Bed and Breakfast - black and white drawing

 Here is the small house portrait I completed last week. It's 6 x 9 inches.  It's a bed and breakfast, and the business owner wanted a horse featured, since the area used to be a horse farm (and home to a Kentucky Derby winner.)

Stolen artwork -- recovered!

One of the owners of The Comfy Cow called me today to say that a lady had called him to say she had my drawing that was stolen last February. He gave me her name and phone number.

This evening I called her, and then went to her apartment near the river in New Albany.  She gave me my drawing, in great shape and undamaged except for some stains on the backing board of the frame.

She told me that up until the middle of last summer, there had been some teens, eighteen or nineteen years old, living in the apartment behind hers (She didn't say so, but I think she meant it was a boyfriend/girlfriend).  Last June they had a big fight, and the place was trashed.

The landlord told this lady that he would knock off some of her rent in return for her going over to this apartment to clean it out. She found my drawing on the wall there, liked it, and hung it up in her apartment.

Then, yesterday, she and her roommate were watching "Antiques Road Show" and saw them discussing artwork appraisal.  They looked at my drawing on their wall and wondered if it was worth anything.  My name is on the drawing, so they Googled me and found my web site, on which I have the drawing listed as stolen with a request to contact The Comfy Cow with information.

So she called The Comfy Cow.

I am very grateful to her and to the owners of The Comfy Cow; I never expected to get the drawing back, especially now that a year has passed.

Rough sketch, bed and breakfast

I've been commissioned to do a small pen and ink drawing of a local bed and breakfast. The land used to be a horse farm, many years ago, and a couple of Kentucky Derby winners were raised there.  That's why the owner asked to me to include a horse.

I've spent some time this week trying to figure out a layout.  This is the one I came up with last night, and I think it might work.  I decided to take a slightly more stylized approach to the drawing, shorten the yard to the horse and house were closer together, and keep an open mind in deciding on shading in the road and the yard.  This won't be much more than 6 x 9 inches, so playing up clarity and contrast will be important.

I sent a scan of this sketch to the owner to see how she likes it. If it will work, I'll start on the drawing shortly.

I also need to keep planning the next phase of the mural work I'm doing.  The next part will be a tree, and I've decided to include some macaws.  I'm kind of looking forward to working on that, but getting the planning work done is tough.  I'm off right now to do some selecting from the macaw reference photos I got courtesy of the image library at wetcanvas.com and the kind contributors there.

Mural section - completed

 Last night I finished this first section of the wall. This is an art & craft area of a children's play room.  The next section will feature a large tree.

Mural progress

I worked on the mural for a few more hours last night. The Crayola box is pretty much done; I am pleased with it.

Thumbnail sketch

 Preparing for another house portrait...

Marina on the Ohio River - pen & ink

 

Here is the last of the house drawings I've been working on for the same customer (the first they got through a charity auction bid, and after that they asked me for three more.)  I had to get the last three done by Thanksgiving, and I made it just under the wire.  This was finished last Friday night, and I delivered them yesterday.

They wanted the marina side of the house drawn, which presented a bit of a challenge: How do I make it a house drawing, but still do justice to the great view of all the boats?  Well, I had already done the front side of the house in an earlier drawing (the back of the house is towards the marina.)  I felt that freed me up a little to make the boats more dominant, but I still wanted the house clearly visible and to stand out a bit, even if it was in more of a backing role.

I find that each drawing presents its own set of challenges and tough decisions. There were plenty in this one, but the two that seemed to stand out the most to me were how to handle the water (consistent, flat pen strokes to emphasize the plane, or more varied strokes to give more of a sense of "shimmer" and shifting light? And, how do I shade the large white areas of the boats?

This drawing is 11 x 15 inches, drawn with .05 and .1 Sakura Pigma Microns, a .1 Staedtler Pigmentliner, and a .03 Copic Multiliner.

This might also be the first pen and ink drawing in which I used a straight edge for a notable portion of the inking. I used one to get straight lines on the rigging.

Two more pen and ink house portraits

Here are two more finished pen and ink house portraits. Both are 11 x 15 inches.

House number 1:

 (detail)

(detail)


House number 2:

 (detail)

(detail)

In progress

Another late night spent cross-hatching!

Happy Halloween

This is my best one for 2012.

Second Pumpkin

This was my second pumpkin this year. I particulary like the forehead and the lips.

Pumpkin sculpting

This is my first attempt for this year.  I found it to be a particularly tough one to carve; it was coarse-grained and fibrous.  I also ended up going too deep on the eyes. I had no intention at the outset of going all the way through.  Overall, though, I think he looks pretty decent.

Cherokee Cottage, Jekyll Island

 Walnut ink on paper, 11 x 15 inches.  This was a bit of a rush job. I finished it last night around 12:45. I've been staying up late all week.

In the Paddock - pen & ink

 

I finished this pen and ink drawing a few weeks ago, but refrained from posting photos until I had delivered it to its recipients, which I finally did last night.  This is 10 x 15 inches.

Tree sketch in walnut ink

This is a tree sketch I made with black walnut ink. I started it in the park behind Len's house last weekend, and finished it up yesterday at home. It's about 9 x 13. Some of it was done with brushes, but most of it was done with two homemade tools: a dip pen I made with river cane bamboo, and a whittled down bamboo skewer. The bamboo skewer is surprisingly versatile and holds ink better than most twigs, sticks, and whatnot that I've picked up to try.

Faux stonework finish: before and after

Finished:

I'm saying I'm done, even though there will very likely be some more detail work and touching up in the future.

Faux stone wall

 Here's a section of the retaining wall and concrete outbuilding that I am nearly done painting. I'll be going back to work on it tonight.

Pen and ink house portrait

 

Here's my most recent completed house portrait (and a detail), ink on Bristol paper.  The size is 11 x 15.

Faux stone work

I've been working at a school on painting a concrete wall to match the building's stonework.  It was bare white before; here are some photos of how it looks after I primed it and filled in most of the faux stones.  I still have a lot of work to do.  There are still large areas of plain gray primer, and then I have to paint in the mortar and figure out how to put in some shading and color gradations.  I also plan to put in some detail work.

I estimate this at being a little under 700 square feet, so it's far and away the largest art(-ish) project I've worked on.

Paint buckets

 

 

House drawing in progress

 It still requires a lot of shading, and it's not a very good photo, but here it is anyway: the current house portrait I am working on.  It's a very pretty house.  I hope to have it done within the next week.