Sunday, June 28, 2009

Wistful

Sumatran tiger tinted charcoal drawingIn a previous post, I introduced Derwent's Tinted Charcoal. I used burnt orange, peat, mountain blue (background), forest pine and sand (eyes), natural, and the three shades of black/gray to create this tiger. Sumatran tigers like this one are the second most endangered tiger subspecies, with fewer than 500 individuals left in the wild. Because of their habitat in the rainforests of Sumatra, they have developed a small size for moving between trees and webbed toes for faster swimming. Their mane is typically larger than other tigers, with some even sporting a full beard below the chin. I will donate a portion of my profits to tiger conservation at Save the Tiger Fund.

Prints and greeting cards are available through Fine Art America, or the original (unframed) is available here:






Saturday, June 20, 2009

Greeting Cards

cardFine Art America has started offering greeting cards, so I have set up a few of my works as cards. Unfortunately, I can't just link to all the cards, so you have to check each print separately. Cards are available for most of my work except those I do limited editions of.card

Friday, June 12, 2009

They Can't All Be Your Best

The definition of "best" implies that there some things that aren't the best. I certainly have my own opinions about which of my drawings I think are my best, and several that I actually despise. It's all part of the learning process, I guess. But there are those times when you think you're in a groove and have a wonderful idea, but the execution just comes out shoddy. Imagine my disappointment when my latest great idea, a baby chimp sitting in the grass (based on some photos I took last year), ended up looking like a children's book illustration (not that children's book illustrations are bad, it's just not what I was going for). This drawing isn't finished (in the full drawing, he's holding a little flower), and I waffle between wanting to see how it ends up and wanting to throw it away. So chances are it'll end up in my storage box unfinished.

What I'd like to share about this piece, though, is that I used my new tinted charcoal pencils. The pink of the skin and the greens of the grass are wonderful colors. I was able to add different shades of regular black charcoal on the pink to get a variation of value. I'm still learning how to blend them to make new colors - it hasn't worked very well so far.

You can't win them all, just take it as a learning experience and move on.

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Drawing Day 2009

drawing day logobaby orangutan sketch for drawing dayYesterday was Drawing Day, an attempt to get as many drawings done and put online in one day as possible. Each person may only submit one drawing, and it must have been created on Drawing Day (not before). I submitted mine to RedBubble.

Since I was out of town most of the day, I put together a quick sketch of the baby orangutan at the zoo. I love her messy hair! I'd like to do a more formal drawing of her at some point. I used sepia and sanguine Conte pencils, dark sepia Cretacolor pencil, and a touch of pink tinted charcoal around the mouth. I blended with a tortillon to smooth it all out. Happy Drawing Day!

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Underwater Rainbow

coral reef colored pencil drawing
It's been 13 months in the making, and I have finally finished the coral reef. The last step was the water. I used two colors, indigo and true blue, and used the blender like there's no tomorrow. I added sun rays with white.

Altogether, I included two dozen species using 50 different colors. It's been a long 13 months, but I am quite happy with the result. Will I do it again, such a large drawing in colored pencil? I'm not sure. But this was quite the learning experience.

I am going to have this drawing professionally scanned so I can offer large sizes of prints. In the meantime, the original (30"x15") is available: