Inner Cathedral City

This is some quick afternoon sketching, throwing a few ideas around.

Christmas Still Life in Gouache

I like to do these little still lives every once in a while. This one is in gouache in a watercolor sketchbook. I only used two colors plus black and white:Yellow Ochre and Carmine Red. To get the green color, i mixed yellow and black. 

Portrait Sketching

A portrait study from the other day, It's a copy from a John Bradshaw Crandall painting.

Tom Lovell Studies

I've been making my way through my new (incredible) Tom Lovell book. I'm amazed at how simple he keeps his compositions. Everything seems to be kept within 4 simple tones: Black, dark grey, light grey, and white. So, I've been going through the book and every time I see a really stunning composition, I do a quick little marker study. Here's one:

Halloween Still Life

A little still life I did of some Halloween decorations. Painted in gouache in my watercolor sketchbook. I tried a random pre-painted background of acrylic red, Then black, white, yellow ochre and I think burnt sienna. I tried to only use warm colors and let the black and white fill in for the cooler colors. I remember looking at the purple fabric underneath everything and having no idea how I would paint it. Its a little red (burnt sienna) mixed with the black and white. I think it looks purple. I was very happy about that, it felt like magic.

The Gardens of Selene

Gardens of Selene

Some close-ups:

monks and swans detail

Here's a painting I just finished. A few people asked me about the process, so I wanted to show a few of the steps on here.



Step 0:

I basically wanted some huge archways overlooking the ocean, very open and plenty of plants. I got the idea of an inside gardens/ plants with big architecture from Biltmore after visiting a few years ago and have been thinking about it ever since. It slowly got more and more Roman. I started developing a story and a setting as I was working, so certain things began to make more sense than others.


Step 1:

Quick thumbnail sketches. I did a few more, but they're all just very sketchy.

Step 2.
After some research, I built a 3d model in Sketchup and played around with a few different viewpoints.

Step 3.

More sketching.  Playing around with lighting and color, also materials and decoration etc.

Step 4.

Rough drawing over the 3d model, just trying to start deciding on things.

Step 5.

Finished drawing over the rough drawing. Although even the finished drawing is pretty rough. I knew I would change a lot later. I didn't bother with people or plants yet because where I put those would probably depend more on color.



Step 6.
Quick black and white sketch to figure out lighting (again) I liked this lighting better than the soft lighting of my earlier sketches.



Step 7.
I built a little model out of cardboard, Sculpey, and some grill skewers (?) that I found, then painted it and brought it outside. Snapped a few pictures and just stared at it for a long time, also tried a few different angles.



 

Step 8.

Shadow perspective. Because I did the shadows with a real model, I had to map them out in perspective myself. I think most artists probably do this in the 3d model, because its much faster. I kind of just wanted to test myself and do it manually.



Step 9.

Gather tons of reference for everything. Although I had been doing this the whole time,  I like to try and have as much as I can ready so I don't have to keep stopping during the painting... of course that happens anyway though. This is my file in PureRef, a reference program.




Step 10.

Paint. Erase. Sketch. Paint. Delete. Edit. Paint. Paint. Rage Quit. Paint. Finish. Paint again. Paint. Edit. Finish. Sketch. Paint.

I like to just paint on one layer except for the greenery and people so I can move them around. So 3 layers, and I do that all under a slowly disappearing finished drawing. I turn on the perspective layers as needed too. Towards the end I added a couple other fancy layers.


Let me know if you have any other questions about the process in the comments.

Pumpkin Cabin Cutaway

Here's a cutaway view of a Pumpkin Cabin. I did a few small sketches of this a few years ago, and decided to see if I could do a finished painting out of it.

Pumpkin Cabin

detail

detail

Here are some of the initial sketches.

pumpkin seed chair

The School Bug

This started out as a goofy pun i had in my sketchbook, that I turned into a more finished painting just for fun.

School Bug

some early sketches

School Bus study

Waterhouse Copies

I do a lot of  copies of J W Waterhouse Paintings on my breaks from work. Here's one I did a few days ago.

Fox Creek Towncenter

Cathedral City

Finally finished this painting, It's 20 x 30 in. on Illustration board painted in oil.

Cathedral City

close up

New Horizons and Opportunity Mission Cornhole Boards

I just realized I never posted the second board and/or both of these together. I finished them back in October 2015. They were commissioned a year before to be used at a NASA picnic. They're painted in oil on cornhole boards. The one with the Mars rover is based on the Opportunity mission, and the one with Pluto is based on the New Horizon's mission.

Opportunity Mission

New Horizon's Mission

The paintings with some photoshop to take out the hole.

If you want, you can read about the process of the Mars board here:

 Mars Cornhole Board Process Part 1: Thumbnails

Mars Cornhole Board Process Part 2: Color and Tonal

Mars Cornhole Board Process Part 3: Finished Drawing

Mars Cornhole Board Process Part 4: The Painting

Reading Lamp

This is where I usually read my art books at night. I was reading through my Dean Cornwell book before I did this little black and white watercolor sketch. Then I went to sleep.

Where I usually read at night.

Bruster's

Bruster's

I had about 25 minutes before I had to be back at work, so I tried sketching some people at Brusters. According to the car it was 107 degrees, it made me really want Ice Cream. I didn't get any though, kind of regret that now.

Mannequin Man

Here are some mannequin sketches from today, just trying out a watercolor pencil and brush pen.

Banjo

Here's a small sketch of my dog I did while she was sleeping a few days ago.

Cathedral City

Here's a photoshop sketch for an oil painting I'm working on right now.

Searstown Mall

I heard about Sears deciding to close a lot of their stores. If not with the initial closing of stores, in the near future I imagine the Sears in town will disappear forever. Much like Blockbuster and Movie Gallery etc. So of course, instantly Sears became an interesting thing to go and draw. It's strange to open your sketchbook and look at something you remember drawing, sitting in front of you and looking permanent, that's now gone forever. It's strange, but I kind of like it. That's what I wanted to do with this. Spend some time with the thing before it disappears.

Searstown Mall

Anyone who lives in Titusville knows about the two malls: Miracle City and Searstown. Miracle City (down the street from Searstown) is a giant pile of rubble and asphalt now. It was never even a half decent mall, but I used to walk down to it with my friends after school all the time.

I used to work inside Searstown before we moved, I used to go to the movies there as a kid, and I've eaten at Valentino's a few times. I used to buy my art supplies at the art store inside, but the owner died recently and it shut down. I have a lot of memories at both malls. None of them very good or all that bad.

The sign itself looks like a giant tombstone and the mall itself feels completely dead. Miracle City is gone, and Searstown just awkwardly waits.

Sky Hawk

I always want to sketch fair equipment whenever I drive by it. This is the first time I've ever actually been able to.

No one was at the fair until about 20 minutes after I started, then a few workers came up to the ride and started messing with things. They unfolded a couple tents and started goofing off and smoking. I'm not really sure when the actual fair opened, but only a few people (like six) rode the Sky Hawk the whole time I was drawing. I'm kind of surprised Fairs are still around. I like them, but never go to them. I think I just like looking at them. They're very strange. 

NC Wyeth studies

I love NC Wyeth, I've been wanting to get faster at painting, and I've also been wanting to get better with gouache. So a few weeks ago I decided to copy some NC Wyeth paintings in gouache.

I like doing these quick little copies, I think I learn a lot and they're fun. Right now I'm doing a few copies in oil paint.

City Entrance

I've slowly been etching away at creating a new world and/or discovering an old one. So currently my sketchbook is getting filled with drawings of this sort, showing places that I've been thinking and daydreaming about.

One of the many abandoned entrances to Cathedral City.

Christmas Shark Monster

My brother-in-law asked me to paint his skate board for him a few months ago.  I had so many other things to do I wasn't able to get to it for awhile. It was two days before Christmas and my wife kind of jokingly said it would be cool if I finished it by then. My first thought was "There is no way I can finish it that fast." My second thought was "I'd be a total failure if I didn't."

So I got out my paints and started it right then (December 23rd) and finished it that night, let it dry on Christmas Eve and then gave it to him on Christmas.

TJ with the board on Christmas