Nandi Warrior, part 2 - Ray Nestor style

This is another Kenyan Nandi Warrior done in the style of the artist - Ray Nestor.  I was very intrigued with his line work on the face.  He used the width, curves and angles to give the face structure while still representing the dark pigmentation.  I have never seen any one else do this and have done this version of it to help me remember it.  I have my own pictures of Maasai tribesmen and will use this technique to draw them.

Nandi Warrior - Ray Nestor Style

This is an ink drawing of a Nandi warrior.  Ray Nestor did this style of art of the Nandi people of Kenya about 100 years ago in Kenya.  Ray was a soldier in the First World War and then he went back to farming in Kenya.  He did a fair amount of art while in Kenya.  I think his handling of his ink drawings of the Nadi are among his best and I have tried to emulate it here.  Some Kenyans still will dress this way on the special occasions in life.

Caribbean Cove

Twenty-two years ago, I supported Haitian Refugee operations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  Near our camp we had a small beach and cove.  I did not have a lot of time off but, I did this sketch with colored pencils on a Sunday afternoon.  There was a lost anchor sticking out of the surf.  The fluke is sticking out of the water on the left middle of the sketch.

Black Tailed Praire Dog

Another long day at work , so I will post a sketch from another day.  This is the Black Tailed Prairie Dog, resident of the prairies of the United States and interesting cute little beast.

Sinai Peninsula

Work ran late so I did not work on the Marabou Stork but, I will try to get to that later in the week.  Tonight, I pulled out an old water color pencil sketch from 1991 on the Sinai Peninsula.  This is from a mountain top in Egypt looking across the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia.  It was morning and I took about 20   notes to try and capture the beauty of the view.  Hopefully I can go back someday and paint this in oils.

Red-Checked Cordon Bleu - Kenya Bird

This strangely named little sparrow sized bird was my first day light bird in Kenya.  It was on a small trail near my hotel with monkeys.  It was very bright interesting looking bird which definitely caught my eye.  I looked through the bird guide book and easily IDed it since it was so unique looking.  It is the first daylight bird because the night birds were these huge ugly Marabou Storks in these trees in downtown Nairobi on the way from the airport.  It was a little scary and very Hitchcock "Birds: movie looking.  I will post the Marabou Stork later and you will understand.

Astilbe flower

I jump between oil painting and drawing.  Usually I return to drawing as frustration hits in the painting.  It seems to sharpen the painting and always is a good thing to work on as your drawing skills can never be too good.  This is an Oil Painting exercise done in about 1 hour to get me back into the painting mode.  I have roughed in the basic colors, the flowers are ok, but I think I will let this sit and I will lighten and better structure the leaves.  The background will get a more varied treatment to add depth to it.