Flying Monkey Pumpkin

Pen & ink, 7 x 10 inches

This is 7 x 10 inches.  I did most of it with sumi ink, using a metal nib dip pen for details, and a homemade bamboo pen to draw in the tree foliage.  I used a brush and ink wash to fill in the lower windows, then went back over them with the dip pen.  I think the dip pen was a Hunt 101 but I can’t ever remember which ones I use. 

Well, after that, I wasn’t quite satisfied with the value and definition in some areas, so I used disposable technical pens on some areas, especially the black doors and trim at the bottom, and the windows above.  I also added more darkness and detail to the tree foliage, and darkened the sky above the building.

I really like how dip pens look, but working back over areas can be difficult; the already-inked areas tend to pull extra ink from the nib when I go back into it, even after it has had time to dry.  That was my main reason for switching.

I’m pretty pleased with it overall.

detail:

House Portrait, black and white

I finished this one on Friday. It's 11 x 15 inches.

House portrait, 11 x 15 inches

House portrait in watercolor

This is my first house portrait in watercolor, a medium in which I am getting more interested.  I forget the dimensions -- I think it's about 13 x 19 inches.

Watercolor house portrait

CFAC art show

My daughter with her tree painting at the re eption for the Children's Free Art Classes art show. The walls were packed with very good kid's art.

11 x 15" house portrait in black and white

I finished this last week.  I found the just-unfurling hostas in the front yard to be a particular challenge for some reason.

House portrait, 7 x 10 inches

I finished this one a few days ago.  I like the house's proportions and think I captured it well but, as is almost always the case, my favorite part is the trees.

Sketching with walnut ink on lunch break

I took my sketch pad and walnut ink out on my lunch break today for some quick sketching. I went over to A. P. Sawyer State Park.  I used some homemade cane bamboo pens and some twigs I had cut.  It had been a while since I had gone out to draw on my lunch break, probably late last summer?

House portrait details

Here are a couple of details from the house portrait I just posted.  I usually enjoy the close ups more than I enjoy the work as a whole because I like to see the pen strokes.

Walnut ink house portrait

Black walnut ink house portrait

11 x 15 inches, finished yesterday.  This is a beautiful limestone block house overlooking the Ohio River.  There is a steep hill along the driveway, and the house is so broad across the front that I could not back up enough to get the entire house in one reference photo.  That made the layout a little more challenging, but the clean lines and right angles of the architecture helped.

New Art of the Loom at The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to drive on a field trip to the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft.  The 2nd and 3rd graders were there to see a weaving exhibit: "The New Art of the Loom."

I expected to enjoy the show, but I more than enjoyed it: I was very impressed.  The first floor was regional weaving artists, and the second floor showed international works of the loom, and all of them were beautiful.  Some were intriguing and abstract, some were strikingly representational; some were brilliant and shimmering, some were hauntingly toned-down.  All of them were fun to look at.

Unfortunately, the show ends this Saturday, but we are going to try to get down there as a family before it closes for a final visit.

6 x 9 inch house portrait in pen and ink

pen and ink house portrait

 Finished yesterday, and shipped to my customer today, in time for Christmas!

House portrait in pen and ink

House portrait in pen and ink

I did not have the chance to get a good scan of this drawing I finished a couple of days ago, so this is just a mobile phone photo (although it's low-quality, I do admit that I am impressed by how well my phone takes photos.)  This drawing is 11 x 15 inches.

7 x 10 black walnut ink house portrait

I completed this last night around 1 a.m.  I wondered at the time: What percentage of my commissions reach completion between midnight and 2:00 a.m.?  More than half, for sure, and maybe more like 90%.

This is a 100-year-old house in Pennsylvania that belonged to the grandmother of the person who commissined it.  She said four generations of her family grew up around this home.  The photo references I was provided were not of the greatest clarity, but I think I was able to make out enough between the two photos, plus a little help from Google Earth, to capture it pretty well.

House portrait in black walnut ink

A detail to show what is always my favorite part, the trees:

detail of house portrait

House portrait in black and white

Here is another house portrait, finished this morning. Pen and ink on smooth bristol.

House portrait 11 x 15 inches

house portrait detail

Pumpkin sculpture

I carved this for my daughter's class's Halloween party last Friday.

I brought some extra pumpkins and my pumpkin carving tools and let them hack away:

Another walnut ink house drawing

 This one is about 9 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches, on hot press watercolor paper.

Detail:

Black cat pumpkin

Painted for the raffle at the Virginia Chance School Fall Festival.

House portrait finished today

Black walnut ink on Bristol paper, 9 x 16 inches. 

 

Englarged for detail: