Twister

I love bats, flying mammals rock. If people could fly, this is probably what we would look like.

 Even though bats are funny looking and kind of creepy, they are hugely important pollinators for many fruits we like to eat, especially mangoes and bananas. They also eat tons of bugs. Literally tons, every night. Unfortunately, many bat species all over the world are endangered, due to things like habitat loss and diseases. The good people at the Lubee Bat Conservancy work to protect fruit bats and their habitats around the world. They were nice enough to give me permission to draw one of their residents, and even sent me some extra pictures. I went a bit crazy and drew him twice, in pencil and pen.

Twister, a fruit bat that lives at the Lubee Bat Conservancy.

Twister II, copic pen on bristol paper, 11x14 in.

Twister, mixed media, pencil, charcoal, and white acrylic on bristol board, 12x20 inches. 

Widow's Tears

This is one of my latest oil paintings, of a Widow's Tears flower. Widow's Tears are in the Commelinaceae family, and usually bloom in the summer, but I happened to find this one during the winter. It was during last year's drought and this was about the only flower I could find that day. The blooms on this plant only last one day before dissolving, so this was an extra lucky find.

Widow's Tears, 5x7inches, on Claybord, initial pencil transfer.

I started the painting by doing a pencil transfer from the photo to the panel. Transferring lines instead of doing a freehand drawing saves a huge amount of time, and reduces the chances of messing something up.

Widow's Tears, 5x7inches, on Claybord, in the middle of  painting process.

Flowers in the Commelinaceae family are easy to identify, because they always have three petals, and one is usually tiny. The story I heard once is that the Commelina family was an Italian family a long  time ago who had three sons. One was a doctor, one was a lawyer, and one didn't amount to much. These flowers are found in most of North America east of the Rockies, and they thrive all over the Texas Hill Country.

Widow's Tears, 5x7inches, on Claybord, restart after using the wrong shade of blue.

In the middle of the painting, almost done actually, I used the wrong color of blue and screwed up the flower's face. So I repainted it with a solid mid tone mixture made from zinc white and ultramarine blue, and started again from there.  

Widow's Tears, 5x7inches, on Claybord, finished.

 All of the white in this painting is Zinc White, which is transparent, and more important in the long run, non-yellowing. And the fine highlights are scratched through the paint layers with a knife to expose the bright white of the Claybord, which is a very useful technique. I'll get a better photo of the finished painting soon, just waiting for a cloudy day when the light is right.

RAW natural born artists Show

I'm really excited to announce that I will be in an art show at the end of this month. The show is being put on by RAW:natural born artists, it will be August 23rd, 8:00-midnight, at BackStage LIVE [1305 East Houston St., San Antonio]. 21 and up, cocktail attire. There will be a fashion show, independent films, performance art, bands, jewelry and other visual artists. You can buy tickets in my name here, only ten bucks. If you can't go to the show but still want to help me out by buying a ticket (I have to sell twenty to keep my spot), then I'll send you a little drawing of something as a thank you. 

Nothing Today

Jar of mineral spirits that I use to wash my brushes.

Vashti

I kept trying to draw this tiger from the Toronto Zoo at a reasonable size, like 8x10 or something, but I couldn't get it started. After a while, I realized that this tiger deserved to be drawn at life size. Most of the picture was drawn in charcoal, with highlights in white pastel and white acrylic paint. I initially tried to sketch in pen, before I realized that it was a waste of time, so scribbles in pen are visible here and there.

Vashti, 22x30 inches, mixed media on heavy paper.

Vashti, detail, 22x30 inches, mixed media on paper.

Much thanks to MoonsongStock on DeviantART for the reference photo!

Vashti, out on the porch to show the size.

Nothing Today

Not really feeling too artsy lately, so here's a few pics of my OMS Jar, showing a few days worth of brush cleaning.

 Wish I had taken notes on what painting I was working on during these, have to remember to do that from now on.

OMS Jar

Not much going on lately, so here's a picture of the jar of mineral spirits I use to wash my brushes.

Feo

Feo is a mixed media drawing, made from a few different pictures combined. The majority of the drawing is done with charcoal, sharp dark marks were put in with pen and highlights were done with white acrylic paint. The paper is a soft, heavy light grey paper with deckled edges, sorry I don't have a good picture of the edges at the moment. I really wanted to draw the appaloosa horse (whose name is Feo), so I made up a background to finish out the composition.

Feo, mixed media, 8x15 inches, finished.

Feo, detail of clouds.

Feo, detail of horse.

I really like this picture, so it is currently hanging on the wall in my room. Maybe someday I'll sell it, but for now I like it too much. 

Calliope

 This is a painting I finished a few years ago. It was done with oil paint and galkyd medium, which is good for doing paintings with lots of layers, because it dries quickly and is mostly transparent. If the galkyd layer is extra thick it sometimes dries with interesting textures, called alligatoring, like on the left side of the painting.

Calliope, oil on canvas, 11x14 inches.

Calliope, detail.

Calliope, detail of galkyd layers and alligatoring.

Enchanted Rock

I was lucky to spend the last weekend camping at Enchanted Rock. E rock is a huge, pink, granite mountain in central Texas. The outer layers of the rock slowly exfoliate and slide off, leaving giant boulders everywhere, and they're really fun to climb on. The environment is pretty brutal for most of the year, scorching heat and drought every summer, especially last year. Wildflowers here only have a few weeks of the year to get their business done, and this was the middle of the wet season, so the flowers were incredible.

Blue Bonnets on the Loop Trail. Enchanted Rock, Texas, March 2012.

 Exfoliation on Enchanted Rock, with people on top.

 Enchanted Rock, Texas, March 2012.

 Green as it ever gets. Enchanted Rock, Texas, March 2012.

False day flower, Commelineaceae family.

 Strawberry cactus flowers.

Lupinus texensis, Blue Bonnet, State flower of Texas.

Mystery flower.

Argemone mexicana, Prickly Poppy. 

Argemone mexicana, Prickly Poppy.

Off to a New Home

Persephone is finally, after 3 years, finished, framed, and out of my house! This painting involved a lot of failures and almost got thrown off the balcony more than once, but she was worth it in the end. Some parts were so good (the drapery mostly) that I couldn't abandon it, but the painting did spend a year in the corner until I figured out how to fix it.

Persephone, 16x20inches, oil on canvas, completed.

Persephone, 16x20inches, oil on canvas, completed and framed.

This isn't a piece I would ever want to sell, so I gave her to a good friend of mine. I hope he loves her as much as I hate her.

Zoo Photos

I've been too busy with real work to get much art done lately, but I did get some nice pictures at the San Antonio Zoo. I'd like to use these pics as reference to draw/paint from sooner or later, but the photos are pretty by themselves.

Nothing Today

OMS Jar

Pansy II

Finally finished and for sale, this is the second small (5x7 inches) oil painting I've done of a pansy flower.

Pansy II, oil on claybord, 5x7 inches, finished.

This is the first pansy that I painted, and it was also the first serious picture I did in this style, thin layers of paint on Claybord. Using less paint makes it easier to mimic the way light passes through thin flower petals.

Viola, oil on Claybord, 5x7 inches, finished.