Maynard Dixon Sketch

Another artist who motivates me in so many ways is Maynard Dixon.  He is a well known artist and illustrator from approximately 100+ years ago.  He did lots of illustration and then finished up with great plain air paintings all around the Western United States.  He is probably best known for his Desert paintings.  I like some of his pencil sketches of the desert Natives Americans from the 1910-ish era.  Above is my rendition of one of these sketches of a Native American girl.

Common Loon

This is a colored pencil Sketch of a Common Loon.  We saw this bird up in Maine on Casco Bay, near Portland.  The wife and I went up to Maine for our wedding anniversary and this bird is part of what we saw.  I sketched this in my second bird sketch book and experimented with sketching across the book's fold.  I will work on the reflection tomorrow night.

Bighorn Sheep painting

This is an old painting from High School, it is an acrylic on canvas.  Not bad for age 16 years old.  I still like to paint the mountains and I will definitely have to do more paintings of the Bighorn Sheep.  I have a small set of reference photos from the sheep I have seen in Colorado, Utah and Colorado.

American Tree Sparrow

It's always a long day back at work after the long weekend so tonight is a colored pencil sketch of an American Tree Sparrow.  They are part of the common and hard to tell apart backyard birds of America.

Lantern

Happy Memorial Day! I stayed close to home and did not do much.  I did complete this pencil sketch of a railroad lantern.  This is part of the meditation and working to get better skills.

Trout, part 3

So I have many happy memories of fishing with my Dad in the Mountains of Colorado.  I always wondered about what the trout were doing under the water.  So I always enjoy the different photos of fish under water and collect them and other artists renditions.  This is an ink sketch of a trout turning to trail a fly.

Trout, part 2

This is another pen sketch for practice and reference.  It is not an original idea but is part of the 10,000 hours of practice anyone must commit to to master any skill.  I do these sketches also as a mental break and meditation.  It is especially good to decompress from the normal work day stress and the commute.