Well its been a while since my last post, but i have found some interesting techniques for photoshop. I Did this drawing using those techniques and found that the results were pretty real.

I'm becoming more of a fan of this computer stuff by the minute. I have worked on a couple of pictures, and have learned a ton. Here is my latest. I used Adams technique on this as well. I be posting a larger post on all the steps later, so till then take a look.


And here is a teaser step...

I have spent way to much time today on the new color technique. But what amazes me is that it still works for everything that I tried. I can't thank Adam enough for the tutorial. Anyways enough chatter here is a frog in a subway. Hope you like it. :)

Today I worked on a piece for a competition held at ArtOrder.blogspot.com. It was interesting. The art order was to morph or make two different animals morph into one. This is what I came up with. I had a lot of fun trying this new light technique that I just learn about. Well I hope you like it.

I could help but play a little bit with the color. I need to post about what Dixon told me about light spectrums etc. But if you follow the tutorial exactly you can place the character in any light really. Its amazing, take a look at what I did in about a minute. I changed the light spectrum to blue/dark blue and the reflective light to a brown green. This is what I got.

Dixon Leavitt and I got together and talked about his great experiences at some sculpting workshops, and while we talked he said that he had a great blog post that he wanted to show to me. Well we talked and talked and forgot about the tutorial. But Dixon, being the nice guy that he is he emailed me this link, http://adamscreation.blogspot.com/2009/08/its-depressing-being-second-tier-street.html. This artist did one of the best jobs explaining how to make up lighting in your head with photoshop. I just had to try this. So if you want to know what I did, go to that link and read. I followed his steps exactly and this is what I got. I hope this helps others as much as it helped me.

Well I didn't do so well in taking pictures of day two... okay okay, I didn't take any, but its pretty much just rendering everything out until I feel that its right. I'm still not done with the final touches but its close. I really enjoyed and worked hard on the hands. I hope you like it.

I've been wanting to paint my daughter kendi for some time, so when I got the Springville Art Invitation I decided that now is the time. This is only day one of the painting. I probably spent 6 hours on it so for. I snapped sequential steps to show how I paint and why. So here is a close up of day one.

This picture is slightly skewed from taking a picture, but I think that it gives enough information to be of some value.

I always start by toning my canvas with a color that is part of the color harmony in the picture. The colors that I used for the wash was mostly colbalt blue, and transparent oxide brown, with a touch of viridian here and there. I then block in the colors so I have a gauge for my final colors. I have found that it is always easier just to put something down and change it till its right. I have seen artist hesitate putting color down, and then once they put it down there scared to change it. Just remember, that when you are painting you are just fixing your last mistake (brush stroke). Don't ever be scared to start, just start and fix the painting if its wrong.

When I block in the painting I thin the paint with turpentine, but not to much because it becomes hard to handle. Then when the paint is down I take a paper towel and dip it into turpentine and create textures with it. This softens edges as well. I love this part.

At this point I have blocked it in enough to start rendering out the painting. I was satisfied with the positioning and the colors, so I started putting more effort into the face.


I continued to render out the face.... this is the hard part that no one really appreciates, but is nesseccary to hold the viewers attention. I really do enjoy this to, because its satisfying after your done.

And this is it after day one.

I'm not one to really struggle falling asleep, but for some reason I just couldn't shut my brain off. LeAnn was still reading, and I laid awake starring at the lamp on the bed stand beside me. I couldn't stop thinking about how this lamp would be a challenge to draw, and that I would need to stay true to values and edges in order to make it look real. That was the trigger for me. I couldn't take it any more, so I grabbed a pencil and a paper and began to draw. This is the 45 min. result. I hope you like it.

This is a checklist that I naturally follow, for the most part, while drawing.

1. Squint - This simplifies the shapes on your subject to more recognizable blocks of abstract shapes. If this doesn't make sense read this.

2. Back and Forth (Quickly) - I look from my drawing to my reference so much that I sometimes I get dizzy. If you look back and forth quickly, your drawing will look like its shifting if its wrong. Try it, you'll understand. I look at my reference far more than I look at my drawing. (SIDE NOTE: John Singer Sargent would look at his model for a long period of time, and then slowly place one stroke down and back up and repeat the process until the painting was done. You wouldn't think that looking at his paintings, but that is why he needed so few brush strokes to render a likeness. He looked at the model more than his painting.)

3. Easy Shapes - Look for shapes and lines which are straight up and down or straight across. These are the easiest angles to draw, and the rest of the angles are easier to recognize and draw once these vertical and horzontal lines are done.

Confused? Here is an examnple:

We have some really nice "one-of-a kind" frames for sale. Each of these frames were created uniquely for the piece of art. They were all distressed, leafed and painted by hand. They were made by a professional framer that you can check out at Goldrivergallery.com. Each of these images are textured to look like original paintings. The images look much better in real life because the camera kept picking up the glare from the texture. These were supposed to go to China, but no one feels like they want to take them over there anymore. We would like to sell these at the wholesale price of $299 or best offer. Shipping is $17. Please email us at epicart@mail.com if you are interested in owning any of these pieces.

Palettes are amazing. With just a few colors you can essentially mix any color that you see. Once you get past the secondary color mixing of green, purple, and orange, you enter into the dark world of the deceiving grays. Pretty much everything in our site right now, besides our computer screen, is simply a gray color with a hint of a pure color, like red or blue or yellow. I remember being frustrated about how I couldn't get colors right, and the majority of the time I was mixing the color too pure. I didn't dare to make it gray, because that would mean that its gray not red or blue.... boy was I wrong. If we want to learn color right now it would be wise to start with gray, which is close to the value of the color that you are trying to mix, and mix in the pure color in small increments. We'd probably arrive to the color faster than the other way around. Besides flowers, clothing, and the computer screens, we rarely see colors in their pure form. Grays are hard to nail down too. They shift with every stroke we paint. For example, if we put a grayish orange next to a grayish blue, the grayish orange and the grayish blue will look more intense. This is the principle of complimentary colors. They intensify each other. They make each other powerful, and that is what makes it difficult. We'd expect that they are purer than they really are. So mixing colors takes practice, time and thought to master, and I don't think that we can really nail it in a life time.... well maybe a few have, but for most of us, we simply give it a good effort and settle. The best way to learn how to paint color is to paint everything over and over again until it clicks. Pay attention to patterns, and principles. If principles govern our mixing, our colors will be more accurate and take less time to mix than before. PAY ATTENTION with every color shift while mixing. This is the only way to perfecting color. Its filled with headaches, frustration, and anger. But this hard road doesn't justify becoming apethetic. We never learn, without challenges. And the reward for those who push on... its a masterpiece, that may even influence millions. I'd say thats a fair trade off.

I know, I know, its not very manly to like flowers. But I have to admit that they are perhaps one of the funnest things to paint. Its really rare that you get to use paint straight out of the tube, but with flowers its almost certain that you will. I thought I would show some of my paintings that I have done of roses and an other flower.

Head over to Organize and Decorate Everything for a chance to win one of two of my Calendars. Giveaway ends Saturday.

They are finally here. I get to give you a "Blog Reader" discount. They normally cost $12.99, but I can sell them for $10.39. That's a great gift price and it won't last long. These calendars have a few different images than last years calendar so they are a little different. Please email epicart@mail.com and leave your name, number and best time to reach you so we can take your orders over the phone. For wholesale inquiries go to cedarfort.com.