Poseidon

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"Poseidon"

3 x 3 in

Ball Point Pen Drawing

The last time I was in Miami, FL I went with my wife, sister in law and her fiancee to a museum that had this sculpture. The lighting of it and design really grabbed me. The light hitting it was so natural and dramatic. I also loved the design of the face and beard, I knew when I saw it I had to draw it. This drawing is not an alla prima painting or drawing, it was definitely not done in one sitting. 

With this drawing I tried a different approach in the beginning stages. I started with placing the important markings of the subject stating each height and width to each section. I keep the lines light since I'll render over the lines and do not want them to show in later stages. Here is where the change comes in with the process, I start stating all the values at once very lightly and keeping the edges soft. What this does it shows me how the final value scheme will look, also it gives me a clearer path to take each section to a finished look. Then I take the top half of the portrait to a finish. I do the same with the bottom half.

Thank you for stopping by, happy Holidays everyone!

Labor Day Weekend

Morning lake view from the cabin.

Finnley.

Last weekend we went to our family friends cabin for Labor Day weekend and the timing couldn't be any better.  To sit back and just relax was exactly what I needed.

Greg doing the one thing the cabin is known for.

Greg and Miles the best co-captains around.

 I was working on a couple commissions up there but in my "down time" I was messing more with Caseins. Caseins are milk based paints that are water soluble, drying time is super quick with these guys.  I bought them before our wedding trip to Europe and messed around with them a little.  I felt last weekend Casein and I became good friends.

Cheers!

Rupert Brooke

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"Rupert Brooke"

9 x 11 in

Ball Point Pen 

I wanted to thank you all for your nice comments from my last post, I really did not expect all your responses. Especially being gone for so long, thank you again everyone!

I did this Ball Point Pen drawing of Rupert Brooke, a famous English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War. Rupert Brooke was not photographed often and there are rare photos of him. He was an amazing poet for his time and even till today. I can't imagine if he would of lived beyond the age of 27 what other masterpieces he would of produced. I usually do ball point pen drawings in a really small format, but this was way out of the ordinary. I wanted to try something different by going bigger. I'm glad I did but it was a lot of work. When building up layers with ball point pen you have to be very careful by not pressing to hard with the pen or you'll get blobs of ink. It was a challenge to build up these subtle layers in such a large format.  I had a lot of fun with this one, not sure if I wanna go this big again but won't turn it down if it came my way.

Drawing and painting are relative, if you know how to draw then you can paint. I approach a painting the same way I do with a ball point pen. Always think about form, and how light wraps around the form.