Friday, April 24, 2009

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Earth Day 2009

Today is Earth Day, the day where we're all supposed to help clean up the earth. I remember picking up trash in the woods around my house as a kid, and planting a tree every year. As I was thinking about what to write today, I decided that there is one thing I wanted to talk about. With all this talk about renewable energy, finding a solution that will be "clean" and reduce our dependence on foreign oil, there is one source that many people overlook - often intentionally. I don't want to start any debates, but I'm going to put out a plea for everyone to consider nuclear power. It's much safer and cleaner than most people know, and it produces much more power than any wind farm could hope for. The good news is, according to a recent Gallup Poll, more Americans support nuclear power than ever before - 59%. It's one of the best things we can do for our energy situation.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Evening Snow


Gosh, another snow leopard? I do try to vary my subjects, but snow leopards have always been my favorite wildcat. I couldn't help but do another one! So after I got some gray paper a while ago, I began to think about what to do with it, and this image almost immediately came to mind. I put it aside for a while to do other things, but after finishing the orangutan the snow leopard came back to me. I had to do it.

I like the gray paper. In a way, this is practice for that zebra drawing I talked about several months ago (yes, I still plan on doing it). I used both black and white charcoal. The only thing I didn't like at first was the heavy tooth of the paper. I layered on the white charcoal and tried to grind it into every valley with the blending stump. Then I realized tooth is not so bad. It allowed me to work faster in a looser style, and I was able to finish this drawing in only three days.

Prints are available, as well as the 18"x12" original. You can purchase the original here:





Friday, April 17, 2009

Solo Exhibit Planned for 2010

My local art gallery has just announced its 2010 exhibit schedule, and I am very excited to say I have been chosen for a semi-solo exhibit next June/July! The Art Center holds a new juried exhibit in its main room roughly every 5-6 weeks, and a group or individual is selected for the secondary room. I figure there's room for about 12-15 framed pieces. So for the next year or so, I'll be working toward filling the space and getting my work framed in preparation.

Art Renewal Center's International Art Salon

Several months ago I entered an international art contest at the Art Renewal Center (ARC). The Center advocates a return of art to a style like that of the 19th century. In their push for realism in art, their choices for winners of this and previous contests clearly favor those in the aforementioned style. I entered anyway, in the drawing category, and I am quite happy to say that I made it to the semifinalist stage out of over 1600 entries from all over the world. And as an animal artist plunging into the pool of figure artists, I am even more honored.

Monday, April 06, 2009

Newsletter

I’ve decided to start a quarterly email newsletter, with summaries of recent completed art, announcements of future events, and hopefully drawing tips. If you subscribe between now and the end of June, I will put you in a raffle for one free giclee print of your choice (must be one of these drawings, size will be 10” on the longer edge, valued at up to $52). The winner will be chosen on July 1st. The only information I will collect besides email addresses will be the name and mailing address of the winner (for shipping).

To sign up, until I figure out how to make an easy fill-in form, please fill out and send this preformatted email. Please do not post your email in a comment.

Saturday, April 04, 2009

What the Future Holds

bornean orangutan charcoal and conte pencil drawing
What can I say about this one. For its size (24"x18") it went really fast, probably because I didn't have my own reference photos to work from. I used six different pencils, the standard 2B, 4B and 6B charcoal pencils, white charcoal for highlights on the hair, sepia Conte, and dark sepia Cretacolor. The Cretacolor pencil was very hard, like a B or 2B charcoal, and I didn't like it as much as the softer Conte. I used bristol vellum paper, which worked very well even though it ate up a third of my Conte pencil.

After the director of Orangutan Outreach contacted me when I announced this drawing, this pose immediately came to mind. I wanted the orangutan to look like he was contemplating the future of his species. There are two species of orangutan, the Sumatran and the Bornean, and combined there are fewer than 47,000 individuals left in the wild. They are the most endangered of all the great apes.

The original drawing is available for sale below, and prints are also available at Fine Art America (paper or canvas). I will donate a portion of my profits to Orangutan Outreach to aid conservation of these magnificent animals.







References: http://redapes.org/orangutans/

Friday, April 03, 2009

Gorilla Won an Art Contest

Wow, I just won a second contest at RedBubble. This time my gorilla won the "zoo animal" challenge in the Animal Portraits group. All of the other 36 entries were photos, so I feel even more excited.

And I was also selected as featured artist of the month on My Gallery. I had to do an interview but I don't think it's been posted yet.