Pharaoh Hound

It's about time for a long overdue post. This is a recent commission I worked on and I'm happy with how it turned out. This dog won Westminster multiple times and, unfortunately, recently passed away. His owner misses him dearly and I hope this can bring the good doctor some amount of solace.

On a side note, my friend, Joanna, made a post not too long ago about how difficult it can be to scrap what you're working on and start over to create a more successful piece. All I can say is that it was perfect timing because the painting below was just not working out. Occasionally it's important to fall, so you can learn what not to do next time.

America!

Tonight I added some finishing touches.

Eagles Are Cool

At the end of this week, my mother is holding a fundraiser for her non-profit organization TruJoy. Our goal is to help support the women and families of the capital region who have been affected by breast and/or ovarian cancer. The main attraction is a motorcycle group ride for those who sign up along with food, a bake sale, raffles and a silent auction. I will be submitting this painting to the silent auction.

My usual value study and two color variants. I love the bright yellows in the first one but they seem a bit too intense and clash with the eagle. After I clean up some areas, I'll try to add a hint of them in the second version and see how it looks.

Quick Sketch

Cliche? Yes.
Good practice from some old reference? You bet.

I will probably smooth this out and add some hints of color in the next couple days.

Soccer Jersey

I wanted to try something different with this one and decided to start out in black and white. It felt liberating to be able to focus on values without the distraction of color balance, so I may continue this in the future.

It felt like the grayscale version was too dark, so I played around with the levels in photoshop and then added color.

Finally, I painted in some more details, developed more color, and added the logo.

Steam Tower

Another landscape inspired by a geothermal energy island.

Lava Flows

As of late I have been inspired to work on landscapes. While doing so, I am trying to improve my environments and hopefully make them more interesting. They really are a great source of practice for depth, color, texture, and composition. While looking for inspiration I found some really crazy stuff, finding beauty even in some of the most barren places on earth. This planet truly is amazing and is all too often taken for granted.