Something very different

Every once in a while I feel like changing things up. This time I decided to paint a still life and my brother's photo of his "perfect waffle" fit the bill. This acrylic painting was painted on a 20" X 16" stretched canvas. I'm considering titling this piece "Breakfast for Dinner" since my brother actually ate this waffle for dinner.😄

I tried a different method for this one, using different shades of gesso to create a monochrome underpainting. It...didn't work out too well and gave me a lot of trouble. Well, at least I learned what not to do. Acrylic paint is very forgiving, so it turned out just fine - it just took a long time to get right.

 
I plan to take a better photo when I have better lighting. I may do some touch-ups on it later as well.

American Redstart painting

This painting of a singing American Redstart was commissioned a couple months ago. It is painted in acrylics on a 10" X 8" canvas board.
My gallery is filling up with birds very quickly! I have a couple parrot paintings in progress at the moment as well. Do you think I like birds?

New gallery!

I have four projects in the making at the moment that I plan to post here one of these days, but in the meantime you can check out my new gallery! Just click on the Acrylic Paintings, Drawings, or Cartoons buttons above and it will bring you there. It was a lot of work, but I think it was worth it. I think it makes viewing my artwork a much more pleasant experience. 😀

Purple Finch painting finished!

From a doodle to a finished drawing

I usually end up drawing cartoons when I sit down with a pencil and paper nowadays...

I originally drew this Boston Terrier cartoon much smaller as just a doodle, but I liked it so I enlarged it on the copier then traced the outline in pen, copied it again, then shaded it with graphite pencil. By using the copy machine this way I can save the original outline in case I make a mistake with the shading or I feel like coloring it in with a different medium.

Portrait of Georgia the Golden Retriever

Georgia's portrait is finished! I hope you like it!

Georgia's portrait almost done!

A few more hours of work and I think Georgia's portrait will be finished!

Georgia update

I worked on Georgia's portrait for a few hours today. I have started on some of the fur and eye detail.

First stages of Georgia

Here are the first three stages of a commissioned painting I have been working on.
This is Georgia, an adorable Golden Retriever puppy. Her portrait is being painted on an 11" X 14" canvas panel.

Purple Finch painting almost done!

I plan to add the finishing touches to this one soon.

FINALLY finished! Well, maybe...

If you've been following my blog, you might have noticed that it has taken me at least a year to finish these two paintings on the right. Why? They were very difficult pieces! The painting of the goat (my Nubian named Trot) is the largest painting on canvas I've ever done at 22" x 28". I haven't even varnished it yet because there are still some things that bother me about it that I would like to fix...one day. The painting of the goose involved a lot of confusing reflections and water (I had not painted water in a long time!). I did not spend the whole year working on these, though; I hid them from myself for a while then got them back out and worked on them a little then stored them away again then got them back out and worked on them some more. I hope that never happens again!

Below is another painting of my Boston Terrier, Sissy, I painted back in November. I chose a subject and composition that wouldn't take very long to paint and this was the result after only two days (probably only six hours or so). This is probably the last portrait I will ever do of my favorite little Boston as she sadly passed away last month. 

Bald Eagle puppet video

Here is a video of my Bald Eagle puppet in action! Finally...

 

 

New medium

In a recent search for an air-dry clay I discovered a modeling compound called Apoxie Sculpt. I decided to give it a try, and I have to say it is fantastic stuff! I have worked with oven-bake polymer clay for a long time and Apoxie Sculpt feels similar, so using it came pretty naturally to me, but there is a pretty big difference between the two. Obviously, oven-bake polymer clay has to be baked to become hard, and even after baking it can break easily. Apoxie Sculpt is a two-part compound that becomes rock hard (!!) in about three hours after being mixed.

Here is the rather ambitious project I originally bought Apoxie Sculpt for. It is a Bald Eagle puppet with moving eyes, mouth, and head. I call him Barrett (a.k.a. Brainy Bird). The Apoxie Sculpt was used for his beak and talons. I should have a video of him in action up here soon.

My latest Apoxie Sculpt project is a Great Dane model that doubles as a business card holder (he can hold cards in his mouth).

Cat cartoon

Sometimes I feel the need to draw cats since there are a lot of cat owners out there and they would probably like to see me draw them. Honestly, I have a hard time drawing cats. I grew up drawing mostly dogs (I've never owned a cat, but I do have dogs), and for some reason my cat drawings usually turn out looking like dogs. For some reason...

Anyway, I sat down one evening and drew this cat cartoon using some photos I took recently of cats I've met up with. I hope I succeeded.