Dragon

Just because I like monsters and dinosaurs and dragons so much. This one, like a lot of my color stuff these days is in Photoshop. There are things I like very much about working digitally and things that I like not so much. It seems like I am almost getting it when it comes to Photoshop, but there is just something that I can't quite put my finger on. Oh well, I'll keep trying.

Robot Bug pt.2

These are a couple of drawings of the robot bug that I posted a few days ago. They are fairly literal but I still like them. Make some robot bugs and get drawing!

Monsters

These are drawings that I have been doing with my grammar school kids since I started teaching art. I usually do them as an ice breaker or when I have no idea what else to do! I didn't come up with the idea; a friend of mine said he remembered an old local show from when he grew up in Mississippi (?) and a guy named Uncle Bunky would do these crazy drawings. The gag is I write "head, body, arms, legs, tail, wings, horns" on the overhead and then get the kids to start listing animals. Then we draw whatever they have come up with. Sometimes it gets a little goofy, like when they said "goldfish" for arms; instead of drawing fins for the arms, I decided to make the arms out of goldfish. The kids absolutely love it and I get requests throughout the year to do more drawings like these.

Keep in mind that these aren't super complicated drawings because I only have about 45 minutes to get 3rd - 6th graders to draw these. I am always surprised at how hard the kids work on these - they are usually very successful drawings!

Polyphemus

This is the scene in the Oddyssey just as good ol' Polyphemus is sitting down to warm his bones beside the fire and he hears some unscrupulous Greeks in the back of his cave.

Cyclopes aren't typically known for their sunny disposition, but as I made this bottom piece I imagined Polyphemus saying something in a husky voice like, "Hey guys, it's my birthday! Hey, hey, hey!" I enjoyed making this piece immensely. I think I achieved something with my Photoshop work that I have not been able to do to this point. Well, ever onward and upward, I suppose.

Robot Bug

I'm not a sculptor nor am I much for technology. But I do love bugs. And robots are kind of cool. I made this robot bug out of junk. I've made several drawings of it which I suppose I'll post. I'm currently tearing apart old VCRs and CD players for their guts to make more of these both for myself and for a project to do for one of my classes. Fun.

Ivan Denisovich. This watercolor went pretty quickly and I think I could spend some more time on it now that I am looking at it on the screen. I like it, but I'm not sure if I shouldn't go back in on it and turn the volume up to 11.

Paradise Lost

So this is Eve and the Serpent (or as Max Klinger might say, Eve and the Future). It was done as an illustration for Paradise Lost. The circular composition is an unusual one for me - I like rectangles. I started off with the normal rectangular format, but quickly realized it wanted to be a circle and I went along with it. Photoshop.

Leviathan

The leviathan is mentioned in the book of Job as some sort of a giant terrifying sea creature - probably a crocodile. I did this for Hobbes' book of the same name. I made mine part crocodile, part prehistoric whale and part mosasaur. Photoshop.

War of the Worlds

I'm not really into drawing robots and machines. Don't get me wrong; when they are done well they are really cool! This is for a War of the Worlds job; I don't know exactly what it is illustrating, but there you go. It's a mecha version of the ol' tripod Martian ships.

Perelandra Cross Section

This has been inordinately frustrating for me. I'm not entirely happy with it nor do I hate it. There are parts that I really like and there are parts that I hope you really don't notice. I've spent a shameful amount of time on this and I hope I'm done; we'll see what my AD says.

Stag Beetle

It's getting hot out and time to go hunting for bugs. I like to augment my collection whenever possible. I have a longhorn beetle at home in the freezer waiting to be pinned and dried. I found him on the clothesline at our campsite at Pine Grove Furnace. I'll have to do a drawing and get it online. I did this drawing of a stag beetle some time ago; it will have to do until I can get the longhorn beetle on paper.

Camping Watercolor

Pine Grove Furnace State Park is a jewel. It is quiet, secluded and, incidentally, the traditional half way point on the Appalachian Trail. This is a little watercolor I did while sitting outside my tent waiting for the baby to get up from his nap.

Frog Creature

Another Perelandra illustration. This time it's one of the ubiquitous frog-like creatures that are so tangentially important to the story. Photoshop.

Dueling Images

So this is my problem. I start off drawing books with the full intention of treating them loosely; I do a couple of things that I really like and all of a sudden I tighten up for as long as the book lasts. In this spread, for example, the two images do not relate at all. We have a head and a wrapped cross (for Lent). Contrast that with the elderly gentleman and the slightly more elderly dinosaur. I had the drawing of the man and I also wanted to do a dinosaur. So I made them go together.

Faculty Drawings

Another faculty meeting, another griffin.

Perelandra

My friend and art director, Ned, knows me well. He plays to my strengths. This is the creature that Ransom encounters in the caves on Perelandra just before he kills the un-man.

Underlight

This is of a friend/friend's wife. The sun was shining through the window and reflecting off the pew in front of her; that's where the underlighting is coming from. I was very happy with this drawing - especially as it was done during Sunday school!

Faculty Meeting Drawing

Griffin. I like monsters and faculty meetings are good places to draw monsters. They help me pay attention and not do things like stare at the forsythia bushes or the giant flowering weeping cherry tree right outside the window.

Crab Claws

I drew a crab claw (a blue crab) in my drawing book and then made an etching out of it.

Faculty Drawings

This is a shark drawing from a faculty meeting. Drawing in meetings is about the only way I can pay attention.

The Pelycosaur Strikes Back

For the secret dimetrodon lovers out there, here's another one. I'm sure there are no secret dimetrodon lovers out there, and if there are, they have never stumbled across this site. Anyway, this is another Photoshop fling.

The Ever-Lovin'-Blue-Eyed Thing

The Thing. This was a sort of warm up or practice piece. Just some fun in Photoshop.

Self Portrait

Self portrait, Photoshop.

Double Portrait

These don't really go together, but I like the way they seem to have some kind of quasi-relationship on the page, especially with the stark white background and the way the deer's neck lines up with the woman's collar.

A Pair of Preachers

Our church was originally a Christian Science church. Some of the accoutrements of that building have remained and been adopted by us. Among them are the Corinthian columns at the front of the sanctuary. I used to hate them, but I have since read of the possibility of them being symbols of resurrection. Anyway, I put Corinthian capitals on our pastor and a guest preacher. Pencil and watercolor pencil.

Another Dimetrodon!

Have I mentioned the great pelycosaurs? The mighty synapsids? This is the Blessing of Dimetrodon! The mighty angels sing for joy at the approval of the great dimetrodon!

Horseshoe Crab

Again with the arthropods. This is a drawing of a shed "skin" of a small horseshoe crab. These Moleskines just do not accept wet media; I nearly went mad trying to lay in those brown washes. I know there are Moleskines specifically designed for watercolor, but I think after this book, I'm going back to hand made. Pitt and micron pens, watercolor pencil, brown and white ink.

The Comedy

This illustration was a pain in the neck, but I am so glad I did it. I love the Comedy (all three of the books) and I was thrilled to get the opportunity to map out Inferno. The chart for Paradiso is a little outside of the norm for me, but I enjoyed making it as well.

Out of the Silent Planet

Here are three from CS Lewis' book, Out of the Silent Planet. They are a Sorn, Hrossa and Pfifltriggi. They are all done in Photoshop.

Moses, Aaron and Miriam

So Aaron and Miriam do not approve of Moses' new wife. Strife ensues.

More Sneaky Portraits

So I don't normally show these drawings to the folks I draw. The few times I have shown them to the people I have drawn, they have been either totally nonplussed or outright upset that I would draw them. So, as I have almost no fear that these will be seen by any of the "models" (because very few people actually see this site), I post here freely.

Cupola

This is the culopa on top of the school where I teach. I did this as a watercolor demo.

Obsessions

Again with the crustaceans and dinosauria! This is a cheliped from a crawdad and drawing of a plastic Tyrannosaurus rex that adorns a shelf in my studio. The claw is done in pencil, watercolor pencil and white ink.

3rd Floor View

This is a watercolor done from my studio window. I used my new Schmincke watercolors.

More observations

A graduate and a crab claw. You have to get the colors down quick for crabs. After they die and/or dry out, the colors fade fast.