2,&3" pen

These are more of the masks that I stared with yesterday.

"Masks" pencil


These are some Polynesian masks that a friend of mine has. I hung up seven of them for my students to do contour line drawings from. These are just two of the mask that had these great organic lines and patterns.

"Poe" pen

My take on a Tell-Tale Heart

"Finger prints on the Face"

Acrylic "8x10"

This painting is made up of fingerprints. I was inspired by the paintings of the artist Chuck Close. He does these enormous portraits. He did a series made up of fingerprints. This is my attempt on a much smaller scale. I had some old cans of acrylic finger paints, and just started dipping my fingers into it. I eye balled where to put the marks from the photo I was working with. Hope you like it.

"Anonymous Face" pencil

This is a sketch that I just made up. I always get asked "Who is this?" Most of the time when I am just sketching faces it is just from my head. Hopefully I can get better at drawing portraits.

"St. John - after Pontormo" pen

Today's drawing is an ink line sketch of St. John the Evangelist that I did during a Church meeting. This is drawn after a fresco done by Ponotrmo. He is considered a mannerist during the Renaissance. Depicted is the pious Saint in a turned version of the classic contrapposto pose.

This past week I have been captivated and horrified by the plight of the people of Haiti in the wake of the earthquake. There has been many people wanting tho help. From those who are on the ground looking to save survivors. To those far away in their living rooms. One of the many organizations that are sending aid is LDS humanitarian services. They have sent medical personnel as well as much needed medical and food supplies. Much is still needed however. You can donate to help with this. Please click on this link to donate. Humanitarian Services.

"Bergerac vieux centre ville" pencil sketch

This is a sketch from a photo I took in Bergerac , France.

This village claim to fame was the french dramatist Cyrano de Bergerac.

The drawing a view of the small plaza in front of the "Old Church". Most of the buildings were built in the 17th century. This part of Bergerac did hold the ambient romance of an old European fairytale.

"Venus" pencil

Sometimes technology trows you a curve ball and makes you change up your plans. I was trying to upload a landscape drawing I did today, and it just did not want to take. So I came up with a sketch that scanned in at a much smaller file size. This is my portrait of Venus (interpreted from Botticelli's version). She has fuller lips may add to her somber gaze.

"Cadillac Maison, France"

digital photo

I was going through some photo's that I had taken from France and found a picture of this house in a town named Cadillac (no it was not named after the car). It is a town in the northern Bordeaux region. I reworked the picture to break it down into shapes. It gives it a graphic quality that I have used before in some of my paintings.

"Desk Top Still Life" pencil sketch 8"x10"

Today's post is a sketch that I did of some items on my desk. I can assure you that my desk is not nearly as clean as this drawing would suggest. The box in the back looks like it is drawn out of perspective, but it is a hand built clay box that was uneven to begin with. I liked the organic qualities of the pot and box in contrast to the mechanical nature if the stapler.

"Crow Scratch" scratch board

This is scratch board picture is much rougher than the squirrel. It was created from my playing with the crow images from the first of the month. I want to call this an exploration rather than a finished piece. You will be seeing a lot of "exploration" as I post each day.

"Squirrel !!!!" scratch board

Happy Martin Luther King Day

"Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

This quote makes me think of all the creative minorities through out history. From the revolutionary war patriots, to those volunteers in the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake who sacrifice of them selves in the service of others.

This is a scratch board sketch. It took a little under two hours to do. This is different than the color scratch art. The paper is a thick card stock with a black ink coating over the top of it. The scratch through it you must use a sharpened tool.

"The Green, Blue, and Red Goblin" scratch paper

Today's post is another example of scratch art. This i using a multi-color scratch paper. Similar in color schemes as the scratch light.

"Swimming with the fishy" Scratch Light 5"x3"

Here is another example of using scratch light. It is my cool school of fish.

"King Owl" Scratch light

I have been playing around with scratch board art. This is done on a piece of multicolored transparent film, with a black wax coating, which you can scratch away to create an image.

"Rock Star" digital photo on adhesive paper

This was one of those mistakes that can become something more. This was a photo that was sent to the laser printer and someone left some address labeling sheets in the printer. I peeled them off and spaced them evenly apart. It suddenly became a more interesting picture than the original photo.

I then noticed an optical illusion that the spacing created.

Dark patches appeared in the crossings of the spaces. It is the same effect you can find in the Hermann-grid illusion (see below). The photo is obliviously weaker than the true illusion, yet I can see it. Can you?

"My Muse" photo

"Uncle Walt" 14" x 18" graphite pencil

I drew this as a demonstration in using the grid system to draw a portrait a la Chuck Close.

It is from a photograph of Walt Whitman taken by George Cox. I loved the rough face paired with the wild beard. It creates visual caricature for an eccentric poet.

His poem of the wild western expansion of manifest destiny, Pioneers! O Pioneers! is a favorite.

COME my tan-faced children,
Follow well in order, get your weapons ready,
Have you your pistols? have you your sharp-edged axes?
Pioneers! O pioneers!

For we cannot tarry here,
We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger,
We the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

O you youths, Western youths,
So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship,
Plain I see you Western youths, see you tramping with the foremost,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

Sparrow sketch 6"x 8" pencil

I am still trying to figure out scanner settings. I am not happy with the gray tones in the background.

"Profile" 2"x4" pen

Todays picture was the winner out of a few sketches done in the afternoon. When I am sketching faces, there is always a profile viewpoint there.

"Fountain" digital photo

I was on the road today, without a sketchbook with me. My tool of choice was the camera on my iphone. This is a photo of a fountain in front of the Provo Temple. What attracted this to me was the abstract explosion of light contrasted with the blackness of night. The reflection in the pool appeared as brush stokes of light.

Face sketch 3"x4" pen

My favorite time to sketch is during meetings. It keeps my sane. I tend to do a lot of faces when I am in meetings.

"Damien" 5"x7" pencil sketch

Here is a pencil sketch of a former student, I did as a demonstration.

Skull and Face 5"x7" watercolor sketch

Still looking at drawing portraits with my students. We looked at what forensic artist do. By taking human remains they can create a reasonable likeness of what the person may have looked like. This was my made up attempt of sketching a skull and creating a face from it. My biggest disappointment is how poorly my drawing scan in. The colors and values are reproduced horribly. I have to find a better way.

Self Portrait sketch 5"x7"

I have been doing a unit on portraiture with my students. I have had them look at features in the skull, how to draw eyes, noses, and mouths. Today I had them begin a self portrait using the grid system.

The Bear

Bear Sketch 3"x5" graphite pencil

Today's sketch was an exercise in observation and using simple graphite marks to show texture. The bear is drawn from a picture from a book. It was a fairly quick drawing. It also reminded me of a great indie band, Grizzly Bear.

Crow Doodle

Corvis Sketch 3"x5" pen

Here is another sketch of a crow. This is more of a doodle that I did in my sketchbook while listening to a talk. Sketching is the only way that I can actually lessen distractions so that I can better listen in meetings and presentations. I just read that crows have often been a malevolent figure in European legends, as harbingers of death. I do believe that there is an other-worldly quality to the birds. In may folklore the crow is a guide for the soul. They act as guides from this world to the next.

Sketching the Crows

crow sketch 5 x7" pen

I have a thing for birds. Maybe it is because they have been given iconic status in culture (the bald eagle on the presidential seal). I have often used them as my muse. The crows are frequent visitors. They often have walnuts that they have pilfered from our neighbors trees. These crows are extremely intelligent and curious. I can see why they have been endowed with power and mystery across cultures.

Happy New Year

Welcome to a new year and a new blog. From a cold 1st night and snow on the ground comes the first image for the year. We found ourselves surrounded by a murder of crows. From the trees to the snow on the ground the birds were every where. They spent the day with us. Thus comes this digital manipulated image from a crow in the street.