Memorial Portrait

This is the latest Memorial portrait I did of a young man from Arkansas. Was such an intriguing image, i wanted to share. Continued prayers for healing for this family.

Kickstarter Campaign for the Historical Mural

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/woodlandparkmural/woodland-park-historical-mural-and-public-art-proj

Here is the Kickstarter link, Check it out. Scott Stearman did an amazing job putting this together

 

Portrait of Mom (Jean)

LARGER THEN LIFE

That is what I am calling these Large oil portraits I am doing.

What a blast!!! I have really found my “Sweet Spot”

I think I enjoy doing these more then any thing.

The referance for this painting of my Mom is from a photo Taylor my daughter took. Thanks Taylor for being such a great photographer!

The size for this Oil is 4 feet x 3 feet

I will be hanging a show of all these new oils in May at Park State Bank

I also entered this piece into the Portrait Society of America show. I should find out March 24th if it got in.

Paris Children’s book cont.

 

These are the references I took of my three models to position them in this Paris bus. This really was a challenge to make everything to scale and make it look believable.

 

 

Here is the final image. I wanted the feeling of movement. The text will be in a text box on the left side. When doing a page layout you always need to consider the text placement. really am excited for this books publication.

Martin Luther King celebration day

 

I wanted to share this image. This was forcing me to try something “out of the box” literally I painted this on a box. HAHA, seriously, this was something I was asked to paint an image on a box for the MLK celebration at the cultural center. I thought about it and pulled it together all in two hours. Crazy how some things just fall into place. really enjoyed doing something really different for me.

 

 

Paris Children’s book project cont.

Here is my reference for the image of when the three kids went to see the Mona Lisa

Here is the Sketch for that image

This was so fun to paint the Mona Lisa. I remember in art school we used to go to the Art Institute in Chicago during lunch or on free time and see classes where you paint the Masters paintings. I was always a little confused at this teaching technique, but I must say, this really was fun to study this painting and duplicate it (On a basic level)

This may be the closest I ever get to experience this painting in real life.

Family portrait from 1965 photo

 

This was a commissioned portrait from a family that I grew up with outside Chicago. This was a gift for the parents 65th wedding anniversary. What a blast this was to do. I was best friends for many years with the girl in the middle. As you can see the reference was Black and white and quiet dated. I was able to get an idea of the clothing colors from the eldest daughter. This really was a blessing and am so honored to have been chosen to help celebrate a 65 year old marriage that is worthy of much celebrating.

 

A Children’s Book Project Set in Paris

My latest illustration project is a children’s book about a brother and two sisters as they travel around Paris while their father is on a business trip. “Ryan, Ellie and Katelyn go to Paris” by Larry Dunhill, is due to publish by Mountainbrook Press in 2015.

This was a very challenging project because all of my reference scenes came from the internet, and I had to put all of my models in the scenes.  Below find examples of how I combined reference photos of my models with factual Paris locations in the story.

These are my three models for the book, posing for this Eiffel Tower scene.

This is the Eiffel Tower observation deck I chose but had to flip to accommodate the page layout because I had to have the kids looking to the right.

These are all the reference photos I used for one illustration. This image was the three kids looking down from one of the Eiffel Tower observation decks. So I needed to do research about the different observation decks and pick one that didn’t have obstrutions so that Katelyn can point to what they are looking at. Which also lead me to have to do research about what view they would be seeing (which part of Paris ).

Here is my sketch to pull it all together.

Memorial Portrait of Erin Powers

 

This memorial portrait is of my son-in-law and his sister, his only sibling. I wanted to capture their bond in this painting. This image was taken at their mom’s wedding.  I loved it because of the way Eric is looking over at her brother with her curled hand so naturally holding his. Even though she never spoke or walked, they had an unspoken connectedness that was hard to describe. She lived to be 32 and had such an impact on people with her smile and her joy.

My focus for this picture is the hands. Because hands sometimes best describe the way we connect.

 

Mural Project-Meeting Roland

It’s so much fun to Be Blogging again. I tend to be intimidated since there seems to be writing involved with telling a story (that makes sense) But intimidation aside, This story needs to be told. So bare with me as you read along, knowing that sometimes God loves to stretch us and take us out of our comfort zones.

 I have a HUGE job coming up. I have been Commissioned by the Woodland Park Arts Alliance Creative Arts district to paint a Historial mural in down town Woodland Park. It will be on the side of the Cultural Center. Kind of the hub of Woodland Park. It will be 145 feet long the height varies since there is a hill, but the highest part of the wall is 24 feet then tapers to 10 feet at the other end. The largest and beginning of the Mural starts with honoring the Ute Indian Nations. This beginning part of the mural has been so enlightening as I continue to refine the final design. There are so many things that the Historial Society and I have talked about that need to be included in the design as well as left out. (always want to be politicly correct)

The beginning section about the Utes has a huge Ute Chief face that I was having a hard time getting just the right reference for. Really not having a good feeling about the design as well. We have already done three unveilings for the city of the (What I thought) final design. Also knowing I had not done enough research on the accuracy about what differentiates between the Northern Utes and Southeren Utes (Not even knowing there was the Mountain Utes) So my dear (brother) Friend Scott Stearman had a contact for us to meet Roland McCook. Scott is an amazing sculptor. He had met with Roland once before about a Ute sculpture is is designing right now. So we had our foot in the door.

I really wanted to share this experience because this has been a Huge Honor to meet and be invited into Roland’s home and his story. Scotty and I really felt as though we we were walking on holy ground. Was really amazing. Kind of one of those life changing experiences.

Let me tell you a bit about who Roland is- He is the Great-great-grandson of Chief Ouray and his wife Chipeta. He was the Vice-chairman of the Smithsonian Institution’s Native American RepatriationReview Committee. He was the NorthernUte Tribal Chairman (Chief) for 9 years. He now travels extensively educating and speaking about the “Nuche” the name the Utes call themselves, Which means, “A person of substance.”

 This is the design for the mural that Roland is looking at.

When Roland put on his full Regalia, Scotty and I was speechless. What an Honor and gift he gave us.

 

 

I love this photo. I was truly awe struck. I wish I was a better writer. I just can’t seem to put this into words.Thanks you again Roland. All I can say is I hope I do you Proud!

 

 

Here is the final design for just the Ute section of the mural. i’ll be posting the full design later after our City Council unveiling.This section is 24 feet tall so you can only imagine how HUGE the face will be. Roland is planning on coming to the unveiling when I finish painting this section. In his full Regalia! I can’t wait for him to see the fruition of this project and to see his face 20 feet tall. That would be crazy for any of us.