Happy Thanksgiving 2014

Digital Drawing

Elephant Designs

I have been working on an elephant project lately. I wanted to try working some more with drawing in pen and ink, which is where I started with my elephant. I have also been working with the F&W inks and trying to master them. The iridescent ones fascinate me and although I struggle with the drying time for acrylics, I keep working with them - bound and determined that I am going to eventually win - not necessarily by making them do what I want them to do, but by finally figuring out how they are best handled. So next, I tried my elephant with the F&W inks, while still working on the black and white pen and ink designs for this little guy. So here is what I got. It was a fun break from the portraits that I love to work on. Those can be somewhat intense, so this is my way of relaxing and loosening up before I go back to what really intrigues me. This may be a few weeks early since it isn't Thanksgiving yet. Hope you enjoy!

HAVE I TOLD YOU LATELY

Have I told you lately that when it comes to my artwork, I love experiments?

This one was definitely an experiment. Several years ago, I went to the wedding of a friend's daughter. Her wedding was at the Botanical Gardens in San Antonio. While I was there in that lovely garden, during the reception, I snapped some photo's. One that I couldn't resist was of this metal sculpture. When we were leaving the garden that evening, I couldn't help but notice the eerie atmosphere that was created around the sculpture by the darkness and soft moonlight. I wanted to try to capture that. I took my photo into Photoshop and played with some of the tools that you can use. I wanted to try a black background and so I didn't draw this out freehand. I will save that for later. It is probably not as easy to correct mistakes on black background. So I traced the preying mantis and the more important areas of the trees and shrubs. I used Conte pastel colored pencil and Gerneral's Charcoal White. I'm pleased with the outcome, and had a great time doing this.

Preying Mantis in Moonlight
on Somerset Velvet 250gsm, Black
from Legion Paper (purchased sample paper)