Thursday, November 19, 2009

Ball point pen drawing!

"Presidents"
7 x 10 in
Ball Point Pen
This is a ball point pen drawing that I did for a buddy of mine that really likes these guys.  They're names are starting with the obvious George Washington, Henry Knox, and Nathaneal Greene.  It was a challenge doing this drawing, first I have never done more than one portrait on a page.  Getting their likenesses was also a little challenging, my process with ballpoint pen to continue with the other post, is that I just dive into the drawing without doing any prep work, I start with really light lines or guidelines to show me the right measurements.  Once that's layed out I go into the darks, or at times I just concentrate on sections of the drawing bringing to an almost finish look enthen move onto the next.  Once I have the whole drawing harmonized and the tones are right, I go in and blend what needs further blending and bring it to a finish. Doing ball point pen is very challenging, I view it as doing charcoal drawings. If you have the right control then it becomes much easier to manipulate the tones.  Hope you enjoy!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Murals in Washington D.C.

Beginning stages of the "Ponte Vecchio" mural...








Finished details of the "Ponte Vecchio"





This is the other side of the restaurant, where I did the second mural...











These are photos of two murals I did in Washington D.C. for a restaurant that's opening in Febraury, 2010.  The whole idea behind the murals in relation to the restaurant, is to bring the customers back to Florence, Italy.  On one side of the restaurant you'll be looking outside and see the "ponte vecchio" and on the other side you will see a normal street in Florence that has the two original restaurants that the owners opened in Florence, and also a regular apartment door that you'll find in Italy.  The wall also has the two street names, in which the restaurants are located in.  This mural was a lot of fun to do, I  have not done anything with spray paints in a really long time, so in the beginning it was a little nerve racking, but after ten minutes it came back too me.  I occasionally used a brush for the really small details, so when I finished the mural I went back and sealed it with a varnish.  I had the owner of the restaurant there for the majority of the process and he gave me good ideas along the way in which improved the mural.  I thank him for helping me and giving me the opportunity to do such a fun project! hope you enjoy!