Cobwebs

 Cobwebs

10x14 inches

Pencil 

Prints($16.95) and original drawing ($350.00) -available here-

The profusion of spiders in my garden at this time of year have scuttled into my art again. I found this leaf on my tomato plant the other day:

The Honeybee was abuzzling bumbling
Out among the eaves
When she came across the Spider
Lurking in between the leaves.

“Come and visit,” urged the Spider.
“I’ve laid the best china out
   (The plates with dainty yellow flowers)
You’ve worked so hard this summer’s day,
You have a thirst, no doubt!”

The Honeybee abuzzled bumbled
Through the sappy bower,
And grew quite heavy with her load
Of pollen from the flowers.

“Come inside,” the Spider crooned,
“I’ve just made up the nest.
It’s downy soft, a lovely place
To settle down and rest.”

And so the Honeybee was lured
By words and sweetened sap
To still her buzzling wings a spell
And lay down for a nap.

Faery

King and Queen of Faery.

Prints available for here: Oberon, Mab

Bones

Bones

Size: 11x7 inches

Medium: Pencil

Prints, original pencil drawing, and detail closeups available: -here-

Revisiting an old idea....

Confrontation

Confrontation
Size: 13x3 inches
Medium: Pencil

Shadows

Shadows

Medium: Pencil (and a little bit of white gel pen)

Size: 12x6.5 inches

For detail closeups, prints, and the original piece, -click here-

And now for a change of pace. Haven't done any pencil pieces in a long time. After finishing my most recent painting (Dreamdance: Unity), I wanted to further explore that bird/mask figure in the background.

Dreamdance: Abandon

From the Dreamdance Oracle

Abandon

Size: 8.5x14

Medium: Watercolors

For prints and detail closeup views: -click here-

Satyros Phil Brucato writes for this card:

Caught in a mosh of inner and external chaos, the Dancer either surrenders or is destroyed. Sometimes such tempests are chosen; more often, they choose us. Either way, we learn to abandon our usual sense of control. If we cling too rigidly to our usual way of doing things, we risk getting mulched by the storms that inevitably come. 

If you choose to Dance with Abandon, embrace the sense of chaos that comes with it. Ride it before it shatters you. In the Five Rhythms practice cultivated by Gabrielle Roth, Chaos comes between the Staccato force of directed energy and the Lyrical harmony where all previous energies flow together. In order to achieve such harmony, therefore, the Dancer must pass through Chaos, shape herself to it, and accept it as a valid aspect of life’s Dance.

* * *

Initial very rough scribbles in my sketchbook for the concept.

 Refined that

 And further refined. Prepped for painting at this point.

Color rough in photoshop, just to get an idea of what direction I'm going to take the colors for the piece. Had a pretty solid vision in mind already, even at the initial brainstorm sketch phase. Wanted the satyr to be a really stand-out contrasting color from the rest of the scene.

 

 Started painting.

.

Painting with the color test up on my monitor so that I can use that as reference for my tones.

The Still and Silent Places

The Still and Silent Places

Size: 18x23 inches

Medium: Watercolor on illustration board

Originals, prints, and closeup views available -here-

From the sketchbook:

 

And some more:

 

Mixture of stuff in the sketchbook.  It's because I had two separate painting ideas floating around in my head at the same time. For this particular piece though, the initial inspiration came about from an impromptu ink sketch I did in someone's book.  This piece:

The shape of the tree in the page, and the birds crowded into the hollow of it started tugging at my brain, and so I wanted to develop that concept some more. After a couple days of sketchbook scribbling, I pulled the disparate parts together digitally to create this composite sketch:

Refined, finalized sketch that was transferred to the illustration board. It took about 7 hours to do this. The size is 18x22 inches. Changed the girl's face a bit, but aside from that, stuck pretty close to the initial sketches.

Color rough. Playing around in photoshop with possible colors for the piece. Set the sketch on a top layer, set to Multiply. Then I paste in some background watercolor textures from other paintings, and fiddle with the color levels and balance to get the tones I want. This took approximately 3 hours.

Early stages:

About 7 hours into the painting process. Still building up the background tones.

After painting most of the background, I used Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground on some of the branches that had gotten too obscured with blending background colors. This is the first time I've used the watercolor ground. A blog reader recommended it to me some time back, and I bought it, but hadn't had the opportunity to try it out until this piece. Unlike other white options for watercolor (like using gesso, or whiteout, or acrylic, or my favorite gel pens), using the ground essentially gives you a white paper-like surface to paint on again. It takes the pigment as paper would (the main purpose of the ground being that you can actually use it to prepare non-paper surfaces for watercolors. Like a canvas, or glass, or wood. Something else I do want to use it for in the future!)

The palette:

Finished:

Where the Shadow Used to Fall

Where the Shadow Used to Fall
Size: 19x29 inches
Medium: Watercolors
Detail views, original painting, and prints: -here-


This was the original tree that inspired this piece. It's an Italian stone pine. You might notice that the final painting looks nothing like it.

At first I stuck pretty close to it. Had the title in mind already. And a vague concept of the piece. But it didn't quite gel. This was the initial sketchbook scribble:

I was actually all set to go with this composition. Wasn't 100% satisfied with it, but I figured I'd been noodling around with the sketches long enough; best to just try and paint and see what happened. But then Dragoncon happened and distracted me for a couple of weeks, so it got set aside.  And then I got caught up working on the first few cards for the Dreamdance Oracle, and it got pushed aside some more.

A few months passed.
The permits finally came through and the tree did get chopped down. I miss it. And in the intervening weeks, I had also somehow gotten embroiled in an effort to save a huge grove of redwoods, oaks, and other trees in our local park from being cut down.  "Why is everyone around us so intent on chopping down trees??" Dana sighed the other day.

One night, I was lying in bed, trying to fall asleep, and the approach I was looking for finally hit me -- to have the night sky showing through the silhouette/portal/shadowform of the tree. Hopped out from under the covers (trust me, the idea had to be good, to convince me to leave the warm sheets for the chilly air in my office) and ran to scribble the thumbnail and words down in my sketchpad.

---

We walked once where the shadow used to fall:

  watched the eclipse blot out the sun,

    and the streaming beams between the

      pinhole gaps of leaves became

        a cascade of glowing crescents across the ground.

Where the shadow used to fall,

  the rain did not.

    Dense, dry, fallen carpet of the years

      pooled at the Giant's feet.

        Blanket of crisp leaves and needles. Sap and compost.

My shadow falls, where its shadow used to fall;

  and when the sun fades to my back,

    I stand upon the hundred rings.

    I reach my fingers up up UP to a ghost canopy.             

    The sunset melts amber sap down my shoulder blades,

      down my spine.

        And I watch as my shadow grows tall,

          then melts into the shadow-less evening.

Where the Shadow Used to Fall Sketch

It has taken a week to get this sketch done.  The piece is 20x30 inches. I've had this title for a many months now, and a vague image concept for it in mind. It just took a while for the definitive shape to emerge. I had several possible thumbnail sketches in my sketchbook, and one that I almost started drawing, but they weren't quite right. I'll post those later.

It's to be a painting for a fallen tree.

---

We walked once where the shadow used to fall:

  watched the eclipse blot out the sun,

    and the streaming beams between the

      pinhole gaps of leaves became

        a cascade of glowing crescents across the ground.

Where the shadow used to fall,

  the rain did not.

    Dense, dry, fallen carpet of the years

      pooled at the Giant's feet.

        Blanket of crisp leaves and needles. Sap and compost.

My shadow falls, where its shadow used to fall;

  and when the sun fades to my back,

    I stand upon the hundred rings.

    I reach my fingers up up UP to a ghost canopy.             

    The sunset melts amber sap down my shoulder blades,

      down my spine.

        And I watch as my shadow grows tall,

          then melts into the shadow-less evening.

A sketch

Small portion of a sketch that I'm transferring to a painting I'm going to work on next.  It'll be a 20x30 inch one (this is only an 8x10 section of it).

White Fox Sketches

A commissioned piece in progress. Sketch phase. Client wants white fox(es), and beyond that it's fairly open ended.

Initial sketches:

Composition thumbnail.

Another composition thumbnail. I really like this one, but she wants something zoomed in tighter. I'll probably go forward with this sketch as well, sometime in the future on my own.

More thumbnailing.

Final detailed sketch on the board, ready to be painted.

Balance

Balance

Size: 18x22 inches
Medium: Watercolor & Pencil
Prints and original available -here-


Tried a slightly different process this time, on the recommendation of my friend Allen Williams. I did a much more detailed initial sketch than I usually do, in pencil, with some shading even. Scanned the sketch. Then Allen printed it out with his Epson (I've only got a puny laser b&w printer) onto my Strathmore board, at about 10% of the darkness of the original sketch. From there, I did my usual with watercolors and fixative layers. Though I did bits of shading with pencil here and there as well.

Balance - More sketches

A much more detailed sketch than I usually do. But going to be trying out a different technique with this piece!



Here were the rougher sketches leading up to it:
Sketchbook scribbles. This was about 2 months ago. Was just messing around, but didn't know what I would do with the piece just yet. It's been sitting in my sketchbook since, waiting for me.



Rough compositional ideas. Played around with a few. I knew I wanted her to be balancing on something....


Tightened up the sketch of the figure.

Balance sketches

A peek at what's currently on the drawing board:

Been noodling around with this figure and pose for weeks now, but I think I finally know what I want to do with her.

Dragon & Unicorn Sketches

A commission piece in progress.


Sketch, ready for painting.

Composition workup.

Initial scribbles in the sketchbook.