"Soul 2" wheel thrown bowl

In working today I kept with the "bowl with a soul" theme.

"soul" wheel thrown bowl

With this piece I wanted contrast the outside of the bowl with the inside. A rough dull exterior with a gleaming smooth interior.

"The Chicken Look" pen

"apple study" color pencil

This is a quick still life study. I am thinking about using this as a large painting. Some thing a la Wayne Thiebaud.

"earth day" digital painting on an iPhone

Having more fun with playing with iPhone apps. I read that British artist David Hockney has started painting with his iPhone, where he can upload images and send them to friends.

"Toucan" pencil

Today's sketch is a very uncanny toucan.

"ancient" clay

Today I demonstrated dry brushing on ceramic. Building layers of color on top of each other, to create a textural surface. This small sculpture is reminiscent of a mummified head of a forgotten pharaoh.

wheel thrown pottery- cone 5 graystone and b-mix clay

The past couple weeks I have had students working with clay. They have been creating small sculptures and hand built pottery. I let a few adventurous students try out the pottery wheels. I have 4 old motorized kick wheels that are all some what out of balance. These are some examples that I made for demonstrations. When I turned the students loose they quickly learned that it is not as easy as it looks. I am not planning to glaze these examples. Instead I thought I would paint them. We'll see how that turns out.

"Chubbs" pencil

I love this little bird.

"Squawk" pencil

Sometimes being angry is not reserved for humans only. I believe that at times we all can get over protective or easily offended. These are the times that I have to tell myself to Take a deep breath.

"Perch" pencil

Back to the birds. I needed to get back to looking at value and shapes. For me, drawing animals are conducive to find these art elements.

"mask" digital image

I created this picture on my iPhone. It stated as a photo that I ran trough a Lego filter. I then played with it some more with a paint program. The effect reminds me a a mask that a post-Pollock portraitist would love.

"Face sketch" pencil

Spent more time practicing drawing faces.

"Face Sketch" pencil

"sketch" pencil

It took a lot out of me just to post this. I am liking this less and less.

"Grasshopper" pen

Today's post comes at the end of a tiring day.

"Burrow Owl" pen

Another one of my bird sketches.

"Red Notan" cut paper

A notan is a Japanese word meaning expanding the square. I use notans to teach the interaction of positive and negative shapes, as well as organic and geometric shapes. Most notans are black and white. By using red it really pops out more dramatically.

"Sleeping Bella" pen

Today was a sketching day. Here is an observation of our dog Bella, doing what she does best on a Sunday afternoon.

"Hyrum" pencil

Today's drawing is another portrait.

It is a combination of an 18th century picture and my imagination.

"Bill" graphite wash and acrylic paint











One of the last true American Bison.

"Elder Child" pencil and acrylic paint

Day 100!!!!! I have been interest with David Hockney and his book. The flat color is in homage to the modernist spirit. Sometimes we try to make artwork which belongs in the last century. This is just as much about a portrait as it is about the contrast of the color paint and the pencil shading.

"I am afraid of rabbits" mixed media

I think that I ate to much Easter candy.

"David Hockney" pencil

I have been reading a book by the painter and art historian David Hockney. In this book, titled "Secret Knowledge" Hockney proposes that certain Old Masters used optics (such as mirrors and lenses) to aid in creating many of there precise drawings and paintings. One artist he argues of using this is Jean August Ingers. Hockney Takes many of Ingers drawings and shows how the use of a type of Camera Obscura was most likely used to create his portraits. His theory is very convincing.

For this drawing, as Hockney would say, I eyeballed it. That is to say I sketched out observation with out the aid of any outside aides.

"Monkey Studies" graphite wash

One thing about monkeys, you can always count on some interesting expressions.

"The Easter Bunny?" pencil

If you are going to sketch an animal on Easter Sunday, what other animal would it be?

"deer study" pencil

This drawing was sketched this morning. Many of these sketches still adhere to the solitary space in which they dwell in my imagination.

"Bee icon2" pen

An insect study. Like the one I did earlier this week. At times I have thought of these studies as little iconic talisman. I have been contemplating can successful combine these images with in the design and tradition of landscapes.

"Capital Reef- memories" oil painting

This is a painting that I actually did last summer. However I put some finishing touches on it today to get it ready for an art show that it is going in. I am also showing two other paintings, all landscapes.