This is a 15″x21″ drawing and painting of a dolphin, drawn and painted with pens, paint pens, and watercolors on matte board. The drawing started with a quick blue pen sketch, followed by deep blue paint pen. White paint pen on the white of the paper was next, which creates interesting patterns under the watercolors applied last.
Unusual placement of blue, red, and other colors in the abstract background create an uncomfortable viewing angle for a dolphin, traditionally shown underwater. Lately, I have been affected by thinking about dolphins as “the most intelligent creatures on Earth after humans”, and “should therefore be treated as “non-human persons” and granted rights as individuals.” (physorg.com)
This is an 10″ x 8″ drawing of a dog in a sweater, created with oil pastels, pens, colored pencils, and a little white paint pen. The friendly pup’s name is Johnny Cash, and he’s one of the first subjects in a new series of animal portrait art drawings. The drawing style begins with light colored pencil for the initial sketch, black pen for deep dark detailed areas, oil pastels on top, and a touch of white for highlights.
Johnny’s an awesome dog with a great sense of humor. Don’t let his day naps fool you; he loves to run laps around the house. And when he gets to go to the dog park, look out! He runs non-stop! Johnny enjoys it so much that he’s fully aware of when his owner is ready to leave, and he loves a good game of chase before heading home.
Special thanks to his owner for providing a fantastic reference photo!
This is an 8″ x 10″ quick sketch of my dog Spot, drawn with pen, colored pencil, and paint pen. He’s a pure white five year old Jack Russell Terrier who developed rapid onset cataracts this past week. The vet says his vision has deteriorated to the equivalent of looking through a cloudy shower door. And we learned the hard way yesterday that “fetch” will have to be put on temporary hold. The little guy has a lot of energy, and he’s still young, so I’m starting to save up for surgery. The quality of his life is important to me.
This is an 11″x13″ drawing of a turtle, drawn and painted with markers, pens, paint pens, oil pastels, watercolors, and acrylic paint. The style is loose and impressionistic with an unconventional color palette and mixture of mediums. Shades of blue and green permeate the shadows around the turtle and in the background. This creates contrast between elements like the white highlights on the turtle shell, face, and leg, pushing them forward in the composition. And the variety of mediums in the artwork creates a unique surface texture befitting the turtle and surrounding foliage.
The time lapse video shows the process of drawing and painting the turtle, and how multiple variations and layers all exist within the same artwork.
The Artist Challenge is well underway, with new artists joining every day! The project was started by artist Vikki North and I by challenging each other to create artwork based on a particular theme. This is my submission for Art Challenge #5 – Unrequited Love.
The first artwork is my submission, “Face of Unrequited Love 01″. The abstract face drawing/painting is approximately 11″x14″, drawn and painted with pens, markers, colored pencils, and watercolors on paper. The accompanying video shows the drawing and painting process in a time lapse format. The face was initially sketched with pen and markers. Washes of water and watercolor softened the portrait, followed by thick markers, and more watercolor washes, details, and highlights.
The second portrait drawing is entitled “Face of Unrequited Love 02″. This abstract face drawing/painting is approximately 9″x12″, drawn and painted with pens, markers, colored pencils, and watercolors on paper. There is an accompanying video that shows the drawing and painting process in a time lapse format. It shows a similar sketching and painting process from start to finish.
This is a 9″x12″ abstract drawing of a bee, created with markers, paint pens, colored pencils, pens, and watercolor mediums. The vibrant, warm color palette and loose style adds a frantic feeling to the artwork. Quick strokes of color and medium are blurred around the paper with spatters of watercolor to create a sense of movement and buzzing. Silver and gold paint is also used to add a shimmering effect to the bee.
The accompanying video shows how I draw and paint the abstract bee in a time lapse format. The composition was initially sketched with light yellow, followed by rich oranges, reds, and silver and gold paint pens. Lush mixes of watercolors and white highlights were also applied to the entire artwork.
This is a 9″x12″ abstract drawing of a spider, created with markers, paint pens, pens, and watercolor medium. The cool color palette adds a cold feeling to the artwork, and loose style helps the spider to blend into the surroundings. The long background lines and wispy strokes also help to convey a sense of movement.
These are two 9″x12″ paintings / drawings of dogs with sombreros. The first dog is a papillion poodle mix, drawn and painted on paper with pens, markers, colored pencils, silver paint pen, and watercolors. The second dog is a jack russell terrier, also drawn and painted on paper with pens, markers, colored pencils, silver paint pen, and watercolors. I don’t think dogs are comfortable wearing sombreros, hence the disconcerted look on their faces.
This artwork is a 9″x12″ drawing/painting of a black chihuahua on paper. There is also an associated time-lapse video of how to draw the dog. Mediums used include pen, markers, colored pencils, paint pens, and watercolors. There are also highlights of shimmering gold color and white paint.
An initial pen sketch of the chihuahua was drawn first to provide a suitable structure for organic layering of color and lines. Short expressive strokes relate to the small but powerful stature of the often confident and energetic chihuahua. There is also a coy playfulness and unyielding determination just beneath the surface of the wild exterior.
