Tribute to Hopper - from way back, like 23 years ago.

I did this Acrylic painting when I was 15 years old in my first year High School art class.  This painting was originally done by the artist, Edward Hopper. I wanted to be Edward Hopper, he is most well known for his painting called NightHawks.  I liked the colors and the steam engine.  Hopper's painting is far superior to this but Hopper taught me about composition and color from his painting.  I gave this to my Grandfather as a present since he loves trains.   Copying from other artists is only ok to learn techniques from them.  This one will stay in the family since it is not an original.

White Throated Sparrow

More Bird Sketches, this is a colored pencil sketch of a White Throated Sparrow.  They are a common visitor to our yard in Maryland.  So next time you see the small gray bird, pay attention because there are little colorful varieties flitting about the countryside.

Cat Skull

Part of the drawing skill is to learn the anatomy of your subjects.  It is a life long pursuit, mastery of the skeleton, muscles and movements are the building blocks of art, much like cords on a guitar or the scales on a piano.  Daily practice is a must.  I strive for a daily dose of something even if I don't feel like it.  Much like this blog, daily discipline is needed to do it as much as possible and to show progress in the journey.  Oh yeah, above is a cat skull sketched with blue pencil.

Spring Time Dreaming

So what do you do on a snow day after a long, snowy winter? Paint a small oil of Spring Time and what you hope to see.  I sketched this scene from along the Interstate in Pennsylvania on a road trip to Indiana.  The pencil sketch and a white chalk and charcoal sketch.

So you can see the editing process, The two sketches are closer to what I saw and remembered.  The sketches are based on a very rough quick sketch done while the wife drove down the Interstate.  The scene passed too fast to capture with a photograph, but I captured the image in my head and transferred it to the sketchbook.  After digressing the image for awhile the flower pattern did not work and it bothered me.  So I edited the flowers into a more interesting pattern and composition.  This is the beauty of painting vs. photography.  I can use the basics from nature but I can edit to make better art.  Now I will wait and see if I like the painting enough to make a larger version.

African Lions

Happy Sunday, these are sketches with sepia, umber, white chalk, blue/red/yellow colored pencils on tan toned paper.  I felt like doing something easy and relaxing to finish up this weekend.  These remind me of summer trips to the zoo and my time in Kenya.  So I have seen these magnificant cats in captivity and the wild.  The wild does add a little adrenaline to the experience.

Sailboat

TGIF, Friday night's post is a sailboat sketch from a magazine on a Trans-Atlantic flight in 2008.  Sketching makes the time go by and calms me down.  Which is perfect for the captive time in an airplane.  The nice thing is I can see the improvement over time, the hard part about art is being willing to critique yourself and then make the improvements.  I look at this and basically am satisfied but I can see my mistakes or areas needing improvement, but that is why like a musician an artist should practice everyday.

Orchids

Orchids in the Hotel room, bored and waiting for a flight home, a simple color experiment and contour sketch of the Orchids.  These sort of remind me of the Cherry Blossoms, which are an annual Springtime celebration in DC and in Japan.  The Japanese gifted the first Cherry trees to DC about 100 years ago.  The Cherry Blossom represent the beauty and fragility of life.  Beauty and sadness, to be notice and enjoyed before it fades away.