Challenger
12 January 2025
Color pencils on paper
Few sports remain unchanged under commercial considerations, but I fear this one may have been irrevocably impacted by the stasis of the last two decades.
The Gambit
29 December 2024
Oil pastels on paper
Luck is the uncertainty remaining after accounting for every variable you are aware of. Fortune does not favor the ignorant.
I’ve been watching some old movies lately and their posters fascinate me. They’re a great lesson in composition and I think pastel shaded pop art helps in grabbing the viewer’s attention too.
This is my attempt at a poster illustration of a hypothetical movie.
Nature’s Raiment
23 December 2024
Charcoal on paper
When was the last time you paid attention to how the clouds look on a moonlit night?
Pretty ladies are nice but the real objective in this piece turned out to be doing justice to the clouds. I still have much to learn.
Siren
17 December 2024
Watercolors on paper
I had to tweak the camera temperature settings to get it to capture the correct color of the dress, which is green. It also caused everything to look hotter.
Pretty interesting to see how certain colors appear different enough in certain conditions, enough to fool even powerful camera lenses.
In a way, there is no camera as powerful as the human eye, is there?
Undercover
5 December 2024
Color pencils on paper
Smiling Eyes
1 December 2024
Charcoal on paper
I think I like charcoal because it compels the viewer to imagine finer details on their own. And I like using this medium because it really makes me pay attention to the interplay between light and shadow.
Having said that, drawing the female face with charcoal is challenging. One wrong stroke or smudge, and what were supposed to be smiling lines can easily transform into a mustache or beard!
Headwinds
21 November 2024
Oil pastels on paper
Oil pastels are fun and the lack of precision necessitates some creative problem solving. Although I recently discovered that pastel pencils are a thing …
Assistant
2 October 2024
Brush pens on paper
Whether she’s real or artificial is anyone’s guess.
She seems unsure herself.
Autumnal Idyll
1 October 2024
Color pencils on paper
It’s been a while since I used color pencils. I find myself instinctively reaching for them whenever I’m doing a piece that I think will be difficult. I wonder why that is. Is it the freedom to make mistakes because they’re easy to undo? Is it the incremental shading?
This medium is what I consider a good example of “easy to pick up, hard to master.” Some of the color pencil maestros create incredibly life like rt pieces. But a poorly done color pencil piece can look devastatingly bad.
I had to work on this one for a couple of days to blend sharp changes in color. It made me realize how a sharp foreground and fuzzy background adds depth to a piece.
The Eye of the Storm
23 September 2024
Watercolors on paper
I generally like to color strictly within the lines but as I’m discovering in my art journey, blurring the lines and crossing boundaries is the road to something spectacular.