There's a "J"

The suit of hearts is almost complete. I've got a long way to go, but this journey has been fun. This was also created digitally in Photoshop. 

The Daily Sketch: First Snowfall on Mount Timpanogos

I extend kudos to those artists who have drawn or painted Mount Timpanogos, because it is a challenge to get every peak and ledge right. This is the simplified version, I'm sure. For those who are from this part of Utah, and currently do not live in Utah, I hope I'm not making any of you homesick. This is a well recognized feature of the state. 

The Daily Sketch: Silly little Doodles

You know those days when you open your sketchbook because you really want to draw, but don't know what to draw, so you make these silly meaningless doodles all over the page? Do you ever feel ashamed of them the next time someone wants to look through your sketchbook? All I can say is, don't be ashamed. Never underestimate those silly meaningless doodles, because you might find something useful out of them later. You're an artist. This is your thought process. This is how you put those ideas onto paper. 

Daily Sketch: Get Behind Me...Cats.

My subtle tribute to a duo that will never be forgotten.

I present....The Great Horned....What?

Yeah. I had a lot of fun with this one. What would you do if you came across one of these while taking a moonlight walk? 

The Daily Sketch: The King of Spades

I bring you, The King of Spades!!!!! Thank You!

The Daily Sketch: Good heavens it's getting a background!

The saga continues, and one day it will be complete, and better yet, I'll find the best way to mass produce these. Still got a long way to go......

The Daily Sketch: HELP! A SERPENT!!! SERPENT!!!

Remember that pesky bird in Walt Disney's Alice In Wonderland? Only this time, it's not a large Alice (Have you ever seen an Alice?) this is a real serpent, well real as in made by me. This particular serpent can be found in bodies of water in the Uintah Basin, like Green River, Flaming Gorge, and Starvation Reservoir, at least in my make-believe world, that's where they are found. I suppose that when late fall approaches they meander to the Colorado River and swim to southern Arizona for the winter. They keep on the lookout for bears that steal hikers/camper's food. Remember, a fed bear, is a dead bear.  The bears are high in protein, and help these beasts swim longer, and keep them on dry land for prolonged period, in necessary....yeah. I could go on forever about this.......

The Daily Sketch: Creepy Monsters...sort of.

A little something that I pulled out of my brain today, the six legged creature was drawn a few months ago.

The Daily Sketch: Continued work in progress

Normally I would avoid posting this step-by-step process of unfinished work, but in order to keep up with the blogging, I just as well share this because it's what I'm working on. How many of you start with the eyes? So far it's the best way to start, get all the small stuff out of the way, and use the colors to finish the rest of him. It's the beauty of digital, you can point sample colors, and you don't have to worry about trying to re-mix the paint, if you run out. This is saving lots of time that way. I'm trying to make this look like acrylic on textured board, because that's how I started this ongoing project.

The Daily Sketch: A work in progress

Early stages of a digital project I'm working on. Interesting colors are developing. 

The Daily Sketch: Ring Tailed Unicat

And yes, that's right. I gave it a horn, just like I put the cats I draw/paint. 

The Daily Sketch: The Oviraptor

So it seems I've been doing a lot of family history work for my darling African Grey Parrot, Nahla these days. This is one of his ancestors. The Oviraptor. They were around during the Late Cretaceous period, which was about 80-73 million years ago.  They were found in the Gobi region of Mongolia and China.  I ran out of Peacock Green Prismacolor, so I had to finish it off with Copenhagen Blue.  Also I did this in my sketchbook, so I ran out of room, thus making his legs a little shorter than what they should be. 

The Daily Sketch: Muse

A little something I put together earlier this week. I had so much fun with the pen drawing that I decided to do another one in Black Raspberry Primacolor pencil.

The Daily Sketch: The Caudipteryx

This is a drawing of the Caudipteryx, otherwise known as, Winged Tail.  These were around during the early Cretaceous period, which was around 125-199 million years ago. They were found in Northeastern China. This drawing is a demonstration of a realistic vs. a stylized approach. I only had room for the head.

The Daily Sketch

Last night I had the opportunity to attend my very first Rodeo. Yes, that's right, my first. As you know, I'm from Utah and have never skied either.  Anyway, these images came floating into my brain today, and I imagine they were somehow inspired by last night's performance of these tough little calves that were laying down helpless on the dirt for a brief moment after having a rope wrapped around their legs,  like an octopus out of water lying on the ground unable to move....

Suit of Diamonds

I bet you can tell the difference. One of these was painted in Acrylic paints on textured illustration board, and the other was painted digitally in Photoshop CS3. I'm hoping the difference is subtle because I'm planning on completing this ongoing Face Card project digitally because these paintings are so small and detailed, it will allow me to zoom in and paint them better.

Work in progress

This is a practice painting in progress of my Uintah Basin Serpent using a dry brush acrylic technique on un-stretched, yes that's right, un-stretched watercolor paper.  I scanned in a drawing from my sketchbook and printed it with my Epson printer onto Arches watercolor paper. (Epson printers are the best printers for feeding heavy-weight stock, like water color paper). Unfortunately it's a small printer, so I am limited to doing these on letter size media. So for larger scale, I will have to add more time by stretching the watercolor paper onto stretcher bars and transferring the drawing by hand. As most artists know, this is a tedious process, because you have to draw it over a few times to get it visible. I am one of those artists who hate to loose my drawing under paint.  Right now, I am laying down two values: The shadow shape and local color. 

Can't wait until Spring.

These winter months have been rather brutal this year. After our first big snowfall of this winter we had weeks of bitter cold temperatures in single digits, with the occasional negative numbers, followed by an inversion that lasted for weeks trapping colder, and polluted air beneath its layer. Luckily this week we got dumped on by more snow, which cleaned out the horrible air, and don't get me wrong, the snow is beautiful, but it's starting to wear on me. I want a morning commute with clear roads, and I really can't wait for Spring. So I was inspired to create some drawings of florals to help me cope with this cruel winter season. 

The Liplock 2: Be mine

I'm finally getting around to a new post for 2013. Yay! Maybe this will get my page views to go up a little. You think? Anyway, this is a new piece I did for Valentines Day. This will be available as a print for purchase on Society 6 soon, so check my Pinterest, Facebook, or Twitter page often for the the link. Here's to a healthy, and creative 2013.